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A fascinating look at the hidden dangers of glucose spikes, and what we can do to avoid them.

Written by a biochemist, (aka the @GlucoseGoddess), this is an accessible and terrifically informative introduction to our metabolism, — the effect the food we eat (and a number of other surprising factors) has on the amount of glucose released into our bloodstream. The author focuses on the important role that insulin (released by our pancreas) plays in trying to control the glucose onslaught resulting from the ingestion of sugars or starch, and the downstream health damage raised by the constant glucose spiking many of us will experience with our less-than-ideal diets.

This glucose-spike related damage, including horrors like free radicals, inflammation, and oxidative stress (all of which are clearly explained) lead to a host of health disasters including: weight gain; depression; brain fog; premature aging; insulin resistance; with elevated disease risks including: Alzheimer’s; heart disease; diabetes; and DNA mutations (possibly leading to cancer).

Flattening these glucose spikes, it turns out, is not at all impossible, as the author points out, and in many cases does not even require making modifications to “what” we eat. Rather, the author helps us understand additional factors we can control with relatively little effort — for example, beginning a meal with a high fibre component, prior to a sugar or starch — to dramatically change the magnitude of glucose that will flood our bloodstream when eating that very same sugar or starch.

It’s fascinating stuff, the science of which is meticulously explained in terms not at all intimidating, accompanied by illustrations and graphs that simplify the concepts presented. The final sections of the book focus on ten “hacks”, each of which is both surprisingly simple to understand, and to implement.

All in all, this is a wonderful book, a welcome addition to any personal health library, and a goldmine of information that will certainly change the way this reader, for one, approaches healthy eating.