If you think eating before bedtime is a no-no, think again. Sure, you don't want to dig in to a pint of ice cream or polish off a juicy steak before bed, but many experts claim that eating certain fruits before hitting the hay could help you sleep better.
Whether you have trouble getting to sleep, or find yourself tossing and turning all night, adding a few of these late-night snacks into your nighttime regimen might just help you defeat chronic insomnia and wake up more refreshed.
Kiwi fruit
You might know that these green, sweet little fruits go well in a fruit salad, but you might not know that they could also help you have a more restful sleep. In a study highlighted by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the consumption of two kiwifruits within one hour of bedtime could reduce mid-sleep wakefulness by a whopping 30 percent. If you can't seem to stay asleep through the night, try adding kiwi fruit to your shopping list.
Bananas
Although you might usually eat bananas with breakfast, they actually contain high levels of potassium and magnesium, natural muscle relaxers that can allow your body to feel more at ease and ready for sleep. Also, the carbohydrates in bananas can increase your sleepiness. So if you're feeling a little peckish before bed, go ahead and peel your way to a better night's sleep.
Cherries
Cherries and cherry juice contain high levels of melatonin, a hormone in the brain that controls your sleep regulation. One study even shows that drinking tart cherry juice could improve sleep in people who suffer from insomnia. Conducted by Louisiana State University, the study found that adults who consumed just 8 ounces of tart cherry juice two times a day slept for an additional 85 minutes.
Berries
Berries -- including blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries -- contain very high levels of antioxidants. According to experts at the National Sleep Foundation, antioxidants can protect you from the stress of a sleep disorder, which can cause oxidation in the body. Consuming antioxidant-rich berries before bed can help reduce your overall physical stress, thereby allowing you to have a more restful sleep.
Pineapple
Another fruity treat to enjoy before bed is the humble pineapple. Also high in melatonin, researchers discovered that after eating pineapple, the melatonin markers in the body could increase by 266 percent. This means that regularly consuming this sweet treat before bed could help you fall asleep fast and stay asleep longer
Does Fruit Spike Insulin? Does Fruit Spike Blood Sugar?
Does fruit spike insulin? Does fruit spike blood sugar?
Both questions are valid and deserve attention. Because fruits innocence can easily be mistaken.
We are encouraged to eat fruits as part of a healthy diet. Can something be this good and be just as bad for us?
Let me clarify something upfront. This piece is not saying you shouldn’t eat fruits. Rather it’s a deep insight into whether fruits can spike insulin or spike your blood sugar.
The US food and drug administration recommends 2 servings of fruits a day even amongst those whose level of physical activity is less than 30 minutes a day.
Although the official website does talk about how much fruit you need daily would depend on age, sex, and physical activity.
In the UK, we are advised to eat 5 portions of fruits and veg daily to keep the doctors away from our doorstep.
All in all, you are encouraged to consume fruits daily. Any fruit. In any form.
I will disagree with some aspects of the recommendation especially if we are going to answer the question of whether fruits can spike blood sugar or spike insulin.
You will see what I mean as I delve deeper into the fruits and blood sugar & insulin connection.
Not that we need any encouragement to eat fruits anyway. The mere fact of their sweetness and fleshy texture is enough to make us fall in love with fruits.
Our love for fruits is evolutionary. In the prehistoric times over 2 million years ago, our diet was carbohydrate-poor, rich in protein and fat.
At the time, the only way we satisfied our sweet tooth was through fruit consumption. Fruits were more pleasant on the palate than leaves and roots. Indeed, it was important to have these substitutes when the hunter-gatherer couldn’t make a catch.
Instead of going hungry because the deer survived our hunting attempt, you had berries, veggies and roots to fall back on. Not a big deal.
Whilst it made sense at the time to eat all fruits that came our way, so long as they were considered safe, our modern way of life has now thrown some questions regarding the effects of fruits on blood sugar and insulin.
This is inextricably tied up to our modern lifestyle of being sedentary. All of these do have implications as to how our body deals with the sugar that erupts from the fruits we eat.
