With your diet during pregnancy, you're

programming your baby's DNA. And this is

going to 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, 90% 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 9 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.

>> 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.

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yeah, let's do this.

Jesse Inospay, 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?

My work started in the glucose space,

meaning the blood sugar space. I was

showing people how blood sugar impacts

all of us on a daily basis. The spikes

and dips after we eat, they lead to

inflammation, faster aging, cravings,

fatigue, and it's been the basis of my

work because glucose matters for

everybody and it is the core of a

healthy body and mind. And so that's

where I started because it's so

important.

>> We last spoke almost two years ago now.

What have you learned in those last two

years that has evolved your own thinking

or has developed your own thinking in

any way? If we reflect on the last

conversations we had around glucose

spikes and sugar and the health

consequences and diets, is there

anything you've learned in those two

years that is interesting and new?

>> Oh, absolutely. I think mostly the

impact of glucose on mood and on

relationships. For example, there's this

fascinating study that took married

couples and they gave the husband and

the wives a little voodoo doll

representing their spouse. And the

researchers told uh the participants to

put a little pin in the voodoo doll

every time their spouse annoyed them. At

the end of the two weeks, the

researchers counted the number of pins

in the voodoo dolls and they also

measured the participants glucose

levels. They found that the people who

had the most glucose lows had put the

most pins in the voodoo doll

representing their spouse.

>> Wow.

>> So, it's just an association, but it's

interesting. And scientists then found

that when you have very unsteady glucose

levels, it impacts this neurotransmitter

in your brain called tyrrosine that

manages your mood. So, it seems that

with unsteady glucose levels, your mood

is less stable, which could then

correlate to you being more annoyed at

your spouse. So, I think studies like

this have really blown my mind.

>> What's going on when we go through a

glucose crash, per se?

>> So, glucose is your body's energy. So,

your brain is constantly monitoring how

much glucose do we have in our

bloodstream. And steady glucose is

great. When your glucose levels crash,

this indicates biologically that you're

out of fuel. And this is a powerful

signal to your body and your brain to

say, "Alert, alert. We need food. We

need more glucose." And so it creates

all these downstream consequences on

your mood. You become hangry. All you

think about is food. You're in a bad

mood. You're like, "I need to eat

something." You look for a banana. You

look for a cookie. It can also activate

the craving center in your brain that

says, "Steven, go find some chocolate."

And science has shown this. Low glucose

levels creates a cascade of consequences

on how we feel and what we seek. Now,

what's interesting is that back in the

day when we had low glucose levels, I'm

talking like hunter gatherer times, they

wouldn't arrive so quickly because we

didn't have these big spikes that then

led to these big drastic drops. It was

more we ate in a more balanced way with

less sugar obviously. So, when our

glucose became low, it was a bit more

gradual. Today, because we have access

to all this sugar, we can spike our

glucose very quickly and as a result, it

then crashes very quickly. So, the

effects are pretty much immediate and

they're very intense. All of a sudden,

you go from feeling okay to your brain

being in alert mode. We need to find

more fuel. So, we've disregulated our

glucose levels to the point where it's

impacting us in a very unnatural way.

>> Is that in part because we modify our

food? Even fruit. When I looked back

through the history of fruit, apples,

bananas, etc. looked extremely different

before they were modified to be juicier

and sweeter, etc.

>> Completely. It's like dogs. So all the

the dog breeds today from Chihuahua to

golden retrievers, they all come from

wolves. Humans have been breeding wolves

together to create these different

species of dogs. They all have that

ancestor of the grey wolf. So humans are

very good at breeding natural things to

serve their purposes. And when it comes

to fruit, it's the same thing. So as you

say, if you compare like an ancestral

banana or an ancestral apple to a modern

one, they look completely different. And

you should pull up these photos. They're

fascinating. Ancestral banana, tiny,

full of fiber, full of seeds, not very

sweet. And then modern banana, full of

sugar, low in fiber, really easy to eat.

So that's the first thing people need to

know about fruit. Fruit is not natural.

Fruit is the product of human

engineering. However, a piece of whole

fruit also contains fiber and water. So

even though it's been bred to have a lot

of sugar, the fiber in the water reduce

how quickly the sugar arrives in our

bloodstream, making it more or less okay

for us. But the problem comes when we

denature that piece of fruit. Meaning if

we remove the fiber, for example, if we

take an orange and make an orange juice,

what are we actually talking about here?

Actually, oranges are not even a natural

fruit. They were invented thousands of

years ago by breeding by crossing other

species of fruit. To make an orange

juice, you throw away part of the

orange. You throw away the solid part,

which is the fiber. So, you're left with

the sugar of a very sugary fruit, water,

and no fiber. As a result, you're

getting a very unnatural amount of sugar

in your bloodstream with no fiber to

protect the spike. So, a big big glucose

spike. And people often say, "Oh, well,

you know, fruit has vitamins in it, so

therefore orange juice must be better

for you than Coca-Cola." That's actually

a total myth. If you compare a glass of

orange juice to a glass of Coca-Cola,

it's the same amount of sugar, about 25

grams. and the sugar in the can of Coke

and the sugar in the glass of orange

juice, they're exactly the same. They're

glucose and fructose molecules, and your

body absorbs them in the exact same way.

Your body does not make a difference

between sugar from an orange and sugar

from a sugar beat that's now in a can of

Coca-Cola. I I hope that orange juice

disappears from school lunches, from

hospital meals. The World Health

Organization recommends 25 gram of sugar

per day or less. So, with just one glass

of orange juice in the morning that you

squeeze at home that you think is good

for you, you're already at the maximum

limit of sugar recommendation. And most

people drink this glass of orange juice

thinking it's good for them. Most people

with diabetes drink this glass of orange

juice thinking it's helping them with

their condition. And that's really where

I want to act. I want to help people

understand what they actually need to do

to feel better so they don't fall victim

to marketing.

>> We talked there about glucose crashes

and what that causes in terms of

behavior. I was wondering if also causes

other compulsive behaviors. Does it make

me more likely to want to doom scroll on

the internet if I have been eating lots

of sugar?

>> Well, that's a great question. Why does

sugar feel good? Because it releases

dopamine in our brain. Dopamine is the

pleasure molecule. It makes us feel

good. So if I were to drink this glass

of orange juice, which you would have to

pay me a lot of money for me to drink

this, but my brain would let out so many

dopamine molecules and I would feel this

wave of pleasure. Now the problem is

people confuse that with energy. It's

not energy, it's dopamine. And dopamine

is the same exact molecule that gets

released when you're scrolling on

Instagram. You look for the next post,

you look for the next video. Every time

you get something new and interesting,

bam, a dopamine signal as well in your

brain. So, if you're constantly

triggering dopamine in your brain,

you're going to constantly crash. You're

going to have dopamine spikes, dopamine

crashes, and become more and more

addicted to it. So, I don't know about

studies showing glucose spikes, and for

example, doom scrolling. But if you look

at just the biology of it, they're

triggering the same center in your

brain. So, for sure, I can imagine that

if you are on a dopamine binging or

dopamine addiction cycle, both an orange

juice and a glucose spike and doom

scrolling can go hand in hand. I was

just looking at some research here and

it says yes, you're significantly more

likely to doom scroll during a glucose

crash. And it explains that that's

because of something called the energy

crisis in the prefrontal cortex where

your prefrontal cortex, the part of the

brain responsible for willpower and

decision-m and saying no to things like

doom scrolling in the case where glucose

drops. This area is first to dim the

lights to save energy for vital

functions. The result is you lose your

executive function, making it nearly

impossible to resist the hit of dopamine

that social media provides. But it also

says the second reason is this dopamine

trap. And the third is generally your

emotional regulation goes out of the

window. I I think this in part because I

notice in myself that when I am on a

higher glucose diet, I'm more likely to

get involved in like compulsive

behaviors that I otherwise don't like.

