This Book Will Change the Way You Look at Food Forever!

I’m about half way through the audible version of the book Spoon Fed by Professor Tim Spector and it is literally blowing my mind!

I’ve long since suspected that future generations are going to look back at our health system and see it as primitive in the way we prescribe everybody the same medicines for the same ailment. Personally tailored medicine based on our genetics and our unique biology will be the future of medicine.

I never stopped to think that a similar concept also applies to the foods we eat. One food that spikes blood sugar for me may have a completely opposite or neutral effect for you. This is what Tim (a trained GP and a professor of genetics) found out in his extensive research. The unique twist is that twins (with the same or very similar genetics) also displayed differing blood sugar and fat responses to the same food!

Tim states that the main influencing factor on how our bodies respond to the foods we eat is our gut biome. The theory that there is one diet for all is a complete myth!

I did some further research on this topic and it turns out that Scientists in Israel at the Weizmann Institute of Science made a similar discovery to Tim way back in 2015. They even produced a witty YouTube video explaining their findings which I urge you to view (it’s only around 5 minutes long).

I’ve just purchased this Blood Glucose Monitoring Kit to measure my specific blood sugar response to certain foods I consume so that I can eventually determine my personal set of “bad foods” i.e. those that spike my blood sugar above my own normal range.

I’m going to follow the steps and advice laid out in this blog (JUST MAKE SURE TO WASH YOUR HANDS THROUGHLY BEFORE  EACH READING):

1. Take a base measurement in the morning after an extensive fast so that you get your resting blood sugar level.
2. Test again just before eating you chosen food to check you are near your baseline (within 20 mg/dL or 1.1 mmol/L). Don’t continue if elevated as this may be from eating something earlier.
3. Test and record your results every half hour until you are once again near your baseline (within 20 mg/dL or 1.1 mmol/L). This should normally mean you are testing every half hour for around 2 hours (so on average maximum 4 readings – sometimes more).
4. “…test enough foods or meals so that you build a sense of your normal response curve. This includes the length of time it takes you to get back to within 20 mg/dL (1.1 mmol/L) of your baseline, as well as, the magnitude of the initial spike. Any food above your normal values (either the spike or the “elevated” duration) would then go on the “bad” list. 

Another cruder but less costly method (in terms of strips used) to use comes from the same blog: “…Jenny Horner, a QS friend in England, had a simple rubric for testing her food. She measured her blood glucose just once, one hour after eating. If the result was less than 125 mg/dL (7.0 mmol/L), she categorized it as “okay”. “Avoid” was anything more than a 140 mg/dL (7.7 mmol/L) result and anything in between was labelled an “occasional” food…”

You can use an app from this list to record your results, this monthly subscription app for iPhone, or just a simple excel spreadsheet (I love an excel).

I bet there are foods that I’m eating that I should be avoiding. The same would be the case for you.

This is the dawning of the new age of nutrition – personalised eating based on your own make-up!