Top 10 Foods to Lower Blood Sugar FAST (No Medications)

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-31

[00:00:00]Did you know that you do not have to cut out carbohydrates to fix your blood sugar? In fact, the fastest way to fix your blood sugars is actually more about adding foods, not eliminating entire food groups like carbs.

[00:00:13]>> They say that certain foods can lower the blood sugar without medications. But how powerful are these effects? Do they really occur?

[00:00:25]Hi, I'm Dr. Eric Westman. Welcome to my channel where I review and debunk nutritional misinformation online. In this video from Dr. Leonid Kim who is a board certified obesity medicine specialist I looked up. He's in the directory of the organization I'm past president of. I'm past president of the obesity medicine association. So he has a good credential and source as an internist. and let's see what he says about foods that can actually lower the blood sugar. I I'm kind of skeptical going into this one, but you know, you can know your own blood sugar levels. If you're curious, be sure to wait till the end to hear my final thoughts.

[00:01:09]>> Did you know that you do not have to cut out carbohydrates to fix your blood sugar? In fact, the fastest way to fix your blood sugars is actually more about adding foods, not eliminating entire food groups like carbs. And I've seen it firsthand.

[00:01:24]>> So, stop. Wait a sec. In fact, when he said this, I had to go back and review.

[00:01:31]I've done a video reacts video of his work before. Yeah, I think he is a member of the OA, Obesity Medicine Association. And yet doesn't necessarily mean he knows about carbohydrates.

[00:01:43]But I'm hardressed to think of any other food that can lower the blood sugar short of eliminating carbohydrates.

[00:01:52]Maybe maybe alcohol could, but but uh that was pretty strong language that I don't know of any evidence to say that actually you can reduce your blood sugar more by eating more. Well, it could happen if your insulin goes up to keep the blood sugar low. And so, that's going to be one of the things behind the scenes that I'm going to be thinking about is the insulin going down as well.

[00:02:17]>> I have hundreds and hundreds of patients who've turned their numbers around in just days by adding these foods to their regimen. And not just temporarily, they're still able to keep their sugars low without medications for months and even years. So, in this video, I'm going to show you how to use each of these 10 foods to fully optimize your biochemistry and reverse insulin resistance on a cellular level so you can bring down your sugars quickly and naturally and most importantly sustainably.

[00:02:47]>> Well, always consider the the context and so I think this is a good source of information and then be sure that if you're learning, you're learning about your own metabolism. And I guess when I think about what he's talking about, if you're early, if you're not obese, you don't have much insulin resistance, you're you're trying to kind of reverse something that's not going progressively far, some of these things might ring true. If you're one of my patients who's trying to reverse type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, obesity, those sorts of things, then this may not apply. So the context of do you have mild disease or severe disease is something to consider here.

[00:03:31]>> Okay. First is fenugreek seeds which a lot of people use it as a spice or as an herb but it has powerful effects on glucose metabolism. So what gives fenugreek seeds its medicinal properties. It's a compound called four hydroxy isolucine which is a rare amino acid that stimulates beta cells in your pancreas to release more insulin. And more importantly, the insulin is only released when blood sugar is elevated.

