An insulin spike occurs when your pancreas senses more blood sugar than should be flowing in your blood and insulin is produced. Insulin takes sugar and feeds it into your muscles for energy, but when too much sugar is found, insulin resistance can occur and increase your risk for diabetes or heart disease. Controlling insulin spikes with diets and supplements is much easier when you understand how foods and nutrients interact with your body.

Controlling Insulin Spikes With Diet

You have probably been told to avoid foods that are high on the glycemic index, but you may want to lower the amount of all the carbohydrates you eat.

When you eat too many carbohydrates, you raise your blood sugar, and your body needs to release extra insulin to distribute the sugar to the muscles. Therefore, it is important to limit or avoid certain carbohydrates throughout your day.

Some carbohydrates that you should definitely limit or avoid are:

• White rice
• White bread
• Baked goods

If you do eat carbs, never eat them naked. In other words, do not just eat carbs without a healthy protein, fiber, or fat as well. This will help slow down carbohydrate digestion and entry into the bloodstream, and help to avoid the huge insulin spikes that occur from eating carbohydrates alone.

It is also important to avoid high fat meals. It is well known that blood sugar levels spike after eating a high-fat meal. Moreover, that high fat meal can affect how your body responds to other meals later on.

“…fat interferes with the body’s ability to clear sugar from the blood, and when combined with caffeinated coffee, the impact can be even worse.” – EurekAlert

Fatty foods that you should definitely limit or avoid are:

• Whole milk
• Fast food (almost all fast food is high in fat)
• High amounts of red meat

If you do eat a fatty meal, it may be wise to avoid coffee while eating a fatty meal. Research has shown that the levels of blood sugar can spike twice as much when you include a coffee with a fatty meal.

Lastly, eat small and frequent meals. This is known to help blood sugar levels stabilize and avoid spikes in insulin.

Controlling Insulin Spikes With Supplements

There are a few supplements on the market that contain ingredients that can help control insulin spikes. Following are a few of the ingredients that you should look for in a supplement.

1. Cinnamon: It has been shown that cinnamon can help to reduce insulin resistance. Add one tsp to your smoothies or other foods to help improve your insulin response and lower blood sugar by up to 20%.

2. Raw Apple Cider Vinegar: You have probably heard that a spoonful of apple cider vinegar before meals can help with weight loss. It does this by helping to slow down the emptying of the stomach, which drops blood glucose spikes my 30%.

3. Magnesium: People with high insulin levels often have low magnesium levels. And, supplementing with magnesium has been shown to improve insulin resistance.

4. Alpha-Lipoic Acid: This acid helps turn glucose into energy and lower blood sugar levels. Research has shown this acid to help people improve their insulin by 27% in 1 month.