How to Biohack Your Glucose Levels With Kris Gethin
Kris Gethin is an educator, biohacker, and hybrid athlete. He's the CEO of Kaged Muscle Supplements, co-founder of the Kris Gethin Gyms Franchise, and founder of Healthkik.com. In addition to being an international business owner and celebrity trainer, he is the author of many books including the number one bestseller Body by Design.
Through the Knowledge and Mileage Podcast, Kris dives into the world of muscle building, optimal health, and endurance. He and his guests engage in informed discussions on supplementation, smart nutrition, and the implementation of real-life strategies to change your perception and help you achieve a happier, healthier lifestyle.
In this episode, Kris interviews Kara Collier, Director of Nutrition at NutriSense. Kris and Kara discuss the benefits of tracking your health metrics, the importance of steady glucose levels, who benefits from wearing a continuous glucose monitor (CGM), and how to hack your glucose system.
Kris and Kara dive deep into the advantages of using a CGM and how to harness yours to optimize health and longevity. Read several highlights from their discussion below.
Kara explains who benefits the most from NutriSense's CGM Health Program:
"We're trying to make valuable continuous glucose data available to everyone. Our market is predominately non-diabetics who are interested in preventative health and health optimization. We support a lot of people who are very healthy but are looking to push their health to the next level. This includes athletes, biohackers, and people who want to enhance their health-span and longevity.
We also have a lot of customers who want to address and take care of a health concern before it leads to multiple chronic conditions. This could be someone who has a strong family history of diabetes or cardiovascular disease, has prediabetes, or is overweight. We really want to help people have access to their own data, especially if it can help prevent them from going down the road to chronic disease."
"Our bodies can be very complex and confusing,” advises Kara. “As part of the NutriSense CGM Health Program, we have expert dietitians who are trained in understanding glucose levels, to help guide you through the data. The dietitian is there to help you every step of the way.”
Kris advises on the benefits he's seen when a dietitian is able to access your data and provide real-time advice based on it. He believes having a dietitian on hand to advise you is really impactful if you're unsure about what you're seeing in the app. It can be daunting to see the metrics and not know what they mean. However, with the guidance of a dietitian, you can learn what the data means and how to use it to optimize your diet and health.
“Instead of wondering what is good for you and trying to stay motivated to stick with that, you know what works best for you because you have data to back it up. It really drives behavioral change in a totally new way,” says Kara.
“Continuous data helps bridge the time gap of gratification which can make habits much stickier. The secret to health and longevity and reaching your performance goals is not just figuring out the right plan, but sticking to it. Having data always coming at you drives that behavioral change and stickiness of habits.”
A good example of why it's important to monitor our own data is when we look at how our bodies individually react to the foods we eat. Kara gives a personal example to explain why personalized data is so important.
“Even within the world of healthy carbohydrates, people will advise you to choose foods such as sweet potatoes. However, not everyone has the same response to the same food. For example, for me, I am relatively healthy, fit, and active. But one of my biggest glucose spikes comes from sweet potatoes.
Sweet potatoes are commonly recommended as a good carbohydrate, but my glucose spikes higher from sweet potatoes than any other grain or starchy vegetable. So, for me, they are not a good choice. Each of us will have a unique response depending on our genetics and microbiome. Testing and experimenting with our responses to foods of all types will help work out what's the best option for each of us.”
Kara shares that, “...when we see a glucose spike, that means your body is undergoing oxidative stress. That is, your body is undergoing stress to process that carbohydrate load. Our body works really hard to keep glucose in this tight normal range. If it is spiking high, the body works really hard to get that back down.
When the body works that hard, there will be some negative consequences, including:
Even if you are a healthy weight, eating these refined carbohydrates can lead to these spikes and create damage. You could be eating within caloric normalcy and not be gaining weight, but at the same time, you might not be metabolically healthy on the inside. So, we want to avoid foods that are going to cause a big glucose spike.”
Kara’s expert tips to blunt glucose spikes include:
1. Eating protein and fiber at the beginning of the meal. It can make a significant difference in moderating your glucose response.
2. Consuming a small amount of apple cider vinegar before an unhealthy meal to reduce a glucose spike.
3. Test using supplements that help with curbing blood glucose spikes:
“Cold therapy is a great glucose hack, and a great longevity hack in general” states Kara. “It is more accessible to people as everyone can do cold therapy at home. You will see a big glucose drop during cold therapy. It’s a really great way to burn through glucose stores and lower insulin levels. It is also a great therapeutic tool for stress. Both cold and heat therapy can really help with psychological stress which is a huge driver for elevated glucose levels and can lead towards insulin resistance.”
Listen to the full podcast
To hear the full conversation, listen to The Knowledge and Mileage Podcast Episode #130: How to Biohack Your Blood Sugar Levels, Get Shredded, and Your Health-Span with a Continuous Glucose Monitor - with Kara Collier.
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