Jessie Inchauspé: 3 Simple Hacks to Improve Your Glucose Levels by 75% & 3 Ways You’ve Been Lied To About Sugar

28:23Parked in driveways, passing on the road, friends making the switch. And they all say the same thing. These cars are simpler, fewer parts, fewer repairs, fewer headaches. That's what makes EVs worth considering. Less to break, less to fix. Even if you haven't made the move yet, it's hard to ignore the shift. They're more affordable, more available, and honestly, just makes sense for everyday life. The way forward is electric. Learn more at electricforall.org. yeah and it's a different shift in mindset really because you're saying that a lot of us addicted to weight loss weight gain or something like that and you're actually saying well let's make it about energy let's make it about focus let's make it about health health yeah yeah which is which is which we just haven't been trained to think that way you know we haven't even i grew up always feeling like oh if i didn't put on weight then i must be healthy and that's such a i mean it's such a rudimentary belief around what health and well-being is absolutely and it's shifting you know we're now understanding that's not the way to go we need to focus on health not body size absolutely body weight absolutely what should someone eat at 3 p.m when they're tired because everyone has that post-lunch you know slump they do they do but it actually can go away if you steady your glucose levels and if you no longer have these spikes you don't have to feel that post-meal slump anymore because generally that slump comes from your glucose having spiked and now dropping because after every spike there's a drop and this drop can make you feel really really really tired so if you feel those symptoms of the post-meal crash the best thing to do is to start with your breakfast so have a savory breakfast then the second thing i would recommend is at that at lunchtime, make sure that you start your meals with a specific type of ingredient that is going to help balance your glucose levels.

30:22And before I tell you what that is, I want to tell you about this amazing research study, Jay. So researchers looked at a meal and they found that if participants ate the elements of that meal in a specific order, they could reduce the glucose spike of the meal by up to 75%. Huge. That's huge. Without changing how much they're eating, without changing what they're eating overall, just by changing the order. And when I was in school, I remember biology teachers telling us, oh, when you eat, it all becomes a big soup in your stomach. And so I thought, how is this possible? How can the order in which you eat the elements of meal have an impact so the research is fantastic it turns out that when you start your meals with vegetables the fiber in the veggies when you eat it first has time to coat your upper intestine and create a sort of protective mesh okay like a shield on the walls of your intestine and that shield then slows down how quickly the rest of the meal is going to access your blood bloodstream, how quickly the molecules from the rest of the meal are going to make their way into your bloodstream.

31:39And so veggies first is this very important hack. Now the scientist - I used to always eat my veggies last. Really? Because you hated them? Yeah, because you eat all the carbs first and all the rest of it. You're like, oh yeah. And you know, actually, so when you go to restaurants, they often give you bread at the beginning of the meal. And actually it's pretty smart. So I think there's a whole conspiracy here because if you give people some bread at the beginning of your meal so you're super hungry you eat the bread bread is starch it turns to glucose so very quickly you experience this glucose spike and about 90 minutes later you're crashing and that's when the waiter comes over and is like hi anybody would like some dessert and at that point you're feeling this intense craving for sugar because of that glucose drop so you're going to order dessert wow that makes sense to me i love bread at the start yeah but the best thing to do actually is to delay that bread and first have your veggies and then have your main dish and have the bread, you know, during the main dish or after the main dish.

32:33And that way you can still enjoy the bread, but the glucose molecules are going to be protected by that fiber mesh and not going to create that big of a spike. So you won't feel those cravings 90 minutes later. You won't feel the energy crash. So that's another super important hack. And if you do nothing else, just at your next meal, eat what you would normally eat. Just add a plate of vegetables to the beginning of your meal. And it can be three baby carrots. It can be some beautiful roasted cauliflower with tahini or whatever it can be some salad it can be any sort of veggies you have in your fridge and tomatoes count as well and you'll see how different you feel after the meal no crash no cravings and you know you're also helping your body become healthier from within and interestingly jay this hack actually has a lot of parallels in cultural habits so you know i'm french and in france we have this tradition of crudité at the beginning of a meal which is raw veggies.

33:29In Italy, they have antipasti, which is generally vegetables at the beginning of the meal. In the Middle East, you usually start your meals with herbs eaten by the bunch. So none of the stuff I'm talking about is that revolutionary. It's kind of common sense, but we've lost touch with these traditions and now we understand the science behind them. So I want us to bring them back. Yeah, that's spectacular. There was a study you were about to quote and then I cut you off. Tell me. I don't know. you were about to say and the study says and then i said i used to eat my vegetables last i think i was just talking about the food order so 75 and so ideally from a scientific standpoint you would always start your meals with the veggies then the proteins and the fats and then the carbs last the starches and sugars last now you know that's a scientific theory and if you want to decompose your meal and do that specific order you can but i think from this science we can just extract the most important piece of information, which is veggies first and the carbs towards the end of the meal to reduce the spike.

34:32I think that's so practical. I think all of us can at least do that with whatever's on our plates. And if we can just make that shift today, we're going to start to see the benefit and that will hopefully push us in that direction. Exactly. And then naturally you crave less sugar and you feel better. And it's these small tweaks and you don't have to cut out foods. We're not talking about restricting how much you're eating. I'm actually telling you to add food to your meal and that is going to improve your health. So veggies first. That's another very key hack that I recommend people try out. How off is the recommended daily amount of grams of sugar on any given packages, right?