>> Yeah.

>> Like doing scrolling on the internet.

>> You have less willpower, less control.

>> Yeah. I have less willower.

>> You feel more addicted.

>> Yeah. Like I have less control over my

life.

>> And the first thing that people notice

is that when they are on a glucose

roller coaster, they feel addicted to

sugar. like it's no longer a choice to

go after that cookie, it feels like a

compulsive behavior like I need sugar

right now because that glucose crash is

triggering a biological mechanism that

is nearly impossible to override. So

when you tell somebody just eat less

sugar, that's that's BS. You can't just

eat less sugar. You have to go fix the

underlying cause, which is usually the

glucose crash. You can't override that

feeling of craving that comes from deep

inside your brain when you have a

glucose crash. You need to fix the

spike, reduce the spike, and then

naturally the spike also reduces and you

feel fewer cravings. There's this theory

called the protein leverage hypothesis.

And this this theory says that your body

will keep you hungry and keep you

seeking food until you've given it

enough protein. So if in the morning you

have uh I don't know some oats and toast

and jam, very little protein, your

body's going to be like, "Okay, we

didn't get any protein. We need to get

more protein." So you stay more and more

hungry. At 10 a.m. you're hungry again.

If you have a cookie, again, no protein.

Your body will keep you hungry. If all

of a sudden you have 40 grams of

protein, then that craving dissipates

and that feeling of seeking out food

sort of calms down because your body got

what he actually needed, which was

protein.

>> People send you lots of messages. You

have a enormous online following. If I

was to peer into those DMs you get, what

would be the essence of what people are

saying to you?

>> They're asking me about specific foods.

They're saying, "Are lentils okay? Can I

eat three eggs a day? what kind of

vinegar should I use? And often it's

people trying to navigate the marketing

messages they're seeing on the packaging

of things. They'll be like, "This can of

tea that says zero grams of sugar, is it

good for me?" They're trying to decode

what these food products actually

contain and whether they're actually

good for them.

>> And is there any real standout marketing

messages that are deceptive?

>> Yeah.

No added sugars. That is so deceptive

because this glass of orange juice has

no added sugars in it because the sugar

was there at the beginning. It came from

the orange from the original ingredient.

So on a can of orange juice, you can say

no added sugar even though it contains

25 grams of sugar, which is the maximum

limit the recommends for your daily

sugar intake. So that's a really really

bad one. Another one would be something

that says gluten-free or vegan. It's not

because it's gluten-free veating vegan

that it's good for you, but we're being

tricked. You know, food manufacturers do

everything they can to make you buy

their products. I think I'm in the

season of life where I'm thinking a lot

about fertility, both my fertility, my

fiance's fertility, and how my diet, the

things I eat has an impact on that. What

what what what is it we need to know

about you, if we're trying to conceive,

if we want to have we want to have a

family, um is it really the case that I

need to start thinking about my own

fertility in the leadup to putting that

sperm into that egg? Yes, both the males

and the females need to be thinking

about fertility and nutrition plays a

big role and health plays a big role in

the quality of your sperm for example.

So a good idea would be to reduce before

you want to have a kid if you're the man

you know reduce alcohol, exercise more,

eat better so that your sperm are high

quality. So the sperm turnover is about

three months. So if you do like a

threemon sort of intense uh my sperm are

getting in shape kind of situation, it's

a good idea for women. It's different.

So, our eggs are present from before

we're born, but the quality of our diet,

of our nutrient reserves, is going to

impact our ability to have kids also.

And it's going to impact what our baby

gets in the first trimester of

pregnancy.

>> You've just given birth.

>> Eight months ago. Yeah. Feels like just

last week, but yeah, eight months ago.

>> And um I guess that's somewhat linked to

why you've written this new book, which

is titled Nine Months That Counts

Forever: How Your Pregnancy Diet Shapes

Your Baby's Future. You could have

written about anything, Jesse, and

people would have bought the book um

because people are so fascinated by you

and the work that you do. Why of all the

subjects you could have written about

was this the subject that meant the most

to you to commit a long period of your

life to?

>> Because it is a subject where there's

such a big gap, Stephen, between what

science knows and what parents are told.

It felt like there was a just canyon

between information in the studies

that's been there for decades and what I

as a pregnant woman went through and

what advice I was given, what's

available out there to pregnant moms. So

even though I was pregnant and I was

tired, I felt I need to write this book

because people need to know the power

that they have. So today, science knows

that you're not just an oven when you're

pregnant. Have you heard this thing

being a bun in the oven? It's an

American expression. Uh, I think I've

heard it once or twice. Yeah.

>> Okay. So, often if you're pregnant,

people will say, "Oh, you have a bun in

the oven. That's so cute." It's like an

expression. And I feel like this is

where all of our problems started

because it implies so many misleading

things. It implies that when you're

pregnant, you are an oven, meaning

you're just there to provide heat and

time. And people often say, "Just relax,

you know, let nature do its thing." So,

it implies that you're passive, that you

have no agency, no power. You're just a

vessel of heat and time. That's the

first problem. The second problem is

that it implies that just like a

chocolate cake that you put in the oven,

it implies that your baby, the moment

the sperm meets the egg, your baby is

set in stone. Like if you're making a

cake, when you make the brownie and you

put it in the oven, the oven is not

going to change the brownie into banana

bread. The oven is just cooking the

brownie. Well, actually, it's very

different with pregnancy. Your baby is

not set in stone at conception. What

happens during the nine months of

pregnancy is co-creating your baby's

plan. And depending on what you eat, a

different baby will come out. So, we've

been lying to pregnant moms, telling

them they have no agency, they have no

power, they should just relax and let

nature do its thing. So, that's why I

wrote this book because the science is

fascinating.

>> So, where where are pregnant women being

let down in this regard? Is it that

there's just not enough information out

there? Is there's there's not been

enough research out there? Is it bad

advice currently on the internet?

>> This is the fault of our food system.

This is the fault of society. This is

the fault of the food industry that we

were just talking about the marketing

messages. For everybody today in

developed countries, we are being fed

processed, unhealthy foods that are

hurting us. Whether we get diabetes or

heart disease, there's a link to food.

And today, even pregnant moms are being

let down by the food system and are

eating a diet without knowing it that's

not giving them the nutrients their baby

needs. So, the moment I became pregnant

the first time, I started researching. I

went to Google Scholar and I just opened

about a thousand tabs on my computer,

which is usually what I do when I'm

researching a new topic. And I looked at

the big review studies, the metaanalyses

of how nutrition during pregnancy

impacts our baby's development. I read

probably 2,000 scientific papers and I

just went deep, deep, deep into the

research. And out of it, I saw these

four big themes coming out of these four

nutrients that most moms are not getting

enough of in their diet or too much of

in their diet. And I wanted to create

this guide to help parents navigate that

food system and see easy things they can

do in the mom's diet to help their

baby's development. So while your baby's

DNA is set the moment the sperm meets

the egg with your diet during pregnancy,

you're programming that DNA. Have you

heard of epigenetics?

