Glucose Revolution: The Life-Changing Power of Balancing Your Blood Sugar

by Jessie Inchauspé

The “diets” that work are the ones that flatten our glucose, fructose, and insulin curves.

Nature intended us to consume glucose in a specific way: in plants. Wherever there was starch or sugar, there was fiber as well. This is important, because the fiber helped to slow our body’s absorption of glucose.

fiber is often removed in the creation of processed foods, because its presence is problematic if you’re trying to preserve things for a long time.

Ancestral bananas are as nature intended them to be: full of fiber, with a small amount of sugar. The twenty-first-century banana (bottom image) is the result of many generations of breeding to reduce the fiber and increase the sugar.

The ADA states that our glucose levels shouldn’t increase above 140 mg/dL after eating. But again, that’s “normal,” not optimal. Studies in nondiabetics give more precise information: we should strive to avoid increasing our glucose levels by more than 30 mg/dL after eating. So in this book I will define a glucose spike as an increase in glucose in our body of more than 30 mg/dL after eating.

Over decades cells become ravaged. Because they’re stuffed, crowded, and overwhelmed, our mitochondria can’t convert glucose to energy efficiently. The cells starve, which leads to organ dysfunction. We feel this as humans: even though we’re fueling up by eating, we suffer from lassitude; it’s hard to get up in the morning, and we have no energy throughout the day. We’re tired.

The more glucose we deliver to our body, the more often glycation happens. Once a molecule is glycated, it’s damaged forever—which is why you can’t untoast a piece of toast. The long-term consequences of glycated molecules range from wrinkles and cataracts to heart disease and Alzheimer’s disease.

Fructose molecules glycate things 10 times as fast as glucose, generating that much more damage. Again, this is another reason why spikes from sugary foods such as cookies (which contain fructose) make us age faster than do spikes from starchy foods such as pasta (which doesn’t).

The hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) test (well known among diabetics) measures how many red blood cell proteins have been glycated by glucose over the past two to three months. The higher your HbA1c level, the more often the Maillard reaction is happening inside your body, the more glucose is circulating, and the faster you are aging.

Once insulin has stored all the glucose it can in our liver and muscles, any glucose beyond that is turned into fat and stored in our fat reserves. And that’s one of the ways we put on weight. And then some. Because it’s not just glucose that our body has to deal with, it must also dispose of fructose. And unfortunately, fructose cannot be turned into glycogen and stored in the liver and the muscles. The only thing that fructose can be stored as is fat.

The same thing happens to our mitochondria: too much glucose makes them quit, energy production is compromised, and we are tired.

I wish I had known this growing up, back when I ate a Nutella crepe for breakfast every day. If you have a 9 a.m. meeting in which you want to impress, eat a breakfast that will keep your glucose curve flat. See hack 4, “Flatten Your Breakfast Curve,” in part 3.

starchy and sugary foods can set off a chain reaction that can show up as acne on your face and body and can even make your skin look visibly redder.

Children born today have a one in two chance of developing cancer in their lifetime. And poor diet, together with smoking, is the main driver in 50 percent of cancers.

When our levels of insulin are too high, our liver starts producing LDL pattern B. This is a small, dense kind of cholesterol that creeps along the edges of the vessels, where it’s likely to get caught.

Nine out of ten doctors still measure total LDL cholesterol to diagnose heart disease and prescribe statins if it’s too high. But what’s important is LDL pattern B and inflammation. To add to the problem, statins lower LDL pattern A, but they don’t lower the problematic pattern B. This is why statins don’t decrease the risk of a first heart attack.

if you eat the items of a meal containing starch, fiber, sugar, protein, and fat in a specific order, you reduce your overall glucose spike by 73 percent, as well as your insulin spike by 48 percent. This is true for anyone, with or without diabetes. What is the right order? It’s fiber first, protein and fat second, starches and sugars last.

Fiber has three superpowers: First, it reduces the action of alpha-amylase, the enzyme that breaks starch down into glucose molecules. Second, it slows down gastric emptying: when fiber is present, food trickles from sink to pipe more slowly. Finally, it creates a viscous mesh in the small intestine; this mesh makes it harder for glucose to make it through to the bloodstream. Through these mechanisms, fiber slows down the breakdown and absorption of any glucose that lands in the sink after it; the result is that fiber flattens our glucose curves.

Foods containing fat also slow down gastric emptying, so eating them before rather than after carbs also helps flatten our glucose curves. The takeaway? Eating carbs after everything else is the best move.

If I’m eating a dish such as curry or paella, where veggies, proteins, fats, and carbs are mixed together and it’s difficult to separate the ingredients, I don’t stress about it. I sometimes have a few bites of veggies first, then eat the rest of the dish mixed.

How big should this green starter be? As big as you like. I’ve found that the sweet spot is a one-to-one ratio to the carbs you’ll eat after. My favorite: two cups of spinach, five jarred artichoke hearts, vinegar, and olive oil.

Buy a bag of spinach at the supermarket, toss 3 cups of it in a bowl with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 1 tablespoon of vinegar (any kind you like), and salt and pepper, and top with a handful of crumbled feta cheese and toasted nuts.