35:10So if you look at any processed food or any packaged food, it will say this is 30 % of your daily amount. How wrong is the daily amount? Well, so the American Heart Association recommends no more than 25 grams of added sugar, I think for women and 50 grams for men, something like that. But we don't need any of this sugar. We don't need to eat any sweet stuff at all. Your body does not need sugar to live. So that is an upper limit, if you will. Yeah, that's an upper limit. Yeah, whereas we're seeing it as the basic requirement. It's like saying, I don't know, three cigarettes are allowed a day.

35:47It doesn't mean you should smoke cigarettes. It means like that's the upper limit after which real problems start happening, but it's better to have zero. But then what these recommendations don't take into account is when are you eating the sugar? Is it first thing in the morning? So you're increasing inflammation, brain fog, increasing risk of diabetes, hurting your mitochondria, having cravings, aging faster. Or is it after a lunch that had fiber at the beginning of a meal where the impact is going to be way less hardcore on your health? So if you just keep eating the same amount of sugar as you're eating, but you just change when you're eating it.

36:23That's the first step. You're already going to see a big impact on your health. And then second step could be reducing amounts. For sure. And naturally, because you're not creating that cycle of addiction, you're going to have fewer cravings for the sugar anyway. There's this other really cool study I want to tell you about. So scientists put participants in an fMRI scanner. You know, those big donut scanners. Okay, so they were looking at their brain activity. And as the participants were in the scanner, there was a screen in front of their eyes. And the screen showed images of food. Chocolate cake, donuts, broccoli, burger, etc.

37:00And the scientist asked the participants to rate how much they wanted to eat that food from 1 to 10. Okay, like 1 is like, I don't care. 10 is like, I want to eat this right now. And the participants were hooked up to a machine that was measuring their glucose levels in real time. And this is what the scientists found. They found that when people's glucose levels were steady, they were rating all the foods like five-ish. Burger, five-ish. Broccoli, five-ish. So, you know, no particular cravings. But then when the participants' glucose levels were dropping, two things happened. First thing, on the brain scan, the craving center was activating.

37:38And second thing, they started rating all of the sweet foods really highly. Okay? And that just goes to show that you cannot control these cravings. They come from a deep part of your brain that goes onto alert mode when your glucose levels are crashing. Because it is a dangerous thing for the body, right? Your body doesn't know that that crash came from a spike because you just ate 15 donuts. Your body thinks it's low on energy. And so all this to say that as you steady your glucose levels, this craving center will activate less and less. So naturally, you're not going to want to eat as much sugar.

38:17And you're going to switch from a situation in which you were controlled by those cravings to a situation in which you'll eat the sugar you really like for pleasure, for enjoyment, without feeling controlled. So instead of feeling like, oh my God, I need to eat something sweet right now. Give me anything, any chocolate bar. It's more like, hmm, you know what? tomorrow I want to go to my favorite bakery and get my favorite pastry you know from a sense of like agency and strength and boundaries versus being a victim to that sugar addiction yeah you can't you can have that delayed gratification exactly yeah exactly no that's huge I mean two things that really helped me with this and I notice when I'm weaker and this obviously happens with the amount of travel I do.

39:05And I totally noticed how that impacts my desire for more sugar. And I found that one of the biggest commitments I had to make was eating my meals on time every day. And that started to reduce cravings. So when I was having breakfast at a certain time, lunch at a certain time, and dinner at a certain time, I found myself having less cravings and filling the gaps with less sugar. When I was missing breakfast, I was missing lunch, and then I was trying to make up for it, then I'd be willing to take anything as you're saying. And the second thing I found was when I had poor sleep. So when I was sleeping badly or I wasn't sleeping enough, I would wake up craving sugar to want to get me to the next meal.

39:44And then naturally I'm going to have all these things that aren't great for me because I just haven't slept well. And I found that those two things had a massive impact. But how is what you're saying having an impact on the other way? So I'm saying how these lifestyle choices impact my glucose cravings, but how are our glucose levels impacting our sleep? For example, sleep. So sleep and glucose go hand in hand. And so what you're describing is if you wake up and you haven't slept well, you have more cravings. And you know what else happens, which is kind of unfortunate, is that when your body is tired, it cannot regulate your glucose levels as well.

40:17So anything you eat will create a bigger glucose spike. So for example, if you have that cake on a day when you're rested versus a day when you're super exhausted, the exhausted day, the cake will make a bigger spike. you're eating the same cake, but it's creating a bigger spike. Therefore, a bigger crash, therefore more cravings. And so when we're tired, we tend to crave more sweet foods and that makes a bigger spike and a bigger drop. And then in turn, being on a glucose roller coaster also makes your sleep that night worse, not as deep, not as restorative. So you start this vicious cycle. Okay, here's what to do to break the cycle.

40:55First of all, use the hacks when you wake up, right? So if you're tired, have a savory breakfast. Second thing to sort of reset your glucose balance is to exercise, even just five minutes. So next time you wake up and you're tired, do five minutes of jumping jacks, put on a YouTube video, five minutes, you know, exercise, anything that's going to get your muscles working is going to help you manage your glucose levels better that day. And then as you study your glucose levels, you will notice you will sleep better and often people will tell me that they used to wake up in the middle of the night with a pounding heart you know sweats that can be because your glucose levels are crashing as you're sleeping wow yeah and that's why in my study so many people improve their sleep not by taking sleeping pills not by changing what's happening in their bedroom just by changing how they're eating everything is connected jay you cannot just look at one thing in isolation When you improve your glucose levels, so many systems in your body improve.

41:54It's remarkable. So you might be entering this because you want less inflammation or fewer cravings. But then what happens is you realize, oh, my skin is better. Oh, I sleep better. Oh, my mood has improved. You know, all these amazing side effects. It's really beautiful to watch. Yeah, you mentioned mood there. What's the connection between blood sugar levels and mental health? Because I think, again, even though we are making those connections now, how I think often we don't recognize how correlated our diet and our mental health is. That's the reason I got into this in the first place. So when I was a teenager, I had an accident.

