Happy Apple Nutrition

Someone asked me for my best blood sugar hack yesterday. I thought about it for a while, it is hard to pick just one! I think one of the lesser recognized tips out there – because everyone seems to be talking about pairing macronutrients, eating meals in a certain order, and apple cider vinegar! – is heat.

You have probably heard moving after meals helps with balancing blood sugar. Go for a walk, do some squats.

In my personal experience, as a mom to a child living with diabetes, yes moving after meals helps a lot! What you may not have thought about is moving your blood around is what is the key, not just burning energy doing exercise.

Other forms of moving your blood around help too. Like HEAT! Taking a hot bath or shower, sauna, hot tub, even a heating pad helps the blood circulate around the body and get the insulin into the cells. Many people factor in taking a hot shower after eating dinner into their blood sugar management – for example, bolusing less insulin with the meal if using heat afterwards.

I am a huge fan of heat! It can be used to work on calming the nervous system, it can be used to set routines around sleep hygeine.

Red light therapy is very popular. I find it very nice and relaxing. There are endless fancy versions of red lights and infrared lights out there for lowering inflammation. A “hack” is just a basic red “chicken light”! Something like this “chicken light“:

People set it up with a light holder like this https://amzn.to/3GIt9y5

Therasage “healing pad.” Feels nice on back or tummy when someone is in pain. It is so relaxing, I absolutely love it. Bought mine on sale when there was a Black Friday deal.