Why do some people feel great when they eat a lot of carbs, while others experience a dip in energy? Is blood sugar to blame?

In this episode, we learn why blood sugar levels vary so much from person to person and what tools we can use to manage these levels.

Tim Spector and Jessie Inchauspé (aka the Glucose Goddess) discuss the latest science around glucose monitoring, what the cool new device on the market – the CGM – can tell us, and why blood sugar levels are only one part of the picture of our health.

Jessie is a bestselling author and science communicator with a community of over 5 million followers. Tim is Professor of Epidemiology at King's College London and ZOE's Scientific Co-Founder.

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Timecodes:
00:00 Introduction
01:14 Quick questions
03:30 What is glucose?
08:50 What are blood sugar spikes?
10:20 Are many spikes dangerous?
15:18 Are your blood sugar levels normal?
16:50 HbA1c and fasting glucose explained
20:50 What is a CGM?
25:05 How Breakfast Affects the Rest of Your Day
31:10 Eat These Foods First
35:06 How Physical Activity Reduces Glucose Spikes
42:55 How the gut microbiome and blood fat play a role
41:39 The Risks of Ultra-Processed Foods

Find more from Jessie at glucosegoddess.com

Books by our ZOE scientists:
Everyone Should Know This by Dr. Federica Amati: https://amzn.to/4blJsLg
Food for Life by Prof. Tim Spector: https://amzn.to/4amZinu
Fiber Fueled by Dr. Will Bulsiewicz: https://amzn.to/4bzmUXP

Studies related to this episode:
CGMap: Characterization of Continuous Glucose Monitoring Data in Thousands of Nondiabetic Subjects. (2023) Cell Metabolism. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1550413123001298

Dose-response relationship between genetically proxied mean blood glucose levels and incident coronary heart disease in persons without diabetes mellitus. (2021) Diabetologia. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7940279/

Optimized glucose “time in range” using continuous glucose monitors in 4,805 nondiabetic individuals is associated with favorable diet and health: the ZOE PREDICT studies. (2022). Current Developments in Nutrition. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2475299123210628

Normal fasting plasma glucose levels and type 2 diabetes in young men (2005) NEJM. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmoa050080

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Transcripts of the episodes are available here: https://zoe.com/learn/category/podcasts

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