Learning The Glycemic Index Saved My Life

I looked drunk. Smashed. I couldn't even walk a straight line. I stumbled down the hallway, crashing into the walls. I felt dizzy, about to pass out. Finally, I collapsed onto the bed and didn't wake for 18 hours.

Was this the result of downing an entire bottle of whiskey? Nope. I hadn't even had one beer. This drunken state was from eating instant mashed potatoes. Of course at the time, I didn't have a clue. I thought I was dying.

I missed work at least twice a month. My boss was constantly yelling at me, accusing me of playing hooky. Co-workers shot me accusing looks and branded me lazy. Some people just assumed I was an emotional basket case and couldn't crawl out of bed to face the cold, cruel world. Many people assumed I was on drugs because I passed out at work more than once.

I hadn't worked in my garden in two years. As much as I love gardening, I simply couldn't muster up the energy. I never made it to church anymore, which broke my heart. I wanted to go, but I couldn't get out of bed. If I wasn't at work, I was asleep. On the weekends, I was so hopelessly exhausted that I routinely slept 18-20 hours at a stretch. Even that wasn't enough. All I could do for the other 4-6 hours in the day was lie on the couch and hope that by the time Monday morning rolled around I'd be able to move.

I'd been to the doctor several times and she was stumped. All my blood work looked normal and by all indications, I was a healthy 40-year-old.

So why was I so nonfunctional?

I knew I wasn't depressed. I knew I wasn't lazy. I knew SOMETHING was drastically wrong, I just didn't know what.

Whatever it was, it seemed to be associated with eating. Although I felt tired 100% of the time, it was immediately after eating that I would pass out. Not every meal mind you, so I was confused. How come I could eat ice cream with no ill effects but instant mashed potatoes would send me reeling?

I finally went for a glucose tolerance test. I arrived at the doctor's office first thing in the morning, not haven eaten anything since 10pm the night before. They took my blood sugar. It was 90. A tad high, but not abnormal. Then I drank an awful concoction, some orange liquid made with pure glucose. I immediately felt dizzy. Within five minutes, my blood sugar had shot to 160, clearly in the diabetic range. Within another five minutes it had plummeted to 60 and I was passed out.

Finally, an answer.

I had stress-induced hypoglycemia. Every time I ate, my blood sugar skyrocketed immediately and then just as quickly came crashing down. This blood sugar roller coaster was straining my body to the max and causing the chronic exhaustion.

Stress started the whole mess. I was a newly-divorced single mother and the hectic pace I was forced to keep had thrown my entire system out of whack. I learned that blood sugar problems are actually a relatively common result of our high stress lives.

I was NOT diabetic. If I were a typical diabetic, the glucose-laden potion would have caused a much slower rise, thirty minutes or even an hour to reach 160. Then, a typical diabetic would remain high for hours. That's the definition of type 2 diabetes. Sustained high blood sugar because the body becomes resistant to insulin. It's insulin that keeps your blood sugar levels within the normal range. Obviously, my body was not resistant to insulin or my blood sugar would not have gone down once it rose.

Knowing the problem lead me to research the glycemic index. Like many people, I had lots of mistaken notions about how food causes blood sugar to rise. I thought sweet foods like ice cream did it, but I was wrong. Ice cream averages about 50 on the glycemic index and instant mashed potatoes rate 86. Once I knew the glycemic index, it was easy to see why some meals made me pass out and others didn't.

For a while, I ate nothing but peanut butter (14) and milk (27). Slowly, I began to feel better and I added other foods.

The glycemic index has gotten a lot of publicity but still causes confusion in the minds of many. This is in large part because many popular diet books misrepresent the glycemic index. The best information about the glycemic index can be read in books by Jennie Brand-Miller, a PhD from Australia. She's authored several books along with researchers Thomas M.S. Wolever, MD, PhD, Stephen Colagiuri, MD, and Kaye Foster-Powell, MS.

Knowing the glycemic index helped me create meal plans that kept my blood sugar stable. As my body became used to blood sugar stability, I noticed that I was simply less reactive. In other words, my body could better handle foods high on the glycemic index.

I also worked hard to reduce the stress in my life. Meditation, relaxation, visual imagery all were techniques I used to relax.

It's been years since I was diagnosed and I'm happy to report that I rarely have problems anymore. However, if I let the stress build up and get lazy about what I eat, the familiar dizziness and exhaustion quickly remind me that the glycemic index is extremely important information to know.