>> Yes.

>> Okay. So epigenetics are like these

little dimmer switches that sit on your

DNA and that say activate this gene or

silence this gene. And so during

pregnancy, you're putting these little

switches on your baby's DNA. And this is

going to have an impact on your baby's

development and on his future risk of

disease. I'll give you a very simple

example. If you have very high glucose

levels during pregnancy, scientists have

found that your baby's DNA will have

epigenetic switches that are programming

him towards having a higher

vulnerability to develop diabetes

himself in his lifetime. So if you have

high glucose levels, your baby will be

programmed to be more likely to then

have high glucose levels himself

throughout his life as a kid, a

teenager, and an adult. That's

epigenetic programming. And depending on

your diet as the mom, you can program

your kids differently. But nobody tells

moms about this. And that's what I'm

trying to change.

>> What do I need to know as someone that

knows very little about pregnancy to

really understand the like basics of

what's going on?

>> What time frame matters? What happens

when? So females have a uterus which is

an organ and the uterus is where the

baby develops and the uterus grows as

pregnancy progresses and then when you

give birth the baby comes out of the

uterus and the uterus stays in the mom.

So that's important

when conception happens. So you have the

sperm meets the egg that little packet

of cells will implant in one of the

walls of the uterus and start growing.

And pregnancy is divided into three

trimesters. It's about nine months. So

months 1 to 3 is the first trimester. 4

5 6 is the second trimester. 7 8 9 is

the third trimester. And what we're

going to talk about today is about

nutrition and how your baby's getting

the building blocks that he needs to

develop in your womb as the female.

Because your baby needs to grow from a

single cell to 40 trillion cells by the

time he's born, right? He grows from

like nothing to three or four kilos. And

that has to come from somewhere. It

doesn't just come out of thin air. All

those building blocks, all that matter

is coming from you, from what you're

eating. What you eat becomes your baby.

So your baby is what you eat.

>> In the first trimester, your baby's

getting food from the sort of milk that

your uterus creates. So it's uterine

secretions. And then from the second

trimester onwards, something incredible

happens. And

>> when's the second trimester? That's

>> it starts at four months.

>> Okay. And so for the second and third

trimesters, there's another organ that

you create inside your uterus. It's

called the placenta. And the placenta's

job is to bring your baby's bloodstream

and your bloodstream as the mom in

really close contact. And all of a

sudden, symbiosis is established. And

your bloodstream and your baby's

bloodstream are then going to exchange

nutrients and waste. So your baby's

going to get all his nutrition directly

from your bloodstream. And Stephen,

here's a main myth that people believe.

They believe that your baby will just

get what he needs from you during

pregnancy. That's something moms are

told. Don't worry, your baby will get

what he needs from you. This is a lie.

Depending on what you eat, your baby

will have different access to important

nutrients. So, your baby doesn't get

what he needs. He gets what's there and

what you give him. So, let's take a

simple example. One of the nutrients

that is really important is called

choline. Have you heard about choline

before? Is that in eggs?

>> Yes, exactly. It's in the egg yolk. So,

choline is super important. It forms

your baby's brain in the womb. So, your

baby your baby's brain has these cells

that are forming called neurons, which

are the ones that process information.

And choline is important to creating

those neurons. And choline creates the

parts of your baby's brain that have to

do with memory, learning, and attention.

So that egg that you're holding contains

about 125 milligs of choline and it's an

incredible incredible substance.

The thing is if you don't eat enough

choline your baby's brain is not going

to get enough choline and this can have

an impact on the development of your

child. So much so that the American

Association of Pediatrics says failure

to provide choline during this time can

result in lifelong brain deficits in the

baby.

Today, 90% of moms are not getting

enough choline during pregnancy. 90% of

moms are not getting enough choline

during pregnancy.

>> Why?

>> Because nobody is telling them about it.

And because today we don't eat very

nutritious nutritious foods anymore that

contain a lot of choline. They're

present in eggs. So four eggs a day

gives you all the choline that you need.

But choline is also present in organ

meats like liver. Nobody eats liver

anymore. Most of the foods that we eat

today, cupcakes, dried fruits, burgers,

chips, they don't contain a lot of

choline. We need to be eating eggs. This

is the simplest way to give enough

choline to our baby. And scientists do

these animal studies where they deprive

moms from choline. And they look at the

impact on the brain. And they see that

brain development in the baby stops

earlier than it should. And those babies

are born with fewer neurons. The amount

of choline in your diet during pregnancy

is going to be impacting your child's

brain development. And nobody's telling

moms about this. It's really messed up.

>> So, how many eggs a day do I need to eat

while I'm pregnant to get enough

choline?

>> Four is the golden number. So, here I

think we have 28 eggs. So, every day

during pregnancy, I ate four eggs. So,

this is the amount of eggs that I ate

per week during the nine months of

pregnancy. That's a lot of eggs. But as

I was doing this, I knew I was giving my

baby all the choline that he needed,

which is about 450 mg per day. And this

is not very expensive. 28 eggs is about

$7. So for $1 a day, you're getting all

the choline that your baby needs to form

his brain.

>> Mothers are often told to avoid liver.

>> Yeah.

>> While they're pregnant.

>> Yeah.

>> Why? Why is that? And you're saying that

that's not the correct advice.

>> So liver contains a lot of vitamin A,

quite high levels of vitamin A. And

there's some older studies that show

that liver and high vitamin A can cause

issues to the baby. That's why liver is

not usually recommended during

pregnancy. I would say check with your

doctor. Different countries have

different thresholds of how much liver

is allowed. And honestly, I don't like

liver. So I I prefer to have eggs, but

liver is super super high in choline.

It's quite impressive. You can also take

choline supplements, but eggs are the

cheapest, easiest source. And for

example in the supplement world, so

scientists have done this study at

Cornell. They gave one group of moms the

bare minimum amount of choline that is

recommended. So 450 milligrams in

supplements. And then they wondered,

well, if a baby's brain needs choline,

what happens if he has a lot of choline

available? Does his brain form even

better? So they gave the other group of

mom double the bare minimum recommended

amount. And then they brought the kids

in during their first year of age for

some tests. And the main test that was

used is you basically plop the baby on

his mom's lap in front of a computer

screen and you flash images on that

screen and you measure how quickly the

baby reacts the new images. So how

quickly he moves his eyes. And the

reason they do this is because this test

is correlated to adult IQ. Meaning the

faster a baby reacts to images in the

first year of age, the higher his adult

IQ. That's the association. And so they

were wondering, could we see a

difference in the baby's reaction time

depending on the mom's choline level in

the womb? And they found that the babies

who were born to the high choline moms

had 10% faster reaction time to this

test.

>> People talk a lot about breastfeeding as

well, whether it's good, bad,

indifferent, um whether you can

breastfeed too much, etc. And obviously

there's um there's lots of

practicalities that make breastfeeding

quite difficult for a lot of mothers

which we probably should acknowledge.

But otherwise what is um what does the

research say about breastfeeding?

>> So the difference main difference

between breast milk and formula is that

breast milk is alive. It's alive with

information. It's alive with little

molecules that are going to continue

that DNA programming. Formula is inert.

