Move over protein, glucose spiking is the latest wellness obsession.

By now you've probably heard of "glucose-spiking", the latest wellness obsession to follow on from high protein diets and parasite cleanses.

Popularised by biochemist and social media sensation Jessie Inchauspé, AKA Glucose Goddess, glucose tracking to prevent spikes is *the* practice that everyone seems to believe will solve all of their problems — made all the easier by Inchauspé's "10 Glucose Goddess Hacks."

Inchauspé has amassed a casual 5.6 million followers on Instagram thanks to her hacks to help people stabilise their glucose, which she says will stop cravings, give you more energy, help you think more clearly, and even improve acne, anxiety and sleep apnoea.

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She says she first became fascinated with how food affects our minds and bodies when she was experiencing episodes of depersonalisation-derealisation disorder more than a decade ago.

After tracking her food and nutrition, noting how it affected her physical and mental health, and then researching the science side of it, she came to the conclusion that glucose spikes were making her feel worse.

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But now, Inchauspé is spruiking an "Anti-Spike" supplement for people who want to manage their glucose levels, and it's certainly raised my eyebrows as a journalist who knows to be suspicious of any magic pills touted to solve problems you didn't know you had.

So, I decided to ask a nutritionist about how glucose works and if the Glucose Goddess lifestyle lives up to the hype.

What is glucose spiking?

"Glucose spiking" refers to the spike of glucose in your bloodstream after you eat certain foods, which wellness influencers like Glucose Goddess say is the cause of health issues like fatigue, mood disturbances and food cravings. But, it's not actually a term used by health professionals.

According to KIC's nutritionist Olivia Morrison, "glucose spiking" is a "new-age buzz word" for medical terms that already exist: high GI (glycemic index) eating versus low GI eating.

"Glycemic index is just a fancy word for when you consume something, how quickly that food is converted to energy and showing up in the bloodstream available as glucose," she explained to Mamamia.

Foods that have a high glycemic index, like potatoes, white bread or sugar, are more likely to cause a spike in blood sugar. However, food that has a low glycemic index, like leafy greens, carrots and lentils, leave your blood sugar more stable.

"When you have a high GI diet, you're more likely to have large peaks and troughs of energy levels throughout the day. Each time you eat, you'll have an increase of glucose available in the bloodstream, and then it quickly starts to taper off, and that's when you'll have more symptoms like irritability, fatigues, cravings, hunger, and trouble concentrating," Morrison explained.

In comparison, a low GI diet stabilises your blood sugar, resulting in minimal peaks and troughs or glucose spikes.

"It's essentially something that we have known in science, in the medical field, for a really long time," Morrison said.

What are the 10 Glucose Goddess Hacks?

Jessie Inchauspé, AKA Glucose Goddess, has a list of 10 hacks that she claims will help prevent glucose spikes and therefore the issues associated with low blood sugar.

The hacks range from general advice like "stop counting calories" and "exercise" (duh) to eating foods in the "right order" (fibres, proteins and fats first, sugar and starches later), and drinking a glass of vinegar-water 20 minutes before a meal.

Glucose Goddess' 10 hacks for managing blood sugar and preventing glucose spikes. Image: Glucose Goddess.

Morrison said that a lot of the advice is just a roundabout way of telling people to do things that are basic common sense in the nutrition world.

For example, having veggies as a starter to prevent glucose spikes is more just a guide on how to create a balanced meal.

The she suggests putting "clothes' on your carbs" by making sure you add protein, fat or fibre to starches and sugars. So simple, but packaged up in a bite-sized (glucose-friendly) way.

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Do the glucose spike hacks work?

According to Morrison, 'hacks' like the above are more just general nutrition advice will indeed work if you want to avoid crashing in the arvo. For example, eating veggies as a starter is a good habit because the fibre in these foods can affect how much glucose is absorbed into your bloodstream. They'll also leave you feeling fuller and more satiated because they create volume in the stomach. Hack Six, which suggests having dessert after a meal rather than lots of sweet snacks during the day, is also sound advice — with your tummy full of good food, you're less likely to overdo it on the sweet treats.

However Morrison says the order in which you eat food in a meal doesn't actually matter if that meal is balanced (and since the advice tells you to include all the food groups, we can safely assume this would be the case).

She also warns that the hack which tells you to choose a savoury breakfast instead of a sweet breakfast makes the incorrect assumption that all savoury food is always better than sweet food.

"Savoury food is a lot easier to control portions of compared to a lot of sweet breakfasts," she said.

"But it's not because it's sweet versus savoury, it's more that a lot of the time people aren't aware of what a carbohydrate is. And therefore, if you can't identify what a carbohydrate is and what will be included in that portion control and serving size to eat low GI, you're essentially more likely to be having a high GI breakfast."

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The same can be said for choosing savoury snacks over sweet snacks.

"If someone was having hummus with crackers, they might actually end up over eating the crackers, with there not being enough protein and fibre in there to bring down blood sugar levels," Morrison explained.

"[Blood sugar levels] might be a bit higher than, say, if they had yogurt and fruit, because that's a protein and another type of fibre source."

How to manage glucose spiking.

Managing your blood sugar is typically something that is necessary for people who have specific health conditions like diabetes, PCOS or POTS.

For people who don't have any medical conditions that result in a need to track glucose, it's really just about maintaining healthy habits like drinking water, eating lots of leafy greens and curating balanced meals which are nutritious and satiating.

However, Morrison cautioned not to get too caught up in the trend of glucose tracking if you don't need to, as it can negatively affect your relationship with food and unfairly demonise carbs — a concerning trend given the fact that 'skinny' is back in and diet culture never left.

"I get so many questions about whether people need to be buying [a glucose tracker], and so many people that have bought one because of something online with this kind of glucose spiking side of things, and it's really stuffed up their relationship with food. Then they start restricting when they really shouldn't, because they're just misinterpreting the data," she explained.

"What concerns me with this glucose/insulin topic that's been a bit of a trend, is that it is essentially fear-mongering around carbohydrates, and there is a bit of a slippery slope around it," she continued.

"And so if you are starting to get concerned, and you are finding that you're starting to restrict carbohydrates and having anxiety around including those foods, because of the fear of increasing or spiking your glucose levels or insulin levels, check in with a health professional."

Feature image: TikTok @glucosegoddess_, @jannkham

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