Book Review – Glucose Revolution
This is the individual opinion of Bob Pierson, Founder of Farm to City
This review is not intend to offer specific or individualized nutritional advice. It is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or treatment, and before undertaking a new diet. The author and company assumes no liability for the use or misuse of the information presented herein.
I am reading a just-published book that I recommend to all people who strive to eat good food to stay healthy. If you are a farmers’ market customer, this is you. And for your friends, neighbors, and relatives who may not be!
The book is Glucose Revolution; it has two subtitles: The life-changing power of balancing your blood sugar, and Lose Weight, Stop Cravings, Get Your Energy Back, and Still Eat What You Love.
Very strong claims. However, the author Jessie Inchauspé delivers. She gives good evidence that:
The order in which you eat vegetables and fruits, foods with protein and fats, and foods with sugar and other carbohydrates is very important in flattening your glucose curve – i.e., maintaining a low blood glucose profile throughout your day.
Large variations in blood sugar are not good for your health, either from hour-to-hour or in the long term.
Sucrose, made up of glucose and fructose, is the principal ingredient of most sweet foods and is found in many processed foods. Chronic excess of glucose in food can lead to type 2 diabetes.
Fructose is not regulated by insulin and is not detected by blood sugar measurement. Too much of this sugar causes glycation (sugar attached to structural proteins and lipids) which leads to fatty deposits in the liver and other organs. Not good.
Counting calories is not a good way to assure health. Different diets with the same caloric content can result in big differences in blood glucose. Another way she puts this is: “People on a glucose-flattening diet can lose more weight while eating more calories than people who eat fewer calories but spike their glucose levels.”
Inchauspé’s presentation is informal, chatty, odd in a good way, and often funny. She provides clear explanations of nutrition science, many charts showing how blood glucose varies for combinations of foods eaten in different orders, and many examples of people who have followed her advice and found long-sought solutions to their health problems. Some of the conditions that she shows can be improved or eliminated by following her recommendations on how to level blood glucose levels are:
· Excess weight
· Hunger pangs during the day
· Needing to eat every few hours
· Bad mood, dizzy, or light-headed when hungry
· Craving sweets
· Brain fog
· Sleepy between meals
· Drinking too much coffee to keep alert
· Frequent fatigue and colds
Inchauspé presents a list of common conditions and diseases that may be reversed rather quickly or prevented by “flattening one’s glucose curve.” Included in the diseases are cardio-vascular illness, cancer, and Alzheimer’s.
To find out more about Jessie Inchauspé, check out her website and Instagram.