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The SUGAR Expert: This is What Too Much Sugar Does to Your Baby (Eat Carbs This Way Instead)

Pregnancy only lasts nine months, but what you eat during that time can shape your child for life. Jay Shetty welcomes back biochemist, bestselling author, and “Glucose Goddess” Jessie Inchauspé for a conversation that goes even deeper into the impact she’s had on millions of lives. This time, they focus on something few people truly understand: pregnancy isn’t just a waiting period, it’s a critical window that can shape a child’s physical, mental, and metabolic health for life. Jay and Jessie unpack why so many parents feel under-informed, how outdated myths like “eat for two” still dominate the conversation, and what the science actually reveals about the nine months that truly count forever. Jessie breaks down complex biology into simple, actionable insights. She explains how key factors: blood sugar balance, protein, choline, and omega-3s play a critical role in brain development, metabolism, and long-term disease risk for your child. Jay guides the conversation with curiosity and care, highlighting how small, intentional shifts during pregnancy can create lifelong resilience, while also acknowledging the systemic failures that leave parents without clear guidance or support. In this interview, you'll learn: How to Support Your Baby’s Brain With Just Four Key Nutrients How to Reduce Blood Sugar Spikes That Affect Your Baby How to Build Your Baby’s Brain Before They’re Born How to Lower Your Child’s Lifetime Risk of Diabetes How to Use Protein to Stabilize Energy and Nausea How to Care for Your Mental Health After Miscarriage How to Make Small Food Choices That Create Lifelong Impact Life doesn’t come with a manual, we’re all doing the best we can with the information we have. When we learn more, we can make better choices, not just for ourselves, but for the people whose futures depend on ours. Jessie’s latest book, 9 Months That Count Forever: How Your Pregnancy Diet Shapes Your Baby's Future, is available for pre-order now. Visit https://www.amazon.com/Months-That-Count-Forever-Pregnancy/dp/1668219123 With Love and Gratitude, Jay Shetty JAY’S DAILY WISDOM DELIVERED STRAIGHT TO YOUR INBOX Join 900,000+ readers discovering how small daily shifts create big life change with my free newsletter. Subscribe here: https://news.jayshetty.me/subscribe Check out our Apple subscription to unlock bonus content of On Purpose! https://lnk.to/JayShettyPodcast What We Discuss: 00:00 Intro 00:17 Debunking the Biggest Pregnancy Myths 03:13 The Four Nutrients That Shape Your Baby’s Future 05:49 How Gestational Diabetes Impacts a Child for Life 10:23 How Much Protein Do You Really Need During Pregnancy? 12:46 What an Ideal Pregnancy Diet Actually Looks Like 17:32 Are You Actually “Eating for Two?” 19:24 You’re Born With the Brain Cells You’ll Keep for Life 23:57 When Food and Supplements Work Best Together 26:30 Avoid These Foods During Pregnancy! 30:03 How High Sugar Intake Affects Pregnancy 35:34 The Modern Food System Is Failing Families 38:24 What Can Contribute to Miscarriage 40:43 Understanding Silent Miscarriage 45:48 Processing the Grief of Pregnancy Loss 48:28 The Most Common Causes of Miscarriage 51:10 What Happens When You Eat Sugar on an Empty Stomach 53:54 The Importance of Movement During Pregnancy 56:37 How to Reduce Bloating During Pregnancy 57:14 Does a Father’s Diet Affect Conception? 58:31 Using Food to Set Your Child Up for Life 01:00:47 What the UK Sugar Ration Taught Us About Health 01:04:02 This or That: Pregnancy Edition Episode Resources: Website | https://www.glucosegoddess.com/ Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/glucosegoddess X | https://x.com/glucosegoddesss TikTok | https://www.tiktok.com/@glucosegoddess_ YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/@GlucoseRevolution Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/glucosegoddesss/ https://www.instagram.com/jayshetty https://www.facebook.com/jayshetty/ https://x.com/jayshetty https://www.linkedin.com/in/shettyjay/ https://www.youtube.com/@JayShettyPodcast http://jayshetty.me

