Credits: Social Media
Glucose Goddess shares four food hacks to cut cravings and prevent the post-meal crash
Weve all been guilty of reaching for the snack cupboard when we feel food cravings coming on or will have felt a slump in energy after a big meal.
However, biochemist and glucose expert Jessie Inchausp� has four simple food hacks to help reduce cravings and give you a steady stream of energy by taming glucose spikes that occur after eating.
Jessie regularly talks about these hacks on her various social media channels, on podcasts – such as her recent appearance on Lewis Howes The School of Greatness Podcast – and in her book, The Glucose Goddess Method.
Savory breakfast
The first hack for taming glucose spikes in the morning is to swap a sugary breakfast of cereal and fruit juice for a savory breakfast.
At equal calories, a sweet breakfast actually gives us less energy than a savory one, Jessie explains in The Glucose Goddess Method, which as well as being available in print, can also be found as an audiobook on the likes of Spotify.
Unfortunately, a typical western diet leans towards breakfasting on glucose-spiking foods such as cereal, toast and jam, croissants, granola, pastries, sweet oats, biscuits, fruit juice, pop-tarts, fruit smoothies and so on, Inchausp� continues. All of these foods are composed of mostly starch and sugar – big, big glucose spikes.
To help reduce the chances of cravings and to give you steadier energy levels throughout the day, the biochemist recommends turning to a savory breakfast which she says is a meal built around protein and fat, and one that includes nothing sweet except whole fruit.
Jessie has plenty of recipes in her books and on her website, while you can also find plenty of savory breakfast inspiration online for free.
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Vinegar
Jessies second hack is to have one tablespoon of vinegar each day before the meal that will be highest in glucose.
Vinegar has been used for generations as a health ingredient, she explains. In the 18th century, it was even prescribed as a tea for people with diabetes.
Studies have shown that one tablespoon of vinegar can reduce the glucose spike of a meal by up to 30% and the insulin spike by up to 20%, Jessie adds.
With that, cravings are curbed, hunger is tamed and more fat is burned, she says. This is a very cheap trick too. A standard bottle of vinegar costs less than $5 and contains more than 60 one-tablespoon servings.
If you dont like the idea of drinking a tablespoon of pure vinegar, this can be diluted in water and drunk through a straw to help protect the enamel on your teeth and can also be included in things like mocktails or vinegar salad dressing.
Veggie starters
Rather than just diving into your main meal of the day, Jessie recommends adding a vegetable-based dish to the beginning of lunch or dinner.
Why? Because vegetables contain a powerful component called fiber, explains the self-professed Glucose Goddess. When eaten at the beginning of a meal, fiber significantly reduces the glucose spike of any food that follows.
As fiber arrives in our intestines, it deploys itself against our intestinal walls, the biochemist adds. There, it forms a protective mesh that slows and reduces the absorption into the bloodstream of any glucose coming down afterward.
Veggie starters can be as simple as raw veggies from your fridge or as fancy as slow-cooked leeks, she says. Ideally, try to make the veggie start comprise about 30% of your meal.
If you add a vinegar salad dressing to your veggie starter, that can count as two hacks in one.
Movement
And finally, Jessies fourth hack is to ensure that you move for 10 minutes after eating one meal each day, within 90 minutes of the end of that meal.
All this hack requires is to engage your muscles after eating, whether that’s going for a 10-minute walk, doing calf raises at your desk or even washing the dishes in the evening.
The more and the harder a muscle contracts, the more energy it needs. The more energy it needs, the more glucose it needs, Jessie says.
The rate of glucose burning varies wildly, depending on how hard were working, that is how much energy our muscles require, says the Glucose Goddess. It can increase a thousand-fold from when were at rest, sitting on our couch watching TV to when were intensely exercising like sprinting to catch our dog running across the park.
But with every muscle contraction, we burn up glucose molecules and we can use this simple equation to our advantage to flatten our glucose curves, she says.
In her book, The Glucose Goddess Method, Jessie recommends implementing these hacks over a four-week period, beginning by eating a savory breakfast each day throughout week one before layering in each hack over the subsequent three weeks.
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