As if women who reach a certain age didn’t already have it hard enough with specific exhausting menopausal symptoms, they are also more prone to developing insulin resistance.
Insulin resistance is a sign that your body is becoming less responsive to insulin, which is a hormone in your body that helps you regulate and balance your blood glucose or sugar levels. Insulin resistance can be quite dangerous, as the more your body experiences it, the closer you can get to developing type 2 diabetes or becoming prediabetic. Ensuring you don’t experience insulin resistance means that you want to keep a close eye on your blood sugar, avoiding foods that can easily spike it. Those foods, as you’ve probably already gathered, tend to be sweets.
We spoke with registered dietitians Courtney Pelitera, MS, RD, CNSC, with Top Nutrition, and Dawn Menning, MS, RD, CDCES, with Nutu, about five sweet treats women over 40 should not eat to avoid developing insulin resistance and live their healthiest lives. Read more about them below.
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1. Candy
This may sound obvious, but one of the fastest ways to throw off your blood sugar levels and create issues with your insulin production is to consume candy on a regular basis. Candy is such an interesting thing, as for some people, they love their weekly fix of something gummy and chewy, while other people consume it almost every day by casually sucking on a caramel or lollipop while working.
If you're worried about insulin resistance and you're of a certain age, you've got to go easy on candy.
"Candies such as gummies, hard candies, lollipops, candy corn, M&M's, Skittles, and other really simple sugars are going to cause this rapid insulin spike," explains Pelitera. "For candies, you can alternatively make your own little trail mix with almonds and cashews, or your favorite nuts/seeds, and throw in a few gummies or small pieces of chocolate to get a little sweetness."
2. Juice
While fruit juices and mixes can be fun and refreshing, they can also do a lot of damage when you drink them frequently. There's a reason why diabetics are recommended to drink orange juice when they're having low blood sugar - it raises their glucose levels super quickly! Doing this over and over again can damage your insulin production, and it's another habit that can feel so mindless until it's too late.
Pelitera notes that juices are "really just a simple sugar," and if you love the taste of fruit, you should eat a whole piece of it instead of drinking juice, as the fiber and nutrients in it will do better things for your body in the long run.
3. Packaged Cookies
While it can be super tempting to grab a pack of cookies during your grocery store trips, if you're over 40 and struggling with your health, it's best to just walk right by them. Not only are they high in simple sugars, but there are more unhealthy things going on in there, too.
In addition to spiking your blood sugar, Menning adds that processed, packaged cookies can "increase visceral fat storage, particularly around the abdomen." As an alternative, get in the kitchen and try to bake some all-natural, low-sugar cookies at home to help out your sweet tooth.
4. Sweetened Yogurt
While yogurt is known as a healthy, calcium and protein-rich food, some yogurts actually have adverse effects on your health, as they can be packed with sugar. When shopping at the grocery store, avoid packages of yogurt that are 'flavored,' as there's a chance they can contain a lot of refined sugar and do more harm than good.
Aside from causing chaos with your glucose levels, Menning notes that sweetened yogurts can "promote chronic inflammation, which worsens insulin resistance." Instead, look for plain, non-fat Greek yogurt, and you can enjoy it with other flavorful, naturally sweet things, like chopped apples and cinnamon.
5. Granola
When you go to the grocery store, and you enter the cereal and granola aisle, there are so many options that it can be really hard to pick one. However, you have to shop with caution, as many premade granolas can contain large amounts of added sugar that ends up overpowering all the healthy stuff, like oats, nuts, and seeds. Menning notes that many premade and processed options for granola are "often marketed as healthy, but packed with sugar."
As it turns out, making your own granola at home is super easy, and you can customize it however you want, while also making it sugar-free. Combine it with that plain, non-fat Greek yogurt, and you have a delicious breakfast.