It It's not alive. It's not doing that

programming. So yes, breastfeeding has

advantages for the mom and for the baby,

but formula is nutritionally complete

and it's very useful for many moms who

are not able or want to breastfeed. And

if you're using formula, you actually

have to check because today not all

formulas have choline in them. So check

in the ingredients for choline. Also

check in the ingredients for omega-3s,

which is something that we'll cover in a

bit. Look for that choline omega-3s in

your formula to make sure that your baby

is getting what he needs in those

respects. I was reading about a study in

the pediatric research journal that says

a 2013 Dutch study of 120 children found

that less breastfeeding was linked to a

silencing of the gene for leptin,

>> the hormone that signals fullness.

>> So that's a good example of epigenetic

programming. So we have this gene that

codes for leptin, which is a protein.

And leptin is the one of the molecules

that makes you feel full. So you and I

both have this leptin gene, but

depending on our epigenetic programming

on that gene, you might be producing

more of it and I might be producing less

of it. So for the same meal, you might

feel more full and I might feel less

full after that same exact meal. And so

in this study, they saw that if you're

not breastfed very long, your leptin

gene is act deactivated. So you feel

less full after eating. Now, these are

small associations, but they show you

that there's a difference here and that

potentially breastfeeding could help

your baby be more satiated after eating.

>> What about sugar during pregnancy?

>> So, sugar is fascinating.

When you eat sugar, your baby is also

receiving that sugar because that

placenta lets the sugar through. And

your baby doesn't need any sugar during

pregnancy. He needs a little bit of

glucose, which is different. But sugar,

as in the very sweet molecule of

fructose that is in chocolate, that is

in these cupcakes, that is in dried

fruit, your baby needs none of it. And

the most interesting study on sugar in

pregnancy actually came from the UK. So

from 1940 to 1953, I don't know if you

know this, but in the UK, there was a

governmentmandated sugar ration, meaning

for 13 years, the government controlled

how much sugar people had access to. It

was during the war and they were trying

to manage resources. So everybody in the

UK got 10 sugar cubes per day. That's

it. And this is down from what people

usually ate before the sugar ration,

which was about 20 sugar cubes per day.

So everybody, including pregnant moms,

for 13 years had a capped amount of

sugar. At the end of the sugar ration,

after 13 years, bam, everybody went back

up to eating more sugar. And so

scientists in the early 2000s thought,

well, that's really interesting. This

means we have two groups of pregnant

moms during the sugar ration and right

after the sugar ration who had babies

develop in their womb either with 40

grams of sugar per day or around 80

grams of sugar per day. And the

scientists wondered, can this small

difference be making an impact on the

baby's long-term health? So, they called

up 60,000 people who were born either

just before the ration ended or just

after and they asked them about their

health. They were like, "Do you have

diabetes? Do you have heart disease? How

are you feeling? What's your weight? And

they saw that the babies who were born

and who were in the mother's womb during

the sugar ration had 15%

lower likelihood of having developed

type 2 diabetes in their lifetime. So

what does this mean? It means that the

amount of sugar during pregnancy can be

slightly increasing or decreasing your

baby's vulnerability to getting type 2

diabetes later in life. And today

scientists look at the epigenetics of

babies who are born to moms with very

high glucose levels and they see that

the genes that are related to diabetes

are activated. So we have a full picture

now of data. We have epigenetics. We

have this long-term interesting study

and we now see that the amount of sugar

that we eat during pregnancy is subtly

programming our baby. So Stephen, I

don't know if you know this, but when I

was 25, I was on the cusp of

pre-diabetes. I almost had pre-diabetes

when I was 25. I had very high glucose

levels. So, I had a vulnerability to

diabetes. And as I was reading the

studies, I was like, "Oh my god, maybe

this has something to do with what my

mother was eating when she was pregnant

with me." Because pregnancy is this

window of outsized influence in

somebody's health. So, I called up my

mom. I was like, "Mom, what did you eat

when you were pregnant?" She was like,

"Oh, it was the ' 90s. You know, I ate

very little protein, very low fat. And

in the morning, every morning, I had a

big glass of orange juice and I had

special case cereal with about a half a

cup of table sugar on top. I was like,

"Huh, that's pretty interesting." So, I

wonder, I will never know. I wonder if

maybe my vulnerability to diabetes had

some roots in the womb.

>> And the science suggests that it does

have a correlation.

>> Absolutely. So, the science suggests

that the amount of sugar that you're

eating during pregnancy is having an

impact on your baby's epigenetics. And

today, so as I was mentioning, the WHO

recommends 25 grams of sugar per day,

but most moms are eating 80 grams of

sugar per day. 80 grams, which is

usually more than what they eat when

they're not pregnant, because of this

collective myth that you should eat for

two, that pregnancy you're going to gain

weight anyway, so eat as much sugar as

you want. really we're failing moms

because we're not telling them about the

incredible opportunity they have by just

being a bit mindful of how much sugar

they eat of being able to help their

baby be less vulnerable to diabetes.

>> It's not just diabetes though, is it?

>> No.

>> I was just looking at some of the

studies. Um there's a study here in the

JAMAMA network. It says a Danish study

found that children born to mothers with

diabetes had a 15% higher risk of

psychiatric disorders with schizophrenia

risk being 55% higher. intellectual

disability 29% higher and um a

connection to autism and ADHD. A 2025

review of 200 studies which is 56

million mother baby pairs found a 25%

higher risk of autism when um mothers

had diabetes during pregnancy.

>> Yeah.

>> From the Lancet diabetes and

endocrinology report. And it's important

to note that these studies show

correlation not causation. And a 25%

increase in absolute terms only raises

the prevalence from one in 100 to around

1.25 in 100 children. So there's some

nuance to be had on that.

>> There is some nuance, but that

association holds very strongly. And as

you said, 56 million mom baby pairs. So

across the world, we see that when a mom

has diabetes during pregnancy, her baby

has a higher risk of psychiatric

disorders. And the main theory that

could explain this association has to do

with the baby's brain. So your baby is

forming his brain in the room. And

today, Stephen, you have about a hundred

billion neurons in your brain and they

are the exact same neurons that you had

the day you were born. Neurons never get

replaced. So what does this mean? It

means that your neurons that you have

for life are formed during pregnancy in

your mother's uterus. Now you have these

neurons in the baby's brain being formed

250,000 per minute. Pew, pew, pew, pew,

pew, neurons everywhere. And next to the

neurons, you have another type of cell.

This cell is called the micro ga. And it

kind of looks like a starfish, and it's

patrolling the baby's brain. And it's

job is to make sure that the neurons are

forming properly. So what micro ga do,

they're a cell from the immune system,

is they are on the lookout for any

neurons that are being damaged or not

formed properly. And as soon as they

find a neuron that is not ideal, they go

over to it and they eat it and they

destroy it. So they're pruning the brain

and they're looking out for damage and

making sure everything develops

normally. Now if the mother has high

inflammation levels during pregnancy and

this can be caused by a number of

things. It can be caused by high glucose

levels. It can be caused by infection.

It can be caused by chemicals. High

inflammation seems to be making these

micro ga overactive. Now all of a sudden

they become a bit deregulated and they

start eating and destroying neurons that

don't need to be destroyed. They start

destroying healthy neurons and as a

result the brain is forming in a

slightly suboptimal fashion. And

scientists believe this to be the

leading theory behind why we see the

association between gestational

diabetes, so diabetes of pregnancy and a

higher risk of psychiatric disorders.

They believe it has to do with the

inflammation levels going on in the

baby's brain during pregnancy. And so

what does this tell us? This tells us

that when we're pregnant, we're

influencing the amount of inflammation

in our baby's body. And this should be

something that we tell women about

because if they can have power over

their inflammation levels, for example,

by reducing their glucose spikes, they

could also give their baby a benefit to

its brain formation. Do you think it's

useful for women during pregnancy to

wear those continuous glucose monitors?

