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Become a Sustainavore!

Eat for your health, the planet, and your values.

Why You Should Test Your Blood Sugar – Even if You’re Not Diabetic!

I’m pretty excited about Robb Wolf’s new book, Wired to Eat, and have just released a podcast where he and I chat about lentils, blood sugar, and “why” (I’ll get to that later in the post, or you can listen to the show). Before I talk more about the book, I thought I’d give you a little context on why I’m such a huge advocate of it… (and if you’re not interested in my story, skip down to “The Basic Gist of the Book”)

I’ve always had blood sugar control issues. I think it goes back to being an undiagnosed Celiac as a kid, and constantly being hungry. I mean, I was starving ALL THE TIME. I could have eaten a full Thanksgiving dinner at any point during the day, and then some. I was really underweight as a kid, but always had a little belly. I also had a host of other issues like low muscle tone, hyper mobile joints, reading and attention problems, and had such low blood pressure that I’d sometimes randomly pass out.

My small town, egocentric pediatrician declared I had lactose intolerance, and so he told my mother to give me diluted soy formula instead of milk. My daily meals looked something like this: Frosted Flakes with soy milk and orange juice plus banana for breakfast, canned chicken noodle soup for lunch, and Hamburger Helper for dinner. Rarely did we have fresh vegetables or a “from scratch” meal. My mom worked, and thought that homemaking was not for “modern women,” so my kitchen was stocked with Hungry Man dinners (you know, the ones in the tin foil) and Ritz crackers, “cheese spread” and the occasional bag of frozen string beans.

During my 20’s, I went nearly vegetarian in college. I loved my deep fried tofu, lentils, and deep bowls of soba noodles. I never fully made it to completely plant-based, purely because my body craved meat so badly. My digestion was a wreck. It wasn’t until I was 26 that I found out I had Celiac disease. However, I didn’t actually trade my crappy diet in for a better one. I went from wheat toast, beer and pasta to gluten free toast, cookies, pizzas and lots of lentils. I did see an improvement in my digestion, but my blood sugar was still on a roller coaster. I was starving all the time still. I packed my purse, car, and office cubicle with gluten free granola bars and crackers. If I went more than 2 hours between eating, I’d start sweating and get tunnel vision. I was never overweight, but did have a little more belly fat than I wanted. My doctors would test my blood sugar and tell me I was fine, even though I knew something was really wrong.

When I was pregnant with my son (now age 13), I failed the screening for gestational diabetes. Instead of taking the “level 2” test, which included a fast and drinking obscene amounts of sugar, I asked instead to just go on the low carb diet and promised to test my blood sugar regularly. The dietitian told me to have no more than 30g of carbs at a meal. At the time, this was ridiculously hard to follow, but the thought of a 15lb baby was enough to motivate me to stick to it. (Babies born to mothers with gestational diabetes tend to be much larger, and I was scared enough about labor as it was!) My husband on the other hand, can eat all the gluten and carbs he wants, maintains a super low blood sugar all the time, and always has six-pack abs. Some people are just born lucky. But he was super supportive and helped me count the carbs and cook. I think the idea of a huge baby also scared him!

Just the reduction down to less than 100g of carbs a day was enlightening, and really changed my energy levels. I didn’t gain too much weight during the pregnancy and my son was a healthy 8lbs, 6oz. Better yet, I felt so much better eating low carb that I continued to follow the diet and test my blood sugar for a full year after he was born. The poor guy has no baby book, because documenting each meal and blood sugar was all the recording I could handle. Oh well.

About a year after his birth, I was pregnant with my second child. My carb intake creeped up to about 150g per day. At about the same time, I had learned about the Weston A. Price Foundation. In case you’re not familiar with WAPF, they’re all about eating full fat foods, like butter and lard. At first, I thought it was nuts. How could butter be okay? Didn’t it cause heart disease? After doing some reading and attending a couple of “real food” conferences, I decided to give it a try. I passed the gestational diabetes screener with this pregnancy and was sold on eating a more nutrient-dense diet, complete with saturated fats like butter.

