I watched an episode last night, part 2 of a series. Using volunteers as case studies/guinea pigs, she (Jessie Inchauspe) extols the 'hacks' she sets out in her books and the science behind it, like having a savoury not sweet breakfast, moving your body after eating, adding fats and protein to carbs eg avocado on your toast instead of jam. One extremely overweight woman got her T2D in remission in 6 weeks. Tuesdays 8pm and on catch up. channel4.com/programmes/eat...
Wondering if at my age I could ever look as good as her even if I try really really hard and do everything I'm supposed to? 😀 Something to aim for - she's gorgeous in every way. I need to do something having put on half a stone in December and low carbs usually works for me, both for losing weight and keeping my HbA1c down, I just need to get my head back into gear.
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tangocharlie
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Hi TC,Yes, I've been watching this new series. It's incredibly informative and Jessie's 'explanations' regarding the science around it all are so easy to understand. All made complete sense.
I found it very enlightening and agree that it's really helpful advice that she offers.
I like the way she doesn't try and say you have to totally cut out sugar and carbs, she just tries to nudge people into changing their habits by explaining how different foods and her hacks impact on their bodies. All very interesting cases especially the guy whose psoriasis improved dramatically when he changed his diet and the woman who went from a HbA1c of 60 (diabetes) to 40 (normal) in 6 weeks.
The programme just shows so well how damaging sugar is and how impactful it can be on the bodies inflammatory levels.Last week, a young girls really bad acne was significantly improved by vastly reducing her sugar intake.... and in just 8wks! It was life changing for her.
Er - I hate to disillusion you about the standard of the science she's quoting but I am a bit sceptical it is extremely difficult to change a HBa1c that much in 6 weeks as it is an average of the previous 13 weeks of BS levels.
Come to think of it, I'm not scientist or mathematician but doesn't that mean the process is even more remarkable then if the lady in question reduced her HbA1c in just 6 weeks? Or is it biased towards recent eating?
😆 normally I admire your healthy cynicism particularly as I'm one of the most gullible people on the planet and am still learning from you, but I can't understand why you've taken such a dislike to poor Jessie 😆. If she's inspiring young people in particular to eat better then that's good thing as everyone is sayng they're all doomed to Death by junk food if they don't change their ways. I'm just half listening to a very recent Zoe podcast with Tim Spector saying the GLP inhibitor injections are going to revolutionise the diet industry and I'm sure you have strong views on them too - but I'll save that for another thread 😆
I agree with you - don’t put a downer on it if it works. I’ve watched both episodes and think her recommendations should be circulated everywhere, by NHS, by media etc. What’s happening at the moment is really concerning. There are so many vastly obese young people walking around and I’ve noticed a huge increase in the use of mobility scooters recently. We’re storing up big problems for the future and anything preventative should be encouraged. She sets everything out in a clear and easy to follow way and I applaud her for that.
I was already following most of her recommendations - the only thing we have changed is eating our usual dinner starter of honeydew melon at the end of the meal instead. I was experiencing real fatigue after dinner and so far it looks as if this small change has already made a difference - time will tell.
I know my daughters won’t watch the episodes (lack of time/access) so I have bought her book for each of them - arriving tomorrow from Amazon.
I am so with you on this! This isn't my field. I am a physicist who did research on biological materials. But I think we need other scientists to reproduce her findings and examine her methodologies. Some of it doesn't make sense. It troubled me on the Zoe podcast that she wasn't challenged. Guru status is bestowed too quickly.
Agreed. Especially if you have chronic health conditions, especially Diabetes , or take medications that affect your insulin resistance, which just about everybody does with PMR.
I put on 5lbs in December but my husband's PSA showed a slight increase this time so we are back to extremely low carb. 5lbs gone already - you can do it easily and I'm sure you will look as good!
