This Anti-Spike review looks at the supplement developed by the Glucose Goddess, someone I’ve reviewed before for her blood glucose ‘hacks.’
Just as an FYI, I’m a dietitian, but I’m probably not your dietitian. It’s essential for individuals with diabetes to work closely with their own healthcare professionals to develop personalized management strategies based on their specific needs and health conditions.
However, it’s essential to clarify that I haven’t personally tested the product, and most people haven’t – it’s being released in April, 2024.
My focus here lies in dissecting the claims made about Anti-Spike, the supplement’s potential efficacy based on the ingredients, and my thoughts about supplements like these.
If you’re thinking of buying Anti-Spike, I’d like you to have all the necessary information before you make that decision. I think that’s fair.
What are glucose spikes? Are they dangerous?
Glucose spikes refer to temporary increases in blood sugar levels, often occurring after meals. It’s crucial to emphasize that these spikes are not inherently dangerous and are often very normal.
While most of the Glucose Goddess’s content is predicated on the theory that glucose spikes cause major damage and disease, this is incorrect. She recently was featured in a podcast where she said that the more glucose spikes a person has, the higher their risk for pre-diabetes and diabetes.
In actuality, glucose spikes have never been directly associated with the development of type 2 diabetes. Period. If you take only one fact from this post, please let this be the one.
Do healthy people and individuals with diabetes need to micromanage their blood glucose spikes?
In general, both healthy individuals and many people managing diabetes do not necessarily need to micromanage their blood glucose spikes. In other words, you don’t need to wear a CGM (I wrote about CGMs for weight loss here), and you don’t have to spend a lot of time worrying about your glucose levels.
Can’t we just eat?
For most healthy people, the human body is able to regulate blood sugar levels on its own, and a balanced diet and regular exercise are sufficient to maintain glucose levels within a healthy range.
Micromanaging spikes is mostly unnecessary and can sometimes lead to undue stress. As a dietitian, I’ve seen far too many people afraid to eat anything because they’re worried about their glucose spiking, which is not a healthy way to live. Yes, food – especially carb-based food – will cause your blood glucose to rise, sometimes quickly. It’s not going to make you age faster or have pre-diabetes.
Anti-Spike Supplement Claims
Let’s move into the claims being made around this new Anti-Spike supplement.
The Glucose Goddess claims that Anti-Spike can lower glucose spikes by 40%. Here is her recent post announcing Anti-Spike to the masses.
She phrases her announcement to imply that we can take Anti-Spike before eating any high-carb food, and it will reduce the glucose spike by up to 40%.
There is big emphasis on this 40% decrease, but where is this number coming from if she has never studied the product itself with the combination of the ingredients together? Also, I’m thinking that the graphics she has produced for her post (below) are the same sort of non-evidence based, somewhat embellished, partially from someone’s imagination type of thing.
This can be misleading to people who don’t know any better. There are already diabetics in her comments saying that they can take this supplement to lower their blood sugar response to sugary foods, and this is nuts.
Glucose Goddess included the following graphics in her announcement. It’s unclear whether the numbers she’s using are actually evidence-based, or if the graphics are from her imagination. I feel this a lot when I look at her content.
Newsflash: taking Anti-Spike before eating a piece of cake doesn’t make that cake any healthier. It doesn’t ‘erase’ carbs or even prevent a rise in blood glucose.
It’s normal for blood sugar to rise when we are eating mainly carbohydrate, but if we pair that carb with protein, fat, and fibre, we will see a more gradual rise and fall in blood sugar. This isn’t new: any dietitian would be able to provide you with this information. It’s called, ‘regulating your blood sugar through food.’
Once again, if you’re healthy, blood sugar spikes are not dangerous and there’s probably nothing wrong with you if your blood sugar goes up after you eat. It’s just the Glucose Goddess trying to convince us that we all have a glucose spike problem, and that is not okay.
Anti-Spike is apparently ‘more effective than vinegar’ for glucose spikes, which of course it is – at least in the marketing. The Glucose Goddess doesn’t make money when you buy vinegar (and the clinical relevance of consuming acetic acid before meals is not high anyhow).
Let me clarify one thing: Anti-Spike itself has not been clinically proven. Most of the ingredients in Anti-Spike do have some research behind them that examines their impact on blood glucose, but as you will see, that research is mostly unremarkable.
The main ingredients in Anti-Spike are:
White mulberry. There is some research suggesting that mulberry inhibits the absorption of carbohydrates from the intestines, but it seems that there is not enough evidence to suggest how potent these benefits are in humans, and whether it can be used for the amelioration of glucose spikes.
On the glucose goddess website, she does link to several studies about this ingredient, including a systematic review and meta-analysis done in 2023, that concludes the findings present raise the possibly that supplementation in the diet could potentially assist in supressing glucose levels in the body and may be beneficial to patients with impaired glucose tolerance, however should be noted that this study was small (only 37 people finished it), preliminary in nature, and the study was done by the company that sells mulberry leaf extract.
There may be some positive effects on glucose from mulberry extract, but overall, the research
The lemon extract ingredient is Eriomin, which is trademarked and studied in 2019 and 2022, and has some research behind it for blood glucose reduction. Specifically, 200mg led to a 5% reduction in blood glucose, which is quite small.
For example, normal blood glucose values are 70-110mg/dl (I’m using US numbers here). Let’s say my glucose was high – so, 130mg/dl.
A 5% reduction in glucose would be 6.5mg/dl, leaving me with a blood glucose of 123.5mg/dl.
Is that significant in terms of the research? Maybe. Is it clinically relevant – meaning, will it have a perceptible effect on health in a normal person? Probably not. Research significance doesn’t automatically translate to effectiveness in free-living humans.
Further to that, this supplement is being marketed to everyone, including people who don’t have diabetes. What in the world would a 5% reduction in blood glucose even going to do for those people? It’s absurd.
GLP-1 levels were elevated in one of the trials, which is interesting. GLP-1, as you may know, is a peptide hormone that’s used in GLP-1 agonist medications like Ozempic. Will this lemon ingredient have the same effectiveness of a medication? Absolutely not. It’s also important to note that a diet high in fibre also raises GLP-1 levels. And also, does not approach the appetite-suppressing effects of GLP-1 medication.
The supplement has a ‘Glucose Goddess’ antioxidants, which appears to be a proprietary blend (red flag) of plant polyphenols which will do absolutely nothing for your blood sugar and that you can get from eating actual food. Did I mention that supplements should not replace food in anyone’s diet?
Research around cinnamon and blood glucose has produced mixed results.
Glucose Goddess Anti-Spike Review – Is Anti-Spike Worth Taking?
It does seem like there is some research supporting a very modest blood sugar reduction from some of the ingredients in Anti-Spike. However, for the average healthy person, there’s probably very little benefit to this effect. It doesn’t make sugary foods ‘healthier,’ and it seems very much to me that this supplement is being marketed to the ‘worried well’ – who are now convinced that they have blood sugar issues where none likely exist.
If you don’t have diabetes, (even if you do but it’s well-controlled, and we’re talking type 2 here), you do NOT have to worry about transient blood sugar spikes.
In reality, we don’t need to be ‘hacking’ anything, and we don’t need to be choosing the lower carb and sugar option every time to help manage our blood sugar, especially for those who are not diabetic at all.
From a personal perspective, characterized by skepticism and a strong concern for consumer well-being, I share the sentiment that selling such a product, especially to individuals managing diabetes, could be perceived as misleading and potentially hazardous.
In the pursuit of a healthier lifestyle, it is essential to approach supplements with discernment, considering evidence, transparency, and potential risks.