and then after your veggie starter eat whatever
you usually eat and the glucose Spike of your meal is going to be much smaller than if you didn't
have the veggie starter and you're going to eat more in the process as well and help your body
and your health at the same time so it's kind of a win-win [Music] situation hello angels and welcome
to the glucose goddess show and JP a biochemist obsessed with helping you understand your body
so that you can live your life to the fullest in this episode I'm going to cover something that
is incredibly foundational to all of my work and Incredibly foundational to helping anyone
who wants to start feeling better to begin I'm talking about my 10 core glucose hacks I created
these hacks after looking through hundreds if not thousands of scientific studies on the topic of
glucose levels and synthesizing them into 10 easy to follow guidelines or principles so that you
don't have to read all the complicated scientific studies and so that you can actually get started
today uh so the hacks are amazing just kidding so let me cover all the hacks for you 10 hacks um
and you can also find them in a PDF a free pdf in the description of this episode if you want a nice
one one pager recap so let's begin hack number one is eating your food in the right order scientific
Studies have shown us that if we eat the elements of a meal in a particular order we can reduce the
glucose Spike of that meal by up to 75% now why is it important to reduce glucose spikes because most
of us have glucose spikes on a daily basis and we don't even know it but these spikes are creating
symptoms fatigue cravings for sugar and chocolate and cookies not sleeping very well inflammation
hormonal issues like PCOS or difficult menopause every glucose Spike also inches us closer and
closer to developing type 2 diabetes essentially if you want to feel better than you currently
do regulating your glucose levels is the place to start it's like the foundation of the House of
your health if your glucose levels are spiking all the time like most of ours are you're just not
going to feel good and you're not going to be able to go after the life that you want to go
after so glucose spikes reduction super super important so this first hack eating your food in
the right order so scientists discovered that if you eat the veggies first during a meal then the
proteins and the fats and then the carbs so so the starches and the sugars then you can reduce
the glucose bike of your meal by up to 75% so this is an easy place to start next time you're
faced with a meal if there's a clear separation between the elements in the meal have the veggies
first then the meats and the fats and then leave the carbs like the rice the pasta the potatoes
the bread and the dessert obviously leave those for the end of the meal and the reason this hack
works is because veggies when we eat them first they create a powerful protective mesh in our
intestine thanks to all of the fiber they contain this mesh then slows down how quickly glucose
molecules from carbs coming later can make their way to your bloodstream easy one to start with you
don't have to change what you're eating how much you're eating just change the order and see how
much better you feel check out this graph as an example we have tofu we have rice we have broccoli
when we have the broccoli first then the tofu and the rice this bike is much smaller than when we do
the riverse hack number two hack number two Builds on the same principles as hack number one but it's
slightly different hack number two asks you to add a veggie starter to the beginning of your meals so
what is a veggie starter a veggie starter is a is a dish made from vegetables that you eat at the
beginning of your meal and this hack is actually a little bit simpler than Hack number one which
asks you to sort of separate out the elements of your meal to eat them in the right order the
veggie starter hack harnesses most of the power of the food order hack and is a bit simpler to
implement so this is what you do at the beginning of your lunch or of your dinner you simply add
a plate of vegetables the beginning of your meal and this can be raw vegetables cooked vegetables
you can add dressing to them you can add saas you can add some cheese whatever floats your boat
but start your meals with a plate of vegetables to again harness the power of that fiber they
contain and then after your veggie starter eat whatever you usually eat and the glucose Spike of
your meal is going to be much smaller than if you didn't have the veggie starter and you're going
to eat more in the process as well and help your body and your health at the same time so it's kind
of a win-win situation the easiest veggie starters are ordering a side salad at a restaurant having
some cucumber slices some cherry tomatoes and your veggie starter should ideally make up about 30%
of the overall volume of your meal hack number three hack number three is stop counting calories
now of course calories do matter like if you if you compare I don't know 1,000 calories of potato
