CGMs should disillusion people of this pretty quickly. I really wish more people would try them for a month just to see how they respond to certain foods.
Some lessons I got from using it for 2 months (these are personal, some should apply to most people):
- Plantains cause a BIG glucose spike (I thought they didnt; in my case even more than pasta or rice)
- Walking ~10min after a meal removes the glucose spike of even pretty large meals
- Intense exercise before (duh) removes the glucose spike of any meal, even with big desert/ice cream
- Eating veggies (or taking fiber pills) before a meal removes the glucose spike of most meals
Some of these things I had read about online, but seeing the impact live on my own blood glucose made the lessons stick.
To tell people to avoid these healthy foods is not backed by the science. And so what if it raises your levels temporarily? Running raises my heart rate and blood pressure. Does that mean I'm about to die?
People who don't have diabetes or pre-diabetes spike. But I hardly see a body of work that suggests that everyone is at risk of diabetes.
> If plantains cause a large spike in a person, I would say that person should probably not eat them every day all the time.
People from South America eat them every day and they aren't linked to diabetes as far as I know.
The problem is consistently exceeding a certain level of blood sugar for extended periods of time. I think this is how you develop insulin resistance.
> People from South America eat them every day and they aren't linked to diabetes as far as I know.
I am from Panama, where we eat a lot of plantains. That's why I decided to test because it's a staple and I would have never put it in the same category as other carbs (bc I thought they had enough fiber to counter).
Which CGM are you using? I have a Dexcom, which has configurable alarm thresholds. I have type 1 diabetes. Generally I try to avoid being over 140 for very long, and over 200 is considered dangerous. My Tandem insulin pump used a non-configurable setting of 110 as the level it tries to maintain by increasing or decreasing insulin dosages.
Levels just puts a nice UI on top of Librelink, like scoring meals and days, finding associations between meals and giving you tips.
I stopped using these because they are expensive (at least 100 per month if I only used Librelink, think it depends on country as my moms buys hers in Colombia not the US) and I was just looking to learn about certain meals/timing/etc.
There are certain foods that my body seems to process poorly. My blood glucose spikes as much from crackers and rice as it does from more traditional sweets. My heuristics for other foods that I assumed were sweet (often fatty foods with mild sweetener) were also wrong. And I’m not weighing everything, counting calories, etc. I just tap my phone onto the device a few times a day.
Other things have also been surprising. I smoke hookah fairly regularly and found that it raises my fasting blood glucose by almost ten points (80 -> 90).
I find it’s an easy North Star metric with a single exception being intense physical activity which releases glycogen stores.
There are other factions within the community that believe that blood glucose spikes are responsible for things like abdominal fat storage and you’ll see that they continually try to game the number with things like nut consumption and drinking vinegar. This seems less useful to me.
I noticed the effect with salads and figured the fiber could help in a similar way.
Definitely the foods that make it rise the fastest are starchy vegetables like potatoes and grains. Fat plays a major role in absorption - a potato by itself causes a quick spike, while if I add cheese, it takes about twice as long to fully digest. Protein and fiber slow things down, too. Generally sugar causes a spike that goes down quickly compared to other carb sources.
Many people with t1 find that aerobic exercise like a brisk walk lowers glucose in the short term, and it even has an effect for a day or two. Often people report that intense anaerobic exercise like weightlifting raises glucose levels.
Insulin definitely plays a role in fat storage (that’s one of the major things it does as a hormone).
Related topic: Glycogen storage in the liver and muscles and glycogen depletion
If your doctor is telling you that prolonged periods of high blood sugar sustained over time are good for you, I would suggest that they review a bit of the literature.
I imagine he would say, "So you aren't having any health issues and bought this $100 device anyway?"
People who get pre-diabetes or diabetes (type 2), well, it's usually because they are overweight or obese. There's just not a lot of people getting diabetes in a mysterious way.
Also, saturated fat is linked to diabetes. And cutting that out improves heart health anyway.