What’s the big deal with Glucose Spikes

Many of my clients opt to wear a Continuous Glucose Monitor for a couple of weeks to help them to take a closer look at their metabolic health and how well their body is going with their current diet and lifestyle. 

Many are surprised to see that foods which they thought were healthy are spiking their blood sugar. Ideally, we want to avoid blood sugar spikes for several reasons. Firstly, a spike is nearly always followed by a crash. Your body releases insulin to deal with the influx of glucose, and then glucose drops. This leaves you feeling hungry again and craving carbs to bring your glucose back up.

Many people eat a high-carb breakfast, for example, cereal, toast or fruit. All of these can spike your blood sugar, especially fruit, as it is so easy to digest, and when eaten on an empty stomach, the sugars get into your bloodstream super fast.

The breakfast spike is often the most significant because you are adding food to an empty stomach, and a spike at this time of day can easily set you on a rollercoaster ride of highs and lows for the rest of the day. These highs and lows don’t just affect your sugar and your cravings; they also affect your mood.

Secondly when the cells have too much glucose it sets off a damaging chain reaction. Free radicals are produced which can damage our DNA and our cell membranes. Although we are designed to manage this action in small amounts, repeatedly high glucose is more than we can handle and our body experiences oxidative stress. Oxidative stress is the driver of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cognitive decline and “ageing”.

“Ageing” can be described scientifically as glycation – this is when a sugar molecule bonds to a fat or protein, which is linked to a harmful process in the body. This bonding is irreversible, and the body is changed. The two biggest causes of the damage we know as ageing are oxidation and glycation.

Thirdly, let’s chat about insulin. You may have had blood tests showing that your fasting blood sugar and HbA1C levels are in the normal range, and so you think that none of this is relevant to you. That’s a fair call, blood tests like that wouldn’t pick a problem because you have insulin working hard for you. Insulin is released by the pancreas in response to an increase in blood sugar and quickly comes on the scene to help the glucose into the cells, turn it into glycogen, which can be stored in the liver and muscles for later use, and when those areas are full, it converts the rest of the glucose into fat for long-term storage.

All of this happens to keep your blood sugar in a healthy range so a blood sugar test will never pick a problem until the system is broken. Once again, too much of a good thing can be a problem. If you are constantly raising your blood sugar with food you will also constantly be making insulin. The more glucose spikes you have the more insulin your body makes. After a while your cells can become insulin resistant and stop responding to the insulin the way they should, so the body makes more insulin to try and deal with the problem. As you age, and also when your estrogen declines during the menopause transition, you become even more insulin resistant. The body makes more and more insulin to try and get the message across. 

Too much insulin is the root cause of type 2 diabetes, PCOS, obesity and more. Doctors rarely order blood tests to see how high your insulin is unless you have cancer!

What about fruit sugar?

The most common sugar in fruit is fructose, though they do also have glucose and sucrose. 

Fructose can’t be turned into glycogen, (though it can be converted to glucose if there is a need for more of that). Ultimately the only thing that fructose can be stored as is fat. This can be stored in the liver, leading to Non Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) more recently referred to as Metabolically Associated Fatty Liver Disease (MAFLD), in our fat cells making us ‘fat’, and it is also turned into LDL cholesterol and triglycerides contributing to high cholesterol, arteriosclerosis and cardiovascular disease.

And finally sucrose. Sucrose is made up of a molecule of glucose and a molecule of fructose joined together – so for sucrose, see notes for glucose and fructose. Table sugar is sucrose and this type of sugar is commonly used in processed foods.

How to reduce your spikes

So now we know that spikes lead to insulin, and insulin leads to fat and disease, let’s have a look at how you can reduce your spikes.

The following 10 Hacks come from the Glucose Goddess. You can find her on Instagram with that name, but her real name is Jessie Inchauspé. She is a biochemist and author The Glucose Revolution , The Glucose Goddess Method and 9 Months that Count Forever.

1. Eat foods in the right order

Start with fibre (like veggies), then move on to protein and fat, and finish with carbs or sugar. This simple shift helps reduce the glucose spike from your meal. If you have a CGM you could test it by eating the exact same foods in reverse order!

2. Add a green veggie starter to your meals

A handful of cooked or raw veg 10 minutes before eating can seriously reduce your glucose response. Think cucumber sticks, sautéed greens, or a small salad with olive oil.

3. Stop counting calories

Focus on balancing your blood sugar instead. The quality and order of what you eat matters more than the calorie count. When you balance your blood sugar, your hunger signals become more reliable – no willpower required. 

4. Flatten your breakfast curve

Skip the fruit-only breakfasts, sweet cereals, or pastries. Instead, choose protein, fat and fibre (like eggs, avo, yoghurt, nuts). It helps keep your blood sugar stable all day long, reducing and sometimes even eliminating unhealthy cravings.

5. All sugar is sugar

Whether it comes from dates, honey, maple syrup, or a Mars bar – your body sees the glucose the same way. Glucose is glucose wherever it comes from. “Natural” doesn’t mean it won’t spike you (although an apple clearly has many health benefits that a mars bar does not!) Fruit sugar (fructose) can be worse than glucose, and sucrose is a double whammy! The key is pairing whichever form of sugar you choose to eat wisely.

6. Pick dessert over a sweet snack

It’s better to have something sweet after a full meal than between meals. A balanced meal slows the absorption of sugar and protects you from crashes later.

7. Have some vinegar with it

A tablespoon of vinegar (e.g. apple cider vinegar) in a glass of water before meals helps blunt the glucose spike – especially useful when you know something sweet is coming! You can also use it in salad dressings, in preparation for your dessert! All vinegar works (though balsamic vinegar has sugar so it’s best not to use that one), and it turns out that putting vinegar on your chips as is traditional in my English homeland, is actually a very smart idea! 

8. Move after you eat

Just 10 minutes of gentle movement after a meal, such as a walk, tidying the kitchen, or dancing,  helps your muscles use up glucose and prevents that sluggish post-meal slump. Your biggest muscles are in your legs so a few squats would be awesome.

9. If you have to snack, go savoury

Feeling peckish between meals? Opt for savoury foods with fat or protein (like a boiled egg, hummus, olives, or nuts) instead of fruit, crackers, or sweet bars (my biggest spike ever came from a “healthy” muesli bar – so look out).

10. Put some clothes on your carbs

Don’t eat “naked” carbs (like bread, crackers, fruit or pasta) on their own. Dress them up with protein, fat, or fibre to slow down their glucose impact. Think avocado on toast, or peanut butter on apple slices, and you could add some protein powder, avocado and nuts to your fruit smoothie for a satisfying breakfast that keeps your glucose steady for hours.

Getting a CGM?

I recommend the Vively CGM because the app is designed for people who want to improve their metabolic health, whereas most other options focus on managing diabetes. The Vively is easy to use and gives you some great insights, however, sometimes it can be hard to understand, the same food can cause different reactions in your body depending on when you eat it and other lifestyle factors. 

You can book a 1:1 Metabolic Health Insights session with me to discuss your readings. I suggest you have at least 1 week of data before you have your call. If you are doing a health coaching program with me, this session can be incorporated into your program.

Disclaimer: This information is for education purposes only and should not be taken for medical advice. Always consult your own trusted physician prior to making any changes to diet and lifestyle or following any protocols you may find online. This article may contain affiliate links.