Body Balance – mind and body in perfect harmony Blood sugar balance All your energy, both physical and mental, is derived from glucose circulating in the blood. This glucose is the end result of the breakdown of carbohydrates in your food. When you eat complex carbohydrates, such as whole grains, vegetables, fruits, dried beans, nuts and seeds, the sugars they contain take a long time to be broken down and extracted from the fibrous materials surrounding them. This means that these sugars are released slowly into the blood by the liver, depending on how low your blood sugar has become. In this way you maintain even amounts of energy all day long. Due to our habit of eating refined carbohydrates, sugar and other blood sugar disruptors, it’s estimated that at least 90% of people in the west suffer from some degree of blood sugar disruption. This is not the same as having diabetes, nor does it mean that you will necessarily develop diabetes. However if your blood sugar disruption becomes too severe then you run the risk of developing type two diabetes. In the meantime, your physical and mental health are being affected by erratically fluctuating blood sugar levels.

The normal blood sugar ‘wave’ In normal functioning blood sugar control, we should start off in the morning with a fasting rate of 85-105 mg/litre of sugar in the blood. When you eat the first meal of the day, your blood sugar levels should rise evenly over the next couple of hours, and gradually start to fall so that by the next meal 4 to 5 hours later, you should be aware that you are hungry and need to eat. The same process is repeated after the midday meal until the evening meal 5 to 6 hours later, as shown in the following diagram. mid-morning

mid-afternoon

85/105 mg/% breakfast

lunchtime

evening meal

With blood sugar levels like this, you feel calm, energetic and have a sense of well being throughout the day. You also sleep well, and peacefully at night.

Dysglycaemia This is the term used to describe the erratically fluctuating blood sugar levels with bouts of hyper- and hypo- glycaemia. Because of less than adequate diets and stressful lifestyles, blood sugar levels are much more likely to look like this:

Carolyn Moody, Dip ION, Optimum Nutritionist and Live a Conscious Life Transformational Coach Ave des Lilas 34, 1300 Limal, Belgium Tel: 010 400 558 Mobile: 0478 565 282Email: [email protected]

www.bodybalancehealth.eu

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Body Balance – mind and body in perfect harmony mid-morning

mid-afternoon

85/105 mg/%l breakfast

lunchtime

evening meal

Normal blood test results Often people with obvious symptoms of dysglycaemia have normal blood sugar test results. This is due to lowered levels of glucose reaching the brain, even when they are adequate in the blood. Your brain therefore perceives a drop in blood sugar producing the symptoms associated with hypoglycaemia. It may also be due to the fact that your brain gets used to the ‘buzz’ from blood sugar highs so that even when the levels drop back down to within the normal range, your brain perceives a drop to hypoglycaemia and produces the symptoms below.

Hypoglycaemia When you hit a low blood sugar period (hypoglycaemia), you may suffer from any of the following symptoms: • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Extreme hunger (must eat NOW!) Light headedness, dizziness Cravings for sugar, salt, caffeine, alcohol or refined carbohydrates Floaters (spots or dark shapes) in the eyes Headaches or migraine Nausea Muscle tremors or twitches Need something to get going in the morning Nervousness, anxiety, depression Loss of memory, lack of concentration Head feels fuzzy, can’t think clearly PMS and menopausal symptoms Visual disturbance, blurred vision

• • • • • • • • • • • •

Lethargy, drowsiness, fatigue, lack of energy Wake up feeling tired even after enough sleep Irritability, mood swings, aggressive or tearful outbursts, extreme impatience Heart palpitations or rapid heart beat Panic or anxiety attacks Pallor (growing pale) Thirst Insomnia, restless sleep, bad dreams Low blood pressure Sweating, particularly night sweats Loss of coordination Feeling cold, especially extremities

Blood sugar slumps The diagram above clearly shows the phenomenon of the mid morning and mid afternoon slump, when you feel drowsy and reach for a coffee, tea, hot chocolate, cola drink or chocolate bar to ‘pick-me-up’. But eating something sugary to raise the levels of sugar in the blood is just what you should not do.