42:27I broke my back, jumping off a waterfall, had very intense surgery. I have lots of metal in my back now. And physically I was fine because you recover fast when you're that young. But then my mental health started going really down the drain. So anxiety, depression, depersonalization, I felt like my brain was completely broken. I didn't feel like myself anymore. And I went on a journey to try to understand how to get better. And that's what got me studying biochemistry. That's what got me into genetics. And then almost 10 years after my accident, 10 years of darkness, I finally had my first clue.

43:07I was part of a pilot experiment. And during it, I could wear a glucose monitor and i saw jay that the days where my glucose levels were spiking and dropping a lot my mental health was worse and the days where my glucose levels were steady my mental health was so much better and this changed everything for me because i had been completely lost for the better part of a decade trying to understand what the heck i could do to improve my mental health and i was lost let me tell you and nobody said oh you should look at your lifestyle but in that moment I remember that day I was feeling one of these episodes come on of depersonalization which is this horrible mix of brain fog feeling like a stranger in your own body I mean it's terrible and I scanned my glucose monitor and I see one of the biggest glucose spikes I had ever seen and so I started putting two and two together I said wait a minute is it possible that this glucose spike is actually causing this episode anyway so that opened the gates really wide for you.

44:12I was like, wow, this is fascinating. And I started doing all the research I could. And I saw that I wasn't alone, that most people experience glucose spikes on a daily basis, even if they don't have diabetes. And that these spikes are correlated to all the things we spoke about and to mental health. So as I started managing my glucose levels, my mental health started improving. And so what's the connection? Well, the cells in your brain also use glucose for energy. And so you know those three things I talked about? The mitochondrial damage, the glycation, the inflammation, the insulin. Your brain cells also feel these consequences of spikes.

44:53And we don't fully understand how the brain works, but we do understand that when these things happen in the brain, it's not good. We also know that glucose spikes impact tyrosine levels. And tyrosine is an important molecule that regulates our mood. I want to tell you about another really fun study. can i okay yeah please fascinating so bless these scientists they're so amazing okay so let me tell you what this study is so scientists recruited 200 married couples they gave each person in the couple a voodoo doll representing their spouse wow i know they told the married people to please over the next six weeks put a pin in the voodoo doll every time your spouse annoys you and then at the end of the six weeks the scientists got all the voodoo dolls back with all the pins in them and they measured the participants glucose levels they found that the people who had the most irregular glucose levels had put the most pins in the voodoo doll representing their spouse and that's where the tyrosine hypothesis started coming up they saw that being on a glucose roller coaster can impact how irritable you are how you see those around you how nice you are how triggered you are by your spouse so if you ever feel irritated agitated like oh so annoying this person hit them well maybe your glucose levels have something to do with it so whether you're trying to improve irritability hangriness mental health anxiety depression whatever managing your glucose levels again is a key foundation in the house of your health yeah And for me, it wasn't everything, right?

46:36After I managed my glucose levels, I had to go to therapy, do EMDR, do lots of other stuff. But it gave me a foundation that was so necessary as that first step. Yeah, well, I think what you're laying up there for us, and that's definitely what I've discovered in my own journey of mental health and well-being, is just that you're just making it harder for yourself when you're not using everything at your disposal. and I was definitely someone who had used mindfulness and meditation in order to master the mind but I didn't realize how hard that was when your body was slowing you down and actually if your body was with you the kind of revelations and breakthroughs you could have were limitless but when your body wasn't with you or for some people when their mind's not with their body it slows you down and it makes everything so much harder and I couldn't recommend that more to people like if you're someone who loves meditating and you love mindfulness but you're not taking care of your body and you're not looking at your glucose levels or your sleep, take a look at it.

47:32It's only going to make you a better meditator. And if you're the other way around where you're like, Jay, this, you know, the physical stuff for me is easy. I feel really fit and healthy. It's really important to add the other side as well, because you have no idea how good you can feel. It's all connected. And to give you another example, I've been recently really into weight lifting. So it feels really good. My body feels strong. And I've noticed also my mental resilience has improved, as my physical resilience has improved. So I'm able to manage stress better. I feel stronger. And that's because you train your nervous system.

48:03Your body and your brain are all connected by your nervous system, right? And so when you improve your physical health, your nervous system improves and your mental health improves as well. It's all connected. Absolutely. Is there a more ideal food before or after workouts? Oh, great question. So this actually brings me to another hack, which is the hack about movement. So as your muscles contract and as you exercise, or even as you're just walking, your muscles are burning glucose for energy. And we can use this information to our advantage. So the hack I recommend is after eating one of your meals a day, after one of your meals a day, use your muscles for 10 minutes.

48:43Go for a walk, play with your dog, tidy your apartment. I'm a very messy person, so I do that one a lot. Tidy your apartment. Do some calf raises if you're at your desk at work. why not go to the gym you know go weight lift because as you do this your muscles are going to be using some of the glucose from the meal you just ate and if you're an athlete and you're doing some very intense exercise your body is going to use up most of the glucose from whatever you eat so the more you exercise the more you can eat glucose before or even after actually and you're experienced much less of a spike so if you want to eat a cookie or chocolate cake before or after workout is actually a pretty good time to do it.

49:26That way a lot of the glucose will go to your muscles instead of causing a spike. That's what I've been trying to do. So the reason I'm asking is for myself, one of the things I struggle with is usually I'll wake up, I'll meditate in the morning, and then I'll drink a tea or something like that, like a warm herbal tea. And then I'll go on a hike or I'll go and work out because I've never really found what to eat before my workout. That's great for me. And then when I come back, I'll eat breakfast. I'll have my savory breakfast and I feel good and everything feels fine. But I often wonder, could I be doing something better before I go out on my hike?