Here are some even quicker things to eat: A couple of pieces of leftover roasted veggies (top tip: I often roast a batch of broccoli or cauliflower and keep it in the fridge) A few mouthfuls of pickled vegetables A sliced cucumber with guacamole A sliced tomato with one or two slices of mozzarella cheese Baby carrots with hummus Four marinated artichokes from a jar or any other jarred veggies Two canned hearts of palm Two spears of jarred white asparagus

But now, thanks to continuous glucose monitors and curious scientists—which I’ll tell you about next—we have proof that cereal for breakfast is definitely, unequivocally not a good way to start the day.

I love mixing spinach into my scrambled eggs or tucking it underneath a sliced avocado on toast.

Greek yogurt swirled with 2 tablespoons of nut butter and a handful of berries

If you’re not ready to say goodbye to a sweet breakfast (or if you’re staying with a particularly pushy aunt who likes to make pancakes from scratch in the morning), here’s what to do: eat the sweet things after something savory. First, eat protein, fats, and fiber—an egg, for example, a couple of spoonfuls of full-fat yogurt,

My go-to smoothie recipe is 2 scoops of protein powder, 1 tablespoon flaxseed oil, ¼ avocado, 1 tablespoon crunchy almond butter, ¼ banana, 1 cup frozen berries, and some unsweetened almond milk.

Some cereals are better for your glucose levels than others. Look for those that brag about their high fiber content and low sugar content.

Nondairy almond or other nut milks work, too, but oat milk tends to be the biggest spiker, because it contains more carbs than the other milks, as it’s made from grains, not nuts.

Scientists used to think that eating foods that contain cholesterol (such as eggs) increased our risk of heart disease. Now we know that’s not true—as we learned in part 2, sugar is actually the bad guy.

As a result, since agave has more fructose than table sugar does, it is actually worse for our health than table sugar.

Other ingenious additions to either oatmeal or yogurt include cinnamon, cacao powder, cacao nibs, shredded unsweetened coconut, or unsweetened nut butter (I know it sounds strange, but nut butter tastes sweet and makes for a dessert-worthy combo).

The bigger a glucose or fructose spike after a meal, the more demanding the postprandial state is for our body to deal with because the more free radicals, glycation, and insulin release it has to manage.

the gurgling we feel in our small intestine when we haven’t eaten in a few hours is our empty digestive tract cleaning its walls.

A drink consisting of a tablespoon of vinegar in a tall glass of water, drunk a few minutes before eating something sweet, flattens the ensuing glucose and insulin spikes. With that, cravings are curbed, hunger is tamed, and more fat is burned.

Vinegar has been touted as a health remedy for centuries. In the eighteenth century it was even prescribed in tea form to diabetics.

Here’s what happened in all these participants’ bodies: when they drank vinegar before eating a meal rich in carbohydrates, the glucose spike from that meal was reduced by 8 to 30 percent.

Scientists have found that the acetic acid in vinegar temporarily inactivates alpha-amylase. As a result, sugar and starch are transformed into glucose more slowly, and the glucose hits our system more softly. You may recall from hack 1, “Eat foods in the right order,” that fiber also has this effect on alpha-amylase, which is one of the reasons fiber helps flatten our glucose curves, too.

One tablespoon of rice vinegar in a bowl of white rice (as per Japanese tradition) will help steady your glucose levels.

In the first ever study looking at vinegar and glucose spikes, two meals were consumed: one group ate a salad with olive oil, then bread, and the other group ate a salad with olive oil and vinegar, then bread. In participants who had the dressing with vinegar, the glucose spike was 31 percent smaller.

A cup of hot cinnamon tea and 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar

A teapot of hot water, with a wedge of lemon, some ginger root, 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar,

A large 2018 research review looked at 135 people with type 2 diabetes and found that aerobic exercise (walking) after eating decreased their glucose spike by up to 27 percent.

Resistance exercise (weight lifting) has been shown to decrease the glucose spike by up to 30 percent and the size of further spikes over the following 24 hours by 35 percent. It’s rare that you’ll be able to curb the entire glucose spike, but you can make a sizable dent in it.

A Glucose Goddess community member named Monica has a fun setup: she keeps a kettlebell behind her couch, and after eating something sweet, she sets a 20-minute timer on her phone—when it goes off, she grabs the weight and does 30 squats, holding the kettlebell.

Now you know the amazing combo for snacking on something sweet without incurring a big glucose spike in your body: vinegar before, exercise after.

THE 30-SECOND NO-GLUCOSE-SPIKE SAVORY SNACK Apple slices smeared with nut butter Apple slices with a hunk of cheese Bell pepper slices dipped in a spoonful of guacamole Celery smeared with nut butter A cup of 5% Greek yogurt topped with a handful of pecans A cup of 5% Greek yogurt with nut butter swirled into it A handful of baby carrots and a spoonful of hummus A handful of macadamia nuts and a square of 90% dark chocolate A handful of pork rinds A hard-boiled egg with a dash of hot sauce A hunk of cheese Lightly salted coconut slivers Seeded crackers with a slice of cheese A slice of ham A soft-boiled egg with a dash of salt and pepper A spoonful of nut butter

When you do enjoy carbs (and you will and should and must), make it a habit to add fiber, protein, or fat and, if you can, eat those first. Even savory snacks—which are already better for your glucose curves but may still contain starch—should have clothes on: add avocado and cheese to toast, spread nut butter on rice cakes, and eat some almonds before your croissant.

When we eat carbohydrates on their own, ghrelin, a hormone that tells us to eat, fluctuates rapidly, then makes us hungrier than we were before eating. Carbs drive our hunger up and down like a roller coaster, while fats and protein don’t.