They're Lying About 'Healthy' Foods & Sugar! Shocking New Research That's Harming You

• Jessie Inchauspé, known as the Glucose Goddess, has spent over a decade studying how blood sugar affects health — from inflammation and aging to cravings and fatigue. After becoming pregnant, she dove deep into the scientific literature on how a mother’s diet during pregnancy shapes her baby’s long-term health, reading an estimated 2,000 papers. What she found was a massive gap between what science knows and what pregnant women are actually told. Her new book, Nine Months That Count Forever, distills this research into a practical, trimester-by-trimester guide focused on four key nutritional principles: getting enough choline, omega-3s, and protein while minimizing sugar — because what a mother eats doesn’t just feed her baby, it programs the baby’s DNA through epigenetic switches that influence their risk of diabetes, obesity, psychiatric disorders, and brain development for life.

How Blood Sugar Controls Your Brain, Mood, and Behavior

• Glucose is the body’s primary fuel, and your brain constantly monitors blood sugar levels. When glucose crashes — which happens quickly after a spike from sugary foods — your brain interprets it as an emergency fuel shortage, triggering irritability (“hanger”), cravings, and compulsive food-seeking behavior.
  • A study of married couples found that participants with the most glucose lows stuck the most pins in voodoo dolls representing their spouses, suggesting a link between unstable glucose and mood instability.
  • The mechanism involves the neurotransmitter tyrosine, which regulates mood and becomes disrupted when glucose levels are unsteady.
• Modern fruit has been bred over generations to be much sweeter and lower in fiber than its ancestral versions. An ancestral banana was tiny, full of seeds, and not very sweet, while a modern banana is loaded with sugar and low in fiber.
  • Whole fruit is still “okay” because its fiber and water slow sugar absorption, but juicing removes the fiber entirely, delivering a concentrated sugar hit that spikes glucose just as much as soda.
  • A glass of orange juice and a glass of Coca-Cola contain roughly the same amount of sugar (~25 g), and your body processes the sugar molecules identically. The World Health Organization recommends no more than 25 g of sugar per day — one glass of juice hits that limit.
• Glucose crashes also reduce willpower and executive function. The prefrontal cortex, responsible for decision-making and self-control, is the first area to “dim” during a glucose drop, making it nearly impossible to resist dopamine hits from social media, doom scrolling, or sugary snacks. This creates a cycle where sugar cravings and compulsive behaviors reinforce each other through the same dopamine pathways.

The “Bun in the Oven” Myth — Why Pregnancy Is Not Passive

• The common expression “bun in the oven” is deeply misleading. It implies a mother is just a passive vessel providing heat and time, and that a baby’s traits are fixed at conception — like a brownie mix that can only ever become a brownie.
  • In reality, a baby’s DNA is set at conception, but epigenetic switches — dimmer switches that activate or silence genes — are being set throughout pregnancy based on the mother’s diet. This means a mother is actively co-creating her baby’s biological plan.
  • High maternal glucose levels, for example, activate epigenetic switches in the baby that increase their lifelong vulnerability to diabetes. This is not deterministic, but it shifts probability.
• The food system is failing pregnant women. Most women in developed countries eat processed, nutrient-poor foods without realizing their babies are being deprived of critical building blocks. This is not the mother’s fault — it is the fault of food marketing, misleading labels, and a lack of clear guidance from the medical system.
  • “No added sugar” on orange juice is technically true but deeply misleading, since the juice still contains 25 g of sugar. “Gluten-free” and “vegan” labels trick people into assuming a product is healthy.
  • Only 6% of doctors discuss choline with pregnant patients, despite 90% of mothers not getting enough.

The Four Nutrients That Matter Most

• Choline builds the baby’s brain — specifically neurons involved in memory, learning, and attention. The American Association of Pediatrics says failure to provide enough choline can result in lifelong brain deficits.

  • 90% of pregnant women don’t get enough choline. The simplest source is egg yolks — four eggs per day provides the recommended ~450 mg. Organ meats like liver are also rich in choline, though liver is often discouraged during pregnancy due to high vitamin A levels.
  • A Cornell study found that babies born to mothers who received double the recommended choline had 10% faster reaction times on cognitive tests in their first year — a measure correlated with adult IQ.
  • Choline should also be checked for in formula, as not all brands include it.

• Omega-3s (especially DHA) help baby neurons connect with each other. Animal studies show that DHA restriction leads to less efficient brains and poorer maze-solving ability.

  • The recommendation is fatty fish (sardines, salmon) two to three times per week. Jessie also supplemented with 2 g of DHA daily, believing the dietary recommendation alone is insufficient for most mothers.
  • Like choline, omega-3s should be verified in formula ingredients.

• Protein is the building block of the baby’s body — by birth, a baby is roughly 50% protein (excluding water). In the third trimester, mothers need about 1.6 g of protein per kilogram of body weight per day.

  • Animal studies show that low-protein diets trigger an epigenetic switch that tells the baby to “keep muscles small” because protein is scarce in the environment. This programming can persist for life, leading to smaller body size and less muscle mass.
  • Most mothers fall short, and their own muscle mass is broken down to compensate. Jessie ate four chicken breasts’ worth of protein daily in her third trimester — from eggs, fish, meat, and Greek yogurt with whey protein.

• Sugar (fructose) is the one nutrient babies need none of. While babies do need glucose (from starches like bread, rice, and potatoes), they have zero requirement for fructose from desserts, chocolate, dried fruit, and sugary drinks.

