Every time your blood sugar drops, your body releases the stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline. Most Menopausal women don’t need any extra stress, so eating a diet that maintains blood sugar balance is the single most important thing to do during Perimenopause and Menopause to support adrenal function. 

Call it “nutrition 101” because, as well as reducing stress hormones, balancing your blood sugar offers so many other residual benefits that will significantly improve your wellbeing. 

How does the blood sugar mechanism work?

Your body is programmed to keep blood sugar levels within a specific range, and if it goes above or below that, this creates a state of emergency because, either way, it poses a risk to your health. Eating high levels of sugary foods and refined carbohydrates (eg white bread, white rice or processed breakfast cereals) leads to a spike in blood sugar, which generates the release of the hormone insulin. Caffeine, alcohol and nicotine can also trigger the insulin response. 

The role of insulin is to clear out this sugar from the blood and send it to the liver to be stored. If your sugar levels are high, the liver may not be able to take it all, so any excess sugar will be stored as fat. 

Taken from The Happy Menopause by Jackie Lynch

You can listen to me talk to Jackie about stress and blood sugar on The Merry Menopause Bookclub Podcast