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Issue No. 007 · Pancakes
Pancakes on Trial +65 Points
I sat down at my favorite diner. Three fluffy pancakes and maple syrup. My glucose monitor told me the rest.
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I ordered the stack.
Three buttermilk pancakes. Real maple syrup. The kind of plate that feels like a Sunday morning even on a Monday. I clipped on my glucose monitor, poured the syrup, and picked up my fork like I always do. Forty minutes later my blood sugar had climbed 65 points. And I was not even close to full.
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+65
mg/dL rise in 40 minutes
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Pancakes + Syrup (alone)
Rise in mg/dL from baseline, measured via CGM over 40 min
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Individual glucose responses vary. This is one person’s data, not medical advice.
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White flour pancakes have a glycemic index around 67. That puts them in the same territory as white bread. The flour is refined, the bran is stripped, and your body converts it all to glucose fast. Add a pour of maple syrup and you are stacking sugar on top of sugar.
Your pancreas floods the zone with insulin to catch up. And then it overcorrects. That crash around 90 minutes later, the one where you want to put your head on the table, is not laziness. It is your blood sugar dropping below where it started.
In other words, the diner stack is a glucose rocket. But I did not give up pancakes. I changed when I picked up the fork.
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Meanwhile... The Hack
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I went back the next morning and sat in the same booth. I ordered the exact same plate, three buttermilk pancakes with maple syrup. But this time I asked for two scrambled eggs first and ate them before the stack arrived.
Protein slows your stomach. When you eat eggs before the pancakes, your gut releases a hormone called GLP-1. It keeps food in your stomach longer, so the sugar from the flour hits your blood in a slow drip instead of a flood. That is why the second bar on the chart is so much shorter. The plate did not change. I did not swap a single thing. The only difference was two scrambled eggs ten minutes before the first bite of pancake.
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Pancakes Alone
Eggs First, Then Pancakes
Rise in mg/dL from baseline, same meal, same person, consecutive mornings
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Individual glucose responses vary. This is one person’s data, not medical advice.
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🥞
Pancakes Alone
+65
mg/dL rise
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38%
Less
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🍳
Eggs First
+40
mg/dL rise
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Twenty-five points gone. No pills. No special flour. No giving up the thing I love on a Saturday morning with my kids. Just two eggs and a little patience.
My doctor never mentioned this. She told me to cut carbs. She never told me to reorder them.
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⚡ Your mission this week
The Diner Hack
⏱ 10 minutes before your stack
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Order eggs first
Ask for two eggs before the stack. Scrambled, fried, poached. Whatever you like. Eat them all before the pancakes arrive.
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Wait 10 minutes
Give the protein a head start. This is when your gut releases GLP-1, a hormone that slows down your stomach. Sip your coffee. No rush.
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Eat your pancakes
Same stack. Same syrup. Your body handles the sugar at half speed now. Enjoy every bite.
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🎯 Your first win
Order two eggs before your next stack this week. Notice how you feel at the 90-minute mark. No crash. That’s the win.
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Where this comes from: A 2015 Weill Cornell Medical College study published in Diabetes Care found that eating protein and vegetables before carbohydrates may reduce post-meal glucose by up to 37% at the 60-minute mark. Protein triggers GLP-1 release, which slows gastric emptying and gives insulin more time to work. Traditional white flour pancakes have a glycemic index of approximately 67 (University of Sydney GI Database), placing them in the medium-high range. |
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You were never supposed to
give up pancakes.
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★ Welcome to the revolution
Jackie
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