[00:03:57]So it helps with insulin response without causing hypoglycemia or low blood sugars. And more importantly, this compound also enhances insulin receptors. So it triggers glucose uptake in our muscle cells. So unlike many diabetes medications where you get an inappropriate insulin response, with fenugreek seeds you get more of a targeted insulin secretion where your pancreas just becomes more efficient and more responsive to excess glucose in the bloodstream. And it's not just insulin release. Another important reason why fenugreek seeds are so powerful is they're loaded with galactoanin which is a type of soluble fiber that can form in a gel in your gut. Well, I'm wondering now what's the difference between adding a seed or or a vitamin or a supplement and a drug. So, if the fenugreek seed raises your insulin level to keep the blood glucose down. So, you're keeping the blood glucose down but at the cost of raising the insulin, which is not a good tradeoff in the long run. You want to keep the insulin and the glucose down as much as possible. So, I'm not too convinced about fenugreek seeds. And I would rather have you just eat fewer carbs. Now, if you're not going to reduce the carbs, you don't want to do that, you might add in something like this, but a doctor might prescribe a pill for it as well. Metformin for example. So, I don't know what much is different between fenugreek seeds and metformin other than one's in a pill sold by a pharmaceutical company and one is not. Next, we need to talk about cinnamon, which is nature's blood sugar modulator. And some even describe cinnamon as your natural insulin sensitizer. And here's why it's so important. When you eat, your body breaks down food into glucose. And insulin is that hormone that helps shuttle that glucose from your blood into your cells. But when you develop insulin resistance, like in diabetes or pre-diabetes, well, this is where your cells basically stop responding to insulin. So your blood sugar stays high and you start this destructive cascade of inflammation and oxidative stress and damage to your blood vessels. So this is where cinnamon can help and it can help in many different levels. Most importantly, cinnamon works because of an active compound called cinemaldahhide which activates a special cellular pathway called IRS1 PI3K which is the pathway that your cells use to respond to insulin. So a good analogy for this is if your insulin receptors are locks and your insulin is the key to that lock in a state of insulin resistance like in diabetes or pre-diabetes these locks are rusty and they don't work that well. But cinemamaldahhide is what helps polish and oil those locks so they can work better and they can unlock the gates to let in more glucose into the muscle cells.

[00:06:49]>> Well, so cinnamon as a treatment has been around a long time. It can lower the blood glucose and the magnitude of effect however is not huge. Again, if you think that drugs in pills are are something different than cinnamon and not in a pill, I mean these are all compounds that are affecting the body.

[00:07:12]The cinnamon won't be enhancing the insulin level to my knowledge. So that's a good thing. But then in the context of what kind of diet are we talking when he led with that you don't have to cut carbs I was very skeptical and and I'm I still am. If you add cinnamon to a otherwise, you know, high carb 300 grams of carbohydrates a day kind of diet, you're you're kind of I think deliluding yourself, falsely assuring yourself that you're getting much benefit and as a potency, you still have diabetes.

[00:07:48]>> Next up is grass-fed beef. And yes, red meat can lower your blood sugar, but it has to be the right kind. Well, so this one, I thought about this one a lot and it doesn't matter what kind of meat to lower the blood sugar. In fact, it doesn't lower the blood sugar. The blood sugar just doesn't go up. And so I'm a little the only way I can kind of explain this is that Dr. Kim is sort of in the old paradigm believing that there is just something wrong with the cell internally that creates the diabetes and it's the not the food and the carbs that raise the insulin and cause the insulin resistance which is my perspective. So you cut the carbs down, you solve and reverse the insulin resistance. Here he's trying to fix this without changing the carbs in the diet much. But here, I I just can't. If you get a burger from McDonald's or grass-fed beef, it's not going to raise your blood sugar. Oh, if you're wondering and you're curious, get a continuous glucose monitor. You can get them now, $80 uh US without a prescription, and you can see what the food does to your blood glucose. Of course, it won't show you the insulin level that goes on behind the scenes.

[00:09:07]You don't want to have a high insulin level to keep the glucose down. You want to have a low insulin and low glucose level ideally.

[00:09:14]>> So, we have studies like this one that showed that grass-fed beef contain a higher concentration of omega-3 fatty acids and particularly alpha linoleic acid and conjugated linoleic acid. And these fats can help us improve insulin sensitivity. In fact, conjugated linoleic acid acts on the same PP gamma receptor that is targeted by a diabetes medication called poglitazone or another name for that is acttose and activation of those receptors gives us enhanced glucose uptake into our muscle cells.