Blood sugar disruptors Unfortunately we have added to the list of stress factors in the form of blood sugar disruptors. These are stimulating substances we use on a daily basis to "keep us going", "give us energy" and help us to "wake up" in the morning. We become Carolyn Moody, Dip ION, Optimum Nutritionist and Live a Conscious Life Transformational Coach Ave des Lilas 34, 1300 Limal, Belgium Tel: 010 400 558 Mobile: 0478 565 282Email: [email protected]

www.bodybalancehealth.eu

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Body Balance – mind and body in perfect harmony dependent upon them but because they are so commonly used they are not regarded as a source of concern. Here they are: • • • • • • • •

Caffeine found in coffee, tea, chocolate and cocoa products, and cola drinks Alcohol Sugar (and sugary foods/drinks) Refined starchy carbohydrates, i.e. white flour, white rice Tobacco and smoking Salt (and highly salted foods and snacks) Some prescribed medications Recreational drugs

Most people imagine they couldn't possibly get through a single day without at least one of these! Blood sugar disruptors deplete the body of valuable nutrients, particularly B vitamins, zinc and essential fatty acids, all of which are needed for healthy adrenal function. This increases the stress on the adrenals and can lead eventually to adrenal burn out. Cutting down or giving up blood sugar disruptors for a period of around three months gives your body a chance to start the healing process by removing this layer of stress. Treated with respect, blood sugar disruptors are fine for occasional use only where they provide a quick fix of energy or for chemical relaxation. They are not for every day use.

How to balance your blood sugar There is a way to ensure even blood sugar levels all day long, giving more energy and better concentration. The following golden rules will help you eat your way out of dysglycaemia. It can take anywhere from three to six weeks to resolve dysglycaemia, depending on the severity of the disruption.

Eat regular meals It is important to eat three meals a day, even if they are very small. Don’t be tempted to skip a meal. The secret is not to wait until you are keeling over with hunger, cravings and low energy. A little and often is preferable. Breakfast Start the day with breakfast, no matter how light, and no tea or coffee to ‘get you going’. See the seven day meal planner for breakfast ideas based around fruit, seeds, nuts, whole Some people find cereals make them more sleepy in the mornings. Nuts and seeds are a good source of energy, vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids. You could eat for breakfast what you had the night before if you are too rushed to prepare something. Many people around the world wake up to vegetables, meat, fish and rice.

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Body Balance – mind and body in perfect harmony Lunch and dinner Use the seven day meal planner for lunch and dinner suggestions. These meals can be based around whole grains (such as brown rice, pasta, millet, quinoa – you can make great cous cous with quinoa), potatoes, meat, fish, dried beans, vegetables, salads and occasionally low fat cheeses. Don’t eat fruit straight after a meal to avoid intestinal wind and bloating.

Eat protein with each meal Eat good quality protein at each meal in the form of meat, fish, eggs, tofu, pulses (beans and lentils), seeds and nuts. Use the Plate diagram to help you identify protein foods. Protein helps to build health and balance blood sugar. It should make up around a third of your plate in this blood sugar balancing period.

Reduce starchy carbohydrates Using the Plate diagram to guide you, keep the starchy carbohydrate part of your place to no more than 10% of your diet. When you do eat starchy foods, ensure they are wholegrain and not while refined carbohydrates, e.g. wholegrain rice and pasta, potatoes in the skins, bread and cereals based on whole corn, oat or wheat.

Increase plant based carbohydrates to 60% Again, referring to the plate diagram, you will see that you can get slow releasing energy from fruit, vegetables, seeds, nuts and avocados. These foods are high in fibre which slows down the release of sugar into the blood.

Eat a spoonful of pulses per day Providing you have no sensitivity to pulses, adding a tablespoon to soups, salads, cooked vegetables and sauces will provide soluble fibre. This is a form of fibre that enters the bloodstream and helps control blood sugar. Soluble fibre is also found in fruit and oats and has been shown to be beneficial in lowering cholesterol levels.

Schedule healthy snacks Until your blood sugar has stabilised, you should schedule a small snack between meals and before bedtime. Snacks should be based on fruit, raw vegetables and high protein foods like seeds, nuts, eggs, meat, fish, yoghurt, cottage cheese and pulses. Remember the emphasis is on a SMALL snack and should be taken before your blood sugar drops to hypoglycaemia.