>> I did. I did the whole time. Is it

useful? Depends on what you want to do.

I think it's really interesting. It

helped me a lot. Maybe just for two

weeks could be cool. So, you can kind of

see what's going on and learn about your

glucose spikes. And I think one of the

issues we see during pregnancy is that

your glucose levels are usually tested

in the third trimester with the diabetes

test,

>> but by that time like you've already

been going going along for 6 months with

your glucose levels. I think we should

be testing glucose levels much much

earlier like in the first trimester

because your glucose levels in the first

trimester actually can predict very well

whether you're going to get gestational

diabetes or not. So, I think we should

maybe put a glucose monitor on all

pregnant moms in the first trimester or

even pre-reg to help them understand

their glucose spikes and show them about

these easy tools and habits and hacks

that you can put in place to reduce your

glucose spikes.

>> I was reading about a study from

Diabetes Care that said they put um

these continuous glucose monitors on 700

women and found that if they did it in

the first trimester, they could

accurately predict who would develop

gestational diabetes at 24 to 28 weeks.

>> Yeah. And so that's really interesting

because a lot of people used to think

that gestational diabetes, meaning

diabetes during pregnancy, is kind of

random. It was like, "Oh, you get it,

but we don't know why. It's random. Your

body's just doing this." And now we have

evidence that suggests that actually

it's correlated to your glucose levels

in the first trimester. Now, in the

first trimester, your glucose levels are

pretty much the same as when you're not

pregnant. As pregnancy progresses,

hormones come into play and things start

shifting. Glucose spikes get bigger and

longer. fasting glucose levels becomes

lower. But that first trimester, your

glucose spikes and your glucose levels

are similar to pre-preg. This means that

essentially your non-pregant glucose

levels can predict whether or not you're

going to get gestational diabetes. Which

means that gestational diabetes is not

random. It actually has roots in what

was happening before pregnancy. Meaning

that if you had high glucose levels

before pregnancy, you're more likely to

get gestational diabetes. Gestational

diabetes could actually just be a

symptom of having high glucose levels

before pregnancy but just not knowing

about it.

>> You know, when we say high glucose

levels, is that a very individual thing?

>> No,

>> it's not an individual thing.

>> No, we have very clear cut offs. So, for

example, if you're not pregnant like you

and I, 100 milligrams per deciliter is

the cut off between healthy and

pre-diabetes.

So, that's fasting glucose level, your

glucose level first thing in the

morning. If you're pregnant, that

changes. Anything above 92 milligrams

per deciliter is considered diabetes of

pregnancy. So high glucose levels, it's

it's very well segmented. We have these

very specific ranges that say normal,

too high, much too high.

>> But if me and you both have this um a

teaspoon of this honey that I have here

on the desk, our responses to this honey

are going to be completely different,

right?

>> Yeah. The glucose spike we experience is

going to be different for a bunch of

reasons. Our microbiome, our genetics,

how much muscle mass we have, how

hydrated, how stressed, how tired we we

are. So maybe you're going to get a

spike of like, I don't know, 30 30

milligrams and maybe I'll get a 45

milligram spike because I'm tired. Now,

what does that mean? It doesn't mean

that honey is necessarily better for you

than it is for me. It just means that my

body today is more or less good at

managing this influx of glucose

>> today.

>> Today. Yeah. Today. And it also means

something very important, which is that

if you and I both used a glucose hack.

So, for example, if you and I both had a

chicken breast before the honey, both

you and I would have a smaller glucose

spike from that same honey. So, glucose

hacks and ways to reduce your glucose

spikes work in everyone. The exact

absolute values after eating something,

these can vary. But one thing that is

true for everybody is that you're

fasting glucose. So glucose before you

eat anything. That is something we can

compare. So if you and I both at 7 a.m.

before we eat anything and we had our

fasting glucose levels checked, we could

compare. We could say, "Oh, Jesse is

very close to pre-diabetes and Steven is

not very close to pre-diabetes." Those

are very easy numbers to compare. the

spikes after eating. These can vary.

>> So, if I put on a little bit more

muscle, that means that I'll tolerate

glucose better.

>> Yeah. Because your muscles are an

amazing sink where your body is soaking

up glucose from your bloodstream. And

that's why we see that even during

pregnancy, having high muscle mass is

protective against diabetes. So, women

with higher muscle mass in pregnancy are

less likely to have gestational

diabetes. Let me give you an example.

So, we we eat this honey. What happens?

The honey goes from our mouth to our

stomach to our intestine and then it

goes through our intestinal wall into

our bloodstream. So all these glucose

molecules are arriving into our

bloodstream. Now there's two options.

Either we stay here and we don't move.

In that case, glucose is going to rise

in our bloodstream, big glucose spike,

and then crash. Or we say, "Okay, let's

go outside and go for a walk right after

we eat this honey." We're walking. Our

muscles are contracting. Our leg muscles

are contracting. Our arm muscles are

contracting. And these muscles as

they're contracting, they're looking for

energy. And the first place they look is

in the bloodstream. They look for

glucose in the bloodstream. Which is why

if you move after you eat glucose, you

will get a smaller glucose spike because

some of that glucose is being used by

your muscles for energy.

>> I've heard you tell people that they

should uh do some stuff with their

calves.

>> Calf raises. Yeah. Okay. So, put your

feet on the ground, Stephen. Yeah.

>> And just do some calf push-ups. Calf

raises. So you go up onto the ends of

your feet and back down.

>> Okay. So you got it. I'm going up. I'm

lifting my heels.

>> Exactly. Lift your heels up and down. So

as you do this, there's a muscle in your

calf called the soles muscle. Can you

feel it contract? It's your calf muscle.

>> Yeah.

>> Okay. So this muscle is very good at

soaking up glucose from your

bloodstream. So easy hack you can do

after you eat something sweet is you

just do some calf raises at your desk

like this. Nobody can notice. Five

minutes and that's going to help reduce

the glucose spike of what you just ate.

I mean five five minutes.

>> Yeah, I mean you can do five minutes. In

the studies they do sometimes hours of

this but even just one minute is better

than nothing to reduce your glucose

spike.

>> I mean this is probably why a lot of

cultures go for a walk after dinner.

Right.

>> Completely. And a lot of the glucose

hacks that I've talked about, they

actually mirror a lot of traditions. So

for example, the glucose hack of having

your vegetables at the beginning of your

meal. This is incredibly powerful,

pregnancy or not pregnancy, because

vegetables contain fiber. And when you

have them at the beginning of your meal,

they create this protective mesh in your

intestine that slows down the glucose

molecules from carbs and makes the

glucose molecules arrive more slowly

into your bloodstream, meaning smaller

spike. Now, eating veggies at the

beginning of a meal, that's something

that we call kurite in France, which

means raw veggies at the beginning of

your meal.

What other simple exercises do you

recommend if I've just eaten something

that's high in glucose that I can do

quickly to help bring down my glucose

spike? Right? That's ultimately what

it's going to do. Bring down the spike.

>> The best thing to do is to move your

body. So get up, find a spot in your

apartment that needs to be tidied. Find

a place you got to vacuum. Find some

find some laundry to do and do that

within 90 minutes after eating. Your

muscles are your best ally in reducing

your glucose spikes after you've eaten.