49:59Which can be like, it'll be 30 minutes normal and then 30 minutes intense incline. If you do eat something before going, working out, maybe a banana or something, do you feel like you're able to work out better? Do you feel like you have more energy, more explosivity? That's a great question. I think I'd have to monitor that to give you an honest answer. And I would say that in the past, I've tested things like dates but then I was worried that that was going to spike. That's very high in sugar, yeah. Exactly. So I had that recommendation from someone. I tested it. I was like, when I learned about everything to do with glucose, I was like, wait a minute, that's probably not a good idea.

50:32How intensely are you exercising? Are you just walking? No. So that's what I mean. It's probably 30 minutes easy and then 30 minutes of explosive incline. But it's not high intensity in that it's not all fast. It's self-paced, but it is all uphill for 30 minutes. For example, if I don't eat before I work out, I don't perform as well. Right. Because as you're eating something that contains glucose, that's going to feed your muscles very easily accessible energy. So you could do some tests. I don't think dates are necessary because they're very high in sugar, but you could even try something like a piece of sourdough bread with an avocado on it or a banana with some nut butter.

51:10You don't have to have something so sweet and concentrated as a date. But do some tests. See what works for you. Now I know some options. Yeah, you could even do... I like the avocado and sourdough. That sounds like... You could do some almonds. you could do yogurt with some berries try some stuff out and see because you might find that you're actually walking faster that would be good for me definitely sometimes I'm going up that hill going why am I doing this today and I completely agree with you and would you say it's the same for weight training before weight training big time especially if you're doing something like weight training which is more explosive than walking or running you have to really your muscles need to be able to go you know so yes absolutely so my nutritionist put me onto this a couple of years ago and i hated it but then when i saw you were like it was one of your big pillars oh i know what you're about to say you know what i'm about to say yeah go on vinegar yes so i was drinking a cup of vinegar like the little whatever the shot of vinegar why a shot of vinegar before okay well first of all a shot is not good you should always dilute it because if it's a shot it's going to hurt your teeth i was literally doing a shot so i'm going to change that you're going to change that and that's a lot easier to dilute yeah okay so vinegar contains a wonderful molecule called acetic acid and acetic acid when you have some before a meal is going to slow down how quickly food breaks down into glucose in your body so it's kind of like slowing down digestion and this is really really good it makes you feel fuller for longer and the glucose molecules arrive more slowly into your blood and that's the whole point so the hack is before a meal that's going to be high in carbs have one tablespoon of vinegar in a big glass of water i was not doing that five to ten minutes yeah well i've no wonder you didn't like it you had to do a shot like gosh and it can be any type of vinegar apple cider vinegar white wine vinegar cherry vinegar whatever you just want to avoid the very syrupy like balsamic glaze that one's no bueno because that's full of sugar this is an easy hack and again science has shown us that this ingredient that most of us have in our kitchen actually has a wonderful effect on our health and it's been used for millennia I mean vinegar has been around forever but now we understand the science behind it it's a great hack and what all before every meal or just lunch or is there depends on how you feel I recommend before the meal of your day that's highest in sugar or starch right Right.

53:44And one other thing you can do is, you know how I was explaining veggies first is so important. You don't have to drink the vinegar. You can also make it into a dressing. I like the sound of that. And put it on your veggies. Okay. You're making it easy for me now. So, you know, the salad with some vinaigrette dressing. Wonderful way to start your meals. Wonderful. You get the fiber from the veggies, making that mesh, and you get the vinegar slowing down, breakdown of food. You're golden. Got it. Okay. Now I can get back on it. Yeah. Because I've been avoiding it. It was so hard. I was like, I have to ask you about it today.

54:14I'm not surprised. I was doing a shot of vinegar. And you're right about the teeth as well. I'm so sorry. That's terrible. That's kind of gross. Yeah, I don't blame you. It was really hard to have. And yeah, every time I'd have it, it would almost feel like it could start some reflux or it could have like, you know. That's not great. Oh, I'm sorry. No, no, it's good. But as you can see, this is another really easy hack. It's free. It doesn't ask you to remove anything. You're just adding stuff and helping your body at the same time. And then I like to see these hacks as sort of an on-ramp to a freeway.

54:45You know, you kind of get on them. And then after a few days, you feel so much better and everything becomes easier in your life. Okay, I'm going to assume that everybody messages their friends. I'm also going to assume you've run into some issues when messaging, especially during group chats. I know I have. One time I sent a message way too fast, full of typos, and everyone had to guess what I was even trying to say. WhatsApp can help. First, you can message privately with everyone, even if you're all using totally different phones. It just works. Sent a message too fast and instantly regretted it?

55:21No problem, just edit it. And when the chat gets a little too intense, you can switch to a group video call and actually talk it out. Photos and videos come through super clear and messages get delivered without weird gaps or delays. Plus, WhatsApp has so many great features like polls, pinned messages, and even event invites with RSVPs so planning stuff doesn't just turn into a mess. I mean, it just makes a lot of sense. It's time for WhatsApp. Message privately with everyone. This is Jay Shetty from On Purpose, and if you've ever felt like you've lost touch with yourself, try changing your surroundings, even for just a few days.

