Glucose Revolution: My Learning From An Informative Book

I’ve bought not one but two copies of Glucose Revolution by biochemist Jessie Inchaupse, one for my Kindle and a paperback. Lord knows where the paperback has gone. I was going to give it to a friend the other day but it seems that I’ve gifted it to someone else already. I hope that it’s come in handy.

What I hadn’t done before now was implement the thoroughly sensible suggestions in this book that I’ve just finished reading again. I’m really bad at changing my food intake for the better when there’s a lot going on in my life, a stress reaction maybe? However things seem to be getting quieter on the South Western front. So in order to firm up my intention to act on what I’ve read I thought that I’d blog about it.

My Weight Loss Journey

You’d never believe now that I was a little dot of a thing back in my teens and early twenties. I’m a size 16 at the moment and at one time clothes in this size were a squeeze. For the last thirty years I’ve been a yo-yo dieter with the weight creeping up each decade.

It took a big hit when the menopause struck. This was sudden due to a gynaecological emergency in my forties. Then just as I was getting a grip on the situation I was prescribed medication, seven years ago that is notorious for promoting weight gain. I was hungrier all the time than a hungry horse! I haven’t had much luck in losing those extra pounds ever since and my blood sugar levels remain stubbornly in the pre-diabetes zone.

I bought ‘Glucose Revolution’ a couple of years ago and was going to follow the strategy but then my caring role ramped up and I forgot about it. I’ve revisited it now my parents, who’ve both been poorly in the last year, need less support from me. Over the next few months I’m going to implement the strategies in the book step by step to see if it makes a difference. So let’s continue and tell you what it’s all about

Introducing The Glucose Revolution

Jessie Inchauspé used herself as a human guinea pig to explore how spikes in her blood sugar levels impacted her health. She noticed that better regulation improved , among other things, her energy levels, mood and her overall health. She provides anecdotal evidence from people who’ve also followed her methods who’ve lost weight and reversed diagnoses of pre-diabetes and type II diabetes using evidence based methods. Now that’s the point in the book when my interest was piqued.

Jessie explains when food intake causes glucose levels to spike and how these lead to energy crashes, increased fat storage and inflammation. There’s lots of dinky little graphs through the book that demonstrate the effect of, say, eating different categories of food in different orders or what happens if we exercise soon after eating. The principles are very clearly understand and it’s an easy read.

Strategies to Flatten Those Curves

• Eating food in the right order: fibre, then protein and fat. Carbohydrates comes last. Yes sugar still allowed but it’s best if it’s in dessert form and not eaten as a sugary snack. Or failing that you can pair your carbs with other food groups to slow down glucose absorption.
• Add vinegar before meals. This can be diluted in water or taken alongside pickled veg. Those big jars of onions that my partner made last year seem to be calling me!
• Light exercise after eating. The book suggest a quick walk but I’m wondering whether housework such as loading and unloading the dishwasher and cleaning up in the kitchen counts too.
• Have a savoury breakfast to avoid energy crashes as the day goes by.

How Am I Doing?

Well I’m already there with the savoury breakfast. A bagel with peanut butter or avocado and marmite has been my delicious go to choice for a while. I’m adding a slab of cucumber before the meal when I remember. I’ve bought the cider vinegar but now need to commit to drinking it. Maybe leaving it out on the worktop would be a good prompt. Or there’s always those pickled onions.

I’ve got to get better at eating food in the right order. That’s one to work on and yes I do need to change my snacking regime. That’s quite heavy on the carbs and the occasional sugar binge. The one thing that I forgot to mention is that calorie counting doesn’t feature in this regime. This is because different food groups are processed in different ways in the body. Fibre isn’t all converted into energy within the body for example. Some of it, of course, just passes through unprocessed and ends up in our plumbing systems.

I’m getting back into the habit of recording my dietary intake. I find the free version of the My Fitness Pal app really good for this. Even though calories are described as inconsequential in this book I still find it helpful to write down what I’ve eaten. Seeing what I’ve put into my gob in black and white is a great motivator to eat properly!

Disclaimer

This post contains links to companies and organisations just because I’m happy with the products or services that they supply or I’m spreading the word about what they do. There may also be affiliate links to Amazon for books and other items that I am personally recommending. If you decide to make a purchase from them, I might get a little bit of commission at no cost to you.