today we have something very interesting with Justin Richard now if you haven't watched Justin's videos in the past you have to check them out I'll put his link down below but he does this Channel with evaluating his blood sugars on a continuous basis and the type of information that he has found with experimenting with different foods is amazing and we're going to share with you some fascinating data about what happens with different uh foods and if you check your blood sugars over a period of time rather than just a one-time test uh what you're going to reveal so welcome Justin thank you very much I'm super pleased to be here I'm a big fan of your uh content I've been watching you for many many years and uh I'm happy to be here thank you awesome you know I just I stumbled on your um your video and it's just it's like it gets right to the point and you use this continuous glucose monitor and uh and you just basically test out all these different foods let's just dive in and just talk about some of the things that surprised you that you would never think would create that big of a spike but I think just before that what what I need to mention is like what we're testing because if you're new to this channel I'll just kind of explain what we're testing so anytime you eat uh certain foods especially carbohydrates um depending on the type of carbohydrate the blood sugar is going to either go you know slightly up or really high and then um and then it'll eventually come down hopefully and so what's happening is we're we have different hormones that come in there and help regulate your blood sugars like insulin and so when you don't get this leveling off there could be a problem with insulin so anyway that could be more pre-diabetes and a lot of people have that so that's kind of my introduction so Jump Right In Justin well it's it's really the most important factor for me was insulin resistance and I have a history of type two diabetes in my family aunts and uncles have it my mom has it and my whole reason for starting this channel was I wanted to do something to preempt this scenario I don't want to end up with type 2 diabetes and as I was in my late 40s I was noticing that I was getting low energy year after year my energy levels were diminishing year after year and especially after I ate food and particular Foods highly processed sugary Foods this really took my it Zapped my energy and I was having a hard time working through the day and given the history of type two diabetes in my family I realized that I needed to do something quickly to get this under control because I was on that road to you know diminishing my health year after year so that's the reason I did this uh and uh I'm so grateful that I that I did get the CGM because it really takes the guesswork out of managing your blood sugar and uh there are a lot of surprises that happen along the way you realize what these foods are actually doing um in part in particular these highly processed uh sugary Foods they really have a a great impact on your blood sugar levels and it really is an eye opener when you get this uh this CGM and you really see what's going on yeah and CGM is the continuous glucose monitor for those of you that didn't quite uh understand what that is but yeah that's awesome yeah so um you know when I first got it I was just continuing what I was eating just to see what the foods that I would commonly eat were doing to my blood sugar and I ate a lot of Highly processed foods a lot of baked goods baked goods are my favorite thing I grew up with them and I am not ashamed to say that I I believe I have a sugar addiction to a certain degree I crave sugar quite often uh it's hard for me sometimes to say no to Sugar especially these baked goods and things like that so when I first got the continuous glucose monitor I was just testing out what what these foods that I commonly ate are doing to my blood sugar and it was a shocking surprise that these are really high elevations in blood sugar for me me and also they had uh quite a long duration so that's not something that I wanted to continue so it really brought this to light for me and I started to alter my my diet uh accordingly now I I do want to mention as well too that I still eat sugar from time to time but I've I've cut back that that intake significantly so yeah so so you know it's if someone eats sugar obviously it's going to go up what surprised you the most what kind of food that you ate you're like wow I had no idea it spiked that high well besides the obvious sugary treats and stuff like that white flour any even bread or even whole wheat breads for me really Spike my blood sugar more than I thought they would for some people that may be different uh that may be potatoes or rice for other people if we're you know off the track of of of the highly processed foods you know those are the the standard foods that a lot of people are eating all the time uh they have a significant impact or they can have a signifant significant impact so for me it's that white flow anything with white flower that's pasta breads things like that so so you know then you're going to get people that'll say well I'm gonna have whole wheat bread versus white bread have you ever tested those two I've tested that there's a minimal um difference between the two it's all highly processed you know a lot of that is marketing they tell you that it's brown bread and it's like it's really not that much different I've also tested uh sourdough bread yeah uh and not much of a difference and then of course there's the argument that not the bread that you buy the sourdough bread that you buy at the grocery store is not authentic sourdough and uh that requires a fermentation process that you usually only get at a bakery so I went to a local bakery I got the authentic sourdough bread and it did not have that