Book Review: Glucose Revolution
Jessie’s Instagram handle @glucosegoddess has over a million followers, which is evidence of the life-changing power of glucose stabilization, and of her amazing ability to communicate to people. Her backstory: she had a life-altering injury that sent her into a spiral of chronic pain and a psychological disorder called splitting, where there are periods you don’t recognize your body as yourself. Despite these hardships, she went on to get Masters of Science and a Masters Biochemistry, and then worked at the Silicon Valley start-up 23 and Me to translate the science of DNA tests into language the average human could understand. That’s where she learned about continuous glucose monitors, and she started to wear one. With time, she noticed a pattern: when she’d eat a large glucose-containing meal, her splitting personality was more likely to affect her. When her glucose was stable, so was her personality. She dug into the glucose research and started tracking how certain foods, combinations of foods, and order of foods affected the overall glucose curve, which she depicted using her own computer-generated graphs. What resulted was the Glucose Goddess Instagram account and the nine “hacks” she uses to coach people through balancing their glucose curves.
The true brilliance of this book is its storytelling. Jessie uses fictional characters, pictures, graphs, and patient stories to illustrate scientific concepts and the glucose hacks. She explains what glucose is, where it comes from, and how it wreaks havoc on your body when it gets absorbed into your body. I’ll admit that the terminology is tricky here, but she does a good job explaining it all. The key points to understand in this section is that too much glucose in the bloodstream is toxic. When glucose gets absorbed, we secrete a hormone called insulin. Insulin helps the glucose get out of the bloodstream (where it is damaging) and into the cells (where it can be useful. Glucose’s job is to make energy inside the cells. But when there’s too much glucose around, the energy production gets gummed up, and the extra glucose piles up and causes damage. There’s a laundry list of short-term and long-term effects of glucose spikes – from cravings and acne to cancer and cardiovascular disease – all backed by evidence.
The bulk of the book is comprised of the hacks Jessie uses to temper glucose spikes. First, she recommends eating foods in this order: veggies, protein/fat, and carbs last. She describes your digestive system as a sink: when you put fibrous foods such as vegetables in first, it will slow down the transit time of anything that comes after it. So, when possible (and she always recommends doing the hack that is the easiest for YOU), eat the carbs last. She illustrates this with two comparative graphs of glucose spikes when carbs are eaten first (big spike) versus last (mild spike).
The next “hack” is to begin your meal with a green starter. This could be a salad or vegetables, but the fiber in the green starter will help slow your digestion of carbs, as above. It’s especially useful when you add vinegar to the vegetables, which we’ll get to later. This hack is useful when you know you’re going to go out for a carb-heavy meal, for instance. You can eat some pre-made veggies at home, or you can order a salad when you sit down to eat.
Stop counting calories! I love this hack haha. But in all seriousness, the effects of the specific food molecules are much more important than the calories consumed. And since weight loss is always preceded by insulin reduction, if you limit glucose, insulin will fall, and you’ll lose weight. Sure enough, studies have shown exactly that: when people ate the same number of calories of protein/fat versus glucose, the protein/fat group lost more weight. It’s not just about weight, either. Glucose causes so many negative consequences when it builds up that a calorie is not just a calorie.
Next, Jessie looks at breakfast. Since we’re most sensitive to glucose on an empty stomach, your first meal of the day sets the tone for the rest of the day. Instead of breakfast cereals, crepes, and sweet foods that skyrocket glucose, she recommends a savory breakfast. If your first meal is lunch, than a savory lunch will do. But creating that first glucose spike will set off a roller coaster of sugar crashes, leaving you irritable, hungry, and craving more sugar than before.
The surprising hack to me was that all sugar is the same. Whether honey or table sugar, brown rice or white, they all create similar glucose curves. This frees you to enjoy every type of sugar with equal risk, and you can choose depending on preference. But the downside is that they all cause glucose spikes similarly. Unfortunately most artificial sweeteners have other negative effects on your body (monkfruit and stevia are exceptions), so the best choice is to limit these, too.
The next hack, picking dessert over a sweet snack, falls in line with the first few hacks: eat carbs last. So if you pick up a cookie, save it until after your next meal instead of eating it on an empty stomach. I like this hack because it doesn’t prevent you from having sweet things. It just changes the time that you have them, which is a lot more doable.
Next, drinking a glass of water with 1 tb vinegar in it can flatten glucose spikes. This works by two ways: first, vinegar temporarily inactivates the protein in your saliva so that carbs are broken down more slowly. Next, it makes your muscles more likely to want to take up glucose from your bloodstream. Result: lower spike. Any vinegar except for balsamic will work for this hack.
Hack #8 involves exercise. Whenever your muscles contract, they burn glucose without the help of insulin, so it’s a way to naturally lower a glucose spike. Even a 10-minute walk can help, and weightlifting after meals can decrease a glucose spike by as much as 35%. Jessie recommends exercising within 70 minutes after eating, or before the glucose spike reaches its peak. You might notice that if you exercise while fasting (e.g. first thing in the morning, before you eat) your glucose will increase. This is because the liver mobilizes its glucose stores into the bloodstream for your muscles to use during exercise. But since exercise increases your ability to get rid of free radicals and reduce oxidative stress, the overall effect is beneficial. Exercise trains your body to become more resilient.
The next hack, choosing a savory snack, is similar to choosing a savory breakfast. Any time our stomach is empty, our glucose will spike higher. So for a longer, steady stream of energy, opt out of sugars and starches, and choose a snack that contains savory proteins and fats.
The final hack is the most memorable: put clothes on your carbs. This means you should add fat or protein to a carbohydrate-rich meal to reduce your glucose spike. A carb-only meal will increase the hunger hormone ghrelin, which tells you to eat, and you’ll only end up eating more and being hangry in between. This can mean putting nut butter on your fruit or adding avocado to rice. Anything helps!
Glucose Goddess Jessie Inschauspé
The book closes with several glucose-friendly recipes and a host of scientific references that support the concepts in the book. I love that this book is meant to be a sustainable lifestyle, not a diet, and that you don’t need a continuous glucose monitor to employ these hacks. I follow @glucosegoddess on Instagram, and she is constantly sharing more information, such as recent studies, and she frequently does a Q&A where you can ask your own individual questions. So there’s really no downside to enjoying these tips! Do whichever one (or few) is easiest and best suits your lifestyle, and you’ll get the benefits.