Click to listen to the audio…

Transcript of “Sugar spikes are personal”

The sugar spike caused by the food you eat, has very little to do with the food per se, it’s got more to do with you and who you’re living with.

You’re WORRIED about your sugar levels…………….

At this stage, they’re still OK. But only just. Your doctor has diagnosed you with pre-diabetes.

Since you definitely don’t want to be diagnosed with DIABETES, the next time you visit your physician, you’re keen to do all that you can, to keep your sugar levels down.

So where should you start ?

The sugar gremlin roller coaster

You’re often cranky, tired and hungry for NICE THINGS – so you reach for something to eat. Something NICE.   A chocolate, a packet of chips, a low-fat twinkie ………….the sugar load, provides the necessary fix.

Quick as a flash, your sugar levels rise…………….

How high they go and how long they stay elevated, depends on ?

This is what a group of Israeli researchers asked, because that temporary spike, is what triggers A LOT of health problems, including high blood pressure, high cholesterol and type 2 DIABETES.

Answering the million dollar question

To answer this important question, the team enlisted the help of 800 rather average people, between the ages of 18 and 70. Some where fat, some where skinny. Quite a few had metabolic issues, but none had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

For 1 week, each participant was hooked up to a device that was able to continually measure their glucose levels, inside their body. No finger pricks needed. Sugar levels were recorded at 5 minute intervals, so there were 288 readings per person per day.

And over 1.5 million sugar level readings in total.

Eating a special breakfast

Participants lived life as normal. More-or-less.   The only meal the team “controlled” was breakfast.   The participants could eat what they liked, when they liked the rest of the time – the only catch, everything had to be documented.

Everything. Including food intake, exercise and sleep.

Also, at the start of the study, in addition to weighing and measuring everyone and blood samples, the team took a poop sample.

Making sense of the sugar level data

Was hard……………

The real meal data, was also all over the place.

And the responses to the breakfasts, also showed an enormous amount of variability, everybody responded to the special breakfasts, differently. That said, how an individual responded was pretty consistent…………… the team concluded.

The sugar spike caused by the food, had very little to do with the food, per se.

Seriously…

The team found it depends on the individual. Take a look at what happened in participant 445 and participant 644.

Figure from Personalized Nutrition by Prediction of Glycemic Responses appearing in Cell (2015) 163:1079–1094

Clearly participant 445 might want to go easy on the bananas, but he/she can happily embrace cookies, whereas participant 644, should rather stay away from the cookies.

Of course, you might be like me – I’d need to stay away from both the banana and the cookie. Eish !

So what accounts for sugar spiking ?

The team crunched the numbers, looking for clues.

Eating a high carb meal and a carb only meal, is more likely to cause a sugar spike.

Confirming when it comes to diet, the low carb option, is better than the high carb option.

But carbs are not TOO BLAME

The high carbs were not problematic for everyone. The team identified people who showed virtually not sugar spike at all. They called them carbohydrate insensitives.   If you’re reading this, odds are, you’re a carb “sensitive”.

The team found, 95.1 % people were carb sensitive.

People with signs and symptoms of metabolic syndrome, were found to be more likely to spike BIG, in the presence of carbs.

But it’s not just a food thing……….

Gut bacteria are spiking your glucose

Remember the poop sample……

The team used this to determine who was who in the gut zoo. They found, having more Proteobacteria and Enterobacteriaceae species, increased the odds of being a sugar spiker.   But, it was not just who was there that mattered, the team also found, what the bacteria in the gut were up to, impacted sugar levels.   They were able to  correlate bacterial gene expression patterns which postprandial glucose levels.

Bacteria are to blame !

Oh dear, dieting is not easy…………..

Dieting is PERSONAL

This study confirms…………

One man’s meat, is another man’s poison.

If you’ve got signs and symptoms of metabolic syndrome, you want to be CANDY FLOSSing i.e.

Cutting the carbs and Adding in more protein, fat and fibre. Click here to learn more….

That said, knowing which carbs to keep and which to avoid, is going to be personal.

The only way to figure it out, is going to be through a little experimenting. The easiest way to do this, is to use a glucose meter – test what happens when you snack on one of your favourite carbs. When testing be consistent in how much of the carb you eat and test several times over a 2 hour interval.  If you find  a carb is causing  a BIG SPIKE, then cut it out or cutting down on it.

Further reading