So, what's going on there? I I start

eating a cake. I finish eating the cake.

How long have I got to get that cake

into my muscles?

>> That's a great way to put it. You have

about 90 minutes. So, an hour and a

half.

>> Okay.

>> That's when the spike is usually going

to be at at its maximum.

>> So, if I start squatting,

>> yeah, squats are a great great tool.

>> I want to go for a big muscle, right?

>> Yeah, absolutely. So there's some

studies showing that if you do I think

it's five squats or 10 squats every 5

minutes that is a very very powerful way

to get your glucose spike down. Now you

don't always have the space to do some

squats but if you're alone and at home

go for it. That's one of the best ones.

>> So what's going on in my body there is

my I start squatting I'm working my

glutes.

>> Yeah. So your glutes are looking for

energy and the first place they look is

in your blood. They're looking for

glucose

>> because glucose is the energy that your

muscles are using. Okay. Well, do you

use standing desks? I've really got into

it.

>> Yeah, I do. I have a desk at home that

moves up and down.

>> Same.

>> Yeah. But sometimes if I'm tired, I just

are more tired with the standing desk.

So, I have to have a bit of energy left

over. Do you always use a standing desk?

>> I mean, I kind of oscillate between

standing and sitting. But I think

especially in like the morning, I find

it to be really, really good.

>> You just gave me an idea for a glucose

test. I should do the same muffin and

afterwards standing desk for 30 minutes

or sitting at the desk for 30 minutes.

That's a great test.

>> Well, we need to put some uh Stella

glucose monitors on before. But yes, we

can do it. We should do it. So, I will

eat a muffin first thing in the morning,

then stand for 30 minutes, and the next

day I will eat a muffin first thing in

the morning, and then sit for 30

minutes, and I'll send you the spike,

and we can see we can see how much

glucose is being burned when we're

standing at our desk.

>> Okay. Well, we're gonna put that the

results in the episode. Okay, great.

Now, so what you see on the screen, if

you're watching, is the results of Jesse

standing after having a muffin,

and then these results, which you see on

the screen, are Jesse sitting after

having a muffin.

>> And either we'll see that the spikes are

very similar,

>> which means that standing doesn't use

much more muscle energy than sitting, or

we will see that standing is using up

some of the glucose from my bloodstream.

and therefore the spike is smaller after

the muffin.

>> On that point of exercise, mothers are

given conflicting advice about what to

do when they're pregnant. Um,

some people say exercise is not good.

Some people say it's great. What's your

position from all the research you've

done as to whether mothers should be

doing exercise during pregnancy?

>> Exercise is incredibly good for your

baby's development. And there's one

study done in animals because we can't

do many studies in in humans when it

comes to pregnancy for obvious ethical

reasons, but there's this incredible

study which I think is my favorite study

in the book. So scientists took two

groups of pregnant rats and they gave

them the exact same housing conditions,

diet, lighting, everything. The only

difference is that one group also had

these tiny little treadmills that they

had to walk on for 30 minutes a day

every day during pregnancy. So, same

exact conditions. The only difference is

one group of pregnant rats is moving 30

minutes a day on these tiny treadmills.

Then they wait for the babies to be born

and they put the babies in these mazes

to kind of measure how quickly they're

solving the maze. And they also measure

the baby's anxiety levels. They found

that the babies that were born to the

moms who were exercising solved the maze

twice as fast and had fewer anxiety

symptoms.

So they found this strong association

between a mom exercising during

pregnancy and the outcomes of the baby's

brain.

>> H

>> and the main theory is that when we

exercise, there's this molecule produced

in our brain called BDNF. And it's got a

complicated name, but what it does is

that it helps neuroplasticity. It helps

your neurons create new connections. And

we know that in humans when we exercise,

that's one of the reasons exercise is

good for the brain because it increases

BDNF. And in these pregnant rats, they

found not only were the mom's BDNFs

higher, but the baby's BDNF levels

inside of the wombs was also higher. and

they believe that is why they saw this

impact on the baby's brain development

after birth. So what happens in the womb

is really setting up a strong foundation

for your baby's brain. It's laying out

the basic architecture, which is why

it's so important to do these simple

hacks to give your baby's brain the

optimal nutrients that it needs to form

properly.

>> What is um there's a little metaphor

over there, those two plant pots. What

is the metaphor?

Okay, so

both of these plants come from identical

seeds. The only difference is what they

were planted in. So, one of these plants

was planted in basically little rocks

and gravel with a tiny bit of soil in

it. The other seed was planted in rich

fertilized soil. What is this showing

us? We intuitively understand that when

we're planting a seed, the soil we

choose is important, right? We

understand that the same seed is not

going to lead to the same tree depending

on where we plant it. And I think for

pregnancy, we've lost this intuition

because your baby is a seed. You as the

mother's body, you are the soil and the

soil is going to co-create your baby's

plan. So, when you're pregnant, you have

this little baby with his DNA plan, but

depending on depending on the nutrients

you provide, he's going to grow into a

different tree. He's either going to

grow in a super optimal tree that has

all the nutrients he needed, or he's

going to have to adapt to what's

available and grow into a slightly

different tree. Now, the main difference

is that humans are not plants. So,

humans are very resilient. your baby

will probably be okay. Even if like 90%

of us you don't have enough choline,

even if like 75% of us you don't have

enough omega-3s, even if like 70% of us

you don't have enough protein, and even

if like most of us you're eating more

than the recommended amount of sugar,

your baby will probably be fine, but he

will be adapting to a slightly

sub-optimal nutrient environment. So

that's what this metaphor is all about.

You're co-creating the plan of your baby

with your diet during pregnancy and it's

shaping him and he's adapting and

calibrating to what you're giving him.

>> Steve, what you doing?

>> Uh, just making myself a delicious

coffee

>> from the freezer.

>> From the freezer? Have you not heard

about CompTI?

>> No.

>> Oh my gosh, this is going to change your

life. A couple of months ago, the

founder of this business called Matt

sent a big shipment of this coffee to

our office in London. This coffee is

like nothing you've ever seen before.

What most people don't know is that the

processing of coffee takes out a lot of

the taste. So what they do is they flash

freeze it at the optimal moment when

it's most tasty and they send you in the

post the coffee in these little frozen

ice cubes. Now Matt sent a big shipment

to my office. I moved it to the kitchen.

I said to the team, "Knock yourselves

out. Give this a try." And then I saw so

many messages in our Slack channel of

people going, "Oh my god, what the hell

is that? It's so delicious. All I have

to do is pop it out in the morning using

the little button on the back of this

thing. I pour my hot water in and I mix

it and that is done. You can get $30 off

your first order of cometier coffee if

you go to cometier.com/stephven

and it won't be available for long. So

get that discount while you can. I I'm

not going to be a pregnant mother in my

life, but I am going to have a fiance

hopefully at some point who is a

pregnant mother. So, I would really like

to know how I can help as a partner, but

also I'm sure she's going to listen to

this. So, what she can do to make sure

that the soil in which my baby grows is

optimal. We've talked about a few of the

things so far like choline and we've al

also talked about sugar and glucose

levels throughout pregnancy to avoid

gestational diabetes. We've talked about

exercise as well. What about alcohol?

