Today, I wanted to talk all about the stress response and how we can navigate this uncertain and overwhelming time. Right now I’m feeling a bit better by using food as medicine and supplementing with the right foods. Let’s just dive right into it.
The blood sugar curve
The blood sugar curve is something that I talk about so much because it makes such a huge difference in how we show up and how we really feel in our bodies. I want to work with the body, not work against the body. So what is the blood sugar curve?
Everything that we eat affects our blood sugar in a different way. Most people exist on a blood sugar curve that’s like a roller coaster. So they wake up in the morning and cortisol, the stress hormone, is naturally higher. Cortisol is something that helps us wake up in the morning. It should be naturally higher (but not too much higher) and it should ideally be the highest in the morning and goes down throughout the day. This helps us go to bed at night unless we’re wired and tired. Maybe cortisol is high at night, our hormones are being affected there. If it’s not highest in the morning for you, come talk to me. We have some work to do. If you feel like this could be an issue for you, get a stress hormone test done.
It’s very simple, but it’s amazing information to have. Our hormones are naturally highest in the morning. So most of us wake up, we hop out of bed, right, and we instantly go for a coffee. Maybe we’re running out the door, so we grab a muffin or something at Starbucks. What happens here is that our blood sugar is gonna spike really high because the things that spike our blood sugar the highest are sugars and carbohydrates. And all carbohydrates break down into sugars regardless of what kind of carbohydrates they are. So, of course, processed carbs are not the better choice, right? A sweet potato is different than a doughnut. It’s obviously the better choice. However, all carbohydrates break down into sugars, which is why we want to always pair them with fat, fiber, and protein.
So when this glucose is released into the body, insulin is secreted, the insulin levels go up, and cortisol goes up. Insulin is a pro-inflammatory hormone, so we don’t want it to be pumping out all the time. Our body can’t really do its healing thing when we’ve got high insulin happening all the time. It’s also not good for your weight management if that is a goal of yours. Insulin is also the fat-storage hormone, so we don’t want it pumping out all day. This is why I don’t eat six meals a day. I think that’s a very quick way to damage your metabolism, not really help it.
When our blood sugar goes up really high, it crashes really low. When it dips really low, we feel irritable, we feel anxious, we feel stressed. That’s when we get into the office or it hits 10:00 AM and we are reaching for a second coffee. Or someone brings in donuts to the office and we go in on them because we’re hungry and feeling a little shaky. Our body’s actually craving sugar and carbohydrates at that moment because it’s craving a source of glucose, which is energy. When it dips so low, the body is craving that glucose for energy, even though you just ate an hour or two prior.
When it dips really low, it’s also harder at that time for us to make a healthier choice. We get to the restaurant and sit down, the breadbasket comes and we’re so shaky and hungry (hangry) that we don’t even care what we eat. We just dive in and we’re like, we’ll start tomorrow, right? This is where we get into trouble because we just end up eating whatever’s in front of us. It makes our decisions. We’re not working with our body here. We’re working against our body and fighting our own physiological response. So then we maybe have the bread, our glucose shoots back up, and then it crashes again.
Or we had a long day, its dinnertime, and we bust open that fridge grabbing whatever we see first and sticking it in our mouth because we’re so hungry. This is what we want to avoid. That’s kind of the blood sugar curve that most people exist on. The things that bump cortisol and blood glucose levels the highest are sugar and carbohydrates. The things that bump the blood sugar curve the least amount are fats. Like a tablespoon of coconut oil, which most of us aren’t really eating just like that, but straight fat. We want those healthy fats! They support our blood sugar response, our hormones, our skin, all the goods. Protein and fiber really bump our blood sugar levels very minimally, and fiber can actually help the blood sugar response.
If we look at carbohydrates again, one of the reasons why a sweet potato is a better option than a donut, it’s because the sweet potato obviously has vitamins, minerals, and nutrients, but it also contains fiber, which is going to help slow the sugar release into the bloodstream. So I’m explaining this blood sugar curve because when we’re on this roller coaster, y’all, it’s hard. It is not supportive of the life that we really want to live, right? And we’re making it harder on ourselves. This is why I’m not a fan of diets. We don’t want to be starving because we also end up here on that low blood curve.
