How to eat MORE and still burn fat: New book by top biochemist gives vital health advice

When I created the Glucose Goddess Method, I never envisioned it as a weight loss diet.

As a biochemist, I was fascinated by the discovery that a few simple—and sometimes surprising—”hacks” could flatten the rollercoaster of spikes and dips our blood sugar levels go through during the day. And I was very focused on the positive impact this leveling up has on our mental and physical health.

But when I ran a pilot experiment last year with nearly 3,000 people who tried the Method for a month, more than a third of the participants who wanted to lose weight did so and, amazingly, ate more than usual, didn’t count or cut calories. . food, even dessert.

In yesterday’s Daily Mail, I explained the importance of starting the day with a savory breakfast to keep blood sugar levels up from the start.

Today, in the second excerpt from my new book, I’ll explain the science behind how eating more can improve your health and lead to fat loss.

The key is to take two of my other “hacks” on board: eat a bowl of salad or a plate of vegetables before lunch or dinner; and adding a little protein, fat, or fiber to “naked” carbs. I’ll show you how later. But first, let’s look at the why.

Our blood sugar levels (also known as glucose levels) are designed to rise naturally after we eat sugary and starchy foods and to fall once the cells around the body have absorbed glucose from those foods for fuel. But if we eat a lot of sweet and starchy foods at the same time, glucose levels can rise too high and too fast. This can cause a harmful inflammatory response in the body as it struggles to get glucose levels back to normal.

One response is to pump out the hormone insulin to remove glucose from the blood and divert it to fat stores. Often this insulin rush works so efficiently that it leaves the blood glucose level quite low. That’s why you may experience an energy dip a few hours after a fast food meal or snack, giving you a strong craving for something sweet as your body struggles to build up. those blood sugar levels go up again.

Many people live with erratically fluctuating glucose levels throughout the day, big spikes and big crashes, and an increase in the total amount of glucose in the body. In the long run, this precarious state puts the body in a state of stress that has been shown to increase the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, some cancers and Alzheimer’s disease.

It is not surprising that people who want to lose fat have a hard time doing so when the food they eat is channeled into fat stores and the irresistible cravings drive them to eat unhealthy foods. By taking steps to smooth out these glucose spikes and dips, you can break this vicious cycle.

And the result, as my experiment showed, is weight loss, even though you may eat more than before, without restrictions and certainly without counting calories.

That’s because when we flatten those glucose curves, the cravings disappear, giving us back control over what and when we eat.

Hormones come back into balance and, with less insulin flushing around, our bodies can go from fat storage mode to a more natural fat burning mode more often and for longer periods of time. Of the 2,700 participants in my study, 38 percent of those who wanted to lose weight did so—with no restrictions and certainly no calorie counting. All through the power of my glucose hacks.

Other scientific studies support this finding with evidence showing that people who focus on flattening their glucose curve can eat more calories and lose fat more easily than people who eat fewer calories but don’t flatten their glucose curve. For example, a 2017 study from the University of Michigan found that when people focused on flattening their glucose curve (even if they ate more calories than the other group), they lost more weight (17 lb vs. 4 lb) than those who ate fewer calories. and paid no attention to their blood sugar levels.

The action of insulin is central. When blood glucose levels are stable, insulin levels fall. A 2021 review analyzing 60 weight loss studies proved that insulin reduction always precedes weight loss.

The feedback from my 1.8 million followers on Instagram is also pretty universal: if you keep your glucose levels from rising, you can eat until you feel full, without counting calories, and this will not only improve your health, but also often naturally leads to fat loss as a result. The key is adding the right calories to your meals — calories that keep you satiated and cravings, insulin release and reduce inflammation.

One of my favorite — and most impactful — hacks is to eat a vegetable or salad dish as a starter for your lunch or dinner. You’ll find that whatever you eat after that appetizer is much less likely to cause any sort of blood glucose spikes.

That’s because when you eat fiber-rich foods like salad or veggies on a relatively empty stomach, the fiber unfolds against the walls of your gut, forming a viscous protective mesh that stays in place for a few hours. This mesh makes it difficult for glucose molecules from the rest of the meal to pass through the intestinal wall and into the bloodstream. So the rate at which glucose enters the blood is reduced, making glucose spikes less likely.

As long as you have a salad or vegetable starter, you can eat whatever you usually have, knowing that there will be less of a glucose spike coming through your meal due to the protective fiber mesh.

To give you an idea of ​​the effect, a study that simply reversed the order in which foods were eaten during a meal showed that by putting vegetables first (and carbohydrates last), the meal’s glucose peak increased by a maximum of 75 per day was reduced. cent. This was achieved without changing the content of the meal, simply by putting the vegetables first and harnessing the power of the fiber they contain. It’s quite remarkable.

So if your meal usually contains a lot of vegetables, you can turn it into a vegetarian entree by eating the greens first before eating anything else.

But for this hack to work best, put a vegetable “appetizer” on the plate that’s 30 percent the size of the next meal. Lentils and legumes count as vegetables, and a thick vegetable soup is a great stomach liner. (A smooth blended soup won’t be as effective because the fiber particles are pulverized by the blending, making them less effective at creating that protective mesh.)

Snacking on carrot sticks while you prepare your meal is just as effective. Your vegetable starter can be as simple as ten olives.

Tossing your salad in a vinegar-based dressing ticks off two hacks in one. (In tomorrow’s Daily Mail, I’ll explain how the acetic acid in vinegar slows the rate at which glucose is released.)

All vegetables work, – cooked, raw, dressed or plain. At a restaurant, ask for a salad to start your meal or choose a vegetable dish from the “side dishes” menu. When you’re away, bring a bag of carrots, cherry tomatoes, or cucumber sticks to nibble on before eating your next meal.