>> Not a good idea because as I explained,

your bloodstream and your baby's

bloodstream are basically connected. So

when you drink alcohol during pregnancy,

your blood alcohol level rises and then

your baby's blood alcohol level in your

uterus also rises. There's no filter

protecting your baby from alcohol. So

when you have a glass of wine, your

baby's also having a glass of wine in

the womb. And we know that alcohol is

not good for our brains. And this also

goes for babies. So, you wouldn't put

red wine in your baby's bottle after

birth and give him red wine to drink,

but that's kind of what's going on when

you're drinking alcohol when you're

pregnant. And there's been a lot of a

lot of stuff online about, oh, alcohol

during pregnancy is fine in small

quantities. I think when you understand

how alcohol is toxic to the brain

biologically, it makes no sense to

pregnant moms that a little bit of

alcohol is okay. It's best if you can to

avoid alcohol entirely.

>> So, complete abstinence. Yeah,

>> there was actually a study that came out

in February last year, which is quite

recent, from the University of

Melbourne, where they used

highresolution 3D imaging to reveal that

even low doses of alcohol cause facial

morphing, consistent changes in the

shape of the eyes and nose at 12 months,

persisting up to age 8, and weaker

connections in the in the right um

anterior singulate part of the brain,

the region critical for emotional

regulation and impulse control, even if

the mother drank only occasionally.

which is

very um surprising

because I think for a long time we've

always thought that heavy consumption of

alcohol was a problem

>> and we know that. Yeah.

>> But even low doses are suboptimal.

>> It's kind of it kind of goes for all

adults, right? We thought for a long

time that one glass of wine per day was

good for the heart. Now we understand

that the ideal amount of alcohol is

zero. Like there's no benefit to

alcohol. Now, is that to say that one

glass of wine during pregnancy is going

to, you know, indelibly impact your

baby's brain? Probably not. But if you

can avoid it, this is the best time to

avoid it entirely.

>> What about when you're breastfeeding?

>> Oo. Well, you have much more leeway then

because the amount of alcohol in your

breast milk mirrors the amount of

alcohol in your bloodstream. So, for

example, if you have a glass of wine,

two and a half to three hours later, you

have pretty much no more alcohol in your

bloodstream, which means your breast

milk is also pretty much devoid of

alcohol. So, if you time it right,

you're going to be able to have a glass

of wine without it actually going into

your breast milk. But, it's all about

timing.

>> Caffeine,

>> the recommendation is to stay under two

cups of coffee per day during pregnancy.

Um, it's not a neurotoxin like alcohol,

right? But caffeine does go to your

baby's bloodstream. And some studies

show that babies are more active in the

womb after the mother drinks caffeine

and it has no benefit. So listen, you do

what you can. I reduced a little bit my

caffeine intake. Instead of having like

two fat whites, I had maybe half a flat

white or a decaf fat white when I could.

But some days I just really wanted a

coffee, so I had a coffee.

>> Have they ever done any studies on

caffeine and pregnancy? Well, we can't

do any studies on caffeine in pregnancy

in humans. It's unethical to test

anything in pregnant moms. We have

associations and the associations don't

show much difference. Like we don't have

studies that show caffeine intake in

moms leads to this kind of bad outcome

in the kids. It seems pretty neutral at

low doses. If you have really high doses

of caffeine, there is an impact on the

baby's well associative impact on the

baby's temperament. But for one or two

cups a day, there's no impact that we

find.

>> And they've done animal studies. Yeah,

they've done animal studies. Low doses

also fine. Very high doses, we start to

see changes in the baby's behavior.

>> You talk about this in the book. In

certain animal studies, they show um

during pregnancy leads to smaller

offspring, altered heart development,

and delayed brain growth. Um but you

explain that we don't have direct

clinical trial data on the long-term

impact of caffeine during human

pregnancy.

>> And also those studies are very high

doses of caffeine.

>> Okay. Yeah. And the World Health

Organization recommends that women who

consume more than 300 milligrams of

coffee a day, which is roughly three

cups, reduce their daily intake during

pregnancy.

>> Yeah. So, probably one cup a day is not

harming your baby.

>> Fermented foods in the gut. What about

that? Yeah.

>> What should I be thinking about there?

>> Well, this is very early research, but

showing that potentially if a mother has

fermented food during pregnancy, it's

also seeding her baby's gut microbiome.

But this is very, very early stuff. But

if you can include some kefir or some

sauerkraut during pregnancy, it's

helpful.

>> What What about bread? Do you think much

about bread?

>> Do I think much about bread? I mean, I'm

French, so I think about bread all the

time.

>> In terms of um your recommendations on

the type of bread one should be eating.

>> Well, bread is interesting because bread

is a carb that contains mostly glucose.

And we know that in the third trimester

of pregnancy, your baby actually needs

more glucose cuz he's developing and he

also needs energy. Your baby needs about

70 gram of glucose per day at the very

end of pregnancy. So, as a pregnant mom,

you should be eating 70 grams of glucose

more than you usually do at the end of

pregnancy. For the first and second

trimesters, you don't need to be eating

much more glucose. So, you could have

that via bread. You could have that via

rice, for example. So 70 gram of glucose

is about three slices of bread or a cup

and a half of rice. In terms of the type

of bread you should be eating, it's

always better for your glucose levels to

have bread that is full of seeds. But to

be honest, there's not a huge difference

between like sprouted grain bread versus

white bread. It's all just glucose

>> because there there is a I guess there's

a a risk that mothers might get a little

bit scared of having sugary foods during

pregnancy. And then you've just said the

baby does need glucose.

>> Yeah. So there's a difference. So

glucose is present in carbs and

starches, meaning bread, pasta, rice,

potatoes, oats. So starches contain

glucose, but starches are different to

sugars. So on this plate, we only have

sugars. These are the sweet foods that

contain glucose, but also another

molecule that makes them sweet called

fructose. Your baby needs no fructose

during pregnancy ever. So your baby does

not need any sugar from dessert, from

chocolate, from muffins, from cupcakes.

Your baby needs none of this. But your

baby does need glucose, which is

healthier to get from starches like

bread, pasta, rice, potatoes.

>> What about the ketogenic diet while

you're pregnant?

>> I don't think there's enough evidence to

tell us whether it's okay or not. It's

very early. It's quite rare. Um, and it

seems that since your baby does need

glucose during pregnancy, it's just

easier to eat glucose and to eat

starches when you're pregnant. And whole

fruit is also a good way of getting the

glucose that you need because thanks to

the fiber in the water, the amount of

fructose in the fruit is not leading to

such a big fructose spike.

>> There's a study on the G1D Foundation

that basically says for 99% of

pregnancies, a strict ketogenic diet is

considered dangerous. doctors in instead

recommend a low glycemic index diet.

>> And low glycemic diets mean a diet with

smaller glucose spikes. And this is

really helpful for people with

gestational diabetes. It helps them

manage their spikes and reduce the need

for medication. But also for any

pregnant mom, it's important to think

about your glucose spikes because when

you have a glucose spike, your baby has

a glucose spike. And glucose spikes are

not good news. It's better to give your

baby slow rolling hills of glucose and

not these big spikes that can lead to

more inflammation. And as we talked

about, more inflammation can impact the

baby's brain development.

>> Do you recommend that mothers take

certain supplements? Did you take

supplements throughout your pregnancy?

>> Yeah, I took omega-3s. And the reason is

I took omega-3 supplements is because

omega-3s also form the baby's brain and

they come from algae in the ocean and

fish. Now, omega-3s and in particular

one omega-3 called DHA, it helps your

baby's neurons connect with each other.

