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Maintaining normal blood sugar levels is essential to your mental and physical health.
The normal blood sugar levels chart below shows the range to shoot for and the diabetes blood sugar levels chart shows levels to avoid.
What is blood sugar? It’s the glucose (sugar) in your bloodstream that your body uses to produce energy. For most people, normal blood sugar levels range from 80 up to 140 – naturally fluctuating throughout the day.
A healthy body has effective ways of regulating normal blood sugar levels.
For example, if your blood sugar falls too low, extra glucose stored in your liver is absorbed into your bloodstream to make up the difference.
Blood sugar is the fuel your body needs for energy. Insulin, a hormone made by your pancreas, helps you maintain normal blood sugar levels.
This blood sugar levels chart below shows a normal blood sugar range.
Eating high glycemic carbohydrates is the main cause of higher than normal blood sugar levels and can lead to heart disease, diabetes, blindness, kidney disease and limb amputation from gangrene.
Very high blood sugar can even lead to a diabetic coma. The chart below compares diabetes blood sugar levels to normal blood sugar levels.
*All numbers are mg/dl.
In order to manage your blood sugar levels you’ll have to manage what you eat. Refined high glycemic carbohydrates are foods that should be avoided. Instead choose healthy carbs – whole grains, fruits and vegetables.
To measure blood sugar levels, buy a sugar meter, or get one free from the companies that give them away (so you’ll purchase their strips).
Currently, the only way to test yourself is to prick your finger (or some other part of your body), put the blood on a testing strip into the sugar meter and compare your readings with the blood sugar levels chart above.
Be sure to read the sugar meter instructions and follow the directions.
To be accurate, you’ll need to check your blood sugar levels before breakfast, two hours after a meal and then again before going to bed.
Diabetes leads to heart disease. Diabetics are four times more likely to have a heart attack or stroke. And cardiovascular disease happens much earlier in life and tends to be more deadly than for non-diabetics.
About 80% of diabetics die of heart disease or other circulation problems.
So it’s essential to your health to learn , and how to .
To or even , eat a heart healthy diet, rich in whole grains, fruits, vegetables, lean protein and essential fatty acids, like . Avoid trans-fats and keep your saturated fats low.
And to maintain normal blood sugar levels, top it off with regular daily exercise and, if you’re overweight, permanent .
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