  • A natural experiment in the UK from 1940–1953, when the government rationed sugar to about 40 g per day, provided powerful evidence. After the ration ended and sugar intake doubled to ~80 g, researchers found that babies who had been in the womb during the ration had a 15% lower lifetime risk of type 2 diabetes.
  • Today, most pregnant women eat about 80 g of sugar per day, driven by the myth of “eating for two.” The WHO recommends 25 g or less.
  • High maternal glucose also correlates with higher risks of psychiatric disorders in children. A 2025 review of 200 studies (56 million mother-baby pairs) found a 25% higher risk of autism when mothers had diabetes during pregnancy. The leading theory is that high inflammation from elevated glucose overactivates microglia (immune cells in the brain), causing them to destroy healthy neurons during critical brain formation.
  • Babies are born with all the neurons they will ever have (~100 billion), formed at a rate of 250,000 per minute during pregnancy. Damage during this window is permanent.

Exercise, Alcohol, Caffeine, and Other Factors

• Exercise during pregnancy is powerfully beneficial. A study in rats (the closest ethical equivalent to human trials) found that babies born to mothers who exercised 30 minutes daily on tiny treadmills solved mazes twice as fast and had fewer anxiety symptoms. The mechanism is BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor), which supports neuroplasticity and is elevated in both exercising mothers and their babies.

  • Jessie recommends movement within 90 minutes of eating to reduce glucose spikes — squats, calf raises, walking, or household chores. Even one minute of calf raises at a desk can help. The soleus muscle in the calf is particularly efficient at soaking up glucose from the bloodstream.

• Alcohol passes directly from the mother’s bloodstream to the baby’s with no filter. A 2024 University of Melbourne study using high-resolution 3D imaging found that even low doses of alcohol caused measurable facial changes and weaker brain connections in the anterior cingulate (critical for emotional regulation and impulse control), persisting up to age eight.

  • Complete abstinence is recommended during pregnancy. During breastfeeding, alcohol clears from breast milk at roughly the same rate as from blood — about 2.5 to 3 hours per standard drink — so timing matters.

• Caffeine is considered relatively safe at low doses. The recommendation is under two cups of coffee per day. Animal studies show behavioral changes in babies only at very high doses. The WHO suggests reducing intake above 300 mg/day (roughly three cups).

• Fermented foods (kefir, sauerkraut) may help seed the baby’s gut microbiome, though this research is very early.

• GLP-1 medications (weight-loss drugs like Ozempic) are not recommended during pregnancy, as they suppress hunger at a time when mothers need to eat more and be intentional about nutrient quality.

• Stress during pregnancy is common and difficult to fully control. Jessie experienced severe anxiety during her pregnancy following a previous miscarriage. While chronic stress is not ideal, she emphasizes that mothers should do their best without adding guilt on top of stress.

Miscarriage — The Hidden Reality

• One in five pregnancies ends in miscarriage, most commonly in the first trimester. Jessie experienced a “silent miscarriage” at three months, where the embryo had stopped developing but her body had not expelled it — she discovered it at a routine scan, having believed she was still pregnant for a month.
  • She describes the experience as one of the most devastating of her life, marked by anger, despair, and a sense of injustice. She wishes her mother and grandmother had shared their own miscarriage experiences earlier, as knowing how common it is would have made her feel less isolated.
  • Miscarriage is often caused by chromosomal abnormalities and is not the mother’s fault. It is more common than most people realize, but it remains somewhat taboo to discuss.

Can You Reverse Your Mother’s Pregnancy Diet?

• Yes. While prenatal nutrition sets epigenetic tendencies, it does not determine destiny. Jessie herself was on the cusp of prediabetes at age 25, likely influenced by her mother’s high-sugar, low-protein diet during pregnancy (orange juice with Special K cereal topped with table sugar every morning). By implementing glucose hacks — protein-rich breakfasts, vegetable starters, vinegar before carbs, and movement after eating — she never developed prediabetes.
  • The principle is similar to building muscle: some people are genetically predisposed to build muscle more easily, but everyone can build muscle with the right inputs. Similarly, everyone can shift their metabolic health trajectory at any age.

Practical Hacks for Managing Glucose

• Savory breakfast with protein (eggs, not oats and jam) to avoid starting the day on a glucose roller coaster.
• Veggie starter before lunch and dinner — fiber creates a protective mesh in the intestine that slows glucose absorption.
• Vinegar before carb-heavy meals (use pasteurized vinegar during pregnancy).
• Move within 90 minutes of eating — squats, calf raises, walking, or any activity that engages large muscles. Muscles pull glucose from the bloodstream for energy.
• Read ingredient lists, not just nutrition labels. Ingredients are ordered by weight. If sugar (or dates, fruit juice, molasses) appears in the first five ingredients, treat it as dessert. Calories are a poor measure of food quality — an avocado and a donut can have the same calories but vastly different metabolic effects.
• Continuous glucose monitors can be useful, especially in the first trimester, to understand personal glucose responses. Research shows first-trimester glucose levels accurately predict gestational diabetes risk weeks before standard testing at 24–28 weeks.

The Bigger Picture

• Jessie’s core message is one of empowerment, not perfection. Pregnancy is complicated, the food system is toxic, and mothers deserve better support. Her book offers a simple, evidence-based, low-cost plan — eggs, sardines, vegetables, protein, and less sugar — that can meaningfully shift a baby’s health trajectory.
  • She advocates for systemic change: outlawing misleading health claims on food packaging, removing fruit juice from schools, and ensuring every pregnant woman receives clear nutritional guidance.
  • Her closing wish: “I just want babies to be healthy. I want moms to feel as little stress as possible.”