A few years passed and I found myself running a farmstand, fielding questions from customers like, “Why do you sell coconut oil and lard, I thought saturated fat was bad for you?” I really couldn’t answer them in a way that I was comfortable. “Because saturated fat is healthy, and has all the hydrogen bonds… er, um…” That’s about as far as I could go. All I knew was that it worked for me, and people had been eating these foods for a really long time without skyrocketing rates of diabetes and heart disease. So, I decided to attend the Nutritional Therapy Association’s practitioner program, hoping to find the answers. At the end of the program, I had to write a book report, so I picked the new hot release, The Paleo Solution, by Robb Wolf.

The book changed my life. It made perfect sense to me. The results: I could go from breakfast to lunch without a snack. I could even skip lunch and… I was OK! I’m not a super huge fan of sweet potatoes, so looking back, I actually went very low carb/ketogenic for my 30-day transformation. It worked wonders for me, and I wanted to help as many people as I could.

Fast forward to today, seven years later… I’m now a registered dietitian (longer story on how I did that here) with a busy clinical practice, plus I’m a writer and public speaker. I’ve helped so many people reset their metabolism, AND heal their guts with a paleo-type diet. I don’t always demand they do a 30-day reset from the get go – some people need baby steps, but the end goal for nearly all my clients is a 30-day paleo-type reset. After 30 days, we slowly reintroduce foods and see how it makes them feel.

I now have a whole new tool after reading Wired to Eat, Robb’s new book. It takes The Paleo Solution a step further. Instead of basing food choices on how you feel, you can collect actual data on yourself to see how different carbs work with your particular body. It can be easy to identify hypoglycemia, but not as easy to feel when you have high blood sugar. You may feel sleepy or foggy headed after a carb overload, but not everyone will notice it, and it’s easy to WANT a particular food so badly that you ignore how it makes you feel. For folks like me who are pretty carb sensitive, Robb’s systematic approach to carb testing is exactly what needs to be done. It’s also a fantastic tool for my clients because numbers don’t lie.

Here’s the basic gist of the book: 

Our modern food environment is filled with junk that we really shouldn’t be eating. Many people are metabolically broken from highly processed foods. Because these foods (or food-like products) are hyper-palatable, it’s difficult to follow the “Everything in Moderation” advice that dominates the nutrition industry. On top of all of this, we’re not sleeping enough, not moving enough, and we lack community. What we really need to do is reject processed foods, reset our bodies, test foods, and find out what type and level of carbs works.

What I learned about myself was fascinating. Apparently, sweet potatoes are great for me. I registered an 81 two hours after eating one. (That’s good!) One cup of mashed red potatoes resulted in a bs reading of 113, but two slices of gluten free bread was a little higher, at 121 two hours later. A relatively small serving of polenta gave me a reading of 134, but my husband had the same serving PLUS a large bowl of ice cream and he was 81. Yeah, that made me a little mad. The guy can skip meals because he hardly gets hungry or he can eat huge amounts of carbs and always feels fine.

However a huge shocker was the one cup of French lentils (about 20g of net carbs) that gave me a blood sugar reading of 140! (That’s high!) I shared this with Robb (we talked about this more on my podcast). Even though Robb and I are similar in our genetics, carb tolerance and food sensitivities, lentils work great for his guts and his blood sugar, and apparently I need to avoid them. Good to know!

Different carbs spike people differently. In fact, this interesting paper tested folks on all sorts of carbs. Some spiked high with a banana but not a cookie, others had the opposite effect.

Here’s a short, well done video describing the study.

Now, since we all can’t have our biome analyzed and a personalized diet generated for us at this time, we can do the next best thing. Test ourselves. By beginning with the 30-day reset as prescribed in Wired to Eat, you’ll get yourself to a pretty healthy baseline, through a nutrient-dense diet. You’ll then systematically test yourself against different carbs during the 7-day Carb Test to see how you do. If bananas result in a soaring blood sugar, then you can make the decision to either cut them out completely, or reserve them for post workouts.

In my clinical practice, I’ve now been showing my clients how to test their own blood sugar. It’s not that scary! Once you’ve done it, you realize that it’s really no big deal. What you’ll learn is invaluable. Pick up a simple, inexpensive monitor like this one, and you’ll need the corresponding lancets and test strips (test strips are specific to the monitor, so make sure you get the right ones – they’ll show up in Amazon’s “frequently bought together”.) If you bought the one I linked to, here’s a tutorial video on how to use it. In Wired to Eat, Robb outlines exactly why and how you should be testing, and gives appropriate ranges so you can know whether or not you’re good to go with a particular carb choice. Ideal blood sugar range should be 95 – 115 two hours post meal. This means mashed potatoes are a go for me, but maybe not for you.

