Blood Sugar Solutions: Top Sugar-Friendly Recipes

Not everything in this world is black or white. As we grow old, read literature and obtain knowledge, we start to understand that certain things need to be categorized into groups, but not avoided completely. Those who say ‘no’ most often fail to spent a little more time on studying the subject, reading more facts about it and finally understanding that there should not be 100 % ‘No’.

Sugar is not always bad:

Same with sugar. As we hear this word, a lot of negativity raises inside of us. We tend to believe that sugar is unnecessary thing in this world, we tend to avoid just any sugar in our diet. Some of us become so keen on refusing that we forget even about those sweet sins in a form of a piece of cinnamon roll once a month. Which does not harm even if you have type 2 Diabetes. Because it is once a month and brings much more harm to ourselves in a form of stress than the actual cinnamon roll itself.

So let’s first get educated. Sugar, unlike many of us tend to believe, is not a bad thing at all. In fact, sugar is needed by our bodies, as it brings energy to our muscles when we move, it brings energy to our organs so they can function properly. We need sugar to store energy in our liver. Without sugar our brain cannot function, as brain is the only organ that only consumes carbs for energy. Fat and protein as energy source is not counted.

Our boy needs sugar :

Now just imagine how many functions does a sugar have for our entire health! If you also think about weight loss, to make this process stable and harmless to our health, we need sugar, too. Athletes and others with substantial amount of physical training need a lot of sugar for their muscles to function properly and to avoid muscle loss and lactic acid pain. Therefore, if you see yourself among those perfectly fit people in a gym tomorrow or next week joining a ‘healthy lifestyle’ club, you need to think about sugar in a different way.

Strange as it may sound, but sugar in its natural state is glucose, and glucose is a main source of energy for your body. However, when callings all saccharides ‘sugars’, we make a mistake. And this is what we are going to discuss today before we start cooking our sugar-friendly recipes today.

There are so many forms and types of saccharides in nature, that it is difficult to describe them. But to make it simple, remember: all carbs contain sugars, just that these sugars are very different and can be distinguished by their function and impact on our bodies. Saccharides is the general name for all sugars. In general, all saccharides are divided into monosaccharides, disaccharides, and polysaccharides, also famous as starches.

There are different types of sugars

In order not to mix the notions let us first talk about the difference of sugar and sugars. Sugar is often referred to sucrose, while sugars is a broad group of saccharides, including monosaccharides and disaccharides. These usually mean that there are only one or two molecules of saccharides present. As they are simple sugars, or simple saccharides, they are very quickly digested and usually refer to those insulin spikes in our body. It is not that insulin is bad for us, because many people refer to this process as harmful. Personally I believe that insulin is sometimes very critical, for instance, if you are training in a gym. For this reason nutritionists and personal trainers even recommend to eat increased amounts of simple sugars during the day when you are training.

Forget the refined sugars

However, as our world has developed so fast that we don’t need to get access to food anymore, we are now in search of the ways to avoid a lot of food that makes us obese. For this reason we do not need so many glucose in our blood, as muscles only need certain amount, and the rest is going to kidneys. Finally, what is over the amount our kidneys can store, starts to add to our adipose tissue. This is why simple sugars are not the best idea for those who abandon physical exercise and have a sedentary lifestyle most of the time.

Monosaccharides include glucose, fructose and galactose. They are the simplest forms of carbohydrates, and they are very rapidly digested in our stomach. Disaccharides include lactose, sucrose, maltose and trehalose. They are also quite rapidly consumed, for this reason people tend to avoid them in their diet or consume only minimal amounts of them.

The healthiest forms recommended by nutritionists worldwide are polysaccharides, or starches. They are most often rich in fiber, and fiber helps to move food faster through our large intestine and slow down metabolism to expand the feeling of satiety. But polysaccharides as their name starting with ‘poly’ already means that they consist of more than one molecule of sugar tend to provide slower digestion, which means that we don’t feel hungry soon, and no sugar spike to our body at all!

Sugar yes, but in moderation!

That is why when thinking about sugars and consuming them, the first thing that matters is the quantity. Eat moderate amounts of sugar. Remember, everything can be eaten if eaten with conscience. Understand your portion size. Nutritionists recommend people to estimate how much sugar their body needs by addressing the feeling of satiety when slowly eating foods containing sugars. Finally, try to avoid sugars in the second part of the day, as you won’t be likely to spend all this energy in exercising and brainwork. Remember that we all have different days when we need different amounts of glucose in our brains and muscles. Try to avoid the stage when we hardly get any sugars. This isn’t healthy at all.

Recipes of a 24h day with good sugar:

So let’s start cooking!

We have decided to make our sugar-happy meal with snacks, breakfast idea, and a dessert. Please mind that the portion sizes are for one person serving. If you invite someone special, please multiply them.

Here is a complete list of ingredients that you will need for the recipes:

Healthy Breakfast

• Oats, 100 g
• Honey, 1 tbsp
• Banana, ½ of banana
• Blueberries, a pinch
• Coconut milk, ¾ cup

Mix oats and honey and put them in the oven for just 1 minute. They will bond together and become your personal type of granola. Then mix coconut milk and banana in a mincer for a smoothie look. Add oats with honey, put some blueberries on top. You healthy breakfast is ready to be served!

Healthy Snack Ideas

• Apples and peanut butter, no sauce needed
• Banana and cashew nuts with maple syrup
• Carrots and cucumbers with some ranch sauce

To cook healthy snacks, simply mix the ingredients together. You can have as much as you want in any proportions! Very easy to make and very healthy source of sugars!

Dessert

• Banana, 1 middle sized
• Oats, 100 g
• Rice flour, 120 g
• Coconut flour, 100 g
• Sugar, 2 tbsp
• Cinnamon, a pinch
• Cocoa, a pinch
• Eggs, 2 middle sized

Preheat oven to 220 degrees. Mix eggs with sugar, add flour one by one, spoon by spoon. Use mixer to liquidise banana and oats. Add them to the mixture. Add cinnamon, cocoa. You can also add some other ingredients like vanilla sugar, but first try the original version of this simple yet tasty banana cake.

Put the cake into the preheated oven. No butter needed. Cook for 15-20 minutes until brownish gold color. Very simple banana bread. Enjoy!