Jessie Inchauspé is a biochemist on a mission to translate cutting-edge science into easy tips to help people improve their physical and mental health. She’s the founder of the widely popular Instagram account @glucosegoddess where she teaches tens of thousands of people about healthy food habits. Her new book is called Glucose Revolution The life-changing power of balancing your blood sugar.
Today, Jessie Inchauspé is on the blog to bust 3 major myths about glucose (and what you should know instead). Read on!
Jessie Inchauspe (Photo by Fanny Latour-Lambert).
Mythbusting with Glucose Goddess
The only time you might hear about your blood sugar is during your yearly physical with your doctor. And unless you have diabetes, that’s probably the end of it.
Well, things are changing. Recent scientific studies show us that we should all care about our glucose levels: 80% of people who don’t have diabetes experience glucose spikes every day after eating.
The consequence of these spikes? A chain reaction of inflammation, ageing, and insulin release inside our body that leads to symptoms we are all too familiar with: wrinkles, acne, cravings, chronic fatigue, weight gain, insomnia, infertility, mood swings … Sound familiar?
I’m a biochemist, an author, and the founder of the Glucose Goddess movement. One of my main objectives is to dispel common food myths that keep spiking our glucose levels and make us sick. Let’s dive in!
Myth #1: Honey is good for us because of the antioxidants it contains
This is surprising to most people, but on a molecular level, there is no difference between table sugar and honey. Honey begins as nectar from plants, but it contains glucose and fructose (a molecule that is cousin to glucose but more harmful), just as table sugar does. Honey creates big glucose and fructose spikes in our body, which age, inflame, and harm us, just like regular sugar does.
Do the antioxidants in honey make up for that? They do not. And, there aren’t that many antioxidants in honey anyway: you can find all the antioxidants contained in a teaspoon of honey in half a blueberry. That’s right – half a blueberry!
The conclusion? Have a whole fruit or veggies if you want more antioxidants. When it comes to honey – enjoy it for pleasure, not to improve your health.
Myth #2: Cereal for breakfast is a good choice
The campus of Stanford University in California is home to a team of scientists who specialise in the study of continuous glucose monitoring. In 2018, they did something that all great scientists do: they challenged assumptions. Specifically, they set out to test the commonly accepted belief that, unless you have diabetes, your glucose levels should be of no concern. Second, and perhaps more controversially, they wanted to test a practice that has become a cultural norm: that cereal for breakfast is good for you.
Twenty participants were recruited, both men and women. None of them had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes: their fasting glucose (as measured once a year by their doctor) was in the normal range. They arrived on a weekday morning at the lab to take part in the experiment – which consisted of eating a bowl of cornflakes with milk while wearing a continuous glucose monitor.
The results of this study were alarming. In those healthy individuals, a bowl of cereal sent their glucose levels into a zone of deregulation thought to be attainable only by people with diabetes. Sixteen of the 20 participants experienced a glucose spike above 7.8 mmol/L (the cut-off for prediabetes, signalling problems with glucose regulation), and some even spiked above 11.0 mmol/L (in the range of type 2 diabetes). That didn’t mean that the participants had diabetes – they didn’t. But it did mean that people without diabetes could spike as high as those with diabetes and suffer the harmful side effects those spikes cause. The discovery was groundbreaking.
The fact that a bowl of cereal causes spikes makes empirical sense. Cereal is made of either refined corn or refined wheat kernels, superheated, then rolled flat or puffed into various shapes. It’s pure starch, with no fibre left. And because starch is not the most palatable thing on its own, table sugar (sucrose, made of glucose and fructose) is added to the concoction. Vitamins and minerals join the mix, but the benefit of these doesn’t outweigh any of the harm of the other components.
So here’s what to keep in mind if you want a breakfast that will keep your glucose levels steady: focus it around protein, fat, and fibre. Starch and sugar should be optional and for taste only.
Myth #3: Overcoming cravings is a question of willpower
Our understanding of cravings changed thanks to an experiment that took place on the Yale University campus in 2011. Subjects were recruited and placed into an MRI scanner, which measures brain activity. Then the subjects looked at photos of food on a screen – salad, burger, cookie, broccoli – and rated how much they wanted to eat them on a scale from 1 for ‘not at all’ to 9 for ‘very much’.
On a computer monitor, researchers watched which part of the subjects’ brains activated as they looked at the photos. The subjects had also given their consent to be hooked up to a machine that monitored their glucose levels.
What the researchers discovered was fascinating. When the subjects’ glucose levels were stable, they didn’t rate many of the foods highly. However, when their glucose levels were decreasing, two things happened. First, the craving centre of their brain lit up when pictures of high-calorie foods were shown. Second, the participants rated those foods much higher on the ‘I want to eat it’ scale than when their glucose levels were stable.
The finding? A decrease in glucose levels – even a small decrease of 1.1 mmol/L, which is less than the 1.7 mmol/L dip that occurs after we spike – makes us crave high-calorie foods.
The problem is, our glucose levels decrease all the time – specifically, they drop after every spike. And the higher the spike has been, the more intense the crash will be. That means that we’re hit by a desire for a cookie or a burger – or both.
Trying to force ourselves to suppress these cravings is not the solution. What we need to look at is the underlying cause: deregulated glucose levels. Once those fall into place, cravings naturally dissipate.
Want more? Check out my new book, Glucose Revolution: The life-changing power of balancing your blood sugar — out now!
Glucose Revolution
The life-changing power of balancing your blood sugar
Glucose, or blood sugar, is a tiny molecule in our body that has a huge impact on our health.
It enters our bloodstream through the starchy or sweet foods we eat. In the past five years, scientists have discovered that glucose affects everyone – not just people with diabetes. If we have too much glucose in our system, we put on weight, feel tired and hungry all the time, have skin breakouts, develop wrinkles, and our hormonal balance suffers. Over time, too much glucose contributes to chronic conditions like type 2 diabetes, polycystic ovarian syndrome, cancer, dementia and...
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