When a woman I know or work with is told that her blood sugar levels are too high, the first thing she wants to know is how to lower her blood sugar naturally. She asks if there are foods that can lower blood sugar or supplements that can bring her A1c level back into a healthy range.

The good news is that supporting healthy blood sugar does not require tracking every gram (also known as “carb counting”) or following a rigid set of rules. Once you understand the basics of blood sugar control and what causes the body to progress from healthy blood sugar regulation to diabetes, you start to understand how simple the levers are for achieving and maintaining lower blood sugar.

Before we get to those levers, a little context will help my recommendations be more clear.

A Quick Look at Dietary Guidelines

Two changes in how Americans were told to eat help explain a lot about where we are today.

In 1980, the first Dietary Guidelines for Americans advised people to cut back on fat, especially saturated fat and cholesterol, and to replace those calories with carbohydrates. In 1994, the American Diabetes Association went further, recommending that people get 60 to 70% of their calories from carbohydrates and less than 10% from saturated fat.

Percentage of U.S. adults overweight, obese, and severely obese from 1960-2023

Number of Americans (in million) diagnosed with diabetes between 1975-2023

You do not need to be a statistician to see what happened next. In the decades that followed this advice, rates of overweight, obesity, and diabetes climbed steadily. Diabetes diagnoses have gone from roughly 5.5 million Americans in 1980 to more than 29 million today, and over 70% of U.S. adults now carry excess weight.

What the Obesity and Diabetes Data Tells Us

I know that correlation is not the same as causation and that the increased prevalence of these conditions has many contributing factors. But the pattern is hard to ignore: encouraging a high carbohydrate intake, much of which comes from processed and refined sources, has not improved blood sugar control at the population level. If anything, the opposite occurred.

To prevent this discussion from going off the rails of rationality, I want to be clear upfront about what I am saying. The takeaway is not “carbs are bad and fat is good.” That kind of black-and-white thinking is exactly what gets us into trouble. The source and quality of both carbohydrates and fats matter enormously, and carbohydrates from whole, fiber-rich plants behave very differently in the body than carbohydrates from flour and sugar.

The more useful takeaway, if you must walkaway now, is this: the type and quantity of carbohydrate you eat, and what you eat alongside it, have a profound effect on your blood sugar. That is genuinely good news, because it means you have so much power over whether or not you lower your blood sugar.

A Word About the Impact of Glyphosate

Another thing worth including in this conversation is that our food supply changed in a significant way starting in the mid-1990s, around the same time these trends accelerated. Glyphosate, the active ingredient in the widely used herbicide Roundup, had been around for years, but its use expanded dramatically after genetically modified, glyphosate-tolerant (i.e., “Roundup Ready”) crops were introduced in 1996. Today it is the most widely used herbicide in the world.

Glyphosate shows up in many foods people eat regularly, particularly conventionally grown grains, oats, legumes, and the products made from them. It enters the body mainly through food and water, and it is common enough that research studies repeatedly find it in the urine of study participants. In one study, the number of participants with detectable levels of glyphosate in their urine was 12% in the period from 1993-1996 and 70% in the period from 2014-2026. Another study of healthy postmenopausal women found glyphosate in the urine of 89.9% of participants, even with 37.9% reporting that they “often” or “always” eat organic food.

In other words, glyphosate is not a fringe exposure. It is nearly universal, even when we are trying to avoid it and other chemicals.

Why does this belong in a conversation about blood sugar? Because research increasingly links glyphosate exposure to insulin resistance and metabolic dysfunction. A large analysis of U.S. adults found that higher glyphosate levels were associated with higher fasting glucose and higher HbA1c, in a dose-dependent way. What that means is there is a correlation between how much glyphosate is in a person’s body and how high their fasting blood glucose number is. As well, this correlation is even stronger in people who are clinically overweight or obese.

Laboratory research points to a mechanism involving inflammation and disruption of insulin signaling in the liver and muscle. The human evidence is still associational rather than proven cause and effect, so I do not want to overstate it. But it is one more reason to favor real, minimally processed food, and ideally organic versions of the grains and legumes most likely to carry residue, if and when you choose to include grains and legumes in your diet.

This is a thread I will pick up in much more depth in a future series on toxicity. (I have already posted some information about this topic.) For now, it is enough to know that what is on your food, not just what is in it, is likely part of the picture on how to lower blood sugar.

The Two Levers that Lower Blood Sugar Naturally

When you strip away the noise, supporting healthy blood sugar comes down to two goals:

• Lever 1: Reduce the amount of glucose you take in at one time.
• Lever 2: Slow down how quickly any glucose you do eat gets into your blood.

Almost every practical recommendation you have ever heard about blood sugar is really just one of these two levers in disguise. Once you understand them, you can make informed choices in almost any situation, without needing to reference a food list. Let’s look at each one.

