Foods and Blood Sugar – All Compared!

Video · published 2025-06-05

• Insulin resistance and prediabetes (affecting 1 in 3 US adults, over 80% unknowingly) are reversible: losing just 5-7% of body weight, improving diet, and getting active can bring blood sugar back to normal and stop diabetes in its tracks.
• Fats and proteins — olive oil, butter, avocado, nuts, eggs, chicken, steak — cause little to no glucose rise, and pairing carbs with fat, fiber, and protein blunts their spike (Honeycrisp apple dropped from 34 to 18 mg/dL with almond butter; watermelon from 49 to 17 after a chicken salad; a Twix from 42 to 27 after three hard-boiled eggs).
• Liquid and refined carbs are the worst offenders because nothing buffers their absorption: Gatorade spiked 63 mg/dL, orange juice 33 (similar to Coca-Cola), donuts 58 for 2.5 hours, and pasta 69 with a double spike still elevated after 3 hours.
• Many "healthier" swaps barely help: whole wheat pasta (60) is nearly as bad as regular, sourdough (41) and whole wheat bread (35) are close to white bread (42), and sweet potatoes spike the same as regular potatoes (36) — while Ezekiel bread (30) does somewhat better and zero-calorie sweeteners (stevia, monk fruit, allulose, erythritol, diet sodas) cause no spike at all.
• Eating order matters a lot: starting with high-fiber vegetables, then fats and proteins, and eating the carbs last cut the spike from 33 to 14 mg/dL — less than half — versus eating carbs first.
• Simple behaviors around meals shrink spikes: walking afterward cut a sugar spike to one third (about 30% lower), eating the same sandwich slowly over 30 minutes instead of 4 reduced it 22%, apple cider vinegar before a meal cuts spikes by about 30%, and dihydroberberine plus apple cider vinegar lowered a pizza spike 44% and shortened its duration.
• Sleep and timing count as much as food: sleep loss raises fasting glucose by 10-20 mg/dL and worsens insulin resistance by 20-30% while boosting hunger hormones, and late-night carbs cause an all-night blood sugar elevation.
• Ripeness and portion size drive the response: green bananas spiked 33, ripe 43, extra-ripe 52; fresh mango 25 versus dried 37; one mandarin 20 versus three mandarins 50 — riper, dried, and larger portions of fruit hit much harder.