And this is really important. And in

animal studies, when scientists restrict

how much DHA a mother has access to,

they see measurable impact on the baby's

brain. They see brains that are less

efficient. They see babies who find the

exit of mazes with much more time.

There's an impact on the brain

development. Now, the easiest way to get

enough DHA is to eat fish or to eat

sardines that we have here. So, the

recommendation is fatty fish twice a

week. I would say fatty fish three times

a week if you can. And this is also it's

amazing because it's very cheap. So,

these three cans of sardines are your

three servings of fish per week. This

gets gives you all the omega-3s your

baby needs. And this cost about in total

like $67. So, for $67 per week and for

another $7 of eggs per week, you're

getting all the choline and all the

omega-3s your baby needs. Yeah. You're

opening it. Are you going to eat it?

>> Okay. No. You want to know how I have

them?

>> How?

>> Okay. Are you going to eat it?

>> Yeah.

>> Go for it. So, I open the can. I put it

in a bowl. I put mustard in it. I put

sea salt, a little bit of feta,

>> some herbs, and I make this sort of nice

little paste, and then I toast a piece

of bread, and I put it on top of the

bread, and I have like a nice little

sardine mash on my bread.

>> It is quite nice.

>> Yeah. And it's really good for you. Lots

of omega-3s. And so, for omega-3s, I

also supplemented with additional

omega-3s because I think the

recommendation of fatty fish two, three

times a day is lacking. Most moms don't

have enough omega-3s in their body to

give their baby everything that he

needs. So, I did this three times a week

plus two grams of DHA supplement per

day.

>> What else was in your supplement stack?

>> Then, uh, in the third trimester, I took

iron because my iron levels were very

low. This often happens during

pregnancy, even though I was eating a

lot of meat because your baby is pulling

a lot of iron from you. And then I had a

sort of normal prenatal supplement, but

I made sure it had choline in it. And I

made sure it had a type of folic acid

called metylated folate which is better

absorbed. And folate is very important

to prevent miscarriage. You talked about

your first pregnancy and you said we'll

talk about that later.

>> Mhm.

>> You went through miscarriage.

>> Yes. Correct. So I got pregnant the

first time and I thought everything

would be totally fine but I found out at

the 3mon scan that the embryo had

stopped developing. I had what's called

a silent miscarriage. So, usually when

you miscarry,

you start to lose blood, you have

cramps, you know something's wrong. I

had a silent miscarriage, which is more

rare, meaning the embryo stopped

developing. The embryo was dead. My body

did not expulse it. So, I found out that

I had lost the pregnancy at the scan at

the doctor's office. And I found out

that I had been walking around for a

month with an embryo that had stopped

developing and I had no idea. I thought

I was still pregnant.

What What is What is that like for

someone like me that has never

experienced um such news? What are the

range of emotions and thoughts um that

occur when you get news like that?

>> Listen, for me it was so devastating. It

was so so difficult. I didn't I didn't

want to believe it. I was screaming. I

remember like falling to the floor in my

living room and saying to whatever god

or the universe like that I wanted my

baby back. I was I was not okay. It was

very very difficult. Um I felt a lot of

anger. I felt a lot of despair. I felt a

sense of injustice like why me? I felt

like I had done everything right. Like I

was eating the choline. I was taking the

right supplements. you know, I was not

like smoking crack and I still had a

miscarriage and I I didn't know this

happened. I I didn't have it in my

consciousness that it could happen to

me. So, I felt from very very high. It

was it was probably one of the most

difficult experiences in my life.

>> Is this more common?

>> One in five pregnancies and in

miscarriage.

>> That's really high. Like way higher than

I thought it was.

>> Yeah.

>> And is it usually in the

>> in the first trimester? if I was still,

>> but it can happen later also.

>> Yeah. And I felt so isolated and I

didn't feel like people around me knew

how to how to handle it cuz it's kind of

taboo. And then when I miscarried, I

started talking to people about it. And

I found out that so many people around

me had gone through it but had never

told me about it.

>> When was your first pregnancy?

So, I got pregnant in February 2024.

So, the miscarriage was in spring 2024.

And then I got pregnant again

in August 2025.

No, 2024. And my son was born in May

2025.

So, I got pregnant quite quickly

afterwards. Um, but it was difficult

because I was still carrying the grief

of the miscarriage. So, I had a very

anxious pregnancy. I was very anxious

the whole time that something bad would

happen again, that I would miscarry

again and not know about it. It was very

difficult.

>> It's a trial of the heart, man.

>> It's Yeah, the numbers way higher than I

expected. Just just much higher than I

expected. And it's it's scary scary to

think about.

>> Yeah. Yeah.

>> And that's why people usually wait until

the third month mark to tell their

friends and family that they're

pregnant.

>> And for some reason, I had no conception

of that. So the moment I got that first

pregnancy test, I told everybody.

>> Mhm.

>> So it made it quite complicated to have

to announce the miscarriage to like 50

people.

>> Um but at the same time, I felt less

alone than I would have felt if nobody

knew I was pregnant in the first place.

>> Mhm.

>> But yeah, it was very very challenging.

And it's more common than we think and

it happens to more people than we know

about.

>> Is there anything you wish you knew

earlier in life about I mean we've

talked about many of the things

specifically around diet and you know

and pregnancy but is there anything else

you wish someone had said to you as a

woman earlier

um that you didn't hear?

>> Yeah. I think I wish I wish my mom had

told me about her miscarriages. She had

not.

>> Oh, really?

>> Until I miscarried. Yep. I wish my

grandmother had told me. I had I did not

know. I wish people had told me more

about their experiences because that way

I would have understood that it happens

to a lot of people. Maybe I would have

been more prepared and maybe it would

have made the experience a little bit

less painful.

>> Mhm.

>> Instead of feeling so so isolated or at

least I would have maybe been a bit more

cautious

>> cuz you said one of the feelings and

emotions you had was why did this happen

to me?

>> Yes. I was like why me? Why me? And then

I realized it happens to many people and

it's not necessarily a reason. It's

nothing you've done. It can be just a

chromosomeal abnormality and the embryo

just can't develop anymore. It can be

something we don't understand yet.

>> It's hard, isn't it? Getting pregnant.

>> Yeah,

>> it's hard. I think I don't know what

lawyer I was living under, but I just

assumed that getting pregnant was have

sex unprotected.

>> I know. Because your whole life you're

told do all these things to not get

pregnant because it might happen without

you expecting it. And then when you try

to get pregnant, you realize, oh, it's

not at all as easy as I thought it was.

>> It's it's it's a lot. And I was lucky I

got pregnant after, you know, two three

cycles both times. So that's very very

quick. But some of my friends, it's

taken them years to conceive.

>> How has becoming a mother changed you?

>> Um, it's made me happier. I feel like my

baseline happiness is higher. I don't

have I used to have this like 10% kind

of melancholy or or spleen or sort of

like oh maybe my life could be better if

I did X or Y or like questioning you

know do I need more how do I how do I

find happiness and that's gone like with

my son that has that has been filled and

I didn't expect it to be filled so

that's been amazing and it's made me

very efficient because now when I have

42 minutes I use this 42 minutes like I

cannot imagine Imagine how much time I

used to have. Like, what did I used to

do? And I thought I was busy. Now I'm

really busy. It's so funny to look back

at my life before and what I used to

think and realize that I was completely

wrong. I was so wrong. I thought I was

busy and I thought I was tired.

I wasn't. Now I am.

>> You feel very busy, right?

>> I feel so busy.