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Body Balance – mind and body in perfect harmony Suitable snacking foods include: ∼ Fresh and sun-dried fruit, including figs, apricots and raisins, with seeds and nuts ∼ Rice cakes spread with seed and nut spreads ∼ Hard boiled egg ∼ Piece of cooked cold chicken

∼ Half an avocado ∼ Half a can of tuna ∼ Small portion of hummus with crudités ∼ Falafel ball (made with chick pea) ∼ Small pot of plain, live, organic yoghurt if tolerated

A typical days eating therefore might look like this: 07.00-07.30

Breakfast

10.00

Mid-morning snack

13.00

Lunch

16.00

Mid-afternoon snack

18.30 – 19.00

Dinner

21.30

Snack

23.00

Bed

You may feel worse before you feel better The first thing people notice when they start eating to rebalance blood sugar is that initially they feel more tired. This is because your adrenals are so used to being kickstarted into action that it takes time to readjust to functioning normally. You may also experience withdrawal symptoms which can include headache, achy muscles, fatigue and dizziness. All this is a normal.

Supplements to help with blood sugar balance • • • • • • • • • •

Chromium: Zinc Citrate or gluconate: Manganese: Vitamin B complex: Magnesium citrate: Vitamin C with bioflavinoids: Omega 3 fatty acids Cinnamon Alpha-lipoic acid Pea protein powder

200 mcg 15 mg 5 – 20 mg 25-50 mg 200 – 400 mg 500 – 1000 mg

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Body Balance® – mind and body in perfect harmony Interpreting blood test results Because everyone is different, people have individual reactions to sugar and the way they metabolise it. This is reflected in blood test results. A 'normal' blood sugar level may be different from one person to the next. What is optimal for one, may not be optimal for another. As a guide, 85mg% is considered a normal fasting rate, i.e. first thing in the morning before breakfast. Blood fasting rates of 70mg% indicate low blood sugar. Blood fasting rates of 100 to 110mg% would indicate a need to reduce sugar and refined carbohydrates. If you have a blood test done after eating, levels should not exceed 160 - 170mg% after one hour, although some authorities recognise 200mg% as the upper limit. Your doctor is the best person to assess whether or not you have dangerously high or low blood sugar levels. If your red blood cells have become sugar-coated (glycosilated haemoglobin), as they can do in high blood sugar, your doctor will certainly take action to reduce blood sugar. Even with ‘normal’ blood test results, you will benefit from the nutritional recommendations for regulating blood sugar.

Different kinds of sugars All these words mean sugar. They have been divided into those that can be used in moderation only and those that should be avoided. OK in moderation: promote slower blood sugar release

Avoid: promote rapid blood sugar release

Barley malt syrup

Dextrin, dextrose , polydextrose (from corn), corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup

Brown rice syrup

Sugar, brown sugar, sucrose, beet sugar, cane sugar

Unsulphured molasses – good for iron, zinc and copper

Honey – all commercial honeys raise blood sugar as fast as sucrose

Maltodextrin is minimally refined and high in complex carbohydrates

Fructose, fruit juice concentrate, raisin juice and raisin syrup

Sugar alcohols: mannitol, sorbitol and xylitol. These have some effect on blood sugar and can cause diarrhoea if consumed in large quantities.

Date sugar, maple syrup and rice syrup from refined, white rice, Lactose, galactose and glucose

Stevia, a herbal sweetener used for centuries in South America, Japan, China and Korea, is 300 times sweeter than sugar. It doesn’t raise blood sugar levels at all. It is available via the internet but not in shops in Europe.

Artificial sweeteners are particularly dangerous to health. Avoid aspartame (NutraSweet, Canderel, Equal and Spoonful), sucralose (Splenda) and saccharin (Sweet’nLow)

Carolyn Moody, Dip ION, Optimum Nutritionist and Live a Conscious Life Transformational Coach Ave des Lilas 34, 1300 Limal, Belgium Tel: 010 400 558 Mobile: 0478 565 282 [email protected] www.bodybalancehealth.eu

Body Balance® – mind and body in perfect harmony Conventional food pyramid In the conventional food pyramid, grains play a major part while protein foods are relegated to the third tier along with dairy products. Fats and sugars are placed at the top, with no differentiation between healthy fats and trans fats. In this way of eating there is no recognition that around 75% of the population do best on a low or no grain diet and are intolerant to dairy products. This way of eating is one of the major contributing factors to the three major killer diseases of the western world: heart disease, cancer and diabetes.

