Blood Sugar and Your Brain

HANGRY.

We’ve all been there. I’m writing this right before lunch and I can feel it coming on. There’s memes about it all over the internet, and it has become a common joke that if your girlfriend has a bad attitude, she probably just needs to eat. But why is this a thing? How does hanger occur and what can we do about it?

In order to understand hanger, we need to talk about blood sugar. You’ve probably heard about blood sugar before, and if you’re a diabetic, you’re probably sick of hearing about it. What I want to talk about today, however, is the impact of blood sugar on your hormones and why this matters.

First, let’s talk about what blood sugar would look like in a perfect world. Your blood sugar fluctuates throughout the day in response to a number of factors, including activity and food intake. Ideally, those fluctuations would be gradual and not extreme. When this happens, your brain gets the glucose and energy it needs to function. You’re clear-headed and you’re not too hungry or too full all day long. How great would it be to feel like that all the time?!

Now let’s talk about what happens when your blood sugar is not so well managed. If your blood sugar swings harder than a boxer in a championship fight, you’re probably not going to feel so good. Unstable blood sugar causes your brain to feel like it is starving at times, even if you’ve eaten enough. If your brain feels like it is starving for fuel, then it sends a sort of panic signal through your body. This is what makes you feel hangry. Your body is in fight or flight mode, not understanding that you (likely) have food available. It wants it NOW. It literally thinks it is in danger of starvation!

While this may seem drastic, you need to remember that your body communicates within itself through the use of hormones. When your blood sugar fluctuates with big swings, your hormone production also becomes unregulated. Now you’ve literally got mixed signals running through your body. Your organ functions are basically going haywire. Your brain is trying to figure it all out, but it has lost its’ fuel of glucose, and it is overwhelmed. Now does it make sense why it feels like you can’t think straight unless you get something to eat? This is also why food cravings at this time are probably for carbohydrate-rich foods, as these are sources of the glucose your brain is craving.

So what can we do to reduce these blood sugar swings? Well, the most important step you can start doing right now is just to start noticing which combinations of food make you feel good after you eat them, and which ones might make you feel irritable or unsatisfied. This is the first step in gaining an understanding of your body so that you can continue to honor it as you progress through your wellness journey. In future blog posts, we will discuss additional strategies for balancing your blood sugar, including some recipe examples to give you ideas!