Your diet sounds fine right now. You're listing everything you eat, correct? But he's right, it can take up to 90 days to feel better again if you went off the diet that much. To give you an example, when I try something it can take over a week for me to regain control if it wasn't something I could tolerate yet. That's only a small amount too, so don't expect to feel better yet. Increasing avocado could help, I recommend eating a whole one for breakfast as well as adding some organic butter into your diet. One thing though, why aren't you eating fruit? You must eat some. Berries are good because they're already in small portions, but apples I've found are the best, eaten in slices.

Hi Stan,
19 days ago I was eating peanut butter once a day, not on bread though.
My DR said it has too much sugar and rook me off of it. We do not have natural peanut butter, here just Skippy and others brands. There is no almond butter either, there is Tahini(SP?) spread. I can get avocados all year round here since I live in Central America, that is not a problem. I usually have a little at lunch and dinner, but not a whole bunch of it. It depends which type of avocado , here we have many different types of them and some are huge in size. , I mean huge. Stan I have had no fruit since before May 18th and it was very little even then. The DR will not let me introduce anything new into my diet as of yet. He would not even give me a GIT, his words were "I don´t want to kill you". Now, I do not know if he was exaggerating or what by that comment. I don´t know how others on this forum looked when they were very sick with constant hypo spells. I can tell you, I had dark circles under my eyes that no amount of makeup would cover and my eyes were very sunken looking. Pale face, looked like walking death and was having constant gum problems, my teeth hurt. Everyone who would see me asked me what was wrong with me, it was written all over my face that I was very sick. OH, people think this is all in your head and I am making up most of my health issues also. People do not understand this and I am tired of explaining to them what hypo. means and why we get it. They assoc. hypo with being a type I diabetic who does not take their insulin. Even my Endocronologist who is has his medical degree from the Univ of GA, told me to drink a half of a can of reg. coke, honey or juice to bring me out of a crash. Oh then last Thursday night after a crash , he tells me to follow up with one piece of whole wheat bread with turkey and cheese after the drink! From all I have read on 2 forums I am one that is a no no (coke and juice, honey). Now the Internet pages on Hypo will tell you to eat 11 Lifesavers, juice, milk, coke etc. also. Once at the Super market last year I had a crash drank a whole can of reg. coke, sat down for 25 minutes, made the line to buy my stuff and crashed again and drank another coke! I ended up having my nephew come and drive me home. I don´t listen to my DR anymore about what to do when I am having a hypo. He is going by what a diabetic would do (type I). What I try do now is have a half of a sandwich, with rye bread or whole wheat and cheese, maybe some nuts also. It takes a lot longer to feel better though. I keep walnuts or pecans, almonds in my purse at all times. I dont eat peanuts or cashews.
The cattle here and poultry are not given hormones in this country, they eat grains and grass. My DR also told me I could have 1 packet of Splenda a day, no stevia , no Equal. I had been drinking 2 cups of coffee every morning, cut down to almost 1 cup and I make it less strong than I used to. I asked my DR about caffeine and coffee and what it does to your adrenal glandsñands and insulin. He finally tells me that it increases it, Now why did he not tell me that in 2004? I had to figure that one out by myself. I weaning myself off coffee and wondering if de caf is OK? I also drink peppermint tea in the after noon, was drinking a cinnamon tea. Is that bad also?

Man, you've had it rough and I feel your pain because I know how much misinformation is out there. I do not agree with your current recommendations, but I don't want to go against your doctor so I won't, I just want to make it known that I think they're wrong. You really have no natural nut butters? I find that strange, I don't mean organic, I mean just made with the nuts and that's it, it should be easy to find if you have tahini (which, by the way, tastes terrible). You may want to start ordering some nut butters because peanut butter isn't good to begin with since it's actually a bean, not a nut. And of course, common varieties are loaded with white sugar. I do not recommend taking Splenda, get something called xylitol. As for coffee, unfortunately I must recommend you eventually drink none of it. Decaf does not mean no caffeine, it just means less, and caffeine causes your liver to release glycogen stores, which in turn increases your blood sugar too quickly and leads to a drop. For teas you can only have herbal for awhile. Peppermint is just fine, but cinnamon actually lowers blood sugar (check any herbs you use on the internet, a number have the same effect, just as curry). You could try saw palmetto tea and I especially recommend rose hips. They're cheap and very good, making for a nice, refreshing drink. Fresh squeezed lemon juice (one lemon per glass of water), is also a good idea.

