"The Fruit You're Eating Is Fake!"- The Dangers & Truth Nobody Tells You | Jessie Inchauspé

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 0:00 Fruits versus dried fruits

Jessie Inchauspé 0:02 Oh my God, I think this is one of my favorite topics.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 0:04 Okay, let's go.

Jessie Inchauspé 0:05 Okay. So you know how people say, um, "Well, it's fruit, so it's natural"? Yeah, okay. So I have a scoop for you. The fruit that we have today in our supermarkets is not natural. Just like humans bred gray wolves into Chihuahuas for their entertainment, humans have been crossing and breeding fruit for millennia to make them more appetizing for humans, to make them sweeter, to make them have fewer seeds, less fiber. If you look at an ancestral banana, it's tiny, it's full of seeds, it's quite dense, and it's not very sweet. If you look at a banana today, it's very sweet, very little fiber, very little seeds, super easy to eat. Humans have been creating these fruits-

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 0:54 Mm

Jessie Inchauspé 0:54 ... to be extra juicy and extra sweet and extra full of sugar. So that's one thing to note. The fruit you see today in the supermarket is not natural. However, a piece of fruit still has fiber in it, and fiber is protective, as I explained at the beginning. Fiber helps reduce the glucose spike of a meal-

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 1:12 Mm-hmm

Jessie Inchauspé 1:12 ... because it creates that mesh in the intestine. So if you wanna eat something sweet, eating fiber is still the best th- sorry, eating a piece of whole fruit is still the best thing to do because of that fiber blunting the spike from the sugar.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 1:24 Mm.

Jessie Inchauspé 1:25 The problem arises when we denature that piece of fruit. So maybe we're gonna juice an apple.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 1:31 Mm-hmm.

Jessie Inchauspé 1:31 As a result, we're removing all the fiber from the apple, and we're concentrating the sugar that was already being concentrated for centuries by humans in that whole apple. When we dry our fruits, we take away all of the water, so we concentrate the sugar, and we eat way more pieces of dried fruit than we would of regular fruit.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 1:49 Yeah, and what's, I think, particularly concerning about that is there's quite a few companies now which are targeting children with dried fruits, and I think many parents are... Again, um, I, I, I always say this, and I wanna reiterate this point. I genuinely believe that all parents are doing the best that they can in the context of their life situation, the context of their knowledge.

Jessie Inchauspé 2:14 Mm-hmm.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 2:15 But I'm not sure that [laughs] those dried fruit packets are the best thing to be giving our kids, particularly on an empty stomach.

Jessie Inchauspé 2:24 Yes, although you could argue that dried fruit is better than, like, candy because at least it has some fiber in it. Though what would be even better, if you really wanna give dried fruit, would be to pair it with some nuts, for example.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 2:34 Yeah.

Jessie Inchauspé 2:34 So you make a little snack with, like, a few, like, dried apricots and then some pecans or whatever. That's better 'cause you're putting some clothes on the [laughs] on the carbs, right?

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 2:41 Yeah. I get it, and that, that's what I love about all your suggestions. They can be applied by anyone in any situation, no matter what diet they're following.

Jessie Inchauspé 2:49 Yes.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 2:50 Little hacks, little tweaks just to make things a little bit better than they would've otherwise been, right?

Jessie Inchauspé 2:55 Exactly. We're not talking, like, big overhaul-

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 2:57 Yeah

Jessie Inchauspé 2:58 ... of your life, of your food habits. No, no, no. Small tweaks, big impact.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 3:02 Yeah. Adding those nuts into the dried fruit-

Jessie Inchauspé 3:04 Yeah

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 3:04 ... you can see how it could be really tasty-

Jessie Inchauspé 3:07 Yeah, absolutely

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 3:08 ... and change the blood sugar response.

Jessie Inchauspé 3:09 Absolutely.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 3:10 Now, just, I had a thought there, Jessie. A lot of the time, the cultural wisdom that's there, we're now learning the modern science going, "That's why that works." Now, the only place where I think your recommendations don't match up with certainly the ancient wisdom that I'm aware of is with fruits on empty stomachs.

Jessie Inchauspé 3:33 Mm.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 3:34 Because I know in Ayurvedic medicine, for many years they have been talking about if you're having a piece of fruit, have it before your meal-

Jessie Inchauspé 3:41 Yeah

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 3:42 ... because then it's digested, uh, really easily-

Jessie Inchauspé 3:45 Yeah

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 3:45 ... and it doesn't then sort of fester on top of your meal afterwards. Now, first of all, I, I'd welcome your thoughts on that. But just a, a little a- addition there, based on what you've just said about the fact that the way fruit is bred now compared to how fruit is bred in the past, maybe two or three thousand years ago-

Jessie Inchauspé 4:07 Maybe

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 4:08 ... the fruit that we were getting, lower in sugar, not quite as sweet, maybe that worked then.