That is stressful on the body. That is a way to trigger anxiety and stress, which is not what we need. We want to get on this very even-keeled blood sugar curve. And this is why you’ll see in all of my books, even in my free 3-Day Gut Reset, we start the morning with a morning power smoothie because it contains protein, healthy fats, fiber, and greens. These things help elongate the blood sugar curve. So let’s put together an example meal to help you get results.
So what would be an example meal for us to really support that blood sugar curve?
You can access my morning power smoothies in all of my programs, even in my free 3 Day Gut Reset. But let’s talk about options if you don’t have those, especially because lately, we’re all stocking up with long-lasting foods. Eggs last a really long time. If you eat two eggs in the morning with avocado, there are healthy fats from the avocado and the yolk. Eggs are also loaded with protein and vitamin D, which is really essential right now. Then maybe include some sauteed greens, whatever you have. I always keep frozen spinach or kale in my freezer. I put it in my smoothies, I use it in stir-fries, everything. This breakfast is a great option because it has fiber, greens, healthy fats, and protein
This is why I start every single day with my HAN morning power smoothie. It’s not just about decreasing bloating or managing weight or even clearing skin. This smoothie helps me stay calm, productive in my body, and I can actually focus. My brain works better on it because I’m not on a sugar high or low, or feeling irritable/anxious. This, in my opinion, right now is not an option. This is a necessity because we’re all trying to manage so much right now. Take the five minutes to make this smoothie. It will drastically change your morning.
Everything that I teach is backed by science. So I learn and then I make it really relatable and sustainable so you can actually put it into practice. And these smoothies taste delicious, so it’s not like I’m asking you to eat something disgusting. I touched on it briefly earlier, but I want to mention cravings here because a lot of people are telling me that they’re dealing with a lot of cravings and snacking right now. There are a few things to look at here, but one is that dip in the blood sugar curve. When it dips low, we crave sugar and carbohydrates. We want to avoid that low dip in our blood sugar levels, not just because of the cravings, but also because it leaves us hangry and it’s not supportive.
It doesn’t help us make a decision that supports us at our next meal. We want to show up present in our bodies as opposed to fighting this response that’s going on. I talked about cortisol a little bit earlier, which is the stress hormone. It’s not bad in small doses, and our body produces it to protect us. But, when it is chronically elevated, we crave these palatable foods, sugars, carbohydrates. We can manage these cortisol levels through eating good hormone balancing foods, all of those things that I just listed. Through meditation, through movement, through good sleep. Our cortisol levels are going to affect how we sleep, so good sleep is essential for managing cortisol. But we won’t be able to get good sleep if we’re on this cortisol roller coaster!
So, it’s kind of like a catch-22 and it all works together. A similar concept is that our sleep affects our gut health, but our gut health also affects our sleep. All of these little pieces are essential, which is why I teach a holistic approach to transforming your gut health. Because it’s not just one thing, and if anyone’s telling you its only one thing, it’s not real, okay? We have to have to take a holistic approach. Insulin is another important hormone. It’s a fat-storage hormone that’s pro-inflammatory. Insulin is secreted by the pancreas to allow you to take in glucose (blood sugar). It prevents fat cells from being broken down.
This is why weight loss doesn’t come down to calories in, calories out. Weight loss comes down to hormones, and calorie counting is not going to get you there if your hormones are out of whack. Science shows that it doesn’t work. So because it comes down to hormones, insulin will literally stop your body from being able to burn fat. I don’t really talk about this too much because I work with women that have digestive issues, skin issues, anxiety issues, etc. but I figured I’d throw it out there.