chips to 5,000 calories of potato chips obviously the 5,000 calories of potato chips are way more
potato chips and are going to have even more of a detrimental impact on your health but what I
want you to focus on is the fact that calories don't tell you what's inside a food so two people
can be eating the exact same number of calories let's say 2,000 calories and 2,000 calories one
person can be eating in a way that's creating massive glucose spikes a massive glucose roller
coaster they can be exhausted full of Cravings have lots of acne have type two diabetes half PCOS
while another person can be eating 2,000 calories but a food that is keeping their glucose level
steady therefore they can feel freaking fantastic and have no health issues and be totally thriving
so the number of calories you're eating is not a good indication of how healthy you're going to be
and here's for the little story do you know how calories were originally measured it's pretty
fascinating so what was usually done if you wanted to measure the calories and say a donut is
that you would take the dut you would put it in a little box you would close the box and you would
put the Box submerge the Box in a big aquarium filled with water following me duts in box at the
bottom of an aquarium filled with water then you would have a system to light the donut Inside
the Box on fire and you would measure how much heat the doughnut is creating as it is burning and
then you do a little calculation with the volume of water the temperature increase and that's
how you measured calories calories were simply a measure of how much heat is given off when
a food is burned so with that logic you might notice that let's say this dut and then an avocado
release the same amount of heat when they burn and have the same number of calories but the calories
is not telling you what is actually in the Box a donut is full of starch and sugar big glucose
Spike because starches and sugars are what break down into glucose in your body the avocado pretty
much fat and fiber great for your glucose levels no glucose spike is going to be helpful for your
health so in in conclusion stop counting calories focus on what you're actually eating focus on the
hacks most of my readers if they just completely ignore calories start using the hacks they feel
so much better and yes if they were trying to lose weight they can also lose weight really easily
because when we study our glucose levels and we stop counting calories a few key things happen one
Cravings dissipate two hunger dissipates and three because with less GL with fewer glucose spikes you
have less insulin present in your body your body can burn fat more easily so even if your objective
is fat loss this is a better approach to start with hack number four have a Savory breakfast this
is probably the most difficult hack for a lot of people but also the most powerful hack to start
with so if you're feeling adventurous and you really want to see quick impact I highly recommend
you start with the Savory breakfast hack and this is what the Savory breakfast hack is so first of
all if in the morning like most people these days you have mostly starches and sugars let's say
you eat a bowl of cereal and an orange juice or some bread with a jam on it or granola with banana
and honey mostly starches and sugars that is a big big big glucose spike in the morning the problem
with this is that if you have a big glucose spike in the morning your hunger levels are going to
come back up way more quickly and your energy is going to be out of whack for the whole day
with a big glucose Spike at breakfast you are hurting your mitochondria your mitochondria are
the little factories in your cells in charge of making energy and a big glucose Spike hurts them
prevents them from making good energy for you to be able to do the stuff that you want to do so
sweet breakfast no no you should really move on to a Savory breakfast it's going to change your life
here are the guidelines for a Savory breakfast it should be built around protein sure it can be
eggs but it can also be Greek yogurt it can be nuts it can be leftover meat or fish from your
dinner it can be tofu it can be protein powder in a smoothie etc etc etc then add some fat add a
little bit of fiber if you want you don't really have to add too much fiber in the morning because
I know that veggies in the morning feels a little bit intense for some people and then you can have
for example some starch in there so a little bit of bread some potatoes but importantly a Savory
breakfast should contain nothing sweet except if you want whole fruit for Taste if this all
sounds a little complicated you can find some free Savory breakfast recipes from my recipe Club
in the description of this episode and I forgot to mention with hack number two free veggie starter
recipes as well to help you put this into practice because I know that theory is one thing and we
can have good intentions but actually starting is another story so I just want to make this as easy
for you as I possibly possibly can so that's where the recipes come in so check them out hack number