Carolyn Moody, Dip ION, Optimum Nutritionist and Live a Conscious Life Transformational Coach Ave des Lilas 34, 1300 Limal, Belgium Tel: 010 400 558 Mobile: 0478 565 282 [email protected] www.bodybalancehealth.eu

Body Balance® – mind and body in perfect harmony The Body Balance food pyramid If you take a look at the food pyramid below, you will notice it is quite different to the usual food pyramid. Here the starchy grain foods, the main source of concentrated carbohydrates, are reduced in importance to the third tier of the pyramid. In traditional pyramids, they form the base in terms of quantity and emphasis. Reducing the quantity of starchy foods encourages you to eat a wider variety of foods from the other two tiers instead of relying on ‘convenience foods’ like pasta and bread. People with sedentary jobs don’t need so much concentrated energy from their food as that provided by starchy grains. The excess quickly gets converted to fat. In addition, those who are natural stone-agers do much better when they either reduce or eliminate grains altogether from their diet. You can use the food pyramid in conjunction with the plate diagram on the next page to make sure you are eating within the proportions: 50-60% fruits, vegetables, pulses, seeds and nuts, 30-50% protein foods and 0-10% starchy foods. Fat is obtained naturally in your food in the right proportions and with the addition of good quality cold pressed oils and fats.

Carolyn Moody, Dip ION, Optimum Nutritionist and Live a Conscious Life Transformational Coach Ave des Lilas 34, 1300 Limal, Belgium Tel: 010 400 558 Mobile: 0478 565 282 [email protected] www.bodybalancehealth.eu

Body Balance® – mind and body in perfect harmony Plate diagram© showing ideal food proportions The plate diagram below shows you the proportions you should be aiming for.

Plant-based carbohydrates 50 - 60% comprising raw and cooked vegetables, fresh and dried fruit, seeds, nuts and pulses

Starchy carbohydrates Concentrated protein

0-10% comprising

30 - 40% comprising

Grains: bread, pasta, rice, quinoa, oats, rye, barley, buckwheat, maize (corn).

Animal protein: meat, fish, eggs, Dairy: cheese, yoghurt, Vegetarian: tofu, pulses, seeds and nuts. Some of these foods overlap in the plant based foods

Starchy vegetables: potatoes, sweet potatoes, parsnips, turnips, swedes

Carolyn Moody, Dip ION, Optimum Nutritionist and Live a Conscious Life Transformational Coach Ave des Lilas 34, 1300 Limal, Belgium Tel: 010 400 558 Mobile: 0478 565 282 [email protected] www.bodybalancehealth.eu

Body Balance® – mind and body in perfect harmony Profile: Carolyn Moody Optimum Nutritionist and Transformational Coach Founder Body Balance® Integrated Health Carolyn trained at the Institute for Optimum Nutrition (ION) in London, founded by Patrick Holford, pioneer in optimum nutrition and health since the early 1980s. Since qualifying in 1990, she has helped thousands of people both in Belgium and internationally make more balanced nutritional and lifestyle choices. In 2004, Carolyn created and founded the Body Balance® one-stop-shop for Integrated mind, body and emotional Health. At the heart of this approach is the principle of a high sense of self worth that liberates each person to live confidently, fearlessly and authentically. Through the unique and powerful combination of Optimum Nutrition, holistic lifestyle education and Transformational coaching, the programme helps people develop a strong self-belief, excellent mental, physical and emotional health, and a sense of inner peace.

Published author Carolyn is a published author, having written many articles for a variety of magazines, including The Bulletin, Away magazine, BART (Business Aviation) magazine, and the UK Nutrition publication - ION Journal. She has also written a book, ‘Nurturing Superwoman’, about women’s nutritional health. The next book is in the making.

Educator/Trainer and Public speaker Carolyn is an experienced educator. She has devised many training programmes, writing all her own comprehensive course material, including the unique 600-page Body Balance training manual. As well as writing and teaching, Carolyn is an experienced Public Speaker. Topics include: Many different aspects of health and nutrition, including stress, blood sugar balance, cardiovascular disease, men and women’s hormone health, digestive health, weight management, what to eat … plus many more Dealing with difficult people – Confident, compassionate and assertive communication for conflict resolution Confidence building through letting go of fear and trusting self Calm the busy mind –Biochemistry and habitual thought patterns keep our minds hyperactive and out of control. Learn how to calm the over busy mind through nutritional choices, guided visualizations and creating new thought tracks.

Who’s who Organisations that have invited me to speak include Conference Board, EUMA, P&G, Aspria, MasterCard Europe, NATO, SHAPE, EuroControl, MCE (Management Centre Europe).

Carolyn Moody, Dip ION, Optimum Nutritionist and Live a Conscious Life Transformational Coach Ave des Lilas 34, 1300 Limal, Belgium Tel: 010 400 558 Mobile: 0478 565 282 [email protected] www.bodybalancehealth.eu