Jessie Inchauspé 4:14 Mm-hmm.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 4:14 Maybe it doesn't work so well now. I don't know, but what, what's your sort of perspective on that?

Jessie Inchauspé 4:19 Well, this is a very common question.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 4:21 Is it?

Jessie Inchauspé 4:21 And I was fascinated by it. I was like, "Okay, where does this come from?" Like, why do we think that fruit rots in the stomach if it's eaten last? And through my research, I found that there was a doctor in the Renaissance who said that fruit ... And this is a separate branch from the Ayurveda stuff, but this doctor said that if you eat fruit after a meal, it's gonna rot and putrefy in your stomach and create all these vapors and stuff. Um, that doctor just said that. I mean, I don't know where he pulled that out of, but it just is not true. Like, nothing actually rots or putrefies-

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 4:51 Mm

Jessie Inchauspé 4:51 ... in the stomach. So that particular thing about the rotting is just not true. Nothing can rot in the stomach, actually.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 4:57 Mm.

Jessie Inchauspé 4:57 So there is this ancient wisdom about having the fruit on an empty stomach or at the beginning of a meal, and to that I say, well, we have two opposing views, right? We have the glucose science which says if you wanna eat something sweet, the best time for your glucose is at the end of a meal. And we have ancient wisdom that could also, you know, have some really good sources. So maybe where we land is if you don't feel any discomfort-

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 5:23 Mm

Jessie Inchauspé 5:23 ... by eating fruit after a meal, maybe you do that. And if you're somebody and your body's like, no, it's not working, maybe it gives you bloating or whatever, then you switch it up, you know? It's up to you to sort of tailor these recommendations to other things going on in your life.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 5:37 So what you're recommending is we take a pragmatic, nuanced approach to our health.

Jessie Inchauspé 5:42 [laughs]

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 5:42 Mind-blowing.

Jessie Inchauspé 5:43 [laughs]

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 5:44 You know, it's 2023. That's not the way it goes.

Jessie Inchauspé 5:46 Yeah. I know. I know. And I think this is also why, um, you know, my work has been so well received, is that it feels fresh and nice, and it's no longer an extreme diet.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 5:55 Yeah.

Jessie Inchauspé 5:55 It's not like cut out entire food groups. It's like, okay, guys, I think we're over diets. Like, personally, I would rather we never, ever have any diets ever again. So what about we use all this recent science, and we find these principles that are easy, that have a big impact on our physical and our mental health, that are not very hard, don't cost any money?

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 6:14 Yeah.

Jessie Inchauspé 6:15 And, uh, how about we do that? And people seem to, to be quite happy with that approach.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 6:20 People seem to like that. Now, Jessie, it's almost impossible now to have the audience size which you have-And not get pushback.

Jessie Inchauspé 6:28 Mm-hmm.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 6:29 Okay? I'm sure it's technically possible, but I would say it's almost impossible.

Jessie Inchauspé 6:33 Yeah.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 6:34 If and when people push back against your work, what is the common thing they say and how do you respond?

Jessie Inchauspé 6:41 Hmm. So I've, I've experienced, like, multiple waves of this.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 6:45 Okay.

Jessie Inchauspé 6:46 Um, and I sort of categorize pushback or criticism in two camps. So there's, like, the stuff that really I can't do anything about. For example, um, people who don't wanna hear any information about food because it... No, but, you know, because maybe they had an eating disorder in the past.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 7:01 Yeah.

Jessie Inchauspé 7:01 Maybe they're just like, "No." So for those people, my work is like, they just, they just hate it because I'm talking about food. Those things I don't really pay attention to because, you know-

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 7:11 It's not for them.

Jessie Inchauspé 7:12 Exactly. And then you have the useful criticism, and from the beginning of The Glucose Goddess project, I've always really listened to feedback, whether it's in comments or in DMs or in real life. Like, because my purpose here is to make science accessible, to make it inclusive, to make sure that I'm serving the people that I wanna give this information to. So I would say the biggest criticisms have been from people with type 1 diabetes, maybe this was a year ago that it started happening, that they didn't like that I was using a glucose monitor as a n- as a person without diabetes. And I really listened very carefully to this because, um, a lot of people were sharing with me how, um, saddened it made them that I was, like, showing my glucose monitor like, "Hey, I'm wearing a glucose monitor," and for them it was a device that they need to survive. And so I really took that to heart, and I started thinking a lot about my glucose monitor approach and, you know, whether I think it's for everybody. I stopped also posting photos of myself with the device being like-

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 8:12 Mm-hmm

Jessie Inchauspé 8:12 ... "Hey, glucose monitor." Now I really am just like, I'm using it to make the illustrative graphs, but I no longer, um, use it as, like, a fashion statement.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 8:22 Yeah.