reduction that I was hoping for so a lot of these things that you see and read online uh you really have to test them for yourself because you know they may have studies behind them and things like that but not everybody reacts the same way it's it unfortunately it's not uh um entirely accurate when you're taking those into account uh I've tried freezing bread to increase the resistant starch overnight freezing it and toasting it it has a slight difference but all in all these whole these um these uh uh these breads or these flowers really have a a high impact on the blood sugar for me at least anyway and many people as well too darn it um so what about Ezekiel breads people are going to wonder about that that sprouted bread have you tested that I do and that's my go-to bread I use that all the time uh it seems to have the smallest impact on my blood sugar with the breads okay and part of the reason is because the the slices of that Ezekiel Bread are a little bit smaller as well too so that's something to take into account but it is a healthier bread when you read the ingredient list uh and it's lower in the glycemic index than most breads that are using this white flour so it is a good choice for me and all the recipes that I do that I'm when I'm trying to cut back on the glycemic load I use the Ezekiel Bread interesting so I have a question so um you know we talked about sugar but um if we take a look sugar and then we deduct the fiber and the sugar from it we have What's called the net carb um people don't really know what that is but I'm just going to tell you right now it's for those of you watching it's a starch right so sometimes you'll see uh products like this right here Doritos it has zero sugar right zero sugar um so it must be okay but have you ever tested May maybe I don't know like a starch potato versus modified food starch or a starch a refined starch like this like really refined yeah generally products like that that have corn as the ingredient really Spike my blood sugar as well too they're generally really high in the glycemic index and they can be problematic for me so I try to avoid those as well too there's a lot of um uh seed oils in those fried foods as well too those are deep fried as well so there's some some issues with that for me as well too so I try to stay away from that so it's not only about the blood sugar for me I'm trying to eat healthier all the way around blood sugar is one of the things that I'm trying to watch but I do consider things like that as well too well you know you you were into the like the um pastries bread stuff I was into the salty chips in college I would do a much bigger bag of Doritos in one sitting but this right here doesn't seem like that much right so this is 14 serving sizes okay 14 so you think anyone's going to have one 14th of this in one city so if we dis multiply the hidden sugars which is the refined carbs in starch in here this is how much sugar you're getting in this one bag yeah it that's that's incredible it's just and it's so deceiving the these foods are so highly palatable these uh companies that manufacture these take a lot of time to get their recipes to have the maximum effect on your biochemistry to make you crave them more and more uh I did some research on on Doritos and they actually hooked people up to a brain scan to see how their brain is reacting to these these chips when you eat them and they're looking they have their whole set of terminology they're looking for the Bliss point so when you eat something it's the right amount of dopamine that keeps you coming back for more of these chips makes this stuff really really hard to resist and uh that's why you know like me a lot of people are hooked on this stuff and it's hard to get off it when you're comparing that food to a healthy food like broccoli you know it's difficult to say oh I like the flavor of that broccoli better than these Doritos it's a hard thing to to shake when you're up against that so it's uh but part of understanding what is happening when you're eating that and having those that data of your blood sugar can really show you what is going on and that can kind of scare you straight so to speak it can it can say you know what the consequences of me eating this stuff are not as they're not good and I need to start doing something about it when you when you start to get those symptoms later in life you have to make a decision say do I want to continue down this path or do I want to do something to make myself feel better and to regain my health that I once had when I was younger so that's that's uh but that's the battle is is trying to stay away from these highly processed foods increase the consumption of the whole foods that are high in fiber rich in nutrients vitamins and minerals and low in this highly refined sugar that we're getting a lot of so that's the challenge that I face and I think a lot of people face that's what gets a lot of people in trouble with their metabolic health is this food addiction we all have our favorite snacks we all have our favorite foods ice cream for some people potato chips or baked goods or chocolate whatever that is those are highly addictive foods and uh they can really do a number on your blood sugar there's a a book called I think the Dorito effect and what's interesting they talk about the history of it they they manipulate the food to give this uh Spike and burst of chemical you know Joy dopamine but then it drops really fast so it's almost like ah I need another one oh you know it's like I fell for it for years I was in the Trap it took me a very long time to eventually come off those things even if I was like my stomach is in pain so I know a lot of people are are stuck in that trap um so you know the advantage of this glucose continuous glucose monitor is that um you can't really necessarily know what's