Top Five Common Misconceptions About Reactive Hypoglycemia

1. Reactive Hypoglycemia is the same thing as Hypoglycemia.

They are not, and this distinction is extremely important because they are treated differently. According to the McKinley Health Center at the University of Illinois, reactive hypoglycemia can be managed with:

• nutritionally balanced meals, frequent meals and snacks
• Regular exercise
• Smoking cessation
• Weight management
• Medical supervision, if indicated
• Regular blood sugar checks, if advised

Perhaps most importantly, reactive hypoglycemia does not lead to a more severe condition. On the other hand, hypoglycemia (without the “reactive,” is often a sign of more severe disease such as pre-diabetes). Hypoglycemia is often treated by eating a low carb diet, but three meals a day instead of the six meals recommended for reactive hypoglycemics. That’s why it’s important to get a proper diagnosis…you will not feel better if you are reactive hypoglycemic and you follow a diet for hypoglycemics!

2. Reactive hypoglycemics cannot eat carrots or potatoes.

If you’ve read my article on How to Get Diagnosed for Reactive Hypoglycemia, you’ll have read that my doctor told me to avoid eating carrots. The misconception that carrots are a high glycemic index food and therefore should be avoided is simply untrue. I quote here from Yale-New Haven hospital:

“carrots have a glycemic index of 92 which is high. But, in a typical serving size of one-half cup, there is only 4.2 grams of carbohydrate. So, the calculated GL is only 3.9 which is low (GL = 92/100 X 4.2), showing that this food is unlikely to cause a disturbance in blood sugar or insulin response”

In plain English, don’t eat four cups of carrots in one sitting. The decision to eat, or not eat a food does bring up an interesting point. I’ve found that I can eat most foods in small quantities, if I balance those foods with something else. For example, I will eat potatoes in a vegetable soup…just not a whole baked potato on its own with butter.

3. If you have reactive hypoglycemia, avoid all soups–they’re too high in sugar.

Totally untrue. The key here is to read your labels. Compare Campbells’ Tomato Bisque with Amy’s Kitchen Chunky Tomato Bisque. They both have a similar sugar content: one serving of Amy’s soup has 14g of sugar obtained from High Fructose Corn Syrup, while one serving of Campbells’ has 15g of sugar obtained from High Fructose Corn Syrup. The difference is the type of sugar being used. High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) has a High Glycemic Index, meaning that it has a big effect on your blood sugar level (this is bad because the aim here is to keep your blood sugar stable, not raise it to the kind of level that will necessitate a large crash). Evaporated Cane Sugar is an unrefined sugar which is quickly burned off as energy and has a negligible effect on blood sugar. The moral here is you can eat soup, but avoid soups that are sweetened with high fructose corn syrup or other refined sugars.

4. You can never eat bread again.

Pure rubbish. You just need to eat nutrient dense bread like Ezekiel’s 4:9 (available in the freezer section of my local Publix) or whole grain breads (check for no sugar or high fructose corn syrup). Pumpernickel and Sourdough tend to have a lower GI, but like any other food you consume as a reactive hypoglycemic, you should check your labels and avoid anything sweetened with sugar or high fructose corn syrup. Don’t be fooled by the label “whole grain” either. I made the mistake of purchasing a loaf from my local store thinking it was healthy, only to find it has HFCS. I stick almost exclusively to Ezekiel’s now…they have a great cinammon raisin variety and also make hamburger buns and English muffins. I never have a blood sugar spike after consuming these products.

5. Reactive Hypoglycemia can lead to diabetes, coma, and/or death.

See item #2: reactive hypoglycemia can make you feel like you need to be hopitalized, but it isn’t indicative of a serious health problem. There are extremely rare cases of coma and death in patients with other ailments such as Grave’s Disease, but unless you are one of these extremely rare individuals, you body will eventually recover and raid food stores to raise glucose levels back to normal, even if you don’t eat. Get your yearly blood work, and if all looks good, don’t worry about slipping into a coma…you have a better change of being killed by a cataclysmic storm (about 1 in 4,000 lifetime risk) than you do dying by anything vaguely related to your reactive hypoglycemia.

Related posts:

1. Top 10 Foods to Avoid if You Have Reactive Hypoglycemia

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