So I nicked a sensor from a friend and monitored my blood sugar levels continuously for the last 2 weeks. This is the spring-loaded spike that stayed in me for the two-week period, feeding data to a cell phone app.
I ran some experiments, like eating Stevia packets on an empty stomach, and looked for patterns (graphs below). Here is what I learned:
1) Liquid sugar is the worst. I have heard the same conclusion from everyone I know who has monitored themselves. High-end fresh-pressed juice and Chic-Fil-A’s frosted lemonade spiked my blood sugar like nothing else… super fast and super high relative to any food. For example…
2) Ice cream is not a desert. 🙂 I can eat two bowls of ice cream (6-8 scoops) and see a similar effect as a big salad or vegetarian meal. Nothing like a big glass of juice. Other deserts, even dark chocolate seem to have more of an effect. (turns out, most people spike for rice and not ice cream, per this TEDx Talk)
3) I don’t appear to be hypoglycemic after all. Some doctor told my mom that I was as a young child, and I have held onto this as a clinical excuse for being hangry. My blood sugar drops after a food spike, but not below a healthy band, even with liquid sugar.
4) Mornings are robust. I have been doing meal-time-compression for several weeks now (not eating anything from 7pm until about 10am the next day), and my blood sugar stays steady, even as I start to notice my hunger grow. I also did not see a difference in what I ate for breakfast. 6 egg whites were fine, as expected. I thought oatmeal and granola on yogurt would be a problem, but they did not have a notable effect.
5) GI tract time: it takes 40-60 minutes before something I eat hits my blood serum. I have known that I am slower than a certain hummingbird I know.
6) Stevia is not invisible. Even though it has zero calories, it led to a slight sensor spike when consumed alone. Perhaps the Abbott FreeStyle Libre glucose sensor registers a partial hit from sugar analogs. Does anyone know?
You can see how the morning is the most consistent within the target green bands, and my ~10am first meal has a minimal effect. 7am Coffee with no added sugar is invisible.
The short-lived lunchtime spike was from a semi-sweet salad dressing!
A friend wore a fully-implanted continuous monitor in his belly and ran various experiments over a month. He took an equal weight of whole fruit and vegetables. When eaten whole, all was fine. When the same food went through a juicer, it led to a massive blood glucose spike. Dean Ornish has the same advice: avoid juicers and juice altogether.
A small but repeatable effect.
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