So, does fruit spike blood sugar and insulin?
Well, the answer is, Yes and No.
Yes, fruits can spike blood sugar.
Yes, fruits can spike insulin.
And No, fruits may neither spike blood sugar nor insulin.
Confused? Don’t be.
And I’m not giving a cop-out answer here. You know I am not one for sitting on the fence. It hurts the bum…badly.
Whether fruits spike blood insulin or spike blood sugar or not, depends on several factors.
And this would vary from person to person. In fact, whether your blood sugar or your insulin spikes after you eat fruit can also vary within you as an individual.
Here are some of the factors that will determine if fruits spike your insulin or spike your blood sugar:
- Type of fruit
- How the fruit is eaten
- How much of the fruit you eat?
- What you eat the fruit with
- Where you are in your metabolic health
- Your level of physical activity
Let’s take each of those factors and see how they play out.
1. Type of fruit
I don’t need to tell you that some fruits are sweeter than others. Even the same fruit can have different variations. Think Green Apples and Red Apples.
Red apples are tastier than green apples. Green apples sometimes border on the savory side than sweet. Amongst the red apples, I’ve lost count of how many types of my supermarket throws at me. Choices, choices, choices.
I’m encouraged to buy some brands of red apples because according to my supermarket, they are sweeter.
That’s just apples.
If you take things further and compare sugar between fruits, that could take a huge table of facts that might be difficult to digest (no pun intended).
So, I will keep things simple.
The amount of sugar in cantaloupe or honeydew melon is twice the amount in strawberries. Gram for gram you will be getting double the dose of sugar from honeydew melon and cantaloupe than you would if you ate strawberries.
What about pineapples and mangoes? They are in a different league.
The flipside of that is there are some fruits that you will consider as being very safe as far as blood sugar spiking and insulin spiking are concerned.
Raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries are generally safe fruits for blood sugar and insulin spikes. So safe the berries are that diabetics are encouraged to eat them.
If you take things a little further in terms of fruits safety from blood sugar spikes, avocado is one fruit that should be considered a safe bet. Avocados are fatty though, but the sugar level is tolerable. Just something to bear in mind.
Depending on the other factors that I will be discussing shortly, a certain fruit can spike your insulin correspondingly after spiking your blood sugar on a given day.
What fruit you eat matters.
2. How the fruit is eaten
If you eat fruits whole and fresh, the soluble and insoluble fiber in the fruit keeps the release of sugars from the fruit in check.
There is a reason people like Eric Rimm from Harvard School of Public Health recommend that fruits be eaten whole.
Fruits contain not just natural sugars but also fiber and micronutrients. The fiber in fruits is both soluble and insoluble. The soluble fiber is what stops the fruit from releasing the natural sugars briskly.
The insoluble fiber does other things like serving as a prebiotic to our gut bacteria. Not only that, but insoluble fiber also helps move food along the alimentary tract, keeping us regular (if you get my drift).
I like making smoothies and of course I make my own smoothies. You should too.
However, I have had to rein in my love of smoothies because the process of making smoothies does break down the fiber we are talking about.
When you blitz the fruits in your smoothie machine, you are blitzing the fiber and altering the digestibility of the fruits.
In theory, you are encouraging the sugars in the fruits to be released a little quicker than they would, if you ate and chewed your fruits whole.
The finer the texture of your smoothie, the higher this effect.
Now, I should add that this effect may not be too significant in a person who is metabolically competent. I will touch on this shortly.
From the above, you would have gathered that if you are going to consume smoothies, please make your own smoothies. At least you know what’s gone into the smoothie.
Never buy smoothies from the shops or your supermarket. They invariably add sugars to those commercially available smoothies. You will be shocked at how much sugar is added.
As if the fruit isn’t sweet enough?
The point here being, whereas eating a whole fruit may not spike your blood sugar or spike your insulin, the smoothie version may spike your blood sugar and insulin.
The only way to find out is, if you test yourself using a blood glucose meter eating both versions. I encourage you to test yourself, by the way. More so if you have insulin resistance, prediabetes, or diabetes.
