we should strive to avoid increasing our glucose levels by more than 1.7 mmol/L after eating.

Oxidative stress is a driver of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cognitive decline and general ageing. And fructose increases oxidative stress even more than glucose alone. That’s one of the reasons that sweet foods (which contain fructose) are worse than starchy foods (which don’t). Too much fat can also increase oxidative stress.

Fibre is often removed from processed foods so that they can be frozen, thawed and stored on shelves for years without losing their texture. Take,

The problem is, our glucose levels decrease all the time – specifically, they drop after every spike. And the higher the spike has been, the more intense the crash will be.

sucrose (which, as a reminder, is half glucose, half fructose).

PART II WHY ARE GLUCOSE SPIKES HARMFUL?

Glycogen is actually the cousin of starch – it’s composed of many glucose molecules attached hand to hand.

HACK 3: STOP COUNTING CALORIES

Once insulin has stored all the glucose it can in our liver and muscles, any excess glucose is turned into fat and stored in our fat reserves.