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

by Jessie Inchauspé

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.

Eating veggies first and carbs second greatly slows down the speed at which glucose makes it to the bloodstream, thereby flattening the glucose spike associated with that meal.

Any starch or sugar that we eat after fiber will have a reduced effect on our body. We’ll get the same pleasure from eati...

That’s carbs and vegetables. Now enter protein and fat. Protein is found in meat, fish, eggs, dairy, nuts, beans, and legumes. Foods that contain protein often contain fat, too, and fat is also found on its own in foods such as butter, oils, and avocados. (Incidentally, there are good and bad fats, and the bad fat that we should avoid is found in hydrogenated and refined cooking oils such as canola, corn, cottonseed, soybean, safflower, sunflower, grapeseed, and rice bran oil.) Foods containing fat also slow down gastric emptying, so eating ...

The right order to eat foods in: veggies first, protein and fat second, starch last.

We can eat exactly the same thing—but by eating carbs last, we make a big difference in our physical and mental well-being. What’s more, when we eat foods in the right order, our pancreas produces less insulin. And as I explained in part 2, less insulin helps us return to fat-burning mode more quickly, the positive results of which are many—and

When she found herself in her kitchen the next day at lunchtime, with the ingredients for her usual sandwich on her countertop, she recalled the “veggies first, protein and fat second, carbs last” hack and thought, Hm. Instead of stacking everything and eating the sandwich as one, I could eat the salad and pickle first, then the tuna, then the toasted bread. She placed each on her plate and ate her newly baptized “deconstructed sandwich.”

Even if there are no veggies on your plate, “deconstructing” your meals and eating carbs last helps your body. We significantly flatten the glucose curve and reduce the likelihood of weight gain, cravings, lethargy, and the harmful long-term side effects of elevated glucose levels.

A question I am often asked when I talk about this hack involves fruit. I categorize fruits in the “sugars” category, because although they contain fiber, they are made up mostly of glucose, fructose, and sucrose—aka sugars. Therefore they should be eaten last.

Eating the potato first led to the biggest spike, mixing it with the meat was better, but starting with the meat and saving the carbs for last was best for my glucose levels.

it’s best to eat anything that turns into glucose last. Start with the veggies and greens on your plate, then fat and protein, then starches and sugars.

This plant-made substance is incredibly important to us: it fuels the good bacteria in our gut, strengthens our microbiome, lowers our cholesterol levels, and makes sure everything runs smoothly. One of the reasons a diet high in fruit and vegetables is healthy is because of the fiber it provides.

fiber is also good for our glucose levels for several reasons, notably because it creates a viscous mesh in our intestine. The mesh slows down and reduces the absorption of molecules from food across the intestinal lining. What does this mean for our glucose curves? First, that we absorb fewer calories (we’ll talk about calories in the next hack). Second, with fiber in our system, any absorption of glucose or fructose molecules is lessened.

Buy bread that is dark and dense, made from rye with a sourdough starter.

With a flatter curve, we stay full longer and avoid the glucose dip that leads to cravings a few hours later. We can add any type of vegetables as our starter. This includes vegetables that aren’t green, such as carrots. You can throw in some beans, too, such as hummus or lentils, because they are full of fiber as well.

Jass hadn’t realized that when she ate pasta on its own, she got onto a glucose roller coaster. By adding a salad at the beginning of every meal, she flattened her glucose curve. Her uncontrollable cravings dampened, and her willpower came back.

Think of your favorite veggie or salad. Prepare it with care, and eat it before every lunch and dinner for a week.

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. (It’s okay, and good, to mix some protein and fats into your green starter.) You can also add pesto, grated parmesan cheese, and some toasted seeds, as you prefer.

Beware of premade dressings, as they’re often packed with sugar and loaded with vegetable oil—it’s better to make a simple one from scratch with the ratio of oil and vinegar I describe above. I make a batch of dressing every Sunday and keep it in the fridge to use all week.

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 When you are out at a restaurant and aren’t ordering starters, the main course side salad with olive oil and vinegar is your best ally. Order it, then eat it first. The fiber and fat will make any further starch arrival much smoother for your body.

Same calories, different effects. The calories from the doughnut (containing fructose) were preferentially converted to fat, inflamed my body, and aged my cells. The calories from the yogurt (no fructose) did so much less.