Lest I forget. Dried fruits and Canned fruits.
Whereas fresh fruits might be good for your blood sugar and insulin, the dried version of the fruit may turn out to be a devil in disguise.
Think grapes and raisins. Do you think eating 30 grapes will have the same effect as eating 30 raisins?
For a start, 30 grapes will fill you up more, 30 raisins will do no such thing. Agreed?
Secondly, the release of simple natural sugars from the raisins will be faster than you get from the grapes even though both the grapes and the raisins have the same amount of sugar.
It is the speed of sugar release that will affect the likelihood of a blood sugar spike and a corresponding insulin spike.
Dried fruits will certainly move you in that direction.
Dried fruits are fruits that have lost nearly all the water content. Not only that some food manufacturers are crazy enough to add sugar to some dried fruits to sweeten them up some more.
How much sweetness do we need in our lives?
Think dried berries, cherries, and apricots.
The same goes for canned fruits. Some have added sugar in them. Avoid.
If you ever going to have canned fruits, ensure they are preserved in water. If there’s any added sugar, avoid.
Because those brands of canned fruits with added sugar will most certainly spike your blood sugar and spike your insulin.
3. How much of the fruit you eat
This is common sense really.
If you are going to gorge on something sweet, it makes sense to be sensible about it.
If you are going to eat 10 apples in one sitting because you are chatting with your friend and you’ve lost track of how much apples you have eaten (10, need I remind you), is it any surprise if the apples spike your blood sugar and your insulin?
Then again, it also depends on other factors playing up to either protect you or conspire against you. I’m referring to the type of fruit, how you eat it, your metabolic status etc.
All those factors will determine whether 10 apples or 10 oranges may spike you or not.
I’m not one to talk, because I eat lots of bananas. The most bananas I have eaten is 5 in one sitting. But I was fine. I’m no longer insulin resistant and the bananas by the way are the minimally ripe ones not the deep yellow over ripe ones with brown patches on the skin.
I eat lots of minimally ripe bananas to catch up on my resistant starch.
I’m pretty sure if I ate 5 of those over-ripe bananas, my blood sugar will rocket up.
And I don’t eat those bananas blindly, by the way. I have a glucometer and I check my blood sugar to ensure I am not being reckless.
Okay, I could get away with eating lots of bananas, will I get away with eating lots of honeydew melon?
I’m not so sure. I haven’t tested it, so I can’t say.
What I can tell you though is; honeydew melon is a fruit that is not only high in sugar (we established that already earlier on) but low in fiber.
And as you know, melons are so soft that the texture is almost non-existent.
What does that mean?
It means you can easily eat lots and lots of a fruit like watermelon without realizing you have. In addition, the fact that watermelon or honeydew melon has very little fiber means fruits like honeydew melon or watermelon will give you a blood sugar spike and an insulin spike.
The way round it is, if you are going to eat fruits like melon with high sugar and low fiber, you will need to reduce your portion sizes to less than a cup.
High fiber fruits like the berries are a safer bet when it comes to eating bigger portions of fruits, if you want to avoid insulin spike and blood sugar spike.
Something else I need to mention about canned fruits is that you can very easily eats lots of canned fruits than you would eating the whole fruit version of it.
You need to be mindful of that.
Muscle soaks up glucose from the blood circulation thereby lowering blood sugar. This prevents blood sugar spike and insulin spike.
Even if you don’t build muscle, just doing regular exercise will sensitize your muscles and make them more responsive to insulin.
A rapid drop in insulin (crash) usually makes you feel tired.
An insulin spike is useful for driving nutrients into the muscles.
an insulin spike leads to sleepiness.
How much does sleep affect growth hormone?
How Does Sleep Affect the Production of HGH? Around 75% of the human growth hormone is produced during sleep. In healthy adults, it is typically created during the first period of Stage 3, also known as a deep or slow wave sleep. During this stage, HGH works to repair and restore your body and muscles from the stress they suffered the previous day.