Jay ShettyhostJessie Inchauspéguest
Feb 22, 20261h 10mWatch on YouTube ↗

At a glance

WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT

Pregnancy nutrition: manage glucose, prioritize choline, protein, omega-3s daily

  1. Jessie argues pregnancy is not passive—maternal diet actively “calibrates” a baby’s long-term metabolism, brain development, and disease vulnerability via epigenetic mechanisms.
  2. She highlights four high-impact pregnancy nutrients—glucose control, choline, protein, and omega-3s—claiming most mothers are deficient in choline/protein/omega-3s and consume far above recommended sugar levels.
  3. Gestational diabetes is framed as a major risk marker, with large associations described for offspring diabetes risk and smaller but notable associations with neurodevelopmental/psychiatric outcomes, potentially mediated by inflammation.
  4. She offers pragmatic tactics for cravings and nausea (especially in first trimester) and “glucose hacks” (food order, post-meal movement, avoiding sugar on an empty stomach) to reduce glucose spikes rather than eliminate carbs.
  5. The conversation also addresses miscarriage realities—silent miscarriage, common causes, why it’s often out of one’s control, and how to support grief without minimizing it—while critiquing a modern food system that leaves families underinformed and underserved.

IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING

5 ideas

Pregnancy diet is portrayed as “co-creating” the baby, not just sustaining the mother.

Jessie replaces the “bun in the oven” metaphor with “soil,” arguing the intrauterine environment helps determine how genetic potential is expressed through epigenetic switches influenced by nutrition.

The four priority levers are glucose control, choline, protein, and omega-3s.

She claims these nutrients have outsized effects: glucose programs later diabetes vulnerability, choline and omega-3s support neuron formation/brain outcomes, and protein influences growth and lifelong muscle-mass “settings” (mainly from animal data).

High maternal blood sugar doesn’t just affect the mother—fetal blood sugar tracks it closely.

She emphasizes the fetus “takes what is there,” so frequent maternal glucose spikes mean fetal spikes too, potentially increasing inflammation and driving greater fat storage at birth.

Gestational diabetes is discussed as a strong long-term risk marker for the child.

She cites large population data suggesting much higher offspring diabetes rates when mothers had gestational diabetes, and notes associations with neurodevelopmental/psychiatric outcomes while stressing association ≠ causation.

“Eating for two” is framed as a myth; extra carbohydrate needs are modest.

She states late-pregnancy added glucose needs are relatively small (illustrated as ~a cup-and-a-half of rice worth), warning that excess sugar/carbs mainly raise circulating glucose beyond what the fetus requires.

WORDS WORTH SAVING

5 quotes

I learned in the science that actually, what happens during the nine months, and specifically what you eat during the nine months, co-creates the baby.

— Jessie Inchauspé

A better metaphor is being soil out of which your baby's little seed growing.

— Jessie Inchauspé

Your baby does not just take what he needs. Your baby takes what is there.

— Jessie Inchauspé

Neurons never get replaced. They stay with you from the moment you're born until you die.

— Jessie Inchauspé

Society has, excuse my language, fucked up the food that is available today, the food that is cheap, the food that's at the grocery store, the food that they serve you, uh, even at the hospital, is bad for us, and it's leading to all sorts of stuff, from heart disease to diabetes.

— Jessie Inchauspé

Pregnancy myths (“eat for two,” baby takes only what it needs)Epigenetics as nutrient-driven “switches”Four key nutrients: glucose, choline, protein, omega-3sGestational diabetes and lifelong diabetes riskSugar, glucose spikes, inflammation, fetal fat storageBrain development: neurons, microglia, and inflammationMiscarriage, silent miscarriage, and grief supportPractical diet structure and movement during pregnancySupplements vs food (esp. for vegans)Food system and medical guidance gaps

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