56:06Delta recently invited four creators to do just that. Two trips, one question. What if travel isn't just movement, but recharging in motion? In Seattle, they focused on routine and self-care. Gym time, grounding walks, and meditation. In Copenhagen, they let go. Biking, saunas, and embracing the moment. And what surprised them most? Their usual stress faded. They felt clearer, calmer, more connected. And Oura Ring data backed it up. Based on their aura-ing sleep scores, everyone met the day feeling more rested. And their bodies moved more, without even trying. Travel gave them space to practice self-care.

56:47And not restriction, but balance. And the best part? That sense of well-being didn't end when they got home. With Delta, fly and live better. Explore the whole journey on Delta's YouTube channel. I've been seeing a lot more EVs lately. Parked in driveways, passing on the road, friends making the switch. And they all say the same thing. These cars are simpler, fewer parts, fewer repairs, fewer headaches. That's what makes EVs worth considering. Less to break, less to fix. Even if you haven't made the move yet, it's hard to ignore the shift. They're more affordable, more available, and honestly, just make sense for everyday life.

57:28The way forward is electric. Learn more at electricforall.org. yeah no that's great what about for our snackers our snackers that are listening who are saying jesse i love this advice i can do that for my meals but i'm a big snacker and i turn towards i mean today if you look at it whether it's a protein bar but i guess protein bars is such a common go-to snack but they have really high sugar it depends on the bar yeah it really depends so look at the ingredients always and if you so when you look at the ingredients list on the back of a product they are ordered by weight so if the first ingredient says sugar that means sugar is the most important ingredient in that product and then they decrease right in in weight so if you see in the first five ingredients of anything whether it's a protein bar or yogurt if there's any type of sugar in the first five ingredients then that product is dessert okay so if it says like such a great yeah and it doesn't have to say just sugar it can say something like date puree honey dextrose fruit juice concentrate it has in glucose revolution i have the whole list but manufacturers use lots of fancy words to not make it sound like just cane sugar but actually it's just cane sugar it's all the same molecules right so sometimes you could your body's not telling the difference no no difference so that's for the protein bars and then for the snackers Okay, I have a hack that's called putting clothing on your carbs.

59:02Anytime you eat carbs, so carbs being starches or sugars, make sure to never eat them naked. And by naked, I mean on their own. So never snack on just a piece of bread or never snack on just a cookie. Always add some clothing, which means protein, fat, or fiber, which means, for example, adding some avocado to the bread or some cheese, which means, for example, adding five almonds to the cookie or a Greek yogurt, right? So if you love snacking, remember this hack, put clothing on your carbs, never eat your carbs naked. That way you'll have less of a glucose spike because the risk, Jay, is that our snacks kick off that cravings rollercoaster because between meals, our stomach is empty.

59:45So same concept as for breakfast. You don't want to eat too much sweet stuff. Otherwise it's going to make a big spike and you're not going to feel very good 90 minutes later. This is actually genius. Like if you're listening to this right now, none of us have any excuses to shift this around. Genuinely, I'm listening to you just going, thank you. Like, thank you so much because I think it's so often when you're hearing about how to change your diet and your food, it just sounds so hard and so complex and it feels like, God, where do I even start with this. And here we are just making really basic connections that we can all do very, very simply.

1:00:22And it helps you with your energy, with your mood, with your skin, but also for serious health conditions like type 2 diabetes, this is the way out, right? If you have type 2 diabetes, if one of your parents, grandparents has it, it can be quite challenging to know how to get out of it. And it can feel like either I have to go on this extreme diet and never eat carbs ever again, or I'll do this medication. And what I want to offer with these hacks is an easy way to take back some control over your glucose levels because type 2 diabetes is reversible. It is not a genetic hereditary disease that you can't do anything about.

1:00:55You can improve it. I see people put it into remission every single week using this work in concert with their doctor, of course, but this is the kind of stuff that can turn your health around. And instead of getting sicker as you age, your health can improve as you age. And don't we all want that? That's the dream, you know? Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. In the book, you talk about there's some research that says that eating fruit first thing in the morning without any other foods is best for digestion. Would eating it as a singular food first thing in the morning impact blood sugar? Like, what's your take on that?

1:01:27Well, you know, this, this idea of, oh, if you eat fruit as dessert, it's going to rot in your stomach or it's going to putrefy. That's kind of an urban myth that's been floating around. So if you look at the ideal food order from that science, you should eat the sugar last, right? And fruit is also in the sugar category. And so how do you reconcile both of those things? And people have asked me a lot about this concept of, oh, fruit for dessert is going to rot in your stomach. Turns out there's no scientific evidence to support that. Nothing can rot in your stomach. nothing can putrefy in your stomach sugar eaten last or fruit eaten last does not do that okay now even though most of us think that a piece of fruit is super natural they're like oh a banana or peach like that's nature's bounty turns out jay the fruit that we find today in supermarkets is actually not natural humans are very good at breeding stuff So humans have bred gray wolves into chihuahuas, right?

1:02:29Yeah, yeah. And loads of other breeds of dogs. We've also bred our fruits and our plants to be very sweet and full of sugar. If you compare a banana from today to an ancestral banana, they look nothing alike. Wow. The ancestral banana is small, full of seeds, full of fiber, quite tart. Modern day banana is basically dessert. same for apples apples used to be small like cherries no they're this big nice little plump package of water and sugar essentially if you want to eat something sweet a piece of whole fruit is still the best thing to eat because of that protective fiber and i explained the fiber makes that mesh in your intestine but then as soon as you denature a piece of fruit whether you juice it you take away the fiber you blend it you pulverize the fiber then it becomes just one big glucose spike waiting to happen and it's not because something comes from fruit that it's good for you yeah that's a really good explanation i appreciate that i think there's always been people who've demonized fruit as well in that way but i think that explanation actually gets into the nuance and subtlety of how we're having our fruit and i was never going to say don't eat fruit it's totally fine to eat fruit seriously it's much better to eat fruit than a cookie right for your glucose levels for your body and it is still an unprocessed food right it's been bred and changed, but it's still unprocessed.