Experts estimate that as much as 75 percent of human growth hormone is released during sleep. In normal healthy people, the major period of HGH release occurs during the first period of Stage 3 sleep stage during the night, about an hour after you first fall asleep.
Benefits of Human Growth Hormone
HGH is essential for kids, as they are growing, so for them to develop normally, they need to have appropriate levels of HGH. As much as it affects growth in children, lack of it hasn’t been found to harm a child’s intelligence.
There are many roles of HGH, and here are some of its benefits:
- It increases muscle strength. It was observed that HGH stimulates the synthesis of collagen in tendons and skeletal muscles, which improves strength and exercise performance. During the deep restorative sleep, when the HGH is mostly secreted, the brain also works to repair the body, which explains the effect that it has on muscles. Besides improving strength, it has been shown to improve body composition and thermoregulation.
- It improves fracture healing. HGH and numerous growth factors HGH affects have a significant role in regulating bone and mineral metabolism. HGH has been shown to speed up regeneration of the bones and help with the wound healing in general.
- It enhances weight loss. HGH speeds up fat burning. Obese people were found to be less responsive to HGH and losing extra weight improved their body’s response to it. Sticking to a healthy diet, exercising, and potential HGH treatment can have a huge role in weight loss for heavier people.
- It is vital for healthy bones. Besides a role that it plays in fracture healing, it has an overall positive impact on the bone structure. It regulates bone growth, especially during puberty. It stimulates the production of insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1), which is produced in the liver and then distributed through the bloodstream. This duo induces bone production as well as bone resorption, leading to an increased bone mass. Their production decreases with age, which is a potential cause of osteoporosis in older adults.
- It reduces cardiovascular disease risk. Adults who suffer from HGH deficiency are more prone to cardiovascular disease and have a shorter life expectancy. They are usually overweight and have excess body fat, which additionally affects their health.
- It is responsible for male reproductive function. It also plays a role in sexual maturation, and lack of HGH can lead to erectile dysfunction and lack of sex drive.
- It decreases obesity. Insulin resistance, and excess body fat, especially on the belly, are pretty frequent with people with an HGH deficiency. HGH treatment showed to decrease visceral body fat in obese people, improve insulin sensitivity and decrease blood pressure.
- It improves mood and cognitive function. Treatment of people who were HGH deficient showed to improve mood, cognitive abilities, and concentration.
How Does Sleep Affect the Production of HGH?
Around 75% of the human growth hormone is produced during sleep. In healthy adults, it is typically created during the first period of Stage 3, also known as a deep or slow wave sleep. During this stage, HGH works to repair and restore your body and muscles from the stress they suffered the previous day.
Sleep deprivation means that there is less slow wave sleep, which leads to less HGH production. When a person experiences the lack of sleep, the body will try and make up for it by producing more the next time this person sleeps, which can disrupt circadian rhythms and normal HGH cycle.
We get more Stage 3 sleep during the first part of the night, so people who are working night shifts, or those who tend to stay up late are more at risk of disrupted HGH secretion. In the day after sleep loss occurred, secretion was showed to be decreased and more random.
5 Sleep Inducing Fruits
Tart Cherries
Tart cherries are very effective for bringing about a good night’s sleep. Tart cherries increase the production of melatonin in the body. Melatonin is a hormone that is responsible for the regulation of the body’s sleep-wake cycle. It is also responsible for the regulation of the body’s internal clock. A study conducted in 2014 found that drinking tart cherry juice twice a day, for a period of two weeks, had resulted in an improved sleep time of 90 minutes in adult insomniac patients. Tart cherries improve the quality and the duration of sleep.
Grapes
Grapes are the only known fruit to contain melatonin itself. Melatonin is asleep regulating hormone and a wonderful sleeping aid. If grapes are eaten in a large quantity before bedtime, they help promote a sleep without disruptions. Aside from their profound effect on sleep efficiency, grapes are also a source of anthocyanin and resveratrol. Both are immune system supporting antioxidants.