Thanks for the encouragement, I want a stone off by Easter and to know where she gets all her lovely brightly coloured clothes from. I'm clearing out stuff from the freezer so I can order some ready made meals from ketokitchenlytham.co.uk/ for the days when I CBA cooking from scratch (sorry someone on here recommended them recently but I've lost your name to credit you with the info, please remeind me)
Interestingly, a good friend who has advanced stage 4 cancer and was given less than two years to live follows a sort of low carb diet promoted by Chris Woollams. It seems to have worked well for her, she's still here for a start nearly 2 years on and very fit and healthy despite the circumstances. It (probably though no way of knowing for sure) shrank the tumour enough to get most of it out, even before she started chemo. Her CA125 levels are also stable. Her specialists are very impressed. Her problem was/is getting enough calories as she's a skinny thing already - she eats a lot of avocados, hummous, nuts and good oils. She also exercises within 30 minutes of eating, eats the veg first, in fact her diet is about 90% vegetables and hardly ever has any sugar
Wow! Our diet has more animal protein but you never know. I can understand why she was having trouble getting sufficient calories. I hope she goes from strength to strength!
She does do some organic chicken and fish and seafood but still leeps dairy very low. something to do with ovarian cancer being oestrogen responsive and dairy possibly makes it worse. Yes we're all relieved and impressed she's doing so well. I said I wish I had your willpower to which she replied "I have to my life depends on it and so does yours if you thnk about it"! I do like my meat but have cut back on the processed stuff
We avoid dairy as well - too many growth promoters. Diet sounds similar but we do have red meat, probably twice a week; fish - every other breakfast and two or three times a week as a main meal and then we buy a farm chicken to see us through the month, including broth. To keep the carbs low we tend to avoid beans/pulses and lentils but we do eat low carb veg and berries. We both went a bit off piste mind you, before and during Christmas so hopefully things will settle again.
Can't find Chris Willens with regard to cancer or diet - is he/she a nutritionist or a doctor? Nothing seems to come up but I would like to find out about the diet as it may help Peter.
Of course, not satisfied with one problem husband has added hernia and arthritic hip to his but at least he has seen a GP - normally he'll do anything to avoid them. I don't blame him but the hip at least means he will be assessed by a physio as up to now there's been 'nothing wrong' even though he walks with an ever increasing list to the left.🙂
Bless you - if only ... but that doesn't help now, does it? Thank you and the Yorks group so much for organising the Zoom session today - I learned so much! He has an x-ray booked (quick work from the GP) and an ultrasound.
Absolutely outstanding - a gifted communicator which is pretty rare in the medical profession - but that's a different thread about the talk also posted by me so it'd be great if you could add your comments there too
Cancer cells have way more sugar receptors than normal cells and there is a whole new cancer treatment aimed at blocking the uptake of sugar in cancer cells, to stop ‘feeding’ them. It’s proving very promising. Well done your friend 🥰
Yes I think that's the chemo treatment she's now on - keeping the cancer 'in a box' and stopping it growing. It looks like it's very effective, even better than the researchers thought it would be. There are great inroads going on in immunotherapy too. She avoids sugar and if she has some goes for a run immediately to use up the glucose
Yes, I know those days - will have a look at keto kitchen. I tend to double up casseroles etc. and freeze half for just such an occasion. Then it sometimes comes as a nice surprise when you delve in and come up with a box that's correctly labelled for a change 😂
My Inbox is full of New Year New start type emails but this one from Saga made me laugh out loud 😆😆😆
Hello Ms C,
With 40 years of journalism under my (ever-expanding) belt, there’s not much I don’t know about New Year, New You articles. I’ve commissioned or written loads of them in my time – and have never once managed to stick to anything they say. So, my best advice to you is do as this newsletter says about eating and drinking healthily – and don't do as this newsletter editor does, not least because her Dry January has already become slightly Damp January.
One of the links was to an article about air fryers which is actually quite useful and appealing
Hi @tangocharlie, I was waiting for someone to introduce this to the forum. I have been watching sceptically, what do you think of the 'eating in the right order - hack'. Seemed a bit faddy to me but otherwise a helpful series. Also what do you consider to be low carb (I have read many of your posts and know that you are knowledgeable about these things 👍Since I have been trying to keep carbs low I have reduced from prediabetic to on the border of 'normal'. I have lost 1.5 stones and don't want to lose any more, it seems impossible to maintain the low carb without losing weight atm. Looking for recipes and advice. x
Very well done and big pat on th back re the weight loss and glucose control. My understanding is that to do low carb without losing more weight you would have to increase the calories, mainly by higher fats, but I guess you could also increase some good carbs like oats and root veg. My rough guide to low carb is less than 50g of carbs a day, and if you want to lose weight as low as about 25g a day, so if you want to gain weight you want over 50g but that's not something I've ever had to worry about so don't quote me on that No doubt there will be others who come along and will know more than me.
