Glucose Revolution: the Plan

Listen to this podcast: On Purpose with Jay Shetty, March 18 episode, with Jessie Inchauspe

The information below comes from this podcast as well as Jessie Inchauspe’s books - Glucose Revolution (heavy on the science) and Glucose Goddess Method (overview with recipes and a 4 week planner)

How to lower your sugar spikes/ flatten your glucose curve/ lower your insulin

1. Eat Fiber first, then Proteins/Fats, then Starches/Carbs/Sweets

• Fiber doesn’t break down into glucose, so it doesn’t raise our glucose levels. Fiber also slows down the process of sugar entering the bloodstream. It does this by temporarily slowing down the activity of amylase, the enzyme that breaks down sugar. This slows down the rate that sugar enters our blood stream. Fiber also decreases the absorption of glucose into the blood stream. This also slows down the rate that sugar enters our blood stream.

• Protein and fat also slow down the absorption of glucose. Make sure your meals contain these.

• Eating these foods before carbs/starches/sweets will decrease glucose spikes and flatten the glucose curve. This keeps our insulin levels lower and our hunger hormone less active. If we eat starches first, ghrelin/our hunger hormone returns to pre-meal levels within 2 hours, which makes us eat again, keeping our insulin levels high. If we eat more fiber and eat our starches last, ghrelin takes 5-6 hours to increase again, so we feel fuller for longer, and our insulin level has time to drop.

Eating food in this specific order: FIBER then PROTEINS/FATS then STARCHES/CARBS/SWEETS will keep your glucose and insulin levels lower.

An easy way to do this is to eat some chopped vegetables or a salad while preparing the rest of your meal.

(ideas to start your meal with fiber) - eat these while food prepping or eat these an appetizer before your meal:

•Salad with oil and vinegar dressing

•Chopped raw veggies with oil and vinegar dressing

•Pickled veggies, but make sure there is no sugar in these

•Cucumbers with guacamole or hummus

•Tomato with mozerella cheese or guacamole or hummus

•Carrots or peppers with hummus or guacamole or salsa

•4 marinated artichoke hearts (from jar)

2. Go savory for breakfast/first meal of the day

• Our stomach is empty when we eat our first meal of the day, so sugar will be processed faster. This causes our sugar to spike, which is followed by a sugar crash, and the cycle continues. This means a day full of hunger, cravings, brain fog, irritability, and fatigue. A sugary breakfast will also leave us hungry in about 2 hours. Eating a breakfast of protein and fat will not spike our sugar and can keep us full for 5-6 hours.

• If you want a sweeter breakfast: Add apples to oatmeal instead of sugar; Add berries to yogurt instead of honey; Consider adding these other options to your breakfast - cinnamon, unsweetened cocoa, unsweetened coconut, and unsweetened nut butters (instead of honey or sugar)

(savory breakfast ideas)

•Apple or pear with nuts and cheese

•Full fat greek yogurt with whole peach and cinnamon

•Full fat Greek yogurt with 2 tbsp nut butter and berries

•Avocado with hummus

•Smoked salmon with avocado and tomato

•Toast with nut butter

•Avocado toast

•Breakfast burrito- eggs, black beans, avocado, and salsa

•Hard boiled egg with salsa and avocado

3. Savory snacks/ instead of sweet snacks

This is the same concept. Eating sweets/sugar on an empty stomach leads to a sugar spike.

(better snack ideas)

•Cucumbers with guacamole or hummus

•Tomato with mozerella cheese or guacamole or hummus

•Carrots or belpeppers with hummus or guacamole or salsa

•Celery with nut butter

•Nuts and cheese

•Nuts and 1 piece dark chocolate

•Full fat Greek yogurt with nuts or nut butter

•Cheese

•Hard-boiled egg

•Apple with cheese or nut butter

4. Vinegar before meals

The acetic acid in vinegar temporarily slows down the activity of amylase - the enzyme that breaks down sugar. This slows down the process of sugar entering our blood stream which decreases sugar spikes.