1:03:52So of course have fruit. Just don't denature that fruit. Totally. Because then you're taking it even further and further away from the way nature intended us to consume it. Yeah. I actually remember when I first went to India with my mom and my mom was making me the same curries that she would make me in London, but now making them when we were living in India, just for a bit, we went visiting when I was younger. And it's so interesting because each vegetable was so flavorful but so different and I'm sure you feel this back home or when you're traveling like you can find these places in the world where you're eating real vegetables again or real fruits and they don't look as perfect they all look imperfect they're kind of funky yeah they've got personalities and even the flavors are not consistent so like a zucchini is going to taste different to another one but it's still so flavorful but in such a unique way and i remember saying to my mom like what are you doing here like what are you doing differently in india that you're not doing back in london it was just what was accessible and and i think that's in the states for sure where i feel that even more than from london where in london i still felt certain vegetables and everything was still accessible but here right i really feel like a lot of the vegetables and fruits that we're eating are super processed yeah absolutely it's really tough uh one of your other hacks uh is stop counting calories yeah i wanted to talk about that because i think that's what all of us do and again that again the recommended 2 000 for women and 2 500 for men seems to be like such a big figure that we focus our whole diet plans on and lives on i love this question do you know jay how people used to measure the amount of calories in the food?

1:05:32I don't know. Okay. So if they wanted to measure the amount of calories in a donut, here's what they used to do. They would put the donut in a little box and they would put this box in a bigger, like an aquarium, like a big basin of water. Okay. They put the donut box at the bottom of the aquarium and then they would light the donut inside the box on fire. The donut would burn. And then they would measure by how many degrees the water in the aquarium increased. Oh my gosh. So, and that would give you the number of calories in the donut. The calories is just a measure of how much heat is given up when something is burned.

1:06:17So if you were to put an avocado in that box and burn it, it might increase the water temperature around it by the exact same number of degrees. Therefore, you would say this donut and this avocado have the same number of calories. Now, it seems pretty obvious that this is kind of a silly way to measure food. It's almost like saying, oh, this book and this book have the same number of pages. Therefore, they're the same book. This is not the case, right? My book and your book might have the same number of pages, but they're not about the same topic. They're not from the same author. They don't give you the same information, don't give you the same emotion, right?

1:06:52And so if we just talk about foods based on how many calories they contain, we're missing what's actually key. What is in that food? What are the molecules in that food? Is that food just glucose and going to create a big glucose spike? Or is that food just healthy fats and protein and going to keep your glucose levels steady? To give you another example, two people could be eating the exact same number of calories. Let's say two women are eating 2 ,000 calories a day. one of them could be eating in a way that keeps her glucose level steady feel great energy functioning mitochondria clear brain going after her dreams girl boss whatever the other person could be eating 2 000 calories in a way that's creating lots of glucose spikes inflammation aging type 2 diabetes hormonal issues brain fog etc etc etc how many calories you're eating does not tell you how healthy you are does not predict your health at all you need to learn about what you're eating.

1:07:51And in my book, I explain how to identify the molecules in a food. And if you follow my hacks and you stop counting calories, naturally your health is going to improve. You might be eating the exact same number of calories as before, but your life will be completely different. Calories are not enough information. They're interesting to measure the quantity of a food. For example, one donut versus two donuts, but they're not sufficient. And it's really easy to hide behind calories when you're, for example, a food manufacturer and you're making processed foods and you say, there's only 50 calories in this little bag of sweets.

1:08:29Don't worry. It's not bad for you. It's just 50 calories. Yeah, but it's 50 calories of pure sugar. It's going to make you feel horrible. So calories are not enough. We need to evolve past this. I want to teach people what is in their food. I want to make every single one of my readers a food detective. I want them to have all the agency, the power, the information to make informed choices when they go to the supermarket. That's the goal, right? Giving people that freedom and that power. That's what I care about. Yeah. That's such a brilliant mission. Thank you. That's such a brilliant mission because even everything you've said to us today, whether it's being able to know what to look at on the back of a pack, all the way to putting clothing on your car.

1:09:10I was just it comes for you in your heart and mind from a place of giving people agency and giving people strength and rather than making us fearful, which I think a lot of diet plans do, a lot of food advice does. It makes us quite insecure and scared that we're doing the wrong thing. Whereas when I'm talking to you, I feel a sense of like enthusiasm and confidence that I know what to do. And that's so, that's so fulfilling. Like it's so, it fills you with so much enthusiasm and energy to feel like, yes, I am in control of how I'm going to feel and what I'm going to eat. You are. And the information is there.

1:09:50And I just want to apologize to all the people who've been manipulated by food marketing, diet culture, that stuff stop. It can stop. If you get this information, this will stop. And the thing that breaks my heart the most, Jay, and I think this is what motivates me to do this work, is when I meet somebody who has a medical condition like type 2 diabetes. And everybody wants to make the right choices. Everybody wants to be healthier. But because of the manipulation and all the misleading information about food, they're eating in a way that they think and they hope is good for them, but is actually making them sicker.

1:10:25And that's what I want to stop. I want to insert this information in this science, in those situations, and turn it all around for people. Yeah, I love that. I love that. Jesse, we talked about so many things today, But one thing I wanted to ask you about was the use of supplements. I take a lot of supplements every day. I felt better because of them. It's had a big impact on my personal life. And I was always someone who was playing around. I think supplements are also things that you have to test and experiment and see what works for you as a combination. What's your take on supplements? Well, I know supplements in the glucose space, right?

