Six Weeks Wearing a Glucose Monitor: What I Learned About Food and Anxiety
At least, I did for six weeks. A continuous glucose monitor, or CGM, tracks blood sugar levels constantly and provides real-time insights to those who wear it. For people with diabetes, it