Topics: Fitness, Food and Drink, Health, Science
Warning: This article contains discussion of eating habits and diet which some readers may find distressing.
A biochemist has revealed the physiology of eating certain foods at particular times and how it impacts the body.
It's time to throw out the 'New Year New Me' diets for good and realize just because you ate more than usual at Christmas doesn't mean you now have to restrict yourself - in January, or ever, according to French biochemist and bestselling author Jessie Inchauspé.
Instead, Inchauspé - who also goes by The Glucose Goddess - champions 'basic common-sense strategies' which are 'now backed up by this modern science,' revealing what happens if you eat certain types of food at certain times and the best times to eat them.
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During an appearance on Lewis Howes' podcast The School of Greatness, Inchauspé explains her approach to food and health is not about 'diets' or fads, it just simply comes down to 'how your body functions' and 'physiologically how and when to eat your carbs with less impact on your health'.
She says: "You can eat whatever you want."
Although, that's not to say you should 'overconsume' all the time either. Basically, like all good and bad things in life, it's all about balance - and timing, Inchauspé reveals.
For those of us who ditched science as soon as we could in high school, Inchauspé continues: "Of course sugar is not good for us right, sugar causes glucose spikes that leads to inflammation, aging, insulin release. But the solution to this crazy food landscape that we live in, environment, is not to cut out stuff.
"I don't believe in that. I think you try that for a week or you know, you're like this year I'm never going to eat sugar at all, that doesn't work - it never does."
So, what does Inchauspé recommend instead?
She advises: "If you really want to eat some sugar, let's say a cookie, a donut, or whatever. The best time to eat that sugar so that you have maximum dopamine from it - maximum pleasure - and less impact on your body is going to be after a meal as dessert.
"You want to always avoid eating sugar on an empty stomach and always avoid eating sugar in the morning.
"So breakfast should be savoury, in the morning, nothing sweet. "
But what happens if you do eat sugar at another time of the day?
Well, if you do have items such as sweet pastries or sugary cereal in the morning, Inchauspé explains that, as your body digests that sugar and those carbohydrates, 'they turn into glucose molecules which arrive into your bloodstream really quickly and cause what's called a glucose spike' - 'a blood sugar spike'.
"And then about 90 minutes later, your glucose levels are going to drop and you're going to feel a crash. And now it's 10am, 11am, and all of a sudden you feel more cravings for sweet foods. [...] And then you spike again and then all day you're on a roller coaster where you feel addicted to sugar because your brain when you're experiencing a glucose crash after a spike, the cravings center in your brain actually activates and says 'Let's find a cookie'.
"And you want to avoid that because you cannot fight against the cravings center in your brain. That center is very powerful, it's linked to evolutionary responses we have to low blood sugar."
So, I hate to break it to you, but no sugary snacks or cereals, kids. Or you can just eat the damn biscuit anyway.
If you have been affected by any of the issues in this article and wish to speak to someone, contact National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders (ANAD). You can reach them on their free hotline at 1(888)-375-7767, which is open Monday-Friday, 9am-9pm CST.
