Do This Move Immediately After Eating (Reduce Blood Sugar By 52%!) — Transcript

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1. 0:00Did you know that there is a very small,
2. 0:02hidden muscle deep in your calf that
3. 0:05most people have never, ever heard of?
4. 0:09And it turns out to be one of the most
5. 0:11useful muscles in your entire body for
6. 0:14controlling your blood sugar. So, a few
7. 0:17years ago, researchers at the University
8. 0:19of Houston found that activating this
9. 0:22one muscle while you are just sitting
10. 0:24down in a chair could cut the spike in
11. 0:28blood sugar after a meal by around 52%.
12. 0:33I want to be completely crystal clear
13. 0:36from the beginning of this video. This
14. 0:39is obviously a fascinating study, but it
15. 0:41isn't just some magic fix that I'm
16. 0:44trying to get you to do instead of
17. 0:46everything else I talk about. The real
18. 0:48value is the lesson that this research
19. 0:52study teaches us, which is just how
20. 0:54powerful movement can be for your body.
21. 0:58So, in this video, I'm going to explain
22. 1:01what this muscle is, why blood sugar
23. 1:04spikes are so damaging in the first
24. 1:06place, and the clever back door that
25. 1:09your muscles use to deal with those
26. 1:12blood sugar spikes, and then finish with
27. 1:14the much bigger takeaway that I think
28. 1:16matters even more than the muscle
29. 1:19itself. And if you find this video
30. 1:21useful, if you find it fascinating like
31. 1:24I did when I first read about this
32. 1:26study, then please just like the video,
33. 1:29give it a hype as well, and subscribe to
34. 1:31the channel. I promise you, it means so,
35. 1:34so much, and it makes all the difference
36. 1:36for the growth of this channel. Let me
37. 1:38start with the problem that we're
38. 1:41actually trying to solve here, you know,
39. 1:42the point of this video. So, when you
40. 1:44eat a meal with carbohydrates in it, the
41. 1:47sugar floods into your bloodstream, and
42. 1:50if it comes in, you know, in too big a
43. 1:52quantity and too fast, you get a really
44. 1:56sharp spike. And that spike is harmful
45. 1:59in two ways. The first one is that sugar
46. 2:03in your blood is sticky and it's
47. 2:05irritating to the delicate lining of
48. 2:07your blood vessels. So, every big spike
49. 2:10does a little bit of damage and that
50. 2:12compounds over years and decades.
51. 2:15The second one is that to clear it, your
52. 2:18pancreas has to release a big surge of
53. 2:21insulin, which is the hormone that
54. 2:23pushes sugar out of the blood and into
55. 2:26your cells.
56. 2:28The thing is though, sometimes that
57. 2:29surge of insulin overshoots. It drags
58. 2:33your blood sugar down lower than when it
59. 2:35started, which is this classic afternoon
60. 2:38crash that we all feel.
61. 2:40You know, the tiredness and the brain
62. 2:41fog and the sudden craving for something
63. 2:44really sweet.
64. 2:45And if you do that a few times a day for
65. 2:47years on end,
66. 2:49then two things will happen. Your
67. 2:52pancreas gets, you know, a bit worn out
68. 2:54from pumping out all of that insulin and
69. 2:57your cells then eventually stop
70. 2:59responding to it, which is what we call
71. 3:02insulin resistance.
72. 3:04And that is the road that leads
73. 3:06step-by-step to pre-diabetes
74. 3:09and then type 2 diabetes. Now, here's
75. 3:12where it gets really interesting because
76. 3:14your muscles have a very clever trick.
77. 3:17Normally, getting sugar out of your
78. 3:19blood and into your cells, it requires
79. 3:22insulin, which acts like a key unlocking
80. 3:25the door so that sugar molecule can just
81. 3:27flow straight in.
82. 3:29But when a muscle actually contracts,
83. 3:31when you use it, like walking or squats
84. 3:35or whatever,
85. 3:36it can open up a completely separate
86. 3:39door and pull sugar straight out of your
87. 3:41bloodstream without needing much insulin
88. 3:44at all.
89. 3:46So, the point here is that a working
90. 3:48muscle can mop up the sugar from your
91. 3:51last meal directly, taking the pressure
92. 3:53off your pancreas, and then flattening
93. 3:56that spike.