1:10:55And I can't comment on all the other stuff. I'm sure there's great things for other stuff you're trying to optimize. But when it comes to glucose, so people often ask me, instead of doing the vinegar hack, can I take a vinegar gummy? When I can't have a veggie starter, can I take fiber pills? My dad has diabetes, doesn't want to change his diet. What can I give him? And I spent the last few years researching extensively this space. And what are some cool molecules that could actually help your glucose levels? Unfortunately, what's on the market today, at worst, actually contains sugar and creates a glucose spike under the guise of going to help you with your glucose levels.

1:11:32And that's just so annoying to me. And there is some good stuff out there, but I've actually created something incredible that is the best thing on the market if you want to help your journey to steady glucose with a supplement. Now, I'll explain what it is, but I don't want people to think this is a magic pill. You should do the food hacks first and foremost. Okay, that is going to have the biggest, most powerful impact on your health. But a supplement can also help. So I've identified four plants, Jay, that have existed forever, but that recent science has shown have an incredible impact on our glucose levels.

1:12:06These are white mulberry leaf, lemon extract, cinnamon, and antioxidants from green vegetables. I've put them all together into a capsule. you take it before a meal and it reduces the glucose spike of your meal by up to 40 percent wow and this is more powerful than vinegar which was up to 30 percent i know i got some i've got some so if you want extra help this is the thing you need it's called anti-spike formula you can find it on my website antispike.com and it not only has this immediate impact on the glucose spike of a meal, it also builds up benefit over time. It reduces inflammation, it reduces your fasting glucose levels, it increases GLP-1, which is a hormone we've spoken a lot about recently in the media because of things like Ozempic.

1:12:59GLP-1 is a really cool hormone that just makes you feel fuller. And Ozempic tricks your brain into thinking there's more GLP-1 in your body than there actually is. But with anti-spike, you're actually harnessing natural pathways to increase it for real. So this is my latest creation and I hope it's going to help a lot of people. You know, when you're at 4 p.m. birthday party, when you're traveling, when you can't do the hacks, anti-spike will be there for you. But again, do the food hacks first. It's just an additional hack to help. Yeah, I want to try it. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I love that. What is your take on Ozempic?

1:13:32I mean, based on what you just mentioned there, what's been your assessment of it? I'm sure you've seen people who are on it. Yeah. Listen, I think for a lot of people it's been kind of a godsend um they've really struggled their whole life with their weight and for some people that's their objective right so whether you take it you don't take it it's not my place to judge but what i've found jay is that if you think about it this craze has shown us that we live in a society in which our food system is so toxic that we need to take a pill to prevent us from eating the food around us do you understand how sad that is so i just feel a bit worried and a bit disheartened that we've gone to we've gone to that place and also when people lose weight on ozempic they don't just lose fat they also lose muscle mass and so when you stop taking ozempic and if you um gain weight back you often just gain fat back and so overall you're in a worse place so whether or not you take it it's important to learn my hacks so that way when you stop it, you sustain it.

1:14:33Right. But, um, yeah, I mean, wow. Wow. What can I say? Crazy world we live in. Yeah, absolutely. And I appreciate you touching on that cultural challenge that we have on a number of parts in our conversation. And I really think that that's at the heart of a lot of what you're saying is that everyone out there who's listening right now, who feels like they don't like the way they eat. They don't like what they eat. They judge their body. They look at the mirror first thing in the morning and criticize themselves. It all comes from programming and conditioning. It's not your fault. It's not your fault.

1:15:09And you were set up to feel that way. And there's a lot of money being made off your back because you feel that way. Yeah. And so I think a lot of people, we beat ourselves up. We think, oh, what's wrong with me? Or there must be something really bad with me. Or, oh my gosh, I'm not disciplined enough. and I don't have good habits. No, it's not about discipline. It's not about laziness. Everything's temptation, choices. Yeah, toxic food around you that's cheap, misleading marketing messages, you know, incorrect information. So we need to go back to teaching people how their body actually functions and the science and the physiology.

1:15:39And you know, Jay, I hope I will become completely irrelevant. I hope this information will be so common knowledge. People will be like, yep, wear sunscreen, drink water, brush your teeth, have a savory breakfast. Like I want my stuff to be at that level and I want to retire and disappear because everybody needs to know this. It should be taught in schools. It's a basic right to understand how your body functions and how to navigate this difficult food landscape that we live in. Absolutely. And the courage that any of you have right now who are listening and even wanting to take one step towards that agency that Jesse's been talking about, that's a huge win because we're operating in a society where even taking that one step is often so difficult because of all the messages we're hearing around us.

1:16:21So anyone who's listening and about to take that first step, go and order a copy of Glucose Revolution right now, The Life-Changing Power of Balancing Your Blood Sugar. And of course, check out antispike.com to figure out if you need to add that once you've done Jesse's hacks. And Jesse, we end every conversation with a final five, which is our fast five on the podcast. And I'm excited to see what you answer. So they have to be answered in one word to one sentence maximum. Got it. So Jesse, here are your final five. The first question is, what is the best advice you've ever heard or received when it comes to health?

1:16:59Symptoms or messages. I'm going to let you expand because I like that. Okay. If you feel symptoms from acne to psoriasis, to infertility, to brain fog, these are not something to suppress. They are messages. They are your body trying to communicate with you, to tell you, hey, there's something wrong. I need your help. Don't suppress. Don't feel bad about the symptoms. Flip the script. talk to your body. Be like, okay, why is there all this eczema on my arm? What's going on? That's inflammation. That's inside. Can I help you? You see what I mean? So symptoms are messages. How do you think we often process symptoms instead of as messages?

