Issue No. 035 · Bagels

The bagel goes on trial +64 points

One bagel, two tests, and a spoon that cut my spike by 41%.

I love a bagel.

Every Sunday for ten years, I bought a plain one from the same corner shop and ate it on the walk home.

Then I spent the afternoon on the couch, sure I was just lazy.

So this week, I put that exact bagel on trial.

I ate it plain, with no spread, at 9 a.m. on an empty stomach.

+64

Points my blood sugar rose from one plain bagel

One person, one monitor, one morning. Your results may differ. This is not medical advice, so talk to your doctor before you change how you manage your blood sugar.

That plain bagel raised my blood sugar 64 points in under an hour. For a food with no sugar in its name, that number stopped me cold.

The reason is the dough. A bagel is dense white flour, boiled and then baked, and a medium one holds about 50 grams of carbs. That’s close to four slices of white bread in one round.

The glycemic index of a white bagel is 72. In other words, a bagel turns into blood sugar about as fast as white bread does... and one bagel gives you a lot more of it.

Bagels have also grown over the years. So the one in your hand is often bigger than the one on the GI chart.

About two hours later, my blood sugar fell back down, and I wanted a nap. That explained ten years of Sundays on that couch.

My doctor never mentioned any of this.

He just told me to quit bread.

But quitting was never the answer.

Meanwhile... The Hack

I went back to the same shop the next Sunday and asked for my bagel scooped.

The man at the counter gave me a look. Then he pulled the soft middle out of both halves and handed me the crust.

Bagel purists in New York have fought about scooping for years. My monitor doesn’t care about that fight.

At home, I filled that hollow with two scrambled eggs and a slice of smoked salmon.

I ate it at 9 a.m. on an empty stomach, just like the first test.

The scooped bagel raised my blood sugar 38 points.

That’s 41% less than the whole plain bagel.

Two things changed. The scoop took out about a fifth of the carbs, since the soft middle is where most of the bread lives. And the eggs and salmon added protein and fat, which slow down how fast food leaves your stomach.

So less sugar reached my blood, and it reached it slower.

I still ate the bagel. The crust, the chew, and the salt were all there, and I didn’t want a nap at noon.

Here’s the honest part. A 2025 Stanford study found that adding protein, fat, or fiber helps some people more than others. Your body may respond more, or less, than mine did.

Either way, the bagel you were told to quit is back on the table.

★ Welcome to the revolution

Jackie