A word of warning – I have one current client who is testing herself and it’s been bumming her out. Carbs aren’t really working for her and she’s pretty upset about it. She works out a lot, eats really well, but it’s pretty clear that carbs aren’t her friend. She feels like she’s failing. I had to let her know that this isn’t her “fault” and instead to see it as a blessing. Having this knowledge means that she can avoid certain foods and maintain a healthy life. If she had no idea how the carbs were working in her body, then she could be headed for disaster. Believe me, there are people dealing with way worse situations than not being able to eat some polenta or oatmeal. So, if you discover that you too are not able to handle some of your favorite foods, be thankful that you have this warning instead of feeling sorry for yourself.

What’s Your Why?

Now, what you do with all of this information is up to you. I’ve had nutrition clients decide they’re never going to eat ___ food again, because it’s just not worth it. Others simply rebound back to their old ways of eating. What I’ve noticed about the folks that stick with it: they have a “why”- a reason not to die early of a condition that could be within their control if they simply eat the right foods. To me, it’s just not worth it to feel horrible, to have the shakes between meals, and long term, I want to see my kids have kids. I also feel like I have a lot to say and not much more time to say it. I have a strong “why”.  Food isn’t my friend. It’s not my comfort. I don’t dive into a pizza or cake because I’ve had a bad day… I know this is outside the scope of a simple blog post, and probably deserves it’s own book, but seriously, ask yourself what’s the reason you have for long term health. In the beginning, you may need to remind yourself every day of your “why,” and consider whether cookies are more important to you than your “why”. But in time, eating well and taking care of yourself will just become a habit.

Here’s a great testimonial from a nutrition client of mine who effectively reversed his type 2 diabetes by following the method described in Robb’s book. He succeeded because he saw results (data), felt better, and because he has a great “why”.

So, go out and get the book, do your homework, find out which foods work for you, and stick with it. If you need help, I’m available to coach you through it. And if you find yourself slipping up, ask yourself what your “why” is.

My posts may contain affiliate links, which means you don’t pay any more, but I may make a small commission, which helps me continue to bring you great new posts. Read my full disclosure/disclaimer here.

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30 thoughts on “Why You Should Test Your Blood Sugar – Even if You’re Not Diabetic!”

  1. I listened to the podcast with Robb and I’m so ready to try this out! I’m definitely a data person and jump at the chance to learn something new about my own body and health. Excited to see what I learn. Thank you for laying out how important (and cool) this stuff is!

      1. Hi Diana,
        I heard you on Luke Story’s podcast – great interview! I also bought and read Wired to Eat by Robb Wolf based on your recommendation. With regards to the OneTouch Ultra Mini Blood Glucose Monitoring System, it does not measure ketones. Would you know of/recommend a monitor that measures both glucose and ketones. I figure while I am measuring one, I might as well measure the other….
        Thanks!
        John R.

    1. I really like this company. http://www.diathrive.com. They give you a free blood glucose meter when you purchase 100 strips and the total cost including strips is $24.00. Much less than the One Touch they recommend. I think the strips alone were around $50.00 for 50 strips and then you had to buy the meter as well. I’ve been using it for several months and have been happy with the quality.

  2. You “check” your bs 9 times a day because you’re type 1, not because you are someone doing a carb “test”- the folks this post was written for. This post is not for the 1’s, for the last time. I am not changing the subject by continuing to stand by my claim that the word “Testing” is entirely appropriate for the context of this blog post. Again, on my site, which you continue to feel the need to reply to. These are not email responses, these are public posts. People generally DO have the control to prevent type 2. Now, goodbye John. Please hassle other people and stop bugging me.

  3. Hi Diane! Thanks so much for this post. I’m very much looking forward to reading Robb’s new book. I have a question about your site in general… The page continuously moves down without my control. Is this something built into your site or something wrong with my computer? It doesn’t happen with any other site. As I’ve written this paragraph I’ve had to scroll up again three times because it scrolls down too far. Just curious! Again, thanks for the post can’t wait to do my own testing!!

    1. Due to your medications, I would work with a practitioner and not do this on your own. Going lower carb is certainly a good idea, but you’ll need to keep a close eye on your meds and adjust accordingly.