Bananas
Bananas contain tryptophan, and tryptophan is used by the body to produce 5-HTP. Melatonin and serotonin are in turn, produced by the compound 5-HTP. Melatonin is a sleep inducing and regulating hormone while serotonin helps regulate mood. Both contribute a great deal to improve the efficiency and quality of sleep. Bananas also contain potassium, which helps promote non-disruptive sleep throughout the night.
Apples
Apples contain a lot of sleep-inducing vitamins and polyphenol antioxidants. Vitamin C and Vitamin B6 present in apples help regulate your breathing, control blood pressure, help your body relax, and reduce stress while you sleep. Vitamin B16 also helps release serotonin, which is a hormone responsible for mood elevation. A blood sugar regulating polyphenol called phlorizin also keeps the sugar level in your blood in control while you snooze.
Passion Fruit
Passion fruit is rich in Harman and alkaloids. Harman is a natural sedative, and it also helps lower your blood pressure. The passion fruit flower contains a mild sedating agent and has been used for treating respiratory disorders and other diseases in the past. It is also rich in iron and potassium. In other words, passion fruit is another known effective remedy for insomnia.
The information contained on this site is for informational purposes only and should not be used as a substitute for the advice of a professional health care provider. Please check with the appropriate physician regarding health questions and concerns. Although we strive to deliver accurate and up-to-date information, no guarantee to that effect is made.
Fruits That Raise Blood Sugar
Fruits, like most foods, contain carbohydrates that can raise your blood sugar. However, fruit also carries with it an abundance of healthy vitamins and minerals as well as fiber, which are part of a well-balanced diet. Understanding the benefits of fruit, as well as which fruits can drastically increase your blood sugar, is all part of ensuring blood-glucose control.
Sugars in Fruits
Most fruits contain the sugar fructose. Fructose is a type of carbohydrate called a monosaccharide that consists of a single sugar molecule, and one of the most common sugars found in nature. Most fruits also contain fiber, another carbohydrate or polysaccharide that's indigestible but has many health benefits. Fruits also contain pectin, which is a soluble fiber, and cellulose, an insoluble fiber.
- Most fruits contain the sugar fructose.
- Most fruits also contain fiber, another carbohydrate or polysaccharide that's indigestible but has many health benefits.
Glycemic Index of Fruits
Since fruits contain carbohydrates, most fruits will increase your blood sugar. However, some can affect it more than others. A good way to determine a food's effect on your blood sugar is to know its glycemic index. The glycemic index is a rating given to food, indicating how quickly and drastically will increase your blood glucose 3. The scale ranges from zero to 100; the higher a food's score on the glycemic index, the higher and faster it will raise your blood sugar 3. If a food is between 0 and 55, it is considered a low-glycemic food. From 56 to 69, it's considered a moderate glycemic food, and from 70 to 100, it is a high-glycemic food. Glycemic load is another measure of a food's impact on blood sugar that considers its glycemic index relative to its content of all forms of carbohydrate, including fiber. For example, watermelon has a high-glycemic index but a low glycemic load because it raises blood sugar slowly. Fruits that have a moderately high glycemic effect include bananas, pineapple, and raisins. Low-glycemic fruits are apples, oranges, mangoes, and grapefruit.
The sugar obtained from the digestion of fruits can elevate your blood sugar levels, which in turn push your pancreas to produce insulin. The more carbohydrates you eat at once, the higher your insulin levels are likely to increase.
Insulin is produced by your pancreas and is required to keep your blood sugar levels under control. However, consistently elevated insulin levels are associated with a higher risk of developing chronic diseases, such as certain types of cancer and type 2 diabetes. The carbohydrate content of the foods you eat is the main factor determining how your insulin levels will respond. Fruits contain carbohydrates, so they can raise your insulin levels.
Carbohydrate Content in Fruit
Although the carbohydrates found in fruits are considered healthier because they are packed along with loads of fiber and essential nutrients, all carbohydrates, including those from fruits, are broken down into sugars. The sugar obtained from the digestion of fruits can elevate your blood sugar levels, which in turn push your pancreas to produce insulin. The more carbohydrates you eat at once, the higher your insulin levels are likely to increase. For example, your insulin levels will increase more after having a large banana and orange juice compared to after eating three grapes. Having other carbohydrates at the same time, such as a muffin, a slice of bread or oatmeal, can also further increase your insulin levels.