I haven't read her books but she is a Biochemist not any old nutritionist with a dogy diploma so I'd imagine her research is sound. She is endorsed by the likes of Prof Tim Spector too and he's normally a cynic about all food claims so he will have checked out what she says. The idea of eating the veg first is not a new one and she says it creates a kind of mesh for the food that follows. Presumably this is science based but as I say I haven't read the books.
I don't think what she is doing is faddy, it is building on the momentum started by Michael Mosley et al that has been building for a good decade now. All power to her for doing her bit, I'm sure she has to put up with a lot of abuse and trolling, especially being a woman and she inspires me
I saw one of the Glucose Goddess programs recently when my daughter came home and told me about them. It took me back to the mid seventies when I was a teenager staying with a French family. I thought it was really weird that we ate the French beans then the meat then the potatoes, each coming in succession on a separate plate. I think she has re-invented what they were already doing. Also the cheese course usually came without biscuits.
I think there are some good ideas but for me it is not a way of eating I could sustain. I'm afraid I eat a 'naked' apple every day mid afternoon and don't want to add extra calories by also eating some peanut butter or cheese with it and in order to get my prune ration in, I usually have porridge in the morning. So a savoury breakfast is unusual for me.
I think everybody has to find what works for them.
That was the way my French sister in law served food. My brother said he found it odd at first but then liked it after he’d got used to it. Maybe one of the reasons the French are slimmer than the British 🤔
How about a tablespoon of full fat natural yogurt with your apple or prunes?
I often used to eat a naked apple for lunch but then decided to change to vegetables. Asked for a soup maker for Christmas and now eat vegetable soup with chicken pieces instead. Each pot of soup lasts 3 days and I’ve grown to look forward to my daily bowl. I now eat my apple with blueberries in the evening soon after dinner.
The idea at this stage is to add more carbs bit by bit until you stop losing weight - low carb is a different things to different people. How many carbs were you working with? If it was 50g per day and that allowed you to lose weight, you would start by adding 25g a day and see what that does - if you stop losing weight you are in the right ball park. If you then gain weight - go down by 5g a day and see what that does.
Thank you both. Got that, I vary between 50 and 100gms per day. I was reluctant to go over100 as my blood sugar may rise and I'm back where I started. Not due a HB1C test for another 4 months so won't know if I am doing damage, that's my concern. I'm down to 12.5mgs pred in the last few days so maybe that will help?
Then if you want to stop losing weight you need to get closer to the 100g every day and try to keep it more stable so you find out where you lose and where you don't.
I'm pre-diabetic and am following the NHS diabetes prevention programme (via a monitoring app) to try to lower my hbac1 reading while trying not to lose too much weight. I watched the first programme and some of her hacks seemed to conflict with the information I have been given. For instance the hack of if you want to eat something sweet then eat it straight after a savoury/low carb course whereas the advice from the prevention programme is to leave a gap so you have 2 lower blood sugar spikes rather than one larger one.
The impact she had had on the people's lives was to be applauded though
The NHS has been wrong on just about every aspect of dietary advice so I personally trust what she says especially if Tim Spector also says so. I found from my own experiments using a CGM that if I sneaked in say a biscuit soon after a meal it had very little effect on my glucose whereas if I left a longer gap it did and I got a second spike. But that's only a personal insight,our bodies are all different and react differently
That's interesting though as Tim Spector says in his Food for life book we all do respond individually. I don't have a CGM so do not know which is best for me. I probably eat less if I leave the gap, if I have a piece of fruit straight after my lunch I may still need a snack later afternoon. If I haven't eaten a piece of fruit I can have some with some protein which hopefully will reduce the spike.
