Posted by New Delhi: With diabetes, eating too much sugar can cause more than just the jittery feelings of a sugar high. It can cause several other symptoms—and it’s important to understand what you’re feeling and what is happening in your body. Therefore, if you are diabetic and eating too much sugar as well without fear of the repercussions, read on to know what would happen if you mindlessly binge on sugar.
Dr Shweta Jaiswal, Senior Dietician at Sharda Hospital, interacted with News9Live and explained the concept of hyperglycemia and also explained what happens to the body after one eats too much sugar.
What is hyperglycemia?
After consuming an excess amount of sugar, you might enter a state of high blood glucose called hyperglycemia, per the American Diabetes Association (ADA). Hyper means high or above, and glycemia refers to the amount of glucose (or sugar) in the blood. Being in a state of hyperglycemia causes a few different things to happen. A common symptom people with diabetes experience is intense thirst—they feel like they can’t get enough to drink. This is called polydipsia.
Paired with polydipsia, you may also experience polyuria—the frequent need to urinate. These are both telltale signs that your blood sugar is high. Further, you may experience headaches, blurred vision, and possible feelings of fatigue. If you are experiencing any of these symptoms, I recommend checking your blood glucose. If you monitor your blood sugar (which, if you have diabetes, you should be monitoring your blood sugar regularly), it will likely be above 180 mg/dL after eating excess amounts of sugar. This value can be different for different people, and it’s important to talk to your healthcare practitioner or endocrinologist about your unique blood sugar targets.
What to Do If You’ve Eaten Too Much Sugar
Try one (or more) of these tips when you’ve eaten too much sugar to help bring your blood glucose levels down.
Use insulin if you need it: Depending on the type and severity of your diabetes, you may take insulin to help manage it. After eating excess sugar and experiencing hyperglycemia, you may require insulin to help your blood sugar stabilize. However, this is unique to every individual
Drink water: Remember when we talked about polyuria—the increased and frequent need to urinate? All that peeing can cause dehydration. You’re excreting a lot of fluid, so it only makes sense that you need to replenish those fluids. Make sure to drink plenty of plain water after eating a lot of sugar to help hydrate and dilute the excess sugar in your bloodstream.
Check your blood sugar regularly: It’s important to understand the severity of being in a state of hyperglycemia if you have diabetes. It can have very dangerous consequences, so it’s extremely important to monitor your blood sugar and ensure that it is stabilising over time.
If you’ve consumed an excess amount of sugar, it’s important to avoid beating yourself up. Instead, show yourself some compassion. We’ve all been there. With that said, overdoing it on sugar if you have diabetes can pose some pretty serious consequences, so you must be prepared.
It’s also important to remember that other things besides food can affect blood sugar. Lack of physical activity can result in higher blood sugars, as can stress and lack of quality sleep. Take an honest assessment of all your habits and work with your health care team to come up with a holistic plan to help keep your blood sugar stabilized—and what to do if it does go too high.