Net Carbs
If you want to compare different servings of fruits to determine which will raise your insulin levels the most, you will need to calculate their net carb content. The amount of total carbohydrates found in a serving of fruit include the natural sugars, starches, and fiber. Fruits contain varying amounts of fiber that are counted as carbohydrates but cannot be broken down into sugar. Calculating the net carbs by subtracting the fiber from the total carbs gives you a better idea of the insulin-raising potential of different fruits. For example, a cup of raspberries contains 15 grams of total carbs, but 8.0 of these are fiber, which makes their net carb content equivalent to only 7 grams.
Fruits with a Low Insulin Impact
Use a nutrition database to compare the net carb content of different fruits. If you are concerned with your insulin levels, stick to fruits that have the lowest net carb content. Berries are the best option, with 7 grams of net carbs per cup of raspberries, 8.2 grams of net carbs per cup of strawberries and 6 grams of net carbs per cup of blackberries. Considering that a teaspoon of sugar weighs 4 grams, each cup of berries provides the equivalent of only 1 to 1.5 teaspoons of sugar. Such a small amount of sugar is not likely to cause a large increase in your blood insulin levels.
Fruits with a Higher Insulin Impact
Avoid bananas, with 28 grams of net carb or 7 teaspoons of sugar per large fruit, and mangoes, with up to 45 grams of net carbs or 11 teaspoons of sugar per fruit. Fruit juices, even unsweetened 100 percent pure, pack a lot of net carbs, with 38 grams of net carbs or almost 10 teaspoons of sugar per 12-ounce serving of orange juice, for example. Dried fruits can also quickly raise both your blood sugar and insulin levels because they constitute a very concentrated source of carbs. A serving of 1/3 cup of dried cranberries, for example, provides 30.6 grams of net carbs or almost 8 teaspoons of sugar.
Every night—regardless of whether you sleep—your blood sugar levels increase1 as a part of the natural human circadian rhythm cycle. Blood sugar levels also increase during sleep. Blood sugar fluctuations that occur overnight and during sleep are normal and not a cause for concern for most healthy people.
Sleep also plays an important role in maintaining healthy blood sugar levels2. Over the past few decades, the overall average number of hours slept each night has apparently decreased. This decrease in sleep may have contributed to the increase in obesity and diabetes3 that occurred over the same stretch of time. Obesity and diabetes are affected by blood sugar levels, while one’s blood sugar also impacts obesity and diabetes. As a result, blood sugar could be one of the factors involved in weight loss and sleep.
Sleep and physical health are closely connected, so it’s not surprising that sleep affects blood sugar levels. However, the relationship between sleep and blood sugar is complex. There isn’t a simple formula that demonstrates a relationship between the amount of sleep and a corresponding increase or decrease in blood sugar.
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Can Sleep Raise or Lower Glucose Levels?
Although it sounds contradictory, sleep can both raise and lower glucose levels. Our bodies experience a cycle of changes every day—called a circadian rhythm—which naturally raises blood sugar levels at night and when a person sleeps. These natural blood sugar elevations are not a cause for concern.
Restorative sleep might also lower unhealthy blood sugar levels by promoting healthy systems. Decreased sleep is a risk factor for increased blood sugar4 levels. Even partial sleep deprivation over one night increases insulin resistance, which can in turn increase blood sugar levels. As a result, a lack of sleep has been associated with diabetes, a blood sugar disorder.
More research is needed to better understand the connection between sleep and blood sugar. So far, the following factors have been found to influence the relationship between sleep and blood sugar levels:
- The amount of time a person sleeps5
- The stages of sleep a person experiences6
- The time of day a person sleeps7
- A person’s age8
- A person’s eating habits (which overlaps with nutrition and sleep)
Why Does Sleep Affect Blood Sugar?
