These Snacks Fix Your Blood Sugar And Taste Great

When you live with a condition that impacts your blood sugar levels—whether prediabetes, diabetes or hypoglycemia—keeping your blood sugar levels steady is a main priority. For many people with diabetes, having elevated blood glucose long-term can spell trouble in the form of an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, vision loss and kidney disease. And if you do have prediabetes, you will definitely want to keep a close eye on sugar levels to keep from developing the full-blown version of diabetes.

Of course, if you cut back on sweets, it will play a major role in controlling your sugar levels—which could feel like a real mood-killer. But you do not necessarily have to nix all your sweet foods to keep your sugar levels lower. Some fruits could be surprisingly helpful options! Granted, no fruits can actually lower your blood glucose levels (because they do, after all, have sugar in them) but some options are actually better than others.

As a nutritionist, here are three fruits I suggest for keeping your blood sugar levels low.

1 — Blackberries

In the summertime, who could resist a bowl of fresh picked blackberries? If you are concerned about your blood sugar levels, you do not have to be! Blackberries contain an extremely low amount of glycemic index (GI) of 25.

Not familiar with what the glycemic index is? It is a scale that measures how high certain foods will raise blood sugar levels. Foods that have a score of 1 to 55 are considered low-GI, those that are ranked between 56 to 69 are medium-glycemic index, and those 70 and over are considered high-GI. Blackberries’ lower score means they will not spike your blood sugar levels as much as high-GI fruits like grapes or mangoes.

Besides a lower glycemic number, blackberries are packed with fiber. Research reveals a high-fiber diet can fight insulin resistance and lower the risk of getting type 2 diabetes.

Blueberries have an ample fiber content of 3.5 gm per cup and a lower glycemic index of about 53. A 2016 review of numerous studies discovered that the indigo-colored berries might have anti-diabetic effects in animals and humans.

Want to boost these effects even more? Eat wild blueberries. Because of how small they are, they have an increased ratio of skin to fruit—and the blueberry’s skin is what has the most fiber. Per cup, wild blueberries contain over 6 gm of fiber. They also contain a high amount of antioxidants that could lower overall inflammation.

3 — Apples

Underneath apples’ everyday persona lies many benefits for your blood sugar. In addition to apples’ high fiber contents and lower GI score, apples contain high amounts of polyphenols—which are antioxidant compounds that can help you streamline your blood sugar levels. Polyphenols can help increase insulin production and keep your blood sugar from dropping or spiking.