Jessie Inchauspé 8:22 You know? So that was really, really helpful. I think another thing that people, uh, push back on is the clothes on carbs thing. They say, yes, but if you take it to an extreme it could be harmful. Like, as I explained at the beginning, you could put two pounds of butter on a piece of bread-

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 8:38 Mm

Jessie Inchauspé 8:38 ... and that would reduce the spike, but you need to have more nuance. And that I think I really address it in the book quite well. So...

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 8:47 I think you do address it really well.

Jessie Inchauspé 8:49 Yeah.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 8:49 I think, you know, I've read both books, and I think you're really clear that this is not to stress you out, right?

Jessie Inchauspé 8:57 Mm-hmm.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 8:57 This is not necessarily to be applied in every situation.

Jessie Inchauspé 9:00 Yeah.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 9:00 This is to try and help you.

Jessie Inchauspé 9:02 Yeah.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 9:02 Right? Yeah, sure, in an ideal world we'd all eat an exclusively whole food diet-

Jessie Inchauspé 9:07 Mm-hmm

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 9:08 ... that was naturally stabilizing our blood sugars, but the reality is most people, or at least many people, are going to struggle with that.

Jessie Inchauspé 9:16 Yes.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 9:16 And I think particularly in this second book, this new book, the testimonials, I just love reading them. You know, yous mentioned eating disorders.

Jessie Inchauspé 9:25 Let's talk about that.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 9:25 There is a testimonial, right?

Jessie Inchauspé 9:27 Yeah.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 9:27 There's a testimonial, I, I can't remember which book it's in, about bulimia-

Jessie Inchauspé 9:31 Yeah

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 9:31 ... and how a, a young lady, I think, with bulimia-

Jessie Inchauspé 9:34 Mm-hmm

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 9:34 ... said your method has really helped them. And before you answer, I've quite a lot of thoughts on what you just said. And, you know, I've been trying to communicate health messaging to the public since maybe 2014 now, through TV shows, books, podcasts, whatever it might be, right?

Jessie Inchauspé 9:52 Yeah.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 9:52 And you simply cannot anymore communicate health information and not get pushback, and the reality is not all information is for everyone.

Jessie Inchauspé 10:01 Mm-hmm.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 10:02 Right? I try, I think like you do, to be as compassionate as possible when putting out that information, and now I can be relatively detached when, if and when pushback comes-

Jessie Inchauspé 10:12 Yeah

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 10:12 ... and, and, and go, "Yeah, I can actually learn from that. That's a good point," or, "I actually disagree with that," or, "I can see that that person's being really, really triggered by something. This ain't about me, this is about them," right? So I think taking a compassionate approach to that has been really helpful.

Jessie Inchauspé 10:27 Mm.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 10:28 I understand what you're saying about the type 1 diabetics, and I can understand why, um, certain members of that community may feel like that. But technology and progress is gonna come in every form. CGMs are here. They're here to stay. They're only gonna get more and more popular.

Jessie Inchauspé 10:45 Yeah.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 10:46 I do believe they can be a valuable tool for some people with the right education, with the right context. I think they can be an incredible tool for the right person.

Jessie Inchauspé 10:55 Yeah. And to be fair, there's a whole other part of the community of people with type 1 diabetes who are super happy that I'm wearing one-

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 11:03 Yeah

Jessie Inchauspé 11:03 ... because it destigmatizes it for them.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 11:04 There you go.

Jessie Inchauspé 11:05 So there's always, you know, pros and cons. And on the eating disorders front, um, I really got very interested in this topic and I spoke to many experts on the subject because I got a few comments being like, "Oh, these rules are just an eating disorder waiting to happen," and I thought that was really unfortunate that, you know, we need to nuance something that's a diet and that's really unhealthy, unscientific, completely random, and could cause some difficult behaviors, but also with advice that people need because people are dying, like... [laughs] So, uh, and that was a tough one for me to get through. I was like, "Okay, how... Like, where do I land? Like, what's true about not wanting to encourage disordered eating, and what's true about wanting to give these very important pieces of information that are life-changing and potentially life-saving?" So, but it's an ongoing journey, you know? The pushback, I try to learn from every thing that happens.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 11:56 Yeah. You, you get this, um... I've, I've definitely had it when we've done podcasts on fasting before.

