📚 A&B #186

👋 Hey everyone,

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🤓 Course Update:

275+ people have signed up for The Art of Reading.

Here’s what bestselling author Hassan Osman had to say about it:

Reminder: The course is currently 50% off (from $197 to $98) and it’s only available for purchase for 2 more days.

After that, I will remove the option to buy it because I want to make sure the first wave of students have an awesome experience.

Learn more and join 275+ students here.

📚 Book Summary:

People loved last week’s lessons from “Glucose Revolution” so here are 3 more lessons:

(if you missed part 1 read it here)

📖

1) The Healthiest Sugar

This might be surprising (it was to me) but on a molecular level, all sugars are the same.

Meaning there’s no difference between sugar and honey, agave syrup, maple syrup, coconut sugar, or any other sugar source.

Brown sugar is the same as white sugar, except that it’s tinted with molasses.

So your body processes these sugars in the same way. Two tablespoons of brown sugar will spike your glucose levels the same amount as two tablespoons of white sugar.

Now you might be saying, “But what about honey? Honey has to be healthier.”

Honey has antioxidants BUT…”you can find all the antioxidants in a teaspoon of honey in half a blueberry.”

That’s right, half of ONE blueberry has the same amount of antioxidants as a whole teaspoon of honey.

So what is the healthiest sugar of them all?

None of them–we don’t need to eat sugar to live. All sugars, regardless of their source, are eaten for pleasure and not needed for survival.

So pick any sugar you’d like to consume, just make sure to enjoy it in moderation.

📖

2) A Lifehack To Still Enjoy Sweet Treats

If you still want to enjoy your sweets and desserts, here’s a lifehack worth remembering:

• Drink a tablespoon of vinegar in a glass of water a few minutes before eating your sweet treat.

This is a cheap and effective hack (you can use any type of vinegar but apple cider vinegar is the most popular choice).

Vinegar is made by fermenting alcohol and contains bacteria that help curb your cravings and also flatten any glucose spikes.

For instance, a piece of chocolate would spike your glucose by 30 points but if you have 1 tbsp of vinegar before eating the chocolate, it will only spike your glucose by 10 points.

And even if you forget to drink vinegar before you eat, you can still drink it after (up to 20 minutes after). It won’t be as effective, but it’s better than not drinking it at all.

📖

3) Another Helpful Glucose Hack

When we eat starches or sugars, we have two options:

We can stay still and let the glucose spike begin, or we can exercise and use that glucose before it spikes.

For example, if you eat a large bowl of rice, your glucose levels will spike by 65 points. But if you eat the rice and then go for a 20-minute walk, your glucose will only go up by 30 points.

Now exercising anytime is great for you, but researchers found exercising after eating was more effective than before:

• Exercising after a meal reduced glucose spikes by 30% on average whereas exercising before your meal reduced the spike by 18%.

So if you’re going to eat something sweet or starchy, use your muscles afterward and do a quick 10-minute workout or go for a short 10-minute walk and you’ll feel much better afterward.

✅ Actionable Advice:

1) Understand that all sugars will spike your glucose the same amount:

• The healthiest sugar is no sugar at all.

2) Drink one tablespoon of apple cider vinegar with water before you eat a meal or sweet treat:

• This will help you curb your cravings and also flatten your glucose spike.

3) After you eat your meal, try to go for a 10 minute walk:

• Getting a bit of exercise within 70 minutes of eating will help lower your glucose spikes.

📖 Reading Lesson:

20 Books that will teach you how to read smarter, faster, and better.

💎 Weekly Gem:

Podcast: The Power of Reading with Alex Wieckowski

If you have trouble with focus, distraction, or concentration while reading, you’ll enjoy this podcast I did with ADHD coach Brooke Schnittman.

Watch it on YouTube or listen on Apple or Spotify.

Thank you for your support, read on everyone!

-Alex W.