Lever 1: Reduce the Glucose Load You Eat at One Time

Remember from Part 1 that dietary carbohydrate is the primary source of glucose in your blood. Not all carbohydrate-containing foods raise blood glucose equally. The foods that raise it the most, and the fastest, are concentrated sources of sweeteners and refined starch: anything made with flour (e.g., bread, pasta, crackers, tortillas, baked goods), sweetened foods and drinks, and “quick-cooking” starches like instant oats and instant rice.

These foods deliver a large glucose load in a relatively small, easy-to-eat package. Your body then has to deal with all of it at once, which is the kind of blood sugar spike that strains the system over time and raises your A1c even when your fasting blood glucose may still look normal. Reducing how often and how much of these you eat is the single most direct way to lower blood glucose.

The good news is that you do not need bread, pasta, or other flour-based products to be well-nourished. Despite decades of guidance suggesting otherwise, there is no nutritional requirement for these foods, and many people feel noticeably better when they rely on them less often.

One important caution: reducing sugar does not mean reaching for “sugar-free” foods made with artificial sweeteners. Those come with their own set of problems, and I would encourage you to step away from them entirely rather than treat them as a solution. In this blog post, I get specific about the different kinds of sweeteners, including artificial ones, and their impacts in the body.

Lever 2: Slow How Quickly Glucose Gets into Your Blood

The second lever is about speed. Even when you do eat carbohydrate-containing foods, you have a lot of influence over how quickly the glucose is absorbed, and a slower, gentler rise is far easier on your body than a sharp spike.

Foods that help lower blood sugar depend on: the form the food is in, and what you eat alongside it.

Choose whole foods over processed ones.

The more a food has been broken down before it reaches you, the faster its glucose hits your blood. Processing strips away fiber and disrupts the natural structure of food, removing the very things that would have slowed digestion. A whole apple and a glass of apple juice contain similar sugars, but the apple’s fiber and intact structure mean it is absorbed far more gradually. Whenever you can, choose the version of a food that is closest to how it grew.

Pair carbohydrates with fat, protein, and fiber.

This is one of the most useful habits you can build. Fat, protein, and fiber all slow the digestion and absorption of carbohydrate eaten at the same meal. They essentially get in the way, smoothing out what would otherwise be a sharp glucose rise. Practically, this means including a source of healthy fat (such as olive oil, grass-fed butter, avocado, nuts, or seeds) and quality protein (such as eggs, fish, poultry, or legumes) with your meals, and building those meals around plenty of vegetables.

Vegetables deserve a special mention here, because they serve both levers at once. They are the best foods to help lower blood sugar because they are low in glucose to begin with, and they are rich in the fiber and water that slow absorption and help you feel full. The colorful ones (orange, red, blue, purple, and deep green) also deliver phytonutrients, some of which support the body’s own blood sugar regulation. If you take only one thing from this post, “eat more vegetables, especially colorful ones” would be a worthy choice.

Fiber more broadly is a blood sugar ally, which is why getting enough of it matters so much. Legumes, nuts, seeds, and berries, along with vegetables, are foods that help lower blood sugar because they all help slow the entry of glucose into your blood while feeding the gut bacteria that support your health in countless other ways.

And whole grains? They are a better choice than refined grains, but they are still digested into glucose, and on their own they can raise blood sugar more than people expect. As well, the study mentioned above found that, the more grain foods included in a woman’s diet, the higher the glyphosate levels were, regardless of whether or not those grains were organic. If you enjoy them, treat them the way you would any glucose source: keep the portion moderate, and pair them with fat, protein, and fiber rather than eating them alone.

If you want a step-by-step way to build these habits over time, my post on 9 simple steps to a better diet walks through them one at a time.

The Midlife Layer: Why Blood Sugar Control Gets Harder, and What Helps

If you have felt like the approach that always worked for keeping your blood glucose in a healthy range suddenly does not, you are not imagining it. As we covered in the first post of this series, the hormonal shifts of perimenopause and postmenopause change how your body handles blood glucose. As estrogen declines, insulin sensitivity tends to decrease, fat is more likely to be stored around the middle, and the whole system becomes a bit less forgiving.

What this means in practice is that both levers matter more during and after the menopausal transition than they did before. The same plate of food that kept your blood sugar steady at 35 may produce a bigger response at 52. This simply means the support your body needs has changed, and your approach can change with it.

As well, targeted support beyond food can genuinely help when our bodies are changing so drastically. In midlife, when the body is working harder to maintain insulin sensitivity, certain nutrients and compounds and physical activity may offer real assistance for a woman who is already eating well.

A Note on Supplements: Support, Not a Substitute

It is tempting to look for a pill that can lower blood sugar so the diet does not have to change. I understand the appeal, but it rarely works that way because our bodies are such wonderfully complex organisms.