So once again, eating these protein-rich meals is linked to the reduction in insulin resistance. Omega-3s can actually help lower these insulin levels. Salmon, walnuts, and chia seeds are really high in Omega-3s and they’re also anti-inflammatory. Magnesium can help improve insulin sensitivity and it’s important to improve insulin sensitivity because once insulin is triggered, it puts our body in a state of inflammation. Inflammation in the body can manifest as bloating, acne, and digestive issues, and is overall a stressor for the body. It’s something that your body has to fight constantly. This alone can increase your anxiety levels, which is why that’s really important.
This is why I teach gut health. The gut bacteria actually influences insulin. Tons of research supports that during obesity, our immune system is often responding to components of bacteria that leak through the intestinal tissue leak through that gut lining. And this results in inflammation. In turn, inflammation can drive insulin resistance, which then predisposes people to diabetes. Our gut bacteria influence our insulin sensitivity. This is where the gut bacteria and weight response, that gut bacteria and diabetes link, that’s where this all comes into play and this is stressful on the body. So, this is something that we really want to manage.
How do we manage our gut health?
We increase the number of good bacteria in the gut. Don’t eat the foods that wipe out the good bacteria and populate the gut with good bacteria through fermented foods if they sit well with you. If they don’t, we’ve got another gut issue going on. (Reach out to me!) If you feel like you get bloated after eating fermented foods and things like that, remember it’s not all about adding in the probiotic-rich foods or taking probiotics. We also have to feed them with good prebiotics. Veggies, artichoke, onion, garlic, foods like that. If your body can’t handle prebiotics very well, talk to me because that’s a sign of a gut issue.
And none of these things need to last forever. So once we fix the root cause of what’s causing those sensitivities, chances are those sensitivities won’t be there anymore. Any inflammation in the gut affects the immune system, which then sends inflammation throughout the entire body. It’s not just bloating, right? If there’s inflammation in the gut, it triggers inflammation throughout the entire body. Systemic inflammation affects all of our hormones, and so it’s going to affect our cortisol levels, insulin, and our happy hormones. It really affects all of these hormones and it’s going to cause stress on our body. So it’s essential to really nourish our gut health to avoid creating systemic inflammation in the body and therefore causing stress on the body.
Food sensitivities
Another thing I need to talk about is food sensitivities. If we’re eating things and we are reacting poorly to them, we’ve got a gut issue here. Whether you’re experiencing bloating, maybe acne, an eczema flare-up, tons of gas, constipation, or diarrhea, we’ve got an autoimmune issue. Something that we’re eating is not working with our body because we’re suffering from a gut dysfunction. Every time we eat food that doesn’t work with us, we’re triggering inflammation. Eating these foods that don’t work with our body is incredibly stressful on the body, putting the body into high alert.
Initially, inflammation is actually beneficial. It’s our body saying “wait, send healing this way,” but if this continues over time, this wears on our body over and over again, which is exhausting. This is when we see the small issue of just a little bit of bloating become a much bigger issue potentially if it’s not properly taken care of. So these food sensitivities and this gut reaction causes major stress on the body.
The gut-brain connection
I also want to really touch on the fact that the gut-brain connection is so, so real. Our gut and our brain are intricately connected via the vagus nerve, which is a bi-directional pathway that goes up and down. The vagus nerve is so powerful, and it affects our ability to digest our food among many other things. A lot of people call the gut the second brain, but honestly, the gut is like the first brain because there are more messages sent from the gut to the brain than from the brain out to the entire body. Isn’t that amazing? So what’s going on in our gut affects everything: our mental health, anxiety levels, depression levels, brain fog, mental clarity, all of these things. A very simple way to understand this connection is thinking about when you get butterflies in your tummy.
This is an actual physical sensation that you feel in your gut that comes from just thinking. Feeling a little scared or a little nervous or a little excited, you can physically feel ‘butterflies’ in your stomach. So, these things are clearly connected, right? That being said, the foods that enter our mouth and our gut are affecting how we feel mentally. They’re affecting how resilient we are to stressors and affecting our anxiety levels. In addition to that, most of the serotonin (that feel good, happy hormone) in the body is actually physically produced in the gut itself. So if there’s a gut issue, we could potentially not be producing enough serotonin and that in itself is going to lead to more anxiety and depression.
