Featuring how to lower a blood glucose spike after meals, a strawberry study for dementia and mood, plus an AIP strawberry recipe to tempt you, and more. Enjoy x
Hi everyone,
Happy Thursday, hope you are having some of this lovely sunshine wherever you are in the UK; hasn’t it been glorious? I must admit I’ve been finding it hard to sit in my office and work. It’s at the back of the flat, so no sea view. I keep making excuses to have to go to the lounge or kitchen (or veranda, oops!) so I can gaze at the sparkly sea and welcome blue skies. I tell myself it’ll change soon, so best enjoy it now. The things we tell ourselves, eh? Anyway, it’s good for my soul to get a bit of Vitamin Sea about 50 times a day ;).
You’ll have hopefully seen the post I did this week about the change in focus in Purehealth services. I’m determined to keep to it this time. I’ve closed the test service because that is the thing that starts everything off and mires me knee-deep in clinical work. Not that I don’t love clinical work, I do, and I plan to do some. But I’m ruddy 59 next birthday (eh???!!!) and I want some time to do more research, writing and teaching all of the stuff I’ve learned over the past 38 years, you know. Plus some other projects I’ve been thinking about for a few years and never had time to progress.
If you didn’t see the post, you can catch up below. And do subscribe – Ask Micki sessions are on their way for paid subscribers shortly 🙂
On that subject, thank you so much to those of you who joined after that post – I had a few annual and founder member subscriptions too which really makes my heart joyful x
OK, let’s get to this week’s posts. Have a great week, and enjoy this issue… don’t forget to catch up on my more frequent little titbit Notes here.
Subscriber Question: What’s the best way to stop blood glucose spiking too high after a meal if you are pre-diabetic or diabetic?
I’m asking every new paid subscriber if they want me to cover anything in particular or look into something and I’ll share the answer here for you. I’m sort of thinking I might collate them at some point into a Q&A type book. I’ve got lots to work on – I love me a bit of research, as you know!
I mentioned my HBA1c was raised too high for my liking recently, so I’ve been doing a lot of work on my own blood sugar control, of course. Then, someone asked this very question and I thought that would be useful to know, wouldn’t it?
The best way, of course, is not to eat stuff that spikes your sugar in the first place! So, use something like my Belly Fat Low GL Plan, which is designed to help you control insulin and blood sugar. It’s gluten and dairy free too so it gives you pancreas and liver a rest as well as being anti-allergenic. It’s called the Belly Fat Plan because insulin is the ‘fat hormone’ and is losing control of it and blood sugar is usually what makes us gain weight around the middle as we get older.
But, I can’t tolerate half of that with my MCAS, of course, so what else can be done? There are lots of different ideas hovering around on the t’internet; some good, some ridiculous. I’ll be writing a Diabetes Prevention & Treatment Plan soon, so I’ll go into that for you in a lot more detail in future.
I do think that, despite what gurus and medicine tells us, there is no one real diabetic diet that suits everyone. From what I can tell, there are general guidelines to eat more protein, good fat and fibre and avoid simple carbs. But, within that, there is a lot of variability. Some people don’t spike after eg. potatoes or even bread whereas that would be pancreatic-kryptonite to others.
I suppose that’s where wearing a CGM (continuous glucose monitor) would come in. I think people can get quite obsessive with them, but for a couple of weeks, they could be really useful to see what specific foods spike you or don’t.
BUT, you have to bear in mind that they are not perfect so they can give an idea, but it may not be the same on a different day – we know that stress, exercise level and many other factors will make your response to a food vary.
Tip: Most CGM companies will give you a free trial of 2 weeks and I reckon that’s enough – if you’re organised – to get a good handle on what foods suit you the most.
So, to my question: what’s the quickest way to avoid a spike, presuming you’ve eaten something that could cause a sharp rise in blood glucose, like a glass of wine on an empty stomach or too many roast potatoes on your Sunday dinner? Both me. Whoops.
I’ve tried a few things. They say a 10 minute brisk walk within 90 minutes of eating is a good strategy because the muscles in your legs take a lot of energy, and therefore need glucose fuel quickly, to make them move. But we don’t always have time to fit in a quick walk – or want to go out in the crashing wind and rain, frankly. So, if you take that principle of using the big leg muscles, squats would work in the same way – probably more efficiently. I get up about half an hour to an hour after a meal and do 10 slow squats and add 10 wall push ups just for good measure.