Some nutrients and compounds (chromium, berberine, and cinnamon among them) can support the body’s natural blood sugar regulation. More recently, certain probiotics have entered this conversation as well, with claims that they can help lower blood glucose. Some of these tools do have supportive evidence behind them. But none of them can substitute for the fundamentals. They tend to help most for someone who is already eating well and needs a bit of extra support, and far less for someone hoping to offset a diet built on processed food.

There are also supplements marketed specifically to block the absorption of sugar or starch. I am cautious about these, because anything that interferes with absorption of glucose may also interfere with the absorption of other nutrients, vitamins, and medications you actually want in your body. If you find yourself relying on a product to manage the effects of a meal, that is usually a sign that the meal itself isn’t supportive and nourishing.

All of that is to say, this is exactly why individual guidance matters. Which forms of support are appropriate, in what situations, and alongside what else, depends on your body, your labs, your hormonal picture, your lifestyle, and your goals. If you have worked through the food fundamentals and still feel like something is getting in your way, that is a conversation worth having with a practitioner who can look at the whole picture with you.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best diet to control blood sugar?

There is no single “best” diet, because the right approach depends on your physiology, preferences, and life. That said, the principles are remarkably consistent: reduce concentrated sources of sweeteners and refined starch, choose whole foods over processed ones, and pair any carbohydrate you eat with fat, protein, and fiber to slow its absorption. Build meals around plenty of vegetables, and the rest tends to fall into place. These principles work within almost any dietary pattern, from omnivore to plant-based.

How can I lower my A1c overnight?

Unfortunately, lowering your A1c overnight is not possible as the A1c number reflects the percentage of red blood cells which are glycated, and each red blood cell lives for about 3 months. When you make dietary changes to lower blood sugar naturally, you will see a change in your A1c after 3 months of consistent effort. The goods news is that 3 months is a relatively short period of time in the grand scheme of your whole life. And those 3 months are going to pass one way or the other, so starting now to make the changes that will lower your blood sugar is a gift to your future self.

Can supplements control blood sugar?

Certain nutrients and compounds can support the body’s natural blood sugar regulation, and some have reasonable evidence behind them. But supplements work best as support for an already-sound diet, not as a replacement for one. They tend to help most for someone who has the fundamentals in place and needs a bit of extra assistance, which can be especially relevant in midlife. Because the right choices depend on your individual situation, this is an area where personalized guidance is genuinely valuable.

Can drinking a lot of water lower blood sugar?

Being hydrated can affect the blood glucose reading during a lab test. However, it doesn’t fundamentally change the number of glucose molecules in the blood that need to be taken up by the cells. Hydration also doesn’t change the amount of insulin needed to clear the glucose from the blood or make the cells more sensitive to insulin.

How can I reverse my diabetes?

This is the question worth getting excited about, because the research genuinely supports that type 2 diabetes can go into remission, and that insulin resistance and prediabetes are often reversible, particularly when addressed early in the progression. The direction is the same as everything in this post: reduce the glucose load you take in at one time, and slow how quickly any glucose you eat reaches your blood. Those two levers, applied consistently, are what shift the underlying insulin resistance that drives the whole process.

What I want to be honest about is that “reversal” is really remission, not a permanent cure. The underlying physiology does not change, which means the improvement is maintained only as long as the supporting habits stay in place, rather than a one-time fix. It also means the right approach depends on where you are in the progression, what your labs show, your hormonal picture in midlife, and any medications you are taking. That last point matters: if you are on glucose-lowering medication or insulin, changes to your diet can change your medication needs, so this is work to do alongside your healthcare provider, not on your own.

Conclusion

Supporting healthy blood sugar does not require perfection or a complicated set of rules. It comes down to two simple ideas: reduce the glucose load you take in at one time, and slow down how quickly any glucose you eat reaches your blood. Nearly every helpful choice is related to those two levers.

In perimenopause and postmenopause, these levers matter more than they used to, because your body is navigating significant hormonal change. That is not a reason for discouragement, although I can see how you would feel that. It is simply information, and information is what allows you to adjust your choices with intention.

This series has walked through how blood sugar works, what happens when it goes unmanaged, and what genuinely helps. If you want to go deeper, especially on how blood sugar and cholesterol intersect to shape your cardiovascular health in perimenopause and postmenopause, I am developing a course specifically for midlife women on exactly this. You can join the waitlist below.

Join the Waitlist

Photo by Stephanie Dunne.

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CDC/NCHS Health E-Stat 111, Feb 2026 (overweight/obesity trends). https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/hestat111.htm

CDC/NCHS National Health Interview Survey, Long-term Trends in Diabetes (diabetes counts 1975–2010). https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/42550

CDC National Diabetes Statistics Report 2017 (2015 diabetes count). https://www.k-state.edu/diningwithdiabetes/documents/national-diabetes-statistics-report2017.pdf

CDC National Diabetes Statistics Report, January 2026 (2023 diabetes count). https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/php/data-research/index.html

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