going on other than just feeling it like with your blood sugars but now you can actually really see it and and measure it and so but without measuring it you can't really control it you know so be able to see the effects not just like right after the food but like even hours later is super valuable um especially since not just food can affect your blood sugars right right uh for me a lack of sleep can increase my fasting blood sugar levels by 10 15 even 20 points the next day wow and my insulin sensitivity is not as good as well too so when I do eat the carbohydrates I'll Spy High in for longer periods of time sleep is a big factor stress is also a big factor and everybody says that but nobody really understands the real consequences of that when you have the continuous glucose monitor you can see on the graph Oh My fasting blood sugar level is actually up 15 points today because I I only got you know 5 hour sleep last night or highly stressed it really is uh it's it it's something to see that because you don't consider that it would have that much of an impact but when you see it it's significant another thing that uh having the continuous glucose monitor that is an advantage is this tests your blood sugar every five minutes so it's like doing a finger stick every five minutes 24 hours a day wow so you get a chance to see your blood sugar levels overnight and I used to be a late night eater I used to eat you know a couple of hours one hour before bed sometimes and if I eat something like pizza or popcorn caramel popcorn I've done some tests on my page with that and went to sleep my blood sugar will Spike 50 60 65 milligrams per deciliter and it will stay up up for six seven hours all through the night and I would I would never have known that had I not had the continuous glucose monitor to show me what's going on overnight because you're not going to get up every five minutes and prick your finger to do the test so that information is valuable and that is enough to say look I am not going to be eating late at night before bed especially High carbohydrate meals like that now my rule is I try to give myself 3 to four hours before I go to bed to digest that food and I also try to make my last meal of the day more of a keto style meal low carbohydrates higher proteins higher fats so if I am hungry I can still satiate myself but I'm not going to do these high carbs because going to sleep with a full stomach of carbohydrates is not good for my blood sugar so you you said six hours six seven hours even my gosh yeah and that's you and I'm not even considered type two diab Ty type two diabetic so um but that is alarming when you see that because you've got uh your your stomach is filled with these carbohydrates you're not active you don't have a you don't have a chance to burn these calories off while you're sleeping as much as you do when you're up and you're active so that Revelation to me really made a big change with my behavior I try not to eat I do eat carbohydrates throughout the day and sometimes I fall off the wagon and I eat these highly refined foods but now I do them with some very specific hacks or uh ways to mitigate those blood sugar spikes in mind I keep that in mind so I'm not going to eat those High carbohydrate meals before bed if I am going to have some carbohydrates I'll include some proteins and some fats and something fibrous to help slow down those carbohydrates yeah let's let's talk about that so what we want to do what people you know it's impossible to say no you never can have this for the rest of your life but but if you do there's things you could do right to buffer this insulin response so absolutely let's let's talk about that so you found fiber will do it right fiber so if you're going to have a salad or something before a meal or um even um vegetables raw vegetables things like that even having an apple can help as well too if you're just going to eat a chocolate bar by itself I get a pretty big spike but I've done some tests on my page where I've had some hardboiled eggs before that or some broccoli before that and I've done the test it can bring prot are you saying protein also can help these three things fats fibers and proteins they have a significant impact they slow down the rate at which that food moves through your digestive system and that can reduce the blood sugar Spike the postmeal blood sugar spikes so I've tested each of them individually proteins fats and fibers they all do a pretty good job but if uh if I'm going to have a chocy treat or a piece of cake or something like that I can have uh proteins fats and fibers beforehand it fills me up so I'm not I'm less likely to eat more of the junk food that I'm going to eat and it helps to uh dampen or bring down that blood sugar Spike from that highly processed food so that's a good rule of thumb that I've been incorporating um you can also take supplements you can also take apple cider vinegar which I know you've talked about uh that has acetic acid in it which helps to slow down that digestion process as well that can bring a blood sugar Spike down by as much as 30% that really works wow wow I mix a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar and a glass of water you drink that right before your meal and it can really help to reduce that blood sugar Spike I wonder if that's why some people unknowingly take a piece of bread toast it add butter and then cinnamon to help buffer the response I don't know if that would do anything but that would be interesting test yeah and also you know when you look at the sequence of how people eat their meal they usually start with a salad then they have the meal and they finish with dessert well that is the correct way to eat and that may have been like uh developed or recognized over the years of tradition you eat your salad first then your meal and then your