Diabetics Fasting Blood Glucose Level

Do you know the importance of a low fasting blood glucose level in the morning?

This is one of the critical numbers for diabetics. It is the first measurement that diabetics take in the morning, prior to eating or drinking anything.

For normal persons, this would be a reading of 70-110. For diabetics, it is often much higher, especially for those whose blood sugar is not under good control. For many diabetics, their fasting blood sugar level is often over 180, the point where serious damage to the body can start occurring.

My doctor (when I still had one) recommended that I strive for a morning reading of 140 or less. Well, that's a pretty good start to the day. Of course, the closer to normal levels, the better.

So, why is it so important to keep that number low?

The biggest reason is because a low blood sugar reading to begin the day makes it that much easier to control your blood sugar throughout the day. Here's why.

You want to strive to always keep your blood sugar levels below 180. The typical recommendation for diabetics is a blood sugar reading of less than 180 one to two hours after eating. So, if you start your morning at say, 130, then you can be more flexible with your choice of breakfast, eating more carbohydrates and still keeping your postprandial (after-meal) blood sugar at a reasonable level.

If you start the morning at 170, then whatever you eat is most likely going to raise your sugar levels into the danger zone of above 180. Plus, the higher you start at, the harder it is to keep those sugar levels down as you eat your snacks and meals over the course of the day.

You can see that your morning blood glucose reading can affect your choices for breakfast. That is, if you are really working toward keeping that blood sugar number at 180 or below at all times. But it is not just your breakfast choices that are affected; it's all your food choices for the day.

Of course, there are other factors to consider besides your diet; primarily your exercise schedule, but more on that another time.

Personally I eat mostly raw vegetables for breakfast more often than not. In fact, I will post an article on My Favorite Diabetic Breakfast later today so that you can see what I am doing that keeps my blood sugar low after breakfast.