Is the Keto Diet Good for Hypoglycemia

November 30, 2021

All about keto and hypoglycemia with a holistic registered nutritionist, by Meg Doll. Get answers to your questions about low blood sugar and keto.

All about Keto and Hypoglycemia with Meg Doll

My friend and holistic registered nutritionist, Meg is here to talk to us about keto and hypoglycemia! I'm thrilled to share her real food, self love, keto wisdom will all of you!

Hey, everyone!

I am so grateful to be a guest blogger here on The Castaway Kitchen today! Cristina and I only recently became friends through Instagram a few months ago, but I am so grateful for our new friendship and her invite to have me on her blog today! For those of you who do not know me, here's a little about me before we get into the goods of today's topic:

I am Meg Doll. I am a Registered Holistic Nutritionist (RHN) and have a fiery passion for guiding women to wake up every morning with that "holy-shit-my-life-is-so-good feeling".

I swear from time to time when I'm fired up about a topic I love to talk about or educate others on and the reason why I want you to be so amped up about your life is because I know what it's like to live in darkness. Throughout my childhood and teenage years, I battled eating disorders, depression, and anxiety. Because of my journey, I am not your average nutritionist. I see food as a powerful tool to support our bodies in the healing process, but I believe all healing begins with you. Your mindset, your thoughts, your love.

My experience with keto and hypoglycemia

Since Cristina is an absolute recipe guru (hello, avocado brownies! Um, YUM!), she was hoping I could share some different information with you today – particularly about blood sugar.

You see, the topic of blood sugar holds a special place in my heart because for the majority of my life I struggled with hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) and was well known in my family as "the hangry one" (ie. hungry and angry).

Missed or delayed meals were NOT an option for me, ever. I made sure that I ate 6 – 7 meals every day, perfectly timed, and obsessively planned. I was told that, in order to balance my blood sugar levels and prevent low blood sugar, I had to eat multiple times a day, include carbohydrates at every single meal and snack, and that my hypoglycemia was something I would just have to "live with".

What's "normal" with keto and hypoglycemia

Obsessively planning my meals and making sure I ate multiple times a day only made this girl more stressed, food obsessed, and longing for freedom.

There had to be a better way.

Was this really my normal?

I am here to tell you that when your body does not function the way it should, that is not normal.

Your body wants to be healthy and when I ditched the bull-crap information I was given about how to manage my hypoglycemia and started taking a new approach, instead, that is when I gained health.

How I manage keto and hypoglycemia

Here's what I did:

Instead of eating 6 – 7 "mini meals" per day to "prevent" my blood sugar from dropping, I began eating 3 large meals each day, and snacking if and when needed.

Instead of placing my primary focus on including carbohydrates with each meal and snack, I began to focus on eating more fat with my meals. I began to build my meals around fat, including fatty cuts of protein, nuts and seeds, avocados, and other sources of fat such as oils, butter, ghee, and coconut everything. Carbohydrates no longer played a primary role in my meals and snacks, but I would include a wide variety of vegetables with each meal and eat starchier carbohydrates (such as sweet potatoes and plantains) when I felt like it!

The science behind it all

This is the complete opposite to what you've likely been told about how to balance your blood sugar levels. But it works and here's why:

As a holistic nutritionist, I am always trying to determine the why behind a health imbalance. And when it comes to hypoglycemia, the why behind low blood sugar levels is often the result of having a spike in your blood sugar. This results in a blood sugar level that is too low – hypoglycemia.

We know that our blood sugar naturally increases when we eat. However, it can increase much higher than necessary when our meals are carbohydrate based and lacking fat. When we eat these disproportioned meals and snacks, our blood sugar starts to look like a rollercoaster with major ups and downs, instead of gradual fluctuations.

To put an end to your blood sugar rollercoaster, take a look at what is causing your blood sugar to rise too high in the first place. Is it an overconsumption of carbohydrates? Too little fat? Or maybe both?

When you know the root cause of your blood sugar imbalance, you can then begin making the necessary tweaks to your diet that you need in order to experience freedom from that terrible blood sugar rollercoaster!

I mean, I love rollercoasters, but the blood sugar kind? No thanks!

More resources for keto and hypoglycemia

Reactive Hypoglycemia by Dr. Curtis Lee Songster
Measuring Blood Sugar on a Ketogenic Diet, The Diet Doctor
More protein for Hypoglycemia, Dr. Eric Berg

Nielsen Shough