dessert last that is going to slow down the absorption or the digestion of that sweet treat at the end so that's the proper sequence to eat things it's to save the sweet treats for last and plus when you eat a salad you know because if you eat the protein first and even the salad after that I I notic that people don't finish their salad so because they kind of like the protein is the biggest satisfier not the salad so I always have the salad first not everyone does that but I think that works for me when we talked before you had a great tip you know just to minimize the Temptation and try to do a lifestyle that this stuff is not in your face all the time so let's talk about like tips that people can do that can minimize the even the exposure of this junk food other than just seeing wow my blood sugars are high but what else could we do it's true there's you know it's all about developing habits for me so the the time that I all this time that I spent eating these junk food these junk Foods as all through my life have become habits for me so I want a sweet treat after a meal I want something sweet in the morning it's all about changing those habits from bad habits into good habits so I work on one or two at a time uh the last one I've been trying is obviously don't go to the grocery store and this is simple these are simple habits that we've all probably heard before but when you use them they actually can really work don't go to the grocery store when you're hungry go after you've eaten some food you make better choices there and it's important for me when I do see something at the store that I want to buy like something that's sweet Donuts or something like that I say no to it at the grocery store because at the grocery store I only need to say no to it one time when I if I bring that item home and I put it in my fridge or my cupboard every time I open the fridge I have to say no to that that might be four five six times a day I say no to it once at the grocery store don't bring it into your environment don't make it easy to access that food that's a really important tip and if you can Implement that and stick with that little habit it can have a significant impact um for the rest of your life so developing even simple little things like that can make big changes if you're going to have a big meal another great one is you know you're going to eat a big meal there's a high carbohydrate load go for a 10 15 minute walk after that meal that can have a really significant impact to help bring that blood sugar Spike down or keep it and a at a nicer level so walking just like that 10 15 minutes a really good habit to start doing and those are small little things that most people can do it's free and uh they have a significant impact I like that yeah because um if you're the first uh 30 minutes of walking you're burning up all your extra sugar and your blood so that's very important but I like I I'm going to use that because what you said before because yeah like if it's if you buy it it's in your fridge now you have to constantly say no every single day every single night you're like uh no no no no it keeps calling out to you yeah you know when I was in um I was in my 20s and then 28 I think I that's when I got married and then early 30s right before you know before keto I I couldn't sleep this is probably my late 20s I couldn't sleep so the only way I could sleep is have b a pint of Ben and Jerry's ice cream before bed you can imagine my blood sugars and I think now looking back it was a sugar coma like you start spiking the sugar too high and it's going to put you out of course I'd wake up like I had a hangover but at least it helped me sleep because I had the restless legs from the vitamin B deficiency that was created from all the carbohydrates so I was in that that mode for quite some years and uh it wasn't until till and I don't know if this happened to you or not but you know there's a certain point in your life where you make a shift of like okay I'm going to change my diet and then you realize oh my gosh I feel better it was when I added protein for breakfast instead of my carbohydrate big huge muffin and my orange juice I don't know what I don't know what you did but I had a protein breakfast that was like the biggest simple change that made me feel better what what about you when what did you do I started to do intermittent fasting so I started a 168 intermittent fast so all the tests that I Do by the way are after a 16-hour fast on an empty stomach so I've put that into my life and that's something that I can stick with rather easily so I'm never usually hungry first thing in the morning so that was an easy habit for me to pick up intermittent fasting then I started after that I started to add protein into the first meal of the day so about 30 to 40 gram of protein I found that when I did that I was satiated I had better energy levels throughout that whole morning or after breaking the fast usually around noon so after eating protein um including that that made a significant difference then of course what were you eating before that oh donuts and junky stuff sugary sugary like breakfast cereals breakfast cereals are so high in sugar and they really Spike blood sugar um so you know that's what everybody does you grow up with Cocoa Puffs and and Froot Loops and all these things and you think that's normal that's a normal diet for a lot of people and we're unknowingly spiking our blood sugar significantly first thing in the morning and when you do that first thing in the morning that sets you up to be hungry and tired for the rest of the day setting your um setting your biochemistry up with a proper meal first thing when you break your fast really has a a positive effect for the rest of the day so I find that when I do the test like the other day was National dut day so I said all right I'm