  4. Hi, Did you adjust your carb portions to 20g net carbs? It’s what i got from your post, just checking. Thanks! Read the book this weekend in about 24h, too much interesting information to let it go 🙂

    1. Sort of – I am completely unable to consume a 50g dose of carbs first thing in the morning on an empty stomach, so I was testing either at breakfast with 2 eggs + a 25g dose of carbs or I was eating my normal meals (like in the lentils case) and just testing 2h after my meals and just recording what happened. With my patients, I’m modifying the challenge to morning with a standard dose of protein and fat plus a dose of carbs specific to their size and anticipated tolerance level – only to not destroy them. If I ate 50g of carbs in the form of white rice at 7am, my day would be completely trashed.

      1. Thank you, that makes sense. I am going to try with 25/30g maximum, these are the usual portions of carbs per meal i have and i also feel i would be unable to eat 50g net carbs first thing in the morning. Will be interesting for sure!

      2. I agree with this! I feel like if I ate 50g of carbs without any protein or fat, my blood sugar would be through the roof (and I would feel like crap). I was going to ask if it’s okay to test 2 hours after any carb-heavy meal (but not just carbs) and still get an accurate reflection of how that carb affects my body.

        So far, what I’ve noticed is that most carbs will give me a blood sugar reading of 130-140 about 45-60 minutes after a meal, and then go down to 100 or below after 2 hours. On the rare occasion that I completely pig out, however, I’ve seen readings as high as 170 about 1-2 hours after I eat. That is usually only with things like sugary cereals, lots of rice, or something starchy like pizza. But man, did those readings scare me! Luckily, it’s been a while since I’ve seen it go that high.

  5. Yes!!!
    I’ve got T1D, and I always say “My CGM doesn’t lie!!!
    It seems like most carbs can completely destabilize me one way or the other lately. I need to do some tighter experimentation to get a clearer picture of what I can/can’t tolerate well.
    Great article! Thanks!

  6. There are a few factors missing about this strategy. While taking one’s bg levels to check how different foods affect it, that may not show the whole picture. Just deciding to stop or curtail eating specific foods because they cause a blood sugar spike may be misleading. One’s bg is always going to be affected by not only what is eaten, but also by any bodily inflammation and stress as well. Stress can skew bg numbers by many points that have nothing to do with the food ingested. Exercise and alcohol (as well as type of alcohol) also make a difference. Many people don’t realize that not having squeaky clean hands when both handling the test strips and at the site of pricking for the blood for testing is critical towards getting accurate results. Dirt, grease, and other residue that might be on your hands can skew your results.

    Advising non-diabetics to do this may seem like a good idea, but without the overall picture of what they’re looking at and what else may be happening in their bodies to affect their blood glucose levels is somewhat irresponsible.. Even spot bg tests in regular lab work don’t tell medical professionals enough (unless the number is ridiculously high or dangerously low)–an A1c is needed on a 90 day basis to reflect someone’s blood glucose over the longer term and is a better reflection of bg stability (or not) than spot checking individual foods/meals. Going to the extreme of blood glucose monitoring when one is not diabetic just to see how specific foods or beverages affect one’s blood sugar borders on hypochondria and maybe just a little bit of masochism given the requirement to have to prick fingers multiple times a day when you don’t have to.

    Common sense says if you have a weight issue or a pre-disposition for diabetes that has not become full blown T2, maybe you should go easy on eating a high carb/high sugar diet and you should be engaging in regular exercise of some kind. Even if you aren’t pre-disposed to diabetes or don’t think you are, it’s not a bad idea to avoid a high carb diet, to maintain as normal a weight as possible, and to get regular exercise. There are dozens of books that show the glycemic index and carb values for thousands of foods (fresh, packaged, processed, and restaurant)–those should give a pretty good starting point to figure out which foods to avoid if one is worrying about blood sugar spikes. It’s not rocket science and it’s a whole lot easier than having to prick one’s fingers multiple times a day to see whether a specific food caused a spike. People can do what they want, but without having all the input, telling people to buy a glucose monitor and check blood glucose levels on their own is misleading when they can request an A1c from their doctors every 90 days to learn whether their overall bg is within normal ranges. Also, most medical insurance will pay for A1c testing where test strips are only covered by insurance if you’re diabetic. And if there’s a problem, the doctor can make the appropriate recommendations, which are far more encompassing than just testing for blood sugar.