Top raw veggies with vinegar or make a salad dressing containing vinegar to eat before your meal. All vinegars have the same effect so use the vinegar that you prefer: red wine, apple cider, rice, balsamic, sherry, or white wine vinegar…

5. Movement after meals

• When we move, our muscles contract; these contractions require energy; glucose is used for energy. When you move after a meal, the glucose enters your leg muscles instead of your fat reserves.

If we are sedentary after meals, glucose floods our system and overwhelms our mitochondria. This creates free radicals and inflammation. The extra glucose is stored as fat, leading to weight gain.

When we move after meals, our muscles contract and use glucose, lowering our glucose, and keeping our mitochondria functioning well.

Glucose levels usually reach their peak about 60-70 minutes after we eat, so it’s best to move within this time frame. 10 minutes of light physical activity within 60-70 minutes of meals is recommended.

6. Eat sweets as a dessert/not as a snack

When we eat sweets/sugar on an empty stomach, this leads to a sugar spike.

If we eat sweets/sugar at the end of a meal - after fiber, protein, and fat - the sugar will have less of an effect.

(Additional tips)

1. Minimize Fructose and Processed Foods

The negative effects of sugar occur 10x more with fructose compared to starch. Starchy carbs are less damaging than sweet carbs.

Processed foods have less fiber and more concentrated sugar compared to whole foods. Diets high in processed foods cause higher glucose spikes.

2. Clothe your carbs

Eating carbs alone causes glucose and insulin spikes, which lead to fluctuations in our hunger hormones, which makes us feel hungrier sooner.

Add fiber/fat/protein to your carbs. Eat veggies and nuts before a meal on-the-go or before going out to eat. Add greek yogurt or nuts to dessert/sweets. Top toast with avocado or cheese or butter. Eat some nuts before your croissant. Add nut butter to toast. Add nut butter to banana. Combine fruit with nut butter, nuts, cheese, egg, or full fat yogurt.

3. Food labels

Brown sugar, honey, coconut, and agave are not any healthier than white sugar. They all have the same effect on your glucose curve. All sugar comes from plants. All sugar is natural, so don’t be fooled by packaging. Dried fruit and fruit juices are concentrated, so we consume much more sugar than nature intended when we eat/drink these. Juices and dried fruits cause large glucose and fructose spikes.

Vegan, organic, and gluten-free can still spike your sugar. Look at sugar, total carbs, and fiber on label. This ratio should be <5 when possible. Remember- fiber slows down the absorption of sugar.

4. Cravings? Wait 20 minutes

Remember that when we were hunter-gatherers, a decreasing glucose level signaled danger. This meant that we hadn’t eaten in a while. The brain learned to signal the desire for high calorie, often sweet, foods. And rewarded us by increasing our dopamine levels to give us pleasure while we ate these foods. Today these decreasing glucose levels don’t mean that we’re famished or in any nutritional danger. Most of us have plenty of energy in reserve, but our brain still sends those same signals- telling us to eat high calorie foods. The decreasing sugar levels that cause our brains to give us these signals- “cravings”- usually occur after a sugar spike. If we eat high calorie foods in response to this craving, our sugar will spike and crash again, putting us on a roller coaster of cravings. If we wait 20 minutes, our liver will release glycogen, our sugar levels will return to normal, and our craving will usually disappear.

If you still have a craving after 20 minutes, try drinking some water or eating a healthy savory snack. Or grab a sweet to save and eat after your next meal. But if you just have to eat that sweet right now: 1. eat some veggies with vinegar or drink a vinegar drink (vinegar decreases sugar absorption), 2. eat 5 almonds or 5 olives or an egg or some cheese or a spoonful of greek yogurt or nut butter (protein+fat decreases sugar absorption), 3. then eat your sweet without guilt/ enjoy it, 4. and try to get some movement within the next hour (muscle contraction will lower your sugar levels)- All of these things will prevent a sugar spike, which will prevent continual cravings.

If you are taking medicines for diabetes, talk to your doctor first before making any major diet changes. You may need to make some medicine adjustments to prevent hypoglycemia with these diet changes.

To learn more: Follow Jessie Inchauspe @glucosegoddess

Read her books - Glucose Goddess Method

Glucose Revolution