Low Blood Sugar

I got to thinking... you know how before going primal we used to feel shaky and crashy between meals? How we'd need to get something in us or we'd start getting all crabby? We called that "low blood sugar."

But I got to thinking... are those the right words we should be using? I am a strong believer that our words matter. Using the words "low blood sugar" implies that the remedy to such a condition would be to raise your blood sugar. But that's not really the primal goal. In primal-ese, we should be aiming to even out our insulin levels by avoiding empty carbs and sugar. Given that, the "low blood sugar" condition should be referred to as "high blood insulin." That seems to me to be a better name that implies a more useful fix of evening insulin rather than raising or lowering sugar.

I decided to email Mark Sisson to see what he thought. He didn't seem to think the terminology made much of a difference. I'm not sure I agree. I think words have power and that we can influence behavior by naming things the right way. Still, I thought it was cool that he replied to me. Here's the text of our exchange:


Mark,

Quick question: I've been thinking a lot about blood sugar as I've been explaining going primal to my family. More and more family members are getting on board, but I started thinking about the words I was using. We typically refer the "crashy" feeling after a high carb intake as "low blood sugar." But wouldn't it more correct to refer to such a condition as "high blood insulin?" After all, the former would seem to imply that the corrective measure was to increase sugar in the blood stream. But that simply perpetuates the problem. A more correct approach would be to regulate the insulin level. It may seem like semantics, but in my experience the psychology of going primal is critical to being successful with it. Am I on track, or am I misunderstanding blood sugar and insulin?

-- scott


Scott,

I understand what you're getting at, but I think it's really a six-of-one-half-dozen-of-another situation. But as far as semantics, I'd say the layman's term "sugar crash" gets the job done. Someone has to much sugar, their body crashes.


I think I'm going to try using "high insulin" instead of "low sugar" to see how it goes. Mark may in the end be right, if for no other reason than no one will instinctively understand what I mean if I don't use the common terminology. But we'll see!