Hi Stan,
Yes, I figured out coffee was a no no, I have been trying to tapper off. I am down to less than 1 cup every morning and make it weaker than normal. I am trying to cut all coffee out my diet. I knew peanuts were legumes also, but was eating it as my teeth were so sore and peanut butter is soft. Those nuts were killing my bridges and gum surgery I had over 3 months ago. There is no almond butter here. The reason we have Tahini is because there is a big Arab community here and they bring it in . It tastes like crap, I threw it away. I guess I could make my own almond or walnut butter, maybe there is a recipe on line. There is only Equal, Stevia , Splenda, and Sweet and Low here. I could maybe order the xylitol from the Internet and send it to my friend who has parents in the USA and is going there in August. That cinnamon tea was made from Lipton black tea I think with cinammon. Not a good choice at all. I will look for Rose Hips tea. You are right, my Doctor does not know everything. I think he is great at treating Type I and II diabetes, but not a hypo. I don´t think there are many Endo.´s out there that truly understand it at all. And they might even think we are making it all up for attention or something. I asked him if he had ever heard of someone who started to cry after a low blood sugar drop ( a big one). He just looked at me like I was out of my mind and never answered. It happens to me sometimes when it falls, I start to cry for just a few minutes. I think it the lack of glucose to the brain which upsets my brain or something because I am not a cry baby at all.
He did understand "brain fog", I have that big time from time to time. You know when it´s hard to remember what you want to say next?
I was also wondering if anyone has high Cholesterol, and bad LDL levels? My total Cholesterol was 201, and LDL was 18 points higher than max which puts me at moderate level for Stroke. My Dr put my on 10mg´s of Lipitor at night. Now, I am scared out of my mind to take that drug, I have heard what it can do to your liver, kidney´s, mind etc. I don´t think my LDL or Chol. is that high to warrant taking Lipitor.
Thanks for listening, this illness/ disease or whatever you want to call it is terrible to live with and nobody seems to understand except for those who have it .

I too have had hypoglocemia for almost 20 years now ~ when I first starting having the symptoms, no one even acknowledged that low blood sugar was a desease. At least there is more information out now and even several books on the subject that should be able to address some of your concerns.
My personal research has led me to believe that the inability to lose weight after awhile is due to the extreme stress the pituitary and adrenal glands endure from always being in alarm or crisis mode trying to regulate our insulin and sugar levels. After awhile, they become exhausted and depleted and them our thyroid stops regulating our ability to lose weight ~ so no matter what we eat, drink or abstain from, losing weight never happens.
I have been looking in to finding support for my thyroid (natural and holistic) and have heard many good things about Armour Thyroid support and will be ordering some soon.
I have also taken some steps to help assist it in the meantime.

#1.) Anytime I know that I will be eating or drinking any simple carbs or any carbs that break down into simple sugars quickly,i.e. fruit, wine, sweets, etc... I take one to two teaspoons of cinnamon (in an egg white or whey protein shake w/ NO SUGAR only Stevia)
prior to imbibing.

#2.) I am starting to spend 10 minutes a day with my feet elevated up against a wall and my head down. This is said to elliviate pressure away from the thyroid and give it
the needed "pressure" from gravity to help
it start to rejuvenate itself.

Of course all of this is useless is you are not watching your diet closely and doing your
part to avoid eating foods that you KNOW will aggrevate your symtoms.

#3.) Try you best to get 30 minutes of moderate exercise daily MINIMUM.

I know that sometimes we are so completely wiped out that just getting up to go to the bathroom is exhausting ~ but I have found on the days when I feel an episode coming on, if I take a walk immediately ~ it helps tremendously.

I hope that you are feeling better ~ and in the meantime try to avoid all colas's soda's, coffee,sweets, fried foods (this is key) alcohol and refined flours and sugars.

I know it is a lot, but you have to take care of yourself. If you are ovber 35, I would do a thyroid test to see what it comes up as ~ It could'nt hurt!

Although a GIT (GGT actually) is the standard test to diagnose reactive hypoglycemia, you can also measure your HbA1c levels.

HbA1c is like a diary of your blood sugar in your last weeks. If you had frequent sugar crash you total HbA1c will be low.

In diebetes, where the only way to suffer from hypoglycemia is to inject insulin, HbA1c levels tend to be very high.

If the HbA1c test is negative you might still have reactive hypoglycemia but needa a GIT to diagnose it. But if the test is positive and your HbA1c, you can be diagnosed reactive hypoglycemic without having to the take the GIT (which is indeed very stressfull)

Do not confuse Reactive Hypoglycemia with Diabetic Hypoglycemia. They are totally different.

Diabetic Hypoglycemia episodes are soothed with high sugar food like honey, coke, glucose tablets.

Reactive Hypoglycemia episodes are soother with proteins and fats like a piece of cheese.

When you search the net for info on Reactive Hypoglycemi don't forget the "reactive" part. If you only search for "hypoglycemia" you will find mostly diabetic hypo pages where you are correctly suggested to eat sugar when you have an episode.

Coffee is terrible for reactive hypoglycemia. One of the worst offender and you should make an effort to stop consuming any amount of it. Tea contains caffeine and has the same effect of coffee, only weaker.

You must experiment but I can't consume sweeteners or every kind. My body for some reasons releases insulin even if I eat something that tastes sweet but it's sugar free. I checked with a glucometer and sweeteners that are sugar free and calorie free, trigger a reaction because the body think the sweetness is coming from real sugar. I have asked other people and it seems that diabetic people don't have their blood glucose raised by sweeteners, while reactive hypoglycemics do.

Other things I have learned is that people with reactive hypoglycemia have high blood sugar in the morning when they wake up, contrary to the belief that at breakfast we have low blood sugar and are more carb tolerant. We're actually more insulin resistant in the morning.

So the best meal timing I have experimented with is very low carb at breakfast, little more carb at lunch and higher carb at dinner.
Evening and night is when you're more glucose tolerant, when you glycemia tend to lower and your insulin levels decrease.