five have any type of sugar you like they're all the same what do I mean by this I mean that I do
not want you to believe all the crazy marketing and stuff around organic sugar brown sugar maple
syrup agave syrup honey Etc all of these things whether you're looking at some simple white table
sugar to a really fancy honey they all contain sugar they all contain glucose and fructose
molecules and they're all going to make a glucose Spike when you have them so pick the one that you
like honey is not necessarily better for you than table sugar agave syrup is not necessarily better
for you than organic unbleached brown sugar just eat the sugar that you like because when you're
having sugar it's a pleasure decision it's not a health decision it's purely for pleasure so even
if you're having some organic whatever Honey B based cake don't think that you're doing that for
your health that's for pleasure hack number six pick desserts over a sweet snack love this one
whenever we want to eat sugar in something sweet which is totally fine again it's for pleasure
purposes there is a better time and a worst time to eat that sugar for our glucose levels the
worst time you can eat sugar for your glucose levels is first thing in the morning on an empty
stomach or between meals on an empty stomach why the empty stomach thing well because when your
stomach is empty anything you eat is going to go through your system really really quickly and make
its way to your bloodstream really really quickly so let's say you love chocolate cake like me if I
had chocolate cake first thing in the morning that would make a massive glucose Spike and then with
that glucose Spike would then come a crash that crash activates the craving Center in our brain
and tells us to eat more sugar so if I have sugar for first thing in the morning on an empty stomach
I can be pretty sure that I'm going to spend the whole day with crazy sugar cravings and who wants
crazy sugar cravings for the whole day uh like nobody so don't do that instead when you want
to eat sugar eat it as dessert after a meal so if I see a really goodlook cookie I'll buy it and
then I'll eat it after my next meal that way the food from the meal that is already in your stomach
is going to slow down how quickly the sugar from the sweet thing you're eating the cookie of the
chocolate cake how quickly that sugar is going to arrive into your bloodstream therefore you get
all the pleasure from the sugar with less impact on your glucose levels hack seven ooh the vinegar
hack so when I first discovered the science I was quite surprised and taken back I thought okay
this is maybe another just social media weird fat thing but actually there's some really good
clinical trials showing us that one tablespoon of vinegar in a tall glass of water before a meal
can reduce the glucose Spike of that meal by up to 30% without needing to change what you're eating
during the meal just by adding the vinegar drink so try this before a meal that contains carbs
starches or sugars and the way this works is because vinegar contains acetic acid and acetic
acid is a very cool molecule that slows down the breakdown of carbs in our digestive system so
again slowing down how quickly carbs are going to go from our mouth to our bloodstream that is the
whole point that's the whole thing we're trying to do here reduce the amount of glucose we're given
to our body and reduce how quickly that glucose is arriving in our bloodstream with all the hacks
now any type of vinegar works um the most popular ones being apple cider vinegar white wine vinegar
uh you can also do rice vinegar Cherry vinegar whatever you want the only one I would recommend
you avoid is the very syrupy balsamic glaze the sort of Italian aged one because that one has
quite a bit of sugar in it so it might negate the positive effects a question I often get is if
I don't want to drink the vegar what can I do well you can use it as dressing on your veggie starter
for example that's a great combination to Haack in one um but be very careful with the capsules
and the gummies I've done a lot of research over the past few years on these because you guys have
all asked me for a capsule uh to take instead of drinking the vinegar unfortunately the gummies and
the supplements the vinegar supplements at best they're not very effective or have very little
science supporting them and at worse they're actually full of sugar and are going to create
a glucose bike I'm looking at you the vinegar vegar gummy product full of sugar however through
my research I've actually identified four really cool molecules that can replace the vinegar and
actually are even more powerful than the vinegar the molecules are malberry leaf extract lemon peel
extract cinnamon and a bunch of antioxidants that I extracted from green vegetables and I've put all
of these into what I call anti-spike formula it's a capsule I made you take it before a meal it cuts
through glucose Spike of the meal by up to 40% it's more powerful than vinegar 100% natural 100%