So these things are so connected and it’s not just about the bloating. The gut truly affects our brain, our stress response, our anxiety, all of those things. So all of that was the education portion of all of this and why this is so, so important. I mentioned earlier that sugar really bumps those blood sugar levels and triggers inflammation in the body, tearing away at that gut lining. So, we really want to be mindful of the amount of sugar that we’re consuming right now. Processed starches, in addition to everything that I’ve just said, are also weakening for the immune system. And we really want to be supporting our immune systems right now.
So the sugar and the processed carbohydrates have got to go if we want to heal. THIS DOES NOT MEAN WE NEED TO FEEL SHAME IF WE’VE EATEN A COOKIE. I’m just equipping you with education to make empowered decisions on what you allow into your space because it is going to affect you in a very important way. It’s going to affect how you show up in this world. It’s going to affect how you feel in your body. Some foods that we can add when we remove the sugar and the processed carbohydrates are healthy fats (avocado, chia seeds, walnuts, almonds), and healthy proteins.
These can be beans and legumes if you follow a vegan diet. I find that being vegan is very difficult for someone that’s suffering from gut dysfunction, so I’m a fan of small amounts of high-quality animal protein. Wild salmon, organic, pasteurized chicken, whatever really works for your body. But we want to make sure that we’re getting ample amounts of protein because protein is essential for immune function. Healthy fats, protein, and lots of greens. Greens are good for so many reasons, but really, really, really important here. We also want fiber, like chia seeds and flax seeds. These are the things that we want to add more of into the diet to really support our anxiety and stress levels.
I list all of this out for you in my cookbook and all of my programs, and all of my recipes follow these guidelines. I have done this work for you! For me, things come in waves and I’m trying to manage it as best as I can. I feel like this might be happening for all of us right now. So for me, it’s essential that I’m eating these foods to support my body because it’s one of the only things keeping me going during this time.
I eat this way all the time because it’s so important for my life, for me to make it through the day, for me to feel happy, for me to be able have energy. So during this time of higher stress, uncertainty, and anxiety, please try to eat for your blood sugar curve and to support your gut health. It is so essential and non-negotiable. There are some other amazing lifestyle things that we can do to help manage our stress and anxiety levels. Meditation, breathwork, long walks, laughter. Don’t overlook laughter and the importance of laughter during all of this! It releases dopamine in the body and helps us feel good.
If you want a guide to do all of this while in quarantine, while self-isolating, while stocking your pantry, fridge, and freezer with things that are more shelf-stable and will last longer, I have packaged it all up for you. In my brand new Gut Health Survival Guide, quarantined edition, I made recipes that use mostly shelf-stable ingredients or frozen ingredients. All of them optimize your blood sugar levels, they all follow my gut health guidelines and I give you food storage tips so you can elongate the shelf life of all of these things that you’re buying.
We’re all trying to save money and refraining from going to the store as much right now. So these tips are essential, helpful, and amazing. I’ve also got lifestyle tips to manage stress and anxiety during this time. So I’ve given you an outline of what you can do throughout the day to support your digestive health, your stress levels, your anxiety, your skin health, all of these things. Because it also doesn’t help to be in this uncertain time right now and be dealing with bloating, fatigue, gas, and skin rashes. That would just make us more anxious and irritable, so I have packaged all of it up in this guide for you.
Make sure to snag it if you want support, if you want to feel more in your body, and you want to decrease your anxiety and stress levels. There is a link to my guide in the description of this video. My sister went through this program and she now helps women manage their anxiety through many different modalities. My program is an absolute game-changer for so many women because we are supporting your brain and your blood sugar curve throughout the entirety of it.
If you have any questions, let me know in the comments. I’ve got you. I’m here to support you! Get your hands on this gut health survival guide – it’s going to change the game for you. I’m sending you all so much love right now! Don’t forget to find gratitude in the little things. Take time for yourself, take many deep breaths, and be really compassionate towards yourself during this time. Find where you can do things that you can actually control during this time to feel a little more at ease during this process.
