Disclaimer: I am not a health professional, I am just sharing knowledge that I have discovered on my journey to reverse my Type-2 Diabetes with diet and exercise alone. Please always seek medical advice if you have any questions about your own health journey.
In my quest to reverse my Type-2 Diabetes, my research quickly led me to Jessie Inchauspe, who many people call The Glucose Goddess. There is a good reason for this. She has tested methods of dealing with glucose spikes just so she can help others make better choices for their lives. In her book, The Glucose Revolution, I discovered many helpful tips. But, it was in a podcast episode of The Genius Life with Max Lugavere that I was able to easily digest tips she has for anyone who deals with the symptoms of glucose spikes.
The symptoms of glucose spikes include: cravings, staying hungry all day, poor energy, inflammatory-based diseases tat might show on your skin (acne, rosacea, psoriasis), aging (wrinkles), slow organ damage, weight-gain, infertility problems and long-term development of chronic diseases like Type-2 Diabetes, etc. Some spikes can be felt instantly and some occur over time.
Today, I am sharing some really awesome hacks Jessie has come up with to help our bodies to process the glucose/fructose from food and drink we ingest. I hope these will help you and that you will actually recognize feeling differently after you have incorporated some of these changes.
Hack #1: Eat food in the right order.
Eat veggies first, then proteins and fats, then starches and sugars. Without changing anything in your diet and just eating in this order, you will lower your glucose spike by 75% and insulin spike by 40%. That is so simple. No need to even change your diet in this hack.
Hack #2. Try savory breakfasts to keep levels steadier.
She recommends eggs, greek yogurt with nuts and berries (blueberries are higher in sugar so I avoid). Also, if you have carbs for breakfast, add fiber, protein or fat to help your body land the spikes softer. She calls this “dressing your carbs.” If you eat something sweet, you not only get glucose spikes but also fructose spikes which glycates things 7 times faster than glucose.
Hack #3. If you’re going to have a snack have a savory one rather than a sweet snack to avoid the extra fructose.
Hack #4. If you eat something sweet (Jessie loves chocolate and so she eats it), eat it AS DESSERT and not as a snack on its own.
Eat fiber first, then the meal, then dessert.
Hack #5. Add veggie starters to lunch and dinner. Don’t forget to eat food in the right order (Hack #1).
Hack #6. Regarding mental health, the more glucose spikes you have the more symptoms of anxiety and depression.
Stress also creates glucose spikes; even a sauna can create spikes because of the stress and the dehydration (this is short term). Exercise also spikes glucose levels because your body releases it to fuel your muscles.
Hack #7. Moving your body is always good for you. Do ten minutes of movement within one hour after a meal to use your muscles. Even walking is fantastic. This also combats post-meal sleepiness.
Hack #8. Vinegar has many health benefits.
If you have a tall glass of water with a tablespoon of vinegar before a meal, you will cut the glucose spike by up to 35% because of the acidic acid. You can drink it as described, use it as a vinaigrette or cook with it. Balsamic tends to have more sugar but all other vinegars work really well. Jessie does recommend using a straw to protect your teeth from the effects of the vinegar on teeth. She also recommends that you not use the gummies.
Hack #9. Hormones – female.
Spikes cause insulin levels to rise and when this happens, 2 things result: 1) your ovaries produce more testosterone and 2) the conversion of testosterone to female hormones is hampered. So you have an overload of testosterone in the body which can stop ovulation, make you grow hair on your chin, lose hair on your head (polycystic ovarian syndrome – PCOS). You can change this PCOS by changing how much your glucose levels are spiking. Avoidance of glucose spikes in women with PCOS can reduce the testosterone in a few weeks by 25%. Women get periods back, which can allow infertility to be stopped. One in eight women have PCOS (many of which are linked to insulin-resistance).
Hack #10. Hormones – male.
A high sugar bolus can drop testosterone by 25% and that persists for two hours. It also raises blood pressure as it stimulates the fight of flight response.
As you can surmise, these principles do not have any “way of eating” stipulations. You can eat the plan you always follow and just add these hacks in for maximum benefit. I found this information extremely interesting and started implementing these hacks right away.
If you decide to try these hacks for yourself, please let me know what you think. I hope it will help you to feel better each day as you take control of your own health.
Until next time, stay on the road with me to healthier and happier living.
Excellent! Thanks for sharing, Brenda!
It’s truly my pleasure!