GNA do two Donuts I'm going to eat two Donuts I'm going to test them so I did it after my 16-hour fast on an empty stomach I had a pretty big blood sugar Spike there but for the rest of the day I was tired I was craving more sugar I wanted more I wanted more sweets so that first meal of the day is really really important and I just discovered that do do you um how how is uh well just have you noticed a big change from in your mood your overall mood when in the past versus when you are doing good foods yeah and for me my mood is really directly correlated with my level of energy so if I have low energy I don't feel like doing anything and I'm not productive when I'm not productive I say why am I not doing this why am I not motivated and that can get me down because I don't feel productive and I feel like I've lost the day can bring me down a little bit I've also experienced some anxiety if I have too many carbohydrates uh but that energy level was a big thing for me I was getting after I would eat a meal any of these meals I would get so tired I would be falling asleep in my chair literally so uh it has a direct effect on my energy level which in turn has an effect on my mood getting that under control has been a real GameChanger in my life that energy level is where it all started for me I realized you know late 40s it started mid to late 40s year after year just getting tired just tired every day and not having the energy that I want had and I said what is going on here then I was researching insulin resistance and that's one of the symptoms when you start to lose your energy you're not using the food properly it's not metabolizing properly and your blood sugar levels are altered making you tired a lot of things go on with that and that really has a significant impact on a lot of people you know you don't have the time and energy you don't have the energy to do what you want to get done during the day you don't have the energy to connect with the people in your life that you want to that has a serious impact besides your health massive when you when you were growing up um were were you like a a serious junk food junky or were you moderately eating poorly and then just snacking and then kind of going through your 20s like what what severity were you at as far as junk Foods I would say you know I've been 40 pounds heavier than I am now and you know I would say I I have a a sugar addiction I would say that and I think a lot of people do we're I think a lot of us are afraid to admit that but I would find a lot of pleasure pleasure in going to the store and buying a variety of junk foods and going home and eating them that was a real treat for me I felt would you also would you also do like healthier foods too at the same time like growing up not then not at that time okay growing up that was a way for me to have like a guarantee that I would feel good I would go to the store I would buy some chocolate I would buy some potato chips and maybe a soda and then I would come home and I would eat them and I would really get a lot of delight out of that so it was away for me I'm sorry did you have in your house dude was there always junk food in the house there's well not so much when I was very young my mom didn't do that but when I got out on my own when I got I remember when I got my first job I was 12 I was doing some stuff and I had my own income I could go to the store and buy this stuff that I wanted and for me it was just a real treat and you know looking back on that now probably was you know soothing myself in some way um but yeah I I I am still drawn to those foods and every once in a while I do fall off the wagon like the other day I did the donuts and I said wow these really are good yeah but again knowing the consequences of that uh really put things into perspective and it really can hold you accountable for that you know you can just schedule those days on the days you do the videos to to kill two birds with one stone right so it's for the video that's what and that's what I've been doing and then you know when I do those videos I'll often times I'll follow it up the next day with some way to mitigate this so other going for a walk or taking supplements like berberine or apple cider vinegar which I did after the donuts I did that the following day and that can really help to reduce those blood sugar spikes too so I'm realistic in the sense that it's very difficult to drop all this highly processed food like 80% of the food out there is highly processed yeah difficult to give that up entirely and just switch over to Whole Foods that's a tough challenge so my goal is to bring this down bring the balance of this the ratio of Highly processed foods to uh these Whole Foods I want to bring that down if I'm at 80% processed foods and 20% um Whole Foods I want to bring that up to 50% my goal is to bring that up so I'm eating more Whole Foods to processed foods and that can have a tremendous impact alone but to be ious of what category the foods I'm eating are in highly processed versus Whole Foods uh that that is that is a big thing as well too that's a good habit to get into what am I eating here is this processed or is this a whole food and then being conscious of that bringing that ratio up but again it's really hard to do that entirely just to quit that processed food sugary food cold turkey I can't do that so um to me it's about making uh incremental steps towards evening out this ratio of process to high high I think that's one of the advantages of the continuous glucose monitors you can um number one you can really kind of finally face and look inside your body and go oh my gosh this is what's happening because before you kind of like I don't want to think about it but if it's in your face you're checking your glucose and you're looking at that that's that's motivating yes you feel better