[00:09:47]Well, so again, I'm kind of scratching my head because this really has nothing to do with the blood sugar. Whether you have grass-fed beef or beef from McDonald's, Burger King, you know, Chipotle, I don't I don't care where you go necessarily. It's the absence of carbohydrate in the beef that makes the blood sugar not go up. There was his argument that because there was more of a certain type of fatty acid that reverses insulin resistance that it might be better. No, he kind of said that it has to be grass-fed beef. The other comments he's making me think that he's less in the science here and more into what's kind of politically or acceptable these days. It's uh you know the it's acceptable to say you can have meat but not processed meat. Well, I'm still not convinced processed meat is bad for you. So the other idea that you have to limit the the meat, it's really just not science. So but you know the practice of medicine in his defense is an art. saying things that are acceptable to his clientele so that if he would say something too far out there like you know prove to me that seed oils are harmful which is what I say it's not going to be accepted because everyone knows seed oils are bad so I think this is a reflection of several factors including the Dr. Kim's desire to be helpful to a lot of people and not to be controversial. And so he's going to follow the the opinion of of most opinion leaders rather than stray and actually stick to the science as a kind of political strategy. Let me know what you think of that in the comments below.

[00:11:39]>> And by the way, there's another food that also acts on that PPA receptor and that is avocados. And avocados are an amazing food when it comes to glucose metabolism. They're rich in oleic acid, which is a monounsaturated fat that improves lipid metabolism. And essentially, it helps you burn more fat and reduces liver fat. And both of those are key contributors to insulin resistance. And avocados are also rich in potassium, which is absolutely essential in maintaining proper cell membrane function. And it helps with insulin release. And on top of that, avocados also help with satiety and feeling full. And we have studies like this one that showed that adding just half of an avocado to a meal can improve satiety up to 3 to 5 hours afterwards.

[00:12:26]>> So, I can't disagree with the avocado comments. Well done.

[00:12:30]>> Now, another powerful food that we have to talk about is broccoli sprouts. And it's a tiny plant or actually it's just the baby version of regular broccoli.

[00:12:39]But broccoli sprouts have the ability to completely reprogram your metabolism.

[00:12:44]And that is because they're rich in sulfurophane, which is an antioxidant that can actually change how your body handles glucose on a cellular level. So the way it works is sulfurophane activates NRF2, which is a transcription factor that acts like your body's internal thermostat for inflammation and oxidative stress. And when this NRF2 transcription factor is switched on, it turns on a whole network of genes that can protect your mitochondria and reduce inflammation. And sulfurophane also tells your liver to stop producing new sugar when the levels are already high, which is actually how a drug called metformin works.

[00:13:21]>> Well, you know that it introduces an interesting idea that is to eat a food to compensate or adjust for a different food. So that if you could have broccoli broccoli sprouts, which I'm not sure I can get in the area. I've never looked much for it. But if you could add broccoli sprouts to your fruit on the salad and the fruit glucose is blocked doesn't raise blood glucose by the broccoli sprout effect. I can see how thoughtful combination of foods might allow you to eat more carbohydrate and you don't have that same effect. I would have liked to have seen a CGM or 10 or 50 of people with adding different foods with broccoli sprouts to see if it has a clinically relevant effect. Of course, you like to have the insulin checked as well as the glucose uh CGM meaning continuous glucose monitor, but that wasn't presented. So we're still looking at theoretical or or effects of one thing, not in the context of the entire person.

[00:14:31]>> Now let's talk about chia seeds. And the magic with chia seeds happen when you soak them in water and they form this viscous gel. And this gel can physically slow down the digestion and absorption of all the carbohydrates in your gut.

[00:14:45]So, it basically acts like a speed bump on this glucose highway where you may still get the same amount of sugar entering your bloodstream, but at a much more gradual pace. And that's what prevents sharp glucose spikes after meals. But that's not all. Chia seeds are also rich in alpha linoleic acid, which is a plant-based omega-3. And that omega-3 is what helps us improve insulin sensitivity by reducing chronic inflammation. And there's a recent meta analysis that looked at over 210 participants that showed that chia seeds can significantly decrease CRP, which is a major marker of inflammation.