plants has over 25 clinical trials backing up its efficacy its safety its impact on our glucose
levels and it works in everyone so if you're interested in that as an alternative there's a
link to anti-spike in the description of this episode hack number eight after you eat move what
do I mean by after you eat move well every single cell in our body uses glucose for energy so if
you sort of shake your fingers like I'm doing here your finger cells are going to be burning
glucose in order to be able to contract and make this movement so the more and the harder a muscle
is told to contract the more glucose it's going to need in order to do so so we can use this to
our advantage and here's the hack after one meal of your day use your muscles for 10 minutes very
simply Within 90 minutes after the end of your meal move get up go for a 10-minute walk you can
clean your apartment you can walk your dog you can do your laundry you can do the dishes yes
that counts oh you can do this really easy hack so if you're sitting down you put your feet on
the ground and then you raise your heels I was going to say calves you raise your heels up and
down you're doing calf raises and as you're doing calf raises you're activating a muscle in your
calf called the cus muscle it's right here and the cus muscle is very good at soaking up excess
glucose from your bloodstream so let's say you're at work and you want to do the movement hack but
you also you know don't want to just do squats in the middle of a conference room so you can do
this under your desk you can put a little timer 10 minutes even during a meeting nobody will
know nobody will know and you're going to be helping your glucose levels and your body through
this very simple movement hack number nine if if you want a snack go Savory so as I mentioned
in hack number six about the dessert versus the sweet snack we really want to avoid eating sugar
between meals because that's going to kick off the glucose roller coaster so if you're really hungry
between meals have something Savory maybe have a soft boiled egg with some delicious sea salt on it
maybe have a Greek yogurt with some unsweet into peanut butter in it maybe you can have some
cheese on toast think about something Savory that you enjoy enjoy and have that as a snack and
always keep sugar for after a meal if you can and again if you want to help your body process
that Sugar even better and reduce its Spike anti-spike formula is a winner and moving after
eating the sugar and now my dears final hack hack number 10 hack number 10 is put some clothing
on your carbs we're not talking t-shirts here we are talking about anytime we eat carbs so carbs
being starches like bread pasta rice potatoes oats Etc starches or sugars sugars are anything that
tastes sweet from an Apple to chocolate cake so every time we eat carbs if we eat them naked so if
we eat them on their own they're going to cause a glucose Spike what we want to do instead is add
some clothing to them like protein fat and fiber to reduce how quickly the glucose in those carbs
arrives into our bloodstream so as an example chocolate cake again I'm a chocolate lover as you
might have noticed so far chocolate cake alone is not a good idea but if you add let's say some
Greek yogurt to that chocolate cake so that adds some protein and some fat or if you add 20 almonds
to a cookie that's going to add also some protein some fats and fiber to the cookie that's going
to reduce the spike of the chocolate cake and the cookie you can also think think about adding
some chicken and some veggies and some cheese to a pasta dish for example that's going to slow down
how quickly the pasta is going to turn to glucose and how quickly the glucose is going to arrive
into your bloodstream so you can combine some hacks or you can pick and shoose so for example
if you want to have a chocolate cake you can do either the dessert hack so having an after meal
you can maybe also add some clothing to it or you can have it at another time with some clothing
on top you can add the vinegar hack anti-spike you can do the movement etc etc or if today the
only one that really sounds interesting to you is the veggie starter hack or the movement hack
or the Savory breakfast hack start wherever you want startop start wherever with whatever hack
is calling you the most important thing is just to start and you're going to start feeling so
much better so quickly that then you can add the other hacks on again if you want a quick recap
of the 10 hacks in a one pager cuz I know it's a lot of information there's a free pdf in the
description of this episode um and let me know how it goes it's been incredibly amazing to
see all of your stories using the hacks and changing your lives so that you can live the life
that you want to live and so that your symptoms don't control you anymore and you finally feel
like yourself again and by doing the hacks you will know that as you age your health is going
to get better not worse and that's pretty great so that's all we have time for today thank you
for being here I'll see you next [Music] time
