In this segment of the Human Upgrade podcast, Jessie Inchauspé explains why adding alcohol to a meal blunts the post‑meal glucose spike. She describes the liver’s role in maintaining blood glucose and how, when alcohol is consumed, the liver diverts its metabolic capacity to detoxify ethanol, temporarily suppressing gluconeogenesis and thus reducing the rise in blood glucose that would otherwise occur after a carbohydrate‑rich meal. Dave Asprey and Jessie discuss why using alcohol to control glucose is a poor strategy, noting that the body preferentially burns alcohol calories, altering the glucose curve, and that the health costs outweigh any short‑term benefit. The conversation then shifts to personal drinking habits, critiques of the alcohol industry’s marketing, and a brief comparison of alternative substances (sugar, psychedelics, MDMA). The tone alternates between instructional (explaining physiology) and conversational, with a skeptical‑to‑critical sentiment toward alcohol consumption as a health tool.
Chapters
If you add alcohol to a meal, it'll lower the glucose spike of the liver. Of course it will. But, like, it's quite shocking to see.
Explain why. Go through the steps.
Okay, so your liver is the organ in your body that is responsible for making sure your glucose levels stay nice and steady. Right. And when you drink alcohol. Alcohol is a poison, and it's not good for you. Newsflash, your liver is going to be busy dealing with that toxin, and so it's no longer going to be able to push out extra glucose into your bloodstream to keep your glucose levels nice and level. And so on the glucose monitor, you might see, hey, if I add three glasses of wine or three shots of tequila to this bowl of pasta, the glucose spike is so much smaller. But that's not a good way to reduce your glucose spikes. That's a terrible way to reduce your glucose.
And you'll preferentially burn the alcohol calories before all the other ones, which is going to change the slope of the curve. Right. But then you have to pay for the alcohol. Do you drink?
No, I don't drink, actually.
Not even red wine?
No.
What about, like, baguettes? Fresh creamery?
My person of choice is sugar. I don't care about alcohol. It doesn't make me feel too good.
But I love sugar, so I love this one thing that I'm.
Do you drink?
You know, if it's older than me, you're all.
They don't make very, very old.
Yeah, they don't make alcohol that old.
So that makes it easy.
Yeah, it's. It's one of those things where maybe twice a year I'll have something. It's just. It's not worth it. But what I'm finding that's actually really exciting is that all of my friends in there, I would say, like, mid-30s. I have a big group in Austin I hang out with, and either they drink a little bit or they don't drink at all. And for me, oh, my God, we drank all the damn time. It was so sweet.
The alcohol industry is making so much money selling you this product that quote, unquote helps is very important in your social life. It's bs. It's marketing. It's a poison. You know, you have to be conscious about these things and not making it. Not make it automatic.
So psychedelic. Mushrooms or wine, which would you take? Mushrooms, MDMA or wine? What should you take?
MDMA.
Definitely 31. That's what I'm saying. Because me too, by the way.
You know what I mean? Yeah, I'M not a big wine person. Alcohol person. I used to drink a lot of alcohol. You know, margaritas. All day. Not all day, but.
Where do you live now?
I've been in Paris and New York.
Okay. I guess New York. You could be a good margaritas. You're not going to find those in Paris. Okay.
No.
Cool. You're listening to the human upgrade with Dave Asprey.