94. 3:58And this, honestly, is one of the most
95. 4:00powerful ideas in all of exercise
96. 4:03medicine, because it means that movement
97. 4:05does far more than just burning
98. 4:08calories. It actively helps your body
99. 4:11manage its blood sugar in real time.
100. 4:15And this brings us on to that little
101. 4:17muscle in the calf, this tiny
102. 4:20insignificant muscle that nobody has
103. 4:22heard of, which is called your soleus
104. 4:26muscle. So, the soleus is the deep
105. 4:28muscle that keeps you upright whenever
106. 4:31you're standing, and it's built very
107. 4:33differently from most of your other
108. 4:36muscles. And that difference is that
109. 4:38your soleus muscle is made almost
110. 4:41entirely out of slow, enduring fibers.
111. 4:44So, it can keep contracting for hours on
112. 4:47end without getting tired, which is very
113. 4:50different to the other muscles around
114. 4:53your body, like your bicep or your
115. 4:55quads, where if you were to do bicep
116. 4:57curls for hours or squats for hours,
117. 5:00well, nobody could, could they? Because
118. 5:02those muscles get tired really quickly.
119. 5:04But your soleus muscle in your calf is
120. 5:08very different. And rather than relying
121. 5:10on its own stored fuel, it prefers to
122. 5:14pull glucose and fat straight from your
123. 5:17blood.
124. 5:18And that makes it almost perfectly
125. 5:20designed to keep clearing sugar for a
126. 5:23long time while you barely move. And
127. 5:27that is exactly what the Houston
128. 5:29researchers actually tested. So, they
129. 5:31had people do a slow, repeated heel
130. 5:34raise while seated, you know, keeping
131. 5:37the soleus muscle gently working. And
132. 5:40they compared it to simply sitting still
133. 5:43after a sugary drink. The result was
134. 5:45that the post-meal sugar spike dropped
135. 5:49by up to 52%
136. 5:51and the amount of insulin needed fell by
137. 5:54up to 60% 60%
138. 5:58So, one, you know, tiny muscle working
139. 6:02away while the person sat in a chair did
140. 6:06a huge amount of the heavy lifting that
141. 6:09would normally fall to your pancreas by
142. 6:12releasing insulin. Now, let me just be
143. 6:14really clear here. This was a small
144. 6:16study done in a lab using a pure sugar
145. 6:19drink rather than a normal mixed meal
146. 6:23and it was designed to understand how
147. 6:25the body works, not to prove that just
148. 6:28twitching your calves and raising your
149. 6:30heels beats going for a walk or going to
150. 6:33the gym.
151. 6:34So, let me be really, really explicit
152. 6:36here. Doing this after your meals is far
153. 6:39better than doing nothing, but on its
154. 6:43own, it will not undo a diet full of
155. 6:46ultra-processed food and it will not
156. 6:49make you fit or healthy by itself. It
157. 6:52doesn't mean that, you know, you only
158. 6:54need to train your calf muscles and it
159. 6:56certainly, obviously, doesn't reverse
160. 6:59diabetes.
161. 7:00All it's really showing us is just how
162. 7:02powerful movement and muscle can be.
163. 7:06But, taken for what it is, it's really
164. 7:09useful in two ways. The first one is
165. 7:11that for somebody who's frail or
166. 7:13recovering from an illness like a
167. 7:15pneumonia or a fracture somewhere or
168. 7:17they simply cannot move around much, a
169. 7:20gentle seated heel raise for a few
170. 7:23minutes after your meals is a brilliant
171. 7:26option and it's far better, like I said,
172. 7:28than just sitting completely still
173. 7:30for the rest of the evening. The second
174. 7:33one is,
175. 7:35you know, think about the long game
176. 7:36here. A modest cut in your sugar spike
177. 7:40after one meal, it might not sound like
178. 7:43an awful, you know, big deal here. But
179. 7:46if you do that after every meal, every
180. 7:49day for 10 or 20 or even 40 years, then
181. 7:53that cumulative reduction really does
182. 7:55add up to real protection for your blood
183. 7:58vessels and your pancreas and your
184. 8:01long-term risk of lots of different
185. 8:03diseases. But for me, really, the
186. 8:05biggest lesson in this study isn't your
187. 8:09soleus muscle at all.
188. 8:11Just stop and think about it for a sec.
189. 8:13If isolating one small muscle in your
190. 8:16calf while you sit completely still can
191. 8:19do this much work. And I get that your
192. 8:20soleus muscle is a bit different to your
193. 8:22others, but just take this point for a
194. 8:24second.