but then you see it and like oh my gosh so I mean and then you also have um you know just the experience of going through this I think um if a person had the basic understanding and they experienced it for at least a week or two I don't think they're going to ever go back to where they were originally because now they know they feel so much better like I I mean I think this is what the glucose monitor is helping with is like making more of a longer uh change and and not ever going back because now you know it's in your knowledge base it's not just you've experienced it because I I I would I don't know if you would agree with this um I had to go through um some suffering and then I had to change my diet to really prove to myself this was correct I mean yeah I mean you don't have to once you feel that way it's like there's a point where what am I going to ever go back no because I don't I I now I know I'm I don't want to feel that way that's like me with late night eating carbohydrates late at night I I say to myself do I want to go through an all night Spike again for this no yeah right it's not worth it so one one tip that I I use is I I'll see something that I like I like popcorn for example and I'll just put myself okay let me just envision myself eating it okay what the pleasure and then what am I going to feel like about a half hour later an hour later I'm like uh no I think I'll pass but there's a you know if we take a look at processed food I I recently um started looking at all the processed foods and looking at the common denominator what really makes it up as far as like ingredients and there's a lot of complexities on the label but really when you come down to it there's just three things that make up 99% of it and that would be this right here which is maybe not in the form of even sugarcane it's too expensive they use beet sugar or or glucose syrup and then of course you have seed oils there's always seed oils now what's interesting about that is people think uh saturated fats in junk food no they're all unsaturated fat I mean you do you ever see any more like lard or taow in here no it's seed oils and then you have of course modified food Storch modified cornstarch melted dextran so those are that's it and if you were just to take those three ingredients and mix them up and put some flavoring on there you wouldn't eat it it has to be packaged in a really nice thing like this and it has to be in the right texture and but I think more education is going to be the key to get people off of it and then um I think I want to close with the continuous glucose monitor I personally went out to get one and I think it was the was the free Freebird or what was that called the lifestyle Libre uh yeah the it's the lifestyle Libre yeah yeah I tried that you know what I it didn't work it just it had now it was actually really bad reviews and then I I tried it again and I tried a third time and it just broke down and then uh um right now I just got the one that you recommended so what and I don't even remember what it's called because I just got it in the mail what which one do you use I use the brand it's signos and they uh they cater to people that are trying to improve their metabolic health and uh I really like them because of the software the software is very intuitive and easy to use and once you get the data how what you do with the data is important so being able to read that data properly is important and some of the uh interfaces that you get with these other companies are not as intuitive not as easy to use customer service is important important one as well if you have any questions you want to be able to get a quick answer so you can move on and get things going so that's another issue as well too um I like this company I I've been working with them for over a year and a half now and not all of these things run perfectly all the time there are little hiccups along the way but of all the ones I've tried this one seems to be the most stable and uh it works very very well so yeah even the uh the the reviews are much better that's important but also is it smaller too it's small yeah it's a nice small so these companies usually use one of two Hardware so the biotech is is uh there's two companies that really do it one is the lifestyle libbre and the other one is the Dexcom and the Dexcom has higher ratings a lot of people like it more but it's the service that you get they have different software different applications that you have on your phone and I've tried a lot of different ones and again you want ease of use and you want something with a with an interface that gives you suggestions on what to do so when I'm eating something and I have a blood sugar Spike it'll notify me and it'll make suggestions for me to lower that blood sugar like go for a walk Now's the Time to do some exercise I can log the foods that I eat and it will tell me you know give me suggestions on on on what to do to manage my blood sugar which is a really good thing uh so you're not just stuck with a bunch of data that you don't really know what to do with so uh a lot of the the uh the brands out there kind of don't offer as much as what the signos does and that's part of the reason I like it so much I'm excited to use it uh I'll be doing some experiments myself and then um I we'll have to do another video but I will put your link down below also sna there's a link down there as as well and uh hey thanks for uh uh this collaboration I think this is a great video that people will start to kind of maybe start using this uh data to change their their their lifestyle yeah I think it's an exciting time to have this information it really takes the guesswork out of managing your blood sugar and uh for me it's really helped a lot I really appreciate uh you having me on the show Absolutely okay great have a good one take care