I don't know where I stand on fruit. I only eat low carb ones like apples pears and berries and would have berries with a bit of cream (I would ALSO have yoghurt but can't eat it due to histamine intolerance). We used to be told eat the fruit first I think beause of the high sugar so you body processes it quickly but that advice may well have changed. Knowledge is advancing so rapidly even the apparent experts change their minds in the light of new studies. See my previous posts on CGMs if interested in trying one out.
I'm not sure if I would categorise apples and pears as low carb - I have a Collins Gem Carb Counter, and one medium apple according to this contains 21g of carb, one medium pear contains 15g carb. According to the Carb Counter, 75g of blueberries contains 7.6g of carb, 60g of raspberries contains 2.8g carb and 70g strawberries 4.2g carb. Various types of melon (one medium slice) contain between 4.8g and 8.1g of carb - the lowest being cantaloupe and the highest being watermelon. Of course the Collins Gem Carb Counter could be wrong or out of date - it was published in 2004. And maybe it should distinguish between different types of apple - I think that Pink Lady, for example, probably contains more sugar than some other types.
Thanks for the info, you're right, apples are not low carb just a lot lower carb than say bananas that many people eat regularly. I didn't know about the melon options, useful to know
Watched episode 1 last night. The delivery is very young, fast and compelling, rather like a Facebook advertisement. I expected to be offered a 99% discount if I signed up in the next five minutes. The “goddess” herself is intensely annoying and rather distracts from the underlying message. Yes, unbelievable improvements in patients' health (and make up!) but two were very honest about the hard time they had with sugar withdrawal symptoms in the first week of treatment. I will watch the second episode, but through gritted teeth. Good advert for blood glucose monitors.
Bear in mind we DO have to watch it to discover that - and actually. CBL is giving her a second chance. Isn't that a positive? But we seem to both have the feeling there is an agenda that isn't purely altruistic.
Her books were discussed on a thread here a couple of years ago and also attracted a lot of negativity then. From memory it was around the time she did the Zoe podcast. Her style will suit some people and not others I guess... Each to their own.
I find her delivery intensely annoying. My husband who is currently pre-diabetic refused even to stay in the room with her. But….full marks for showing that two of the three people found their first week without sugar (or was it carbs) really difficult. Lifestyle changes in diet are not just a matter of getting into a new habit; your body can really suffer from withdrawal symptoms from something as simple as sugar.
I would like to hear more of the science behind her 10 rules. How does the order you eat things affect the sugar spike? Surely all this stuff is chewed and then mashed up together in your stomach, or do you have to leave 5 or 10 minutes between courses? Can we have a closer look at those sugar spike graphs? Were the before and after on the same scale? What was the relative size of the spikes?
Someone mentioned Mike Moseley and his “just one thing” programmes, I guess it’s just a difference in delivery. This lady is not for me but I will continue to watch and hopefully learn. All these programmes help us immensely but I would personally like more hard facts and less razzamatazz..
I struggle with MM's later programmes. Everything has to be jazzed up. As a scientist, for me it is just irritating. Whereas Chris van Tullekan has a technique that allows EVERYONE to understand proper scientific facts.
comes from a reliable source you'd think but presented rather differently and a way I can tolerate - and the order MAY make a difference. Note - MAY. And the support for a 3 course meal - soup, preferably NOT a pureed sort to preserve the fibre, eat your veggies on the main course first, keep the carbs for last, by which time you won't want as much. And dessert last, if you have room. Bit like the principle of the Yorkshire pud - the more you eat of that, the more meat you may have, Except there isn't room for much and the Yorkshire is a bit carby ...
Hello TC You know it's more about feeling good and not comparing looks. Since my husband's recent death I had to up my Pred and because I am also diabetic the sugars have rocketed in spite of drastically reducing my carbs. Browsing the internet I read about a steroid called Deflazacort which is supposed to be a better option for diabetics. I must check out The Glucose Godess Eat Smart programmes on Channel 4. Winter is such a hard time to be strict and avoid the biscuit tin!! X.
Once again thank you all for your messages of condolence.
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