195. 8:25If isolating just one muscle is this
196. 8:28powerful,
197. 8:30just imagine what a 10-minute walk after
198. 8:33a meal could do. Because with a walk,
199. 8:36you're not just using one muscle, one
200. 8:38tiny muscle in one particular part of
201. 8:41your body. You are using your calves,
202. 8:44your thighs, your glutes, and your core,
203. 8:46and swinging your arms all at once. And
204. 8:49you're getting a bit out of breath
205. 8:51while you do it as well.
206. 8:53That is many, many times more muscle
207. 8:57pulling sugar out of your blood.
208. 9:00But then take it one step further and
209. 9:02imagine what it means to be gently
210. 9:04active all day long, not just walking
211. 9:08after your meals, but being active as
212. 9:11often as you can throughout the day in
213. 9:13between your meals. And this is the
214. 9:16whole point for me. Our bodies are built
215. 9:19to use our muscles constantly, not just
216. 9:22in one hard burst followed by nothing.
217. 9:25And this study is a beautiful
218. 9:27illustration of just how powerful even
219. 9:30the smallest bit of muscle work can be.
220. 9:33It's exactly why by people who potter
221. 9:36about all day, who garden, who do their
222. 9:39cooking and their cleaning and they walk
223. 9:41to the shops and they walk to see their
224. 9:43friends and family.
225. 9:44These people so often stay strong and
226. 9:46sharp and live well into their 90s and
227. 9:50beyond. But what does this actually look
228. 9:52like in practice in our modern world?
229. 9:55Well, the simple version is to stop
230. 9:58sitting down like a stone the moment you
231. 10:01finish eating.
232. 10:03If you can, the best option is a
233. 10:07after your bigger meals, but preferably
234. 10:10after every time you eat something. But
235. 10:12if a walk isn't possible, then do some
236. 10:15seated heel raises like they did in the
237. 10:17study by lifting your heels up and down
238. 10:19for a few minutes or a handful of squats
239. 10:22or even just pottering around, you know,
240. 10:24anything, doing the washing up, doing
241. 10:25the cleaning, you know, anything that
242. 10:28stops you being sedentary and static
243. 10:31after you eat. Anything that gets your
244. 10:33muscles working in that hour after you
245. 10:37eat will, I promise you, it will make a
246. 10:39massive difference. And this matters
247. 10:41more and more as you get older because
248. 10:43from around the age of 30 or 40, we
249. 10:46naturally start to lose muscle in a
250. 10:49process called sarcopenia. And less
251. 10:52muscle means less ability to actually
252. 10:54clear sugar from your blood. So, the
253. 10:57older you get, the more it pays to keep
254. 11:00those muscles active and to hold on to
255. 11:03as much of them as you can. So, you
256. 11:06don't need anything fancy to look after
257. 11:09your blood sugar. You just need your own
258. 11:10muscles and a bit of movement at the
259. 11:13right time of the day or preferably
260. 11:16throughout the entire day if you can. If
261. 11:18you work in an office, then investing in
262. 11:21a rising desk like this, let me just
263. 11:23show you, investing in a rising desk
264. 11:26like this means that you can stand up
265. 11:28for most of the day and you can do some
266. 11:31heel raises or some squats every 10 or
267. 11:3315 minutes. So, why don't you start
268. 11:36really small this week by taking a
269. 11:38really short walk after your evening
270. 11:40meal or just doing a few minutes of heel
271. 11:42raises while the kettle boils. And, you
272. 11:45know, let that small addition to your
273. 11:48routine become a habit. And then once
274. 11:50you get used to that, just add a bit
275. 11:52more on and a bit more on. Because the
276. 11:55real secret that our bodies are trying
277. 11:57to tell us is that staying gently active
278. 12:01all day every day is one of the most
279. 12:03powerful things that you can do for a
280. 12:05long and healthy life. So, I hope you
281. 12:09found that video useful. I thought this
282. 12:10study was so, so interesting when I read
283. 12:13it. And again, just take a look in the
284. 12:16description of this video and you'll see
285. 12:17all of the different references, the
286. 12:19links for these different studies. And
287. 12:21please send it to somebody if you think
288. 12:24they will find it useful as well. Have a
289. 12:27great day and I will see you in my next
290. 12:30video.