    1. There are instructions in the book to eat pretty clean and get good sleep/don’t drink for 30-days prior to testing. This does not border on hypochondria at all in my opinion. For example, I learned that lentils and polenta register over 140 for me, while potatoes and sweet potatoes keep me quite low. This is useful information. High blood sugars don’t “feel” bad to me, so I wouldn’t know unless I tested. You don’t wake up one day in pre-diabetes, this is a slow progression, so if you know certain carbs work better for you than others, this only HELPS people. An A1c doesn’t give this sort of information. Watch the video in the post and perhaps read the book I recommend in the post before you tell me that I’m dishing out advice out of context, since you are giving me feedback saying I’m lacking context. Also, if you DID watch the video or read the book, you’ll understand how glycemic index is incredibly outdated.

      These strips are incredibly inexpensive since we’re only talking about testing a handful of different foods – if you read the post carefully, you’d see that I don’t tell people to check their BS several times a day for a year. People do not need a doctor to do this, they can actually save their own health, on their own through eating good food.

  7. I have been testing to see how I will do with brown rice pasta, potatoes etc after following AIP for autoimmune issues. I don’t have any digestive or other symptoms but want to see if I am having a blood sugar response like described in Wired to Eat. I can’t seem to find a chart anywhere for nondiabetics on what the ranges should be. I no longer have the book but I think the range was 80 to 100 for normal? Does this mean a reading of 130 2 hours after eating would make the food not a good idea for me? Thanks for your help!

    1. 140 is “diabetic”. If your reading is 130, that’s relatively high for someone without diabetes. I like to see it under 120. Robb has ranges in his book – I keep it in my office and don’t have it in front of me at the moment.

  8. Could you tell me what carb testing will and won’t tell me about the foods I eat? For example, if I am gluten sensitive would gluten spike my glucose/insulin? If a food is good for me as far as blood sugar goes, could it not be good for me for other reasons? What are reasons that foods spike glucose levels and what is it an indicator of? I’m kind of asking the same question in different ways, but hope you get the gist.

    Thanks in advance,
    Rachel

    1. Gut flora can dictate glucose response to certain foods. If you have an imbalance in your guts, your response will be off. We’re still learning so this is not a hard science. It’s best to see how certain foods make you feel and how they affect your blood sugar and use that as your guide.

  9. The beginning of your story is exactly like mine. Undiagnosed celiac as a kid, severely underweight, very active. When I was 7 I started having seizures and they said I was hypoglycemic. I started testing my sugar and went vegetarian and the seizures slowed down. In my 20s I went gluten free and the seizures stopped but I still had a lot of low sugar moments even though I stopped testing when the seizures stopped. I had 3 kids and an ankle reconstruction and am now training for a half marathon but started having to test again because of the activity level and my sugar drops. I’ve always eaten well and I work at a health foods store, easy access. Going to an endocrinologist to make sure I don’t have an insulinoma since me sugars are still always between 40 and 80.

  10. I don’t know John Whitehead, but I honestly wish you would have (and will) remove his comment. I read the article with some interest and you almost had me convinced me it was worth looking into further. But from the responses that you gave to Mr. Whiteheads repeated requests to delete his comment, it has made it difficult for me to even want to take you seriously. Your comments, after his repeated requests, come across as very egocentric. The lengthy quibble over the words “test” or “check” was petty. And please, by all means keep my comment up, because quite obviously you will enjoy having a new victim.

  11. Thanks for all this information. I have just been told I am diabetic with Type 2. Bugger!!
    However, I am reading everything I can and doing the best I can at this point. My HBA1C was at 59 and I have it down to 52 after 8 weeks and have lost 5kgs weight.
    I will get the book you recommend and read.
    Once again thanks for your blog and all the fabulous info. Very very informative and helpful.

  12. This is something that has interested me for years. I think I had your identical childhood eating experience without the celiac disease. I have been watching carbs for years. One thing that confuses me is that testing at two hours seems to miss foods that really cause a blood sugar spike. For example, if I were to eat a 12 carb slice of bread, at one hour, I would be at 135. At two hours, back down to 100. If I ate something like french fries I could go up to 200 very easily but then would come down to 60-70 two hours later. What do you think about these shorter term spikes?

  13. we can also monitor it by using a continuous blood monitoring device. Thanks for this incredible article. You can also check out my website on blood sugar and the blood sugar level devices.

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