Does everyone get low blood sugar when they're hungry, or is low blood sugar a sign of a deeper, more serious problem?

Only to a certain level, if it drops really low it’s a sign you could be diabetic.

The devil is in the details, Blood sugar low like 45 mg/dl or lower ?
The extremely low blood sugar is caused the use of insulin without an offsetting consumption of Carbs.

Normal blood sugar after fasting is 100 mg/dl. I’ve seen someone go to the ER with a blood sugar of 400 mg/dl. She didn’t know she was diabetic!

Here’s what prompted the question: Someone on FB posted that some particular grocery store gave kids one free piece of fruit to eat while their parents were shopping. I said, “Why? We don’t need to give our kids food every 10 minutes! They can make it through a half hour grocery trip without eating!”
Then all hell broke loose. Someone said, “Kids get low blood sugar when they’re hungry, just like adults, and it makes them irritable.” They were saying you always have to have snacks on hand, yadda yadda.
Well, is that necessarily a bad thing, assuming it’s temporary? Or is it a sign you must eat right away or your life is in danger?
I always assumed we get irritable when we’re really hungry, for the same reason animals get irritable. It makes us more aggressive about going out and finding food.

About your example: Younger children tend to be very stimulated by being in the supermarket cease of noise, bright colors, constant motion, etc. Add to that the sight and smell of food, and their appetites tend to be triggered. The free piece of fruit thing is a marketing trick to A) make the store appear more family friendly, and B) settle the child so they won’t be as fussy, potentially disturbing other customers.
Young children need to eat more frequently than adults, especially in stimulating environments.

And you have it a bit backward. You get hungry because your blood sugar drops, it doesn’t drop when you become hungry.

I’m just repeating what they said.

People who think they have low blood sugar most likely do not. True low blood sugar is extradordinarly rare in anybody who is not starving or taking insulin.

Thanks Doc! ^

And by “starving” you mean someone who hasn’t eaten in days or weeks, not someone who hasn’t eating in the last 4 hours, right @Rarebear?

If you’ve only gone a few hours without eating then you’re not actually starving.

Anyway @canidmajor is right – the free fruit is a marketing gimmick. Fruit is typically used by grocery stores as a loss leader. This is just a variation on that.

Oh, I’m sure it is. Someone said, “It’s better than the free cookies they give away to kids in the bakery!” I’m like, “I’ve never had anyone offer my kids free cookies. And it’s not like you are forced to accept them.”

Correct. I mean clinically starving. Not just hungry.

And to be clear, in 27 years I have seen clinical hypoglycemia exactly once.

Hypoglycemia….Everybody claims to be hypoglycemic!
And what was actually wrong with the once case you saw?

Huh, I would have thought it would be more common.

Why would you think that?

She had an insulinoma

My dad had it, it was medically diagnosed. It went away and I don’t think they knew the cause. His liver was fine.

It may have been a tumor in his pancreas. That’s what causes insulinoma. The tumor may have gone away on its own.

Different people I know seem to react differently when they’re getting hungry.

Well, we train ourselves in that too.

Is your question more about low blood sugar or more about people and kids getting grouchy when they’re hungry? And maybe fruit helping a harried parent get through their shopping more easily? I see no harm in that.

Hungry adults can usually handle their irritation better than hungry children.

@jca Some. My Dad was a bear when he was hungry. :-)

My question was prompted by someone saying that “Kids get low blood sugar, just like adults, when they’re hungry.” Well, neither kids nor adults get low blood sugar simply by being hungry, unless there is a more serious, underlying medical cause, usually diabetes.

I only see the harm in giving kids food for the parent’s convenience. I don’t think kids should be given food as praise, or with held for punishment, or given to keep them quiet. Kids should only be given food because they’re hungry, not for any other reason.

I didn’t read any answers above.

Most people do not have low (below normal) blood sugar when they’re hungry. Usually, you get hungry even while you still have glycogen storage and even fat storage, and that helps your body keep normal blood sugar levels.

I am hypoglycemic.
I take care of it well now, but there have been times when I ignored how long I had gone without eating.
My blood sugar has dropped like a rock sometimes. It happened once while I was driving. I left a big blue smear on a metal lamp post.
Twice I was taken to a hospital for it. Another time, I passed out. An ambulance was called. When I came too, an EMT was pouring something down my throat. He had stirred sugar in some Mountain Dew. Once I had a second cup, he told me to go eat right away.
It is a condition which can be extreme at times. I actually snack sometimes in my sleep!
What your fb friends are saying is nuts.
What the store is doing is all about pacifying youngsters, and has nothing to do with looking after their health.
Then too, some people don’t look after their children’s nutrition well enough, and a piece of fruit is a swell idea either way.

On average I would say kids do need to eat more often. Kids have less fat storage than the average adult, they have some stomachs and use a lot of energy running around and growing, and aren’t good at dealing with discomfort, and being hungry is uncomfortable.

Publix gives a free cookie to kids if you stop by the bakery. I don’t think public is worried at all about blood sugar, they do it to be friendly and keep the kids happy (read behaved) while the adult shops.

Are you pre-diabetic @Patty_Melt? Do you have a tumor on your pancreas, or some other underlying medical cause, like kidney disease to explain it?

I agree that giving the free fruit has nothing to do with concern for the kid’s health.

Yes, the kids ate a lot more than I did at meal times, @JLeslie, especially when they were on growing spurts.
Well, they give free cookies hoping you’ll buy a dozen or two.

I am also hypoglycemic, so diagnosed by a board-certified endocrinologist. No tumors, nothing like that, just a slightly wonky pancreas. Easily controlled by diet, which I have done for about 40 years. It runs in my family. According to that same endocrinologist, it’s really not that rare, just rarely diagnosed unless it’s extreme.

If mine is associated with a tumor then it was never discovered and I have lived with it for decades.
I have been warned that it does frequently turn later to diabetes.