Now, for breakfast, she has oatmeal with ground flax seeds, hemp seeds, nuts, pea protein powder, and a sausage on the side. At lunchtime, two hard-boiled eggs, carrot sticks, celery, peanut butter or avocado, a protein smoothie (with collagen powder, 1 tablespoon of chia seeds, half a tablespoon of coconut oil, and a whole bunch of greens), and half a banana last. For a snack in the afternoon, Greek yogurt, berries, and half a protein bar. Finally, at dinner, fish or chicken, kale sautéed with avocado oil, and roasted sweet potatoes.

So remember this: health and weight loss have more to do with what molecules you ingest than the number of calories in what you eat.

It means we can, without fear, add calories to a meal if the calories help curb the glucose spike of that meal: i.e., if the molecules are fiber, fat, or protein. When we add a dressed salad to a meal, the calories we add are helpful to us, because they help keep our glucose and insulin levels low and even help us absorb fewer calories from what we eat after the salad (due to the mesh that fiber creates). On balance, we stay full longer, can burn more fat, and put on less weight. Flip the logic around: if we add more glucose or fructose to a meal, this increases the spikes, which leads to more weight gain, more inflammation, and less satiety.

breakfast that creates a big glucose spike will make us hungry again sooner. What’s more, that breakfast will deregulate our glucose levels for the rest of the day, so our lunch and dinner will also create big spikes. This is why a spiky breakfast is a one-way ticket to the glucose roller coaster. A flat breakfast, on the other hand, will make our lunch and dinner steadier.

What is true, however, is that if we are going to eat some sugar, a whole piece of fruit is the best vehicle for it. First, in a whole piece of fruit, sugar is found in small quantities. And you’d be hard pressed to eat three apples or three bananas in one sitting—which is how much can be found in a smoothie. Even if you did eat three apples or three bananas, you would take some time to eat them, much longer than it would take you to drink them in a smoothie. So the glucose and fructose would be digested much more slowly. Eating takes longer than drinking. Second, in a whole piece of fruit, sugar is always accompanied by fiber. As I explained earlier, fiber significantly reduces the spike caused by any sugar we eat. By blending a piece of fruit, we pulverise the fiber into tiny particles that can’t fulfill their protective duties anymore.

The more denatured a fruit is, the worse it is for us. An apple is better for us than applesauce, which is better for us than apple juice. Essentially, as soon as it’s juiced, dried, candied, canned, or turned to jam, you should think of fruit as dessert, just as you would a slice of cake. One bottle of orange juice (whether freshly squeezed, with or without pulp) contains 24 grams of sugar—that’s the concentrated sugar of three whole oranges, with none of the fiber. It’s the same amount of sugar as in a can of Coca-Cola. With just one bottle of orange juice, you’ve reached the limit of the number of grams of sugar you should consume in a day, according to the American Heart Association (it recommends no more than 25 grams daily for women and 36 for men).

The tradition that breakfast should be sweet is completely misguided. Build your breakfast around protein, fat, and fiber for satiety and stable energy.

the curve created by your first meal of the day influences how the rest of the day will go. With no spike, you’ll ride into the afternoon with satiety and stable energy, as Olivia learned to do. With a big spike, you’ll set off a chain reaction of cravings, hunger, and lagging energy until the evening. And these chain reactions compound day after day. So if you want to improve just one aspect of your daily food habits, eat a glucose-healthy breakfast for maximum impact. You’ll notice the effects immediately.

A bagel with cream cheese, topped with a few lettuce leaves and slices of turkey A can of tuna, a few pecans and olives, a drizzle of olive oil An apple with walnuts and slices of cheddar Full-fat yogurt with sliced fruit such as a peach, a drizzle of tahini, and salt Greek yogurt swirled with 2 tablespoons of nut butter and a handful of berries Half an avocado with three tablespoons of hummus, lemon juice, olive oil, and salt Homemade granola that is nut-centric or cereal designed specifically with extra fiber or protein (see the Cheat Sheets starting on page 205 to learn how to decipher packaging) Slices of ham on crackers Slices of smoked salmon, avocado, and tomato Toast with almond butter Toast with mashed avocado Tomato and mozzarella with a drizzle of olive oil My go-to: leftovers from last night’s dinner! (the fastest option of them all!)

A tortilla filled with black beans and chopped avocado A full English breakfast (eggs, sausage, bacon, beans, tomatoes, mushrooms, toast) Hard-boiled eggs with hot sauce and avocado Pan-fried halloumi cheese, tomatoes, salad Poached eggs with a side of sautéed greens Quinoa porridge topped with a fried egg Sausage and broiled tomatoes Scrambled eggs with crumbled goat cheese Toast topped with a fried egg Warm lentils topped with a fried egg

You can enjoy a smoothie for breakfast; it just has to incorporate protein, fat, and fiber. Start your smoothie with protein powder, then add a combination of linseed or flaxseed oil, coconut oil, avocado, seeds, nuts, and a cup of spinach. Finally, add some sugar for taste: ideally berries, which add a sweet taste but are significantly higher in fiber than other fruits. 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.

