
Pregnancy Diet Expert: The Pregnancy Diet That Rewrites DNA! Why Pregnant Moms Are Being Lied To!
Jessie Inchauspé (guest), Steven Bartlett (host)
In this episode of The Diary of a CEO, featuring Jessie Inchauspé and Steven Bartlett, Pregnancy Diet Expert: The Pregnancy Diet That Rewrites DNA! Why Pregnant Moms Are Being Lied To! explores pregnancy nutrition, glucose control, and epigenetics shaping lifelong child health Biochemist Jessie Inchauspé (“Glucose Goddess”) argues that pregnancy is a high-impact window where maternal diet can influence a baby’s gene expression (epigenetics), brain development, and later disease vulnerability.
Pregnancy nutrition, glucose control, and epigenetics shaping lifelong child health
Biochemist Jessie Inchauspé (“Glucose Goddess”) argues that pregnancy is a high-impact window where maternal diet can influence a baby’s gene expression (epigenetics), brain development, and later disease vulnerability.
She focuses on four recurring themes: controlling glucose spikes/sugar intake, getting enough key nutrients (especially choline and omega‑3s), eating sufficient protein, and using movement/exercise to improve metabolic outcomes.
The discussion critiques modern food marketing (e.g., “no added sugar”) and highlights how processed foods and fruit juice can drive glucose spikes comparable to soda.
They also cover breastfeeding vs formula, alcohol and caffeine guidance, fermented foods, gestational diabetes prediction, and the emotional reality of miscarriage and stress in pregnancy, while emphasizing that parents retain agency even if early-life factors were suboptimal.
Key Takeaways
Pregnancy is not passive—diet can modify fetal gene expression.
Inchauspé frames pregnancy as a period where epigenetic “dimmer switches” can be added to the baby’s DNA, potentially shaping development and long-term disease vulnerability (e. ...
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High maternal glucose and sugar intake can “program” higher lifetime metabolic risk.
Because glucose crosses the placenta, fetal exposure rises with maternal spikes. ...
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Fruit juice is metabolically closer to soda than most people realize.
Removing fiber (juicing) allows rapid sugar delivery; she notes a typical glass of orange juice contains ~25g sugar, comparable to cola, and “no added sugar” can still mean a high-sugar product.
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Choline is a major, overlooked pregnancy nutrient—eggs are the simplest fix.
She states ~90% of pregnant moms don’t reach choline needs, despite choline’s role in neuronal formation and brain regions tied to memory/attention. ...
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Omega‑3s (especially DHA) support fetal brain wiring; many women underconsume them.
DHA supports neuronal connectivity; she recommends fatty fish multiple times per week (e. ...
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Protein in late pregnancy is “non-negotiable” and may affect long-term body composition.
She emphasizes higher protein needs in the third trimester (she cites ~1. ...
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Muscle and movement are powerful tools to reduce glucose spikes—especially after carbs.
Post-meal activity within ~90 minutes can divert glucose into working muscles; she suggests practical options like walking, squats, or even calf raises at a desk to blunt spikes.
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Notable Quotes
“With your diet during pregnancy, you're programming your baby's DNA.”
— Jessie Inchauspé
“Your baby doesn't get what he needs, he gets what's there and what you give him.”
— Jessie Inchauspé
“If you compare a glass of orange juice to a glass of Coca-Cola, it's the same amount of sugar.”
— Jessie Inchauspé
“Ninety percent of moms are not getting enough choline during pregnancy.”
— Jessie Inchauspé
“When you have a glucose spike, your baby has a glucose spike.”
— Jessie Inchauspé
Questions Answered in This Episode
You emphasize four key pregnancy “themes” (nutrients too low vs too high). What are the exact four, and what trimester-by-trimester targets do you recommend for each?
Biochemist Jessie Inchauspé (“Glucose Goddess”) argues that pregnancy is a high-impact window where maternal diet can influence a baby’s gene expression (epigenetics), brain development, and later disease vulnerability.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
On choline: what’s your evidence hierarchy (human RCTs vs observational vs animal) supporting the “4 eggs/day” approach, and what are reasonable alternatives for egg-averse or vegan parents?
She focuses on four recurring themes: controlling glucose spikes/sugar intake, getting enough key nutrients (especially choline and omega‑3s), eating sufficient protein, and using movement/exercise to improve metabolic outcomes.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
You distinguish “glucose” needs from “fructose” avoidance. Practically, what foods most commonly sneak in fructose during pregnancy (juice, dried fruit, honey, ‘natural’ snacks), and what thresholds matter?
The discussion critiques modern food marketing (e. ...
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Your orange-juice comparison is provocative. How should parents balance that message with legitimate micronutrients in whole fruit and cultural norms around juice for kids?
They also cover breastfeeding vs formula, alcohol and caffeine guidance, fermented foods, gestational diabetes prediction, and the emotional reality of miscarriage and stress in pregnancy, while emphasizing that parents retain agency even if early-life factors were suboptimal.
Get the full analysis with uListen AI
For gestational diabetes prevention: if first-trimester CGM predicts later GDM, what specific early interventions (diet composition, exercise, sleep) show the strongest evidence for reducing progression?
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Transcript Preview
With your diet during pregnancy, you're programming your baby's DNA, and this is gonna have an impact on your baby's development and on their future risk of disease. And there's a lot of pregnant moms who are eating a diet that's not giving them the nutrients their baby needs. This is not the mom's fault. This is the fault of our food system. This is the fault of society, and nobody's telling moms about this. And I wanted to create this guide to help parents navigate that food system and see easy things they can do to help their baby's development. And I know this because, as a biochemist, when I became pregnant, I just went deep, deep, deep into the research, and there are some main things that I learned. For example, ninety percent of moms are not getting enough choline during pregnancy, and choline is super important. It forms your baby's brain in the womb. So this is the amount of eggs that I ate per week during the nine months of pregnancy, because this is the simplest way to give enough choline to our baby. And then your baby needs no fructose during pregnancy, so sugar from dessert, from chocolate, from muffins, from cupcakes, your baby needs none of this. Because if you have very high glucose levels during pregnancy, scientists have found that your baby's DNA will have epigenetic switches that are programming them towards having a higher vulnerability to develop diabetes, obesity, and psychiatric disorders. Next, this is basically the amount of protein that I needed to eat every single day in the third trimester of pregnancy.
A day?
Yeah, because the studies show low-protein diets lead to smaller babies and potentially this epigenetic programming of staying smaller throughout life. And it's findings like that that led me to create a plan and simple hacks for pregnant moms, and we can talk about them.
And then what does the research say about breastfeeding, exercise, caffeine? And also, do you recommend that mothers take certain supplements?
So this is what people need to know.
Guys, I've got a quick favor to ask you. We're approaching a significant subscriber milestone on this show, and roughly sixty-nine percent of you that listen and love this show haven't yet subscribed for whatever reason. If there was ever a time for you to do us a favor, if we've ever done anything for you, given you value in any way, it is simply hitting that Subscribe button, and it means so much to myself but also to my team, 'cause when we hit these milestones, we go away as a team and celebrate. And it's the thing, the simple, free, easy thing you can do to help make this show a little bit better every single week. So that's a favor I would ask you, and, um, if you do hit the Subscribe button, I won't let you down, and we'll continue to find small ways to make this whole production better. Thank you so much for being part of this journey. It means the world, and, uh, yeah, let's do this. [upbeat music] Jessie Inchauspé, the Glucose Goddess. For people that don't know who you are, what have you spent the best part of the last decade committing your life to, and why?
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