Thursday

3 substances that control your blood sugar and improve insulin sensitivity (helping fat loss)

You probably already know that controlling your blood sugar response from the foods that you eat is a VERY important factor for controlling your ability to burn fat, balance your hormones, and also prevent diabetes.

Studies show that these 3 substances below help to control blood sugar response and/or insulin sensitivity when you take them with meals:

Blood-sugar controlling substance #1: Cocoa 

It might sound surprising, but pure cocoa powder contains flavanols which are powerful antioxidants that can help improve insulin sensitivity and blood sugar control.

I recommend organic cocoa powder (pure, NOT with any added sugar), which you can add to smoothies or in other ways to help your body improve blood sugar control.  I like to add a heaping spoonful of organic cocoa powder to smoothies made with frozen berries and my favorite protein powder for a delicious blood-sugar controlling treat!

You can also make your own healthy hot cocoa drink at home by blending a couple spoonfuls of org cocoa powder with your milk of choice and some stevia to sweeten.  Then just heat on the stove by slowly stirring and in a few minutes you have a delicious healthy hot cocoa, low in sugar, high in fiber from the cocoa, and also high in antioxidants that can improve your insulin sensitivity.


Blood-sugar controlling substance #2: Green Tea

According to one study I've reviewed, animals given the green-tea based antioxidant, EGCG, had a 50% lower blood sugar after eating starch than the animals that didn't get the EGCG but ate the same amount of starch.

This aligns with other studies we've seen over the years that green tea and oolong tea can help to control the blood sugar response from a meal due to their unique antioxidants.

So if you're eating a meal that contains carbohydrates, you can protect yourself from the blood sugar spike with a cup or two of green tea along with the meal.

Make sure to read this article also where I show you a tea combination that boosts the antioxidant power in your tea dramatically!


Blood-sugar controlling substance #3: Apple Cider Vinegar

It's been found that taking apple cider vinegar with a meal can slow the digestion of carbohydrates in that meal and slow the rate of absorption of sugar into the blood.

However, mixing apple cider vinegar into water isn't an enjoyable drink in my opinion, so what I personally like to do is have apple cider vinegar mixed with olive oil on my daily salad each night with dinner.

Keep in mind that my good friend Tim Ferriss did tons of blood sugar experiments and found that white vinegar and balsamic vinegar didn't have any blood sugar controlling benefits in his tests.  This article below explains about the vinegar tests, but also shows you 2 other substances that Tim's tests shows DID control blood sugar response:

These 2 other substances DID control blood sugar response from meals (not talked about above)


5 Powerful herbal ingredients that also control blood sugar:

This is a supplement that I personally take which is a mixture of 5 powerful herbal ingredients that all have loads of scientific studies showing that they control blood sugar and/or increase insulin sensitivity, thereby helping to balance your hormones (keep a healthy blood sugar and insulin balance) when you eat carbohydrates:

IC5 - a mix of 5 powerful blood-sugar controlling herbal ingredients


I'll be back soon with more Lean-Body Secrets.

Mike Geary
Certified Nutrition Specialist
Certified Personal Trainer