[00:15:22]>> Well, it's nice to know that there's published research on there, but 210 people is not very much in in relative to studying drugs and other other things. And here I just have to comment that the approach that I learned going back 20 years ago really didn't have chia seeds and bulletproof coffee and apple cider vinegar and all these kind of new things that really need to be more formally studied I think. But uh I would like to know if that really has a clinically relevant effect in in you.

[00:15:58]You know let me know what your results are. Now, let's talk about one of the most unfairly demonized foods that will actually help you lower your blood sugar, and that is eggs. And eggs are probably one of the most nutrient-dense foods that you can eat.

[00:16:11]>> So, again, the language here has me a little concerned that an egg really doesn't lower your blood sugar, but I guess eating an egg instead of bread will have an effect of lowering your blood sugar. So, uh, in my use of language, I'm careful because someone could hear this and actually believe that an egg would lower your blood sugar or or that you have to have grass-fed beef, not any beef to to lower, but lower your blood sugar, but it really doesn't lower the blood sugar, but it lowers the blood sugar compared to the the other food that is not eaten. See?

[00:16:50]See what I mean there? So, I like the language to be tightened up. Okay, let's talk about walnuts, which actually have some of the most fascinating effects on blood sugar regulation out of all of these foods. So, first, walnuts increase a very special hormone in your body called adipeneectin, which is absolutely essential in glucose control. And there's a randomized control trial that showed that just 16 weeks of daily walnut consumption improved adipeneectin levels. So he is talking about the improvement of insulin resistance as the way to lower your blood glucose and improve the blood glucose not the fact that eating the food lowers the blood glucose. Ah I see now. So that he's actually assuming you're understanding that he's talking about eating these foods will lower the insulin resistance and then lower the glucose. It's not the actual food itself, but it's improving the metabolic state, metabolic syndrome here, mess on this slide. And that is something I can't argue with.

[00:17:54]>> Chickpeas improve your blood glucose control by several different mechanisms.

[00:17:58]So on a biochemical level, chickpeas are rich in something called amalos, which is a type of resistance starch. So this is in contrast with rapidly digestible starches like what you find in white bread or pasta. And amalos is digested very slowly. So it helps blunt that glucose spike.

[00:18:16]>> So here's the relative comparison that it blunts the spike. So it lowers the No, it blunts it lowers the rise. That to me that's not lowering the blood glucose. Yeah. I I like the style looking at studies and I I'm a little picky on the language. I hope you understand why. Lowering the rise of something doesn't mean you're lowering it. And having a just a, you know, expensive grass-fed, grass-finish beef, to say that, you know, that and nothing else in the beef, pork, and fish world would lower, you know, lower, no, not raise the blood glucose is a bit, I think, political and including that only at the time. But the information uh that he's giving is generally good and will be lower carb kinds of foods. In a context of maximal fat burning, meaning you're reversing type 2 diabetes and obesity on a keto low carb carnivore diet, I'd be very careful and look at the total carbohydrates of the foods he's talking about. But if you're at a level of uh what we call maintenance, you've lost weight and you're now maintaining it. This is information or foods you may choose uh and will work for you. If you're not metabolically ill and you're just trying to improve your health, I think these are fine foods to incorporate into a diet. There are a lot of ways to be healthy. I talk about low carb, keto, carnivore. That's what I use in my clinic, but I know that it's not the only way to do things. We don't say this way or the highway in my clinic.

[00:20:02]So, I hope this is helpful and please like, subscribe, ring the notification bell so you don't miss out on further content. If you enjoyed this video, consider joining our YouTube membership for early access and exclusive live Q&As with me. Just click the join button below or support us with a PayPal in the description.