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. I'm 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-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 spike is much smaller than when we do 
the reverse. 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. 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 at the beginning of your meal. This can be raw vegetables, cooked vegetables, 
you can add dressing to them, you can add sauce, 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. 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. 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 in 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, dut's 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 doughnut and then an avocado release the same amount of heat when they burn and have the same number of calories, but the calories are not telling you what is actually in the box. A doughnut 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 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 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. 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, 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 giving to our body and reduce how quickly that glucose is arriving in our bloodstream with all the hacks. Now, any type of vinegar works. The most popular ones being apple cider vinegar, white wine vinegar. 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 vinegar, 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 unsweetened peanut butter in it. Maybe you can have some cheese on toast. Think about something Savory that you 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 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 choose. So, for example, 
if you want to have a chocolate cake, you can do either the dessert hack, so having it after a 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. Start with whatever hack 
is calling you the most. The 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, 'cause 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.

10 Life-Changing Glucose Hacks: easy tricks that will change how you feel forever | Episode 3 of 18

By Jessie Inchauspé, NYT bestselling author of The Glucose Goddess Method and Glucose Revolution. 