Jessie Inchauspé 12:01 Mm.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 12:02 And sorry to interrupt. If you're enjoying this video and want to dive deeper into the topic of nutrition, I have created a free special guide which contains the five most important changes I think we all need to make when it comes to our diet. If you wanna get hold of this free guide, all you have to do is click on the link in the description box below. I've thought long and hard about this. Is this irresponsible? Should I be doing it? And where I've landed is, you know, I try and caveat it. I try and make sure in the introduction to each podcast we say, "This may not be suitable-

Jessie Inchauspé 12:38 Yeah

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 12:39 ... for people who are recovering from or suffering with eating disorders."Having said that, some people with eating disorders find fasting incredibly useful.

Jessie Inchauspé 12:48 Yeah.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 12:49 I know that 'cause people have fed back. And also, let's just look at what's going on around us. You know, in America, what is it? 88 or 90% of people may be metabolically unhealthy.

Jessie Inchauspé 12:59 Mm-hmm.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 12:59 Right? Stabilizing their blood sugar is going to save their life.

Jessie Inchauspé 13:03 Yeah, exactly. [laughs]

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 13:03 Right?

Jessie Inchauspé 13:04 Exactly.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 13:04 That, so... A- and I think we all, and I know it's hard, 'cause I know sometimes it's parents of kids who are struggling. They've got, like, a 12-year-old or a 14-year-old who's really struggling with an eating disorder, and then they get often, and I can totally understand it, feel very defensive and upset when they see certain posts. But I'm not sure I have the solution to it, apart from trying to approach these things with compassion.

Jessie Inchauspé 13:29 Yes.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 13:30 Uh, I don't know, because not everything is for everyone.

Jessie Inchauspé 13:34 Absolutely. And then, you know, you also have to remember that of the people reading your books, listening to your podcast, reading your content, like 99% of people are so thrilled and happy.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 13:43 Yeah.

Jessie Inchauspé 13:43 And then there are a few people who are triggered or upset that will comment, and that's what we see, right?

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 13:48 Yeah.

Jessie Inchauspé 13:48 That it's really, it's really not representative of the reality. That being said, I think, you know, I'm on, in the same boat as you, which is I try to learn and be as respectful and mindful as possible. And, um, then once you feel like you've done the right thing, if somebody still doesn't like it, well, you know, so be it.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 14:07 Jessie, it's been such a pleasure talking to you. It really has. I mean, we've not even scratched the surface over what's in your two books.

Jessie Inchauspé 14:15 Yeah.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 14:15 Uh, and I can see why so many people follow you online. So many people have been moved by your work. It's making a real material difference in their lives, and therefore the lives of the people around them.

Jessie Inchauspé 14:29 Mm-hmm.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 14:30 Right? That's something I'm so passionate about. If you can change one person, you don't just change them. They've got more energy. They're less moody. They're less cranky. That impacts how they parent. That impacts how they are with their partners, how they are with their work colleagues, right? So I think the work you're doing is so, so important. This podcast is called Feel Better, Live More. When we feel better in ourselves, we get more out of our lives.

Jessie Inchauspé 14:54 Mm.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 14:54 I think you would probably add when we have stable blood sugars-

Jessie Inchauspé 14:58 [laughs]

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 14:58 ... levels, we get more out of our lives.

Jessie Inchauspé 15:00 Absolutely.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 15:01 For people who are feeling inspired by what they've heard-

Jessie Inchauspé 15:04 Mm

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 15:05 ... and want to start making changes right now, do you have any final words of wisdom for them?

Jessie Inchauspé 15:12 [sighs] I would say get The Glucose Goddess Method, my new book. It's gonna be your partner in helping turn these hacks into lifelong habits. And if you can't afford it or you don't wanna buy a book, just go on my Instagram and start looking at the graphs that I share. Savory breakfast, veggies first, vinegar, movement, close on carbs, and there's many more things you'll discover. But those can become your best friends in your daily life.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 15:38 And for someone who's saying, "Jessie, I hear you. I hear what you're saying. But I cannot see how my mood or my mental health has got anything to do with my blood sugar levels," what would you say to them?

Jessie Inchauspé 15:51 I would say look at the studies. It really, really does. Or just try the 10-minute calf pushup at your desk after your next meal and see if your mood doesn't improve. See it for yourself. I would say test it, and, um, you know, your body will speak for itself.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 16:08 If you enjoyed that short clip, I think you are really going to enjoy the full conversation, which you can check out here. [outro music]