The more protein, fat, and fiber and the less fruit your smoothie contains, the better it will be for your glucose levels.

The best options to keep your glucose levels steady are berries, citrus fruits, and small, tart apples, because they contain the most fiber and smallest amount of sugar. The worst options—because they have the highest amount of sugar—are mangoes, pineapple, and other tropical fruit. Make sure you eat something else before them.

Beware of sweetened coffee drinks—and know that cappuccinos are better for your glucose levels than mochas, which contain chocolate and sugar. If you like to have a sweetened coffee drink, try mixing the coffee with full-fat milk or cream (fat is not to be feared) and sprinkling cocoa powder on top instead. 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. If you add sugar to your coffee, make sure you eat something glucose-steady beforehand—even just a slice of cheese.

Sweetened coffee drinks can drive a big spike. Opt for cappuccinos, Americanos, macchiatos, and unsweetened lattes over coffees with flavors, syrups—and sugar.

This is surprising to most people, but on a molecular level, there is no difference between table sugar and honey. And there is no difference between table sugar and agave syrup. In fact, there is no difference between table sugar and any of these: agave syrup, brown sugar, caster sugar, coconut sugar, confectioner’s sugar, demerara sugar, evaporated cane juice, honey, muscovado sugar, maple syrup, molasses, palm sugar, palmyra tree sugar, turbinado (raw) sugar. They are all made of glucose and fructose molecules. They are just packaged differently, named differently, and priced differently.

Now, get this: recall from part 1 that fructose is worse for us than glucose—it overwhelms our liver, turns to fat, precipitates insulin resistance, makes us gain more weight than glucose, and doesn’t make us feel as full. As a result, since agave has more fructose than table sugar does, it is actually worse for our health than table sugar. Don’t believe the hype.

AND AS MUCH AS YOU CAN, CHOOSE FRUIT FOR YOUR SWEET FIX When we want something sweet, the best thing we can do is to eat whole fruit. Remember, that’s the way nature intended us to consume glucose and fructose—in small quantities, not too concentrated, in combination with fiber.

The best sweeteners that have no side effects on glucose and insulin levels are: Allulose Monk fruit Stevia (look for pure stevia extract because some other forms of it are mixed with glucose-spiking fillers) Erythritol There are some artificial sweeteners I’d recommend you avoid, because they are known to increase insulin and/or glucose levels, especially when combined with foods, or cause other health issues. They are: Aspartame Maltitol (turns to glucose when digested) Sucralose Xylitol Acesulfame-K

To slowly wean yourself off the taste, there are a few things you can do. Replace that spoonful of sugar in your coffee with allulose, then lower the quantity over time. Next time you want candy, try eating an apple. Or when a craving hits, notice it and take some deep breaths. In my experience, it usually passes after 20 minutes. But if you’re still in the throes of it, try eating something else—usually something with fat, like cheese, does the trick. I also like drinking teas that are naturally sweet, such as cinnamon or licorice. It always helps me.

The postprandial state is the period of our day when the largest hormonal and inflammatory changes take place. To digest, sort, and store the molecules from the food we just consumed, blood rushes to our digestive system, our hormones rise like a tide, some systems can be put on hold (including your immune system), while others are activated (such as fat storage). Insulin levels, oxidative stress, and inflammation increase. 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.

When our body is not in the postprandial state, things are a little easier. Our organs are on cleanup duty, replacing damaged cells with new ones and clearing our systems. For instance, 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. When our body is not in the postprandial state, our insulin levels come down and we can go back to burning fat instead of stashing it.

Same pineapple, different spike. If it’s eaten as a dessert after a meal containing fat, fiber, and protein, pineapple will create a smaller spike. We do see a small reactive hypoglycemia, but this is less of an issue than the big spike when pineapple is eaten as a snack. Bigger spike, more symptoms.

Another way to improve your metabolic health is via what’s called intermittent fasting, where you either fast for 6, 9, 12, or 16 hours at a time or drastically reduce your calorie intake a couple of days a week. But this chapter is not about that. This chapter is about an insight from the latest research on glucose spikes: if you want to eat something sweet, it’s better to have it as dessert rather than as a snack in the middle of the day on an empty stomach. Understanding the postprandial state is key to learning why.