The Glucose Goddess Helped Me Lose 73 lbs at 73—‘I Thought the Scale Was Broken!’
4 easy Glucose Goddess hacks to slash blood sugar and cravings—while melting fat fast
Looking to beat cravings, manage blood sugar levels and shed pounds? Georgetown University–trained biochemist Jessie Inchauspé, a.k.a. the Glucose Goddess, has simple hacks proven to stabilize glucose, improve energy and curb hunger. Her strategies helped 73-year-old JoAnn Berkowitz lose 73 pounds and reclaim her health. “I can finally make good choices without feeling deprived, and it has been huge for me,” shares the educator from Medina, Ohio. “The scale came down so fast, I thought it was broken!” Here’s how they can help you, too!
How blood sugar levels affect weight and cravings
For those who don’t know, the body turns all carbs into blood glucose to use as fuel. It’s completely natural. What’s not natural: diets loaded with highly processed sweeteners and starch, which cause constant blood-glucose spikes and crashes. For most of history, “a drop in blood glucose meant food scarcity,” notes the author of global bestsellers The Glucose Goddess Method and Glucose Revolution. “As a survival mechanism, a glucose crash signals us to seek energy-dense foods.” So even if we ate 30 minutes ago and our fat cells are overflowing, we want more pizza or cookies.
Roller-coaster blood glucose levels also cause inflammation and cellular damage throughout our systems, leading to more problems. That includes chronically high levels of insulin, “a fat-storage hormone that locks fat in fat cells,” per Cleveland Clinic functional medicine expert Mark Hyman, M.D. Yes, restrictive diets like keto can help. But Inchauspé says they often aren’t necessary if we simply weave anti-spike strategies into the way we already eat.
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How to prevent spikes in blood glucose levels
The core Glucose Goddess strategy: Start every meal with veggies plus optional healthy fat; follow with protein. The protein and fiber move through your GI tract slowly, taking up space and getting in the way. Think of it like a floating barrier in the upper intestine, Inchauspé says. Eat carbs after veggies and protein, and this barrier “reduces the absorption of glucose.”
Tests show eating veggies and protein first means you can enjoy the same ingredients and keep blood glucose about three times lower.
Bonus: Reducing glucose spikes not only dials down hunger, it lets your body heal. As a result, insulin comes down and “fat burning is reactivated,” she says.
Will you instantly eliminate all cravings? No. Your body needs time to recalibrate. Plus, everyone occasionally wants delicious food even when we’re not physically hungry. So Inchauspé came up with ways to satisfy a craving without triggering glucose spikes and more cravings.
4 Glucose Goddess hacks to lower blood sugar levels
Aiming to control blood sugar helps us lose about 2,500 percent more body fat than simply eating lower-cal foods, per a French study. These hacks make it a cinch:
Hack #1: Wait 20 minutes before acting on cravings
After a glucose crash, “the liver releases stored glucose, bringing levels back to normal in about 20 minutes,” she explains. “In my experience, 75 percent of cravings fade away if you wait 20 minutes.”
Hack #2: ‘Dress’ your carbs for better glucose control
Often, we crave “naked” processed carbs that have been stripped of fiber and other nutrients that help steady blood glucose. Want toast or a donut? Save it for after a meal or “put clothes on it,” suggests Inchauspé. “That means adding protein, fat or fiber with or alongside a starchy or sweet food.” It can be as simple as having almonds before the donut or putting nut butter on the toast. Inchauspé’s tests as well as research in the journal Diabetes Care show this can cut the rise of blood sugar by 50 percent; there’s also evidence published in journal Nutrients that found it increases the release of GLP-1, a hormone that powerfully reduces the urge to eat. “You can savor foods you enjoy without feeling controlled by them.”
Hack #3: Add cinnamon to your diet
Turns out, polyphenols in cinnamon interfere with digestion in a good way, largely blocking blood-sugar spikes, per 2020 Joslin Diabetes Center research. You can add this spice to the “clothes” you put on your carbs, perhaps having cinnamon-dusted granola (recipe below) before you reach for a slice of cake. Alternatively, take a supplement. One to try: Glucose Revolution Anti-Spike Formula, which pairs cinnamon with other plant extracts proven to reduce absorption of glucose from carbs by up to 40 percent.
Hack #4: Take a post-meal walk
“Use your muscles for 10 minutes after you eat, and they’ll soak up sugar as it hits your bloodstream,” says Inchauspé. University of Copenhagen research suggests the tactic can get glucose up to 50 times lower than sitting on the couch. JoAnn, who wears a continuous glucose monitor, says a 15-minute walk after eating “usually gets my blood glucose back down to where I started.” She adds that this is especially remarkable considering the struggles she once had…
How the Glucose Goddess changed JoAnn Berkowitz’s life
Jo, a thyroid cancer survivor, has long battled to get in better shape. She diligently tracked her sugar, water, steps. “I’d ask the doctor,‘What am I doing wrong?’” she recalls. Docs had no answers. Eventually came a type 2 diabetes diagnosis.
But there turned out to be a silver lining. “I got lucky,” says JoAnn, who was enrolled in a study of Twin Health, a program available through certain insurance and workplaces. In addition to a coach, Jo was given an app with her digital “twin” to help show how different choices impacted her body.
Here’s how it worked: Jo’s digital twin was created based on data points from her own body, collected through bloodwork, a continuous glucose monitor, an activity tracker and more. Through the easy-to-use app, Jo’s digital twin would make highly personalized recommendations throughout the day regarding nutrition, activity, and even sleep in order to heal her metabolism. The app showed Jo her results in real-time, which helped to keep her motivated and accountable—and she could stop counting calories. “They never referenced weight but really focused on incorporating ‘hacks’ to manage my glucose,” she says. Jo, who said no to diabetes meds, admits she was initially skeptical of the hacks, which included having veggies first and walking after meals. ‘I thought, ‘Are you people from California with these crazy ideas?’”
Yet Jo made progress. Then she found Glucose Revolution. “It helped me understand why I should do those things.” Inspired, she threw herself into the approach. Her hunger and cravings shrank; her energy levels soared.
Not only did she get a lot healthier overall but, after years of failed diets, Jo finally began to slim down. She went from a size 22 to a 12 in just over a year.
Down 73 pounds, she is no longer diabetic. “People ask if I’m on a diet. I say, ‘No, I just manage my food differently.’ It’s truly the best I’ve felt in 30 years!”
Bonus recipe: no-spike granola
Keep blood sugar steady by having this Glucose Goddess Method treat as breakfast or before enjoying something starchy.
Serves 4
Ingredients:
- 1 tsp. coconut oil, melted
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- ¾ cup pumpkin seeds
- 2/3 cup mix raw pecans, almonds, hazelnuts and/or unsweetened coconut
- Greek yogurt and fruit for serving
Instructions:
- In medium bowl, mix oil, cinnamon and pinch salt. Add seeds and nuts; toss to coat.
- Spread on parchment-lined sheet. Bake at 400ºF until fragrant, about 7 minutes.
- Enjoy with Greek yogurt and fruit.
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