I’ve not got a CGM to see what happens specifically to my scores as I would not cope with the sticky glue on my skin. I need to work out a strategy for that, so any ideas welcome? But, I can feel the difference in myself. One of my most worrying signs of a spike is a tight head, but also my feet vibrate (!!). I’m hoping to goodness that is not the start of neuropathy. I’m very early and low diabetic, so I can’t see it, but I’m not taking any chances, you know.
The trick with the exercises is to do them slowly, especially as you go down in the squat and go in towards the wall on the push up. This makes you use the muscles more as you are going against gravity.
I looked for a couple of videos to show you these exercises as I’m sure you don’t want to see yours truly demonstrating them – ugh! Here’s Lucy Wyndham Read doing squats – I do enjoy her stuff. I think one of you recommended her to me a while back, thank you.
I was quite a gym bunny in my 20s and 30s, actually, so a couple of tips I learned back then: I was always taught to push my bum out in the squat as if you’re trying to touch the wall opposite with it or something, keep the back straight, and pause and squeeze the buttocks when you stand back up for a bit of extra on the glutes (bum muscles). Controlled and slow is where the work is done.
And here’s a simple wall press video:
There you go. Good answer? I hope so.
Eat More Strawberries
I saw a great study this week about women in a trial improving memory performance and depression scores after having whole strawberry powder. The researchers assumed, I suspect correctly, that it was the anthocyanin antioxidant content in it that really did the work.
Anthocyanins are a type of antioxidant, a flavonoid, which is found mostly in deep blue, red and purple foods.
So, in fact, any anthocyanin-rich food or powder is likely to have a similar effect – unless there is something specific in strawberries, of course. Ergo: eat more strawberries or add some powder into your smoothies or porridge.
This powder is on the TGF safe list too, for those of you are grain and dairy free. There’s a whole superfood section in the TGF Master List actually.
If you prefer to munch your delicious strawberries as is, make sure they are organic and local, preferably. They are the most sprayed crop according to the Dirty Dozen, certainly in the US anyway – and shortly for us if standards start to slip here in the UK (don’t get me started on US tariff demands!). In fact, I just looked up strawberries on the Pesticide Action Network UK and it doesn’t make for much more hopeful reading, to be honest.
Maybe we should grow our own? I’ve never done it, but now I have a garden again at last, I fancy growing some more of my own veg. Is growing strawberries worth it? Do you get enough or just a few? Which type, and can you actually eat the wild strawberries – if you manage to get in before the birds?
Tip: TGF peeps might have a problem with the hay around strawberries, corny-bio packaging, citric-acid soaker pads at the bottom or plastic containers, and many of the pesticides used on them are likely corny. Sigh. Corn Allergy Girl wrote about berries here, note this is US, might be different for UK/Europe. Personally, I do OK with them, but I try to buy locally and in season. Can you eat them – any tips for others welcome, please?
On the basis that we can eat them (!), how about getting some of this ready in the freezer for Summer, a really clever ice cream recipe that is AIP-compliant, made from coconut milk, arrowroot, fruit and whatever sweetener you can have?
Nom nom. I’ve added it to the AIP Pinterest recipe board for you. 402 recipes on there for you now, whoa! let me know how it turns out if you make it – any tips/changes you’d recommend?
Nature in April
Goodness knows with all the stuff going on in the world just now – much of it thanks to one orange egomaniac – we could do with a bit of soft nature to focus on, I reckon. I love birds, so this month, look out for swallows, bitterns and ospreys arriving as the weather warms up. You might also see orange-tipped butterflies, often the first to emerge, and the bluebell woods will be glorious shortly.
We’ve got white and blue ones coming up all over our garden actually, but not as many as that! Why not plan to go for a walk in your nearest bluebell woods over Easter? Check the Wildlife Trust list here, but there are bound to be loads in your local area.
And finally…this week, I have been reading this (I know she’s my sister but still a great read!), watching this (not quite as good as the first two series, but Vietnam looks fabulous!), and mostly eating this as I had a load to use up suddenly!
OK, that’s it for this issue, peeps. I hope you found something useful there. Please leave this post a ❤️ and restack/share if you liked it – it helps with visibility.
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Issue 8, April 2025