1:17:33We think our body is fighting us. We're like, body, why are you against me? We don't understand. It's crying for help. It's not against. Your body just wants to keep you alive. Your body's not trying to be annoying. I promise your body's trying to keep you alive. That's so good. That's so good. I love that. Your body is not trying to be annoying. I love that. No, it's so true. And your body is so much smarter than you. So much smarter than you. Listen to it. It's got stuff to teach you. That's such great insight. Next time you come, we're going to talk about that. I love that. That's really hit a chord with me.

1:18:07Like, I think it's so interesting how we look at anything inconvenient as there's something wrong and you're being annoying and I wish you would just be okay. Rather than, oh, wait a minute, you're actually trying to share something. And I think a lot of people, at least I've heard, I don't have kids, but I've learned that a lot of people feel this with their children, where your child's trying to communicate with you and just doesn't know how. And it's almost like our body's like that. Yeah. It's like a baby doesn't cry because it's trying to annoy you. A baby cries because it's going through something difficult and he wants your help.

1:18:38Yeah. I love that. That's such a beautiful answer. All right. Second question. What is the worst health advice you've ever heard or received? Have a fruit smoothie first thing in the morning. Yeah. I mean, anything that has to do with fruit juices, fruit smoothies as being a health food, anything. No. I'm just like, no. Yeah. Don't do it. Don't do it. Don't do it. Okay. Question number three, what's the first thing you do in the morning and the last thing you do before you go to bed? The first thing I do in the morning, I take my earplugs out and I drink water. So you do have water first in the morning.

1:19:09Yeah, absolutely. And then I try to turn my phone on a little bit later. I try to not turn it on in the first half an hour. Last thing I do at night before going to bed, I have this app in which I track my mental health. So I put a little, a scale of one to five, how my mental health was today. And I write a couple of sentences about my day. Nice. What is the app called? It's called Dalio. I have no affiliation whatsoever. It's awesome. D-A-Y-L-I-O. And I've been doing this for four years now. and it makes a little dot for, I'll show you in a sec, it makes a little dot for every day. And so I have four years of dots of how my mental health was in all of those days.

1:19:43And I see these patterns. I see that I've gotten happier over time, more fulfilled, have less episodes of difficult mental health issues. So it's really cool to look back. That's beautiful. I love that. That's a great recommendation for everyone listening. Fourth question. What's something that you used to believe to be true about health, but now you've realized it's actually not true? that everybody should wear a glucose monitor. So when I first started in the space, because wearing the glucose monitor had changed my life, I was telling everybody to wear one. And now I realize that you can get all the benefits by seeing what I've discovered and the science that I've found.

1:20:20And sometimes over-tracking yourself can lead to issues and stress. Yeah, I can relate to that. There was a point where I was measuring everything and it was useful and then it went too far. And then I didn't want to measure anything. And then it's a really interesting balance because data can be so powerful. And at the same, it can be so disempowering. Because sometimes you look at the data to decide how you feel about yourself. Yeah, yeah. It's like, you know, you wake up and you're like, I don't know if I'm tired or not. Look at my sleep data. Oh, I'm exhausted, clearly, because I didn't sleep well.

1:20:51But you're actually not connected to how you feel. Yeah, yeah. And it takes you outside of your body. Exactly, exactly. It's what you were saying earlier. We need to actually get better at living in our bodies and listening within our bodies and hearing and feeling what they're saying to us and how they're communicating rather than expecting that even an external person or system is going to somehow predict how we feel. Yeah, that's a really, really powerful takeaway. I love that. Fifth and final question, which we ask to every guest who's ever been on the show. if you could create one law that everyone in the world had to follow what would it be?

1:21:30Okay I'm going to restrict myself to the world of food because there's lots of other laws that we could do that would be very important in the world It could be a real law ban all processed breakfast food I love that law because that would help kids it would help parents it would change people's mood make them happier, more fulfilled yeah I think that's a big one that's huge or like the law could be treat breakfast like any other meal because if you ban something then other stuff pops up so it's more like treat breakfast as second lunch and eat lunch food at breakfast yeah that's great i love that everyone jesse in chopin the book is called glucose revolution the life-changing power of balancing your sugar if you don't follow at glucose goddess on instagram make sure you go do that right away please grab a copy of this book We went through the hacks, but we were just skimming the surface.

1:22:24There is amazing insight, amazing hacks, amazing steps and habit building processes inside the book that are going to be huge for you. So I can't recommend this book enough. I would actually say that if there's one book you read in 2024, I want it to be this book. So please, please, please go pick this book up. I think it will change your life. I don't think I've ever emphatically mentioned a book that way before on the show, but I mean it. And I can't thank you enough, Jesse, for the work that you're doing in the world. and how much it's impacted my personal life and how I feel and how I think it's going to impact millions and billions worldwide.

1:22:57So thank you so much. Thank you, Jay. I'm very grateful to be here. Thank you. And I hope you'll come back soon. With pleasure. Thank you. If you loved this episode, you'll enjoy my interview with Dr. Daniel Amen on how to change your life by changing your brain. If we want a healthy mind, it actually starts with a healthy brain. You know, I've had the blessing or the curse to scan over a thousand convicted felons and over a hundred murderers and their brains are very damaged. This episode of On Purpose is brought to you by Chase Sapphire Reserve. I believe that travel is one of the greatest gifts that we've ever been given and Chase Sapphire Reserve has been my gateway to the world's most captivating destinations.

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1:25:31With Delta, fly and live better. Explore the whole journey on Delta's YouTube channel. This is an iHeart Podcast.