Researchers are beginning to uncover why sleep affects blood sugar and which underlying mechanisms are at play. So far, they’ve learned that the following physiological factors play a role in the relationship between sleep and blood sugar:
- Cortisol is increased by sleep deprivation9 and increases glucose
- Insulin sensitivity is reduced by sleep deprivation and impacts glucose
- The time of day a person sleeps impacts insulin and cortisol levels, both of which affect glucose
- Increases in growth hormone accompany glucose increases during sleep
- Oxidative stress and inflammation are increased by sleep deprivation and impact glucose
- C-reactive protein is increased by sleep deprivation10 and can impact glucose
- Inflammatory markers IL-611 and TNF-𝝰 are increased by sleep deprivation12 and can cause insulin resistance, which impacts glucose
How Does Blood Glucose Affect Sleep?
Just as sleep affects blood sugar levels, blood sugar levels may also impact sleep quality. A study of people with type 2 diabetes found that those with higher blood sugar levels experience poorer sleep13. Another study found that 62% of people with glucose levels in the pre-diabetes range are likely to have poor sleep14, compared to 46% of people with normal glucose levels.
Researchers aren’t certain why increased blood sugar may be associated with poor sleep and more study is necessary to understand the relationship.
Not all sugars are created alike. Consuming more added sugars (12) leads to shorter sleep times (13), while eating more fruit (14) tends to go hand-in-hand with longer sleep times. A few studies have also found a strong link between sugary drinks and poor sleep, although sugary drinks often contain caffeine (15), which can impact sleep quality on its own.
Since most studies on diet and sleep have been observational, researchers have been unable to definitively pinpoint whether poor sleep leads to cravings for sugary foods, or whether sugary foods affect sleep.
If those insulin receptors work as designed, a spike in insulin levels clears out most of the glucose in the blood, pushing it into muscle and fat cells.
Fruit examples consumed before bed documenting the rise and fall of glucose to improve rapid sleep
September 24th
9:24pm - 189 mg / DL, 30G carbs
10:00pm - 212 mg / DL
Midnight - 90 mg / DL
September 25th
9:56pm - 122 mg / DL, 40G carbs
10:34pm - 219 mg / DL, 13 carbs (stupid add)
Midnight - 75
September 27
9:42pm- 96 mg / DL
10:15pm - 200mg / DL, 30G carbs
Midnight- 105 mg / DL
Blood sugar at 9:32pm: 151 mg / DL
- Dinner beforehand, 1.75 steaks with salad (romaine, ⅓ avocado, tomato, 2 tbsp olive oil + vinegar dressing
- Carbs inserted: 40grams
Blood Sugar at 10:20pm: 184 mg / DL
No other carbs consumed. Bed by 10:45
Number at midnight: 105
__________________________________
Thursday, October 7th
Blood Sugar at 9:30pm: 98
- 40g inserted
Blood sugar at 10:22pm: 96 mg / DL
Blood sugar at midnight: 98 mg / DL
__________________________________
Friday, October 8th
Blood sugar at 9:00pm: 83 mg / DL
- 40 g inserted
Blood sugar at 10:08pm: 54 mg / DL
Blood sugar at midnight: 118 mg / DL
__________________________________
Saturday, October 9th
Blood sugar at 9:30pm: 187 mg / DL
- 40 g carbs
Blood sugar at 10:32pm: 228 mg / DL
Blood sugar at midnight: 133 mg / DL
_______________________________
Sunday, October 10th
Blood sugar at 9:03pm: 225 mg / DL
- 40 g
Blood sugar at 9:34pm: 249 mg / DL
Blood sugar at midnight: 312 mg / DL
Monday, October 11th
Blood sugar at 9pm: 96
- Carbs: 45
Blood sugar at 10:18pm: 88 mg / DL
Blood sugar at midnight: 238 mg / DL
__________________________
Tuesday, October 12th
N/A
_________________________
Wednesday, October 13th
9:20pm: 131
- 40 carbs
10:00pm: 165 mg/ DL
Midnight:130 mg / DL
_________________________
Thursday, October 14th
Blood sugar at 9:30pm: 105
- 40 g
Blood sugar at 10:47pm: 112