How My Diet Impacts My Stutter: The Surprising Connection Between Food and Speech

I've been a stutterer since I was 5 years old.

It started after a traumatic incident at the hospital when I was young and has been with me ever since. Today, I can say I'm grateful for it because it has shaped me tremendously. I tell that story HERE, so check it out if you want to know more.

Stuttering is an interesting thing. My mind works fine. I think just like everyone else. And my body generally works fine. I'm in shape. I'm athletic and capable.

But there's a connection between my mind and my mouth that sometimes short-circuits.

My mouth just won't do what my mind is telling it to.

I've embraced it now, but when I was young, it was really embarrassing. When I tried to speak publicly, my muscles would tighten, and my face would contort.

My mouth just would not cooperate.

Some people have good hair days and bad hair days. I have no hair, but I have good speech days and bad speech days, and I've noticed some triggers over the years.

For example, my stutter will probably flare up if I'm especially nervous about giving a presentation.

Or if I'm extremely tired or stressed about something.

But recently, I started to notice a new correlation.

Food.

I could almost start to predict whether I was going to have a good or bad speech day based entirely on what I ate for breakfast.

I found that when I spike my blood glucose by eating something sugary, like a donut or glass of orange juice, my speech begins to be seriously affected within just 10-30 minutes.

Isn't that nuts?

But it makes sense, because our food affects so much more than just whether or not we gain or lose weight. That's just one small part of how our food impacts our bodies. Our food is what fuels our metabolic process, and our metabolism is like the foundational system of the body.

It's how we get energy. It is what sustains us. It's what keeps the whole thing running, like the engine of a car.

You might have thought of your heart as your body's engine, but where does it get its energy to keep pumping?

The answer is metabolism - the process of converting food to energy and using that energy to sustain life, grow, and repair.

When we eat foods that are high in carbohydrates or sugar, our metabolic process is disrupted and thrown out of balance—it's like throwing a wrench into an engine.

And if you mess up the engine, the vehicle just won't perform optimally. One of the ways that shows up is in my speech. It's obvious. I've actually run some tests on this using a continuous blood glucose monitor.

When I was running H40 internally at my company, I decided to eat a donut while wearing a GCM to show this to everyone in real time.

You can see on the chart when the sugar hit my bloodstream, and that directly coincided with my more severe stutter.

When we consume foods high in carbohydrates or sugars, our blood glucose levels spike. This sudden surge triggers the pancreas to release insulin to help cells absorb the glucose for energy.

However, repeated spikes can lead to insulin resistance, where cells become less responsive to insulin, leading to higher blood sugar levels and disrupted metabolic processes.

Glycogen is a primary energy source in the brain, and big swings in blood glucose can affect brain function, impacting cognitive abilities, mood, and even speech.

The brain’s communication pathways are highly sensitive to glucose levels, and any imbalance can disrupt the smooth transmission of signals, as I quickly found out after eating that donut!

What we choose to eat has far-reaching impacts beyond just managing our weight.

Maybe you're not a stutterer, but I guarantee the foods you eat affect you in ways you might not have thought about. In H40 (our 40-day guided sprint to better health), we talk a lot about paying attention to how what you eat makes you feel—not just while you're eating it but also afterward. We show you how to maintain stable blood sugar levels throughout the day without giving up your favorite foods.

Getting this right can enhance mental clarity, help you maintain steady energy throughout the day, and improve your overall mood and well-being.

If you want to find out more, sign up for our next sprint HERE. If you experience stuttering, I'd love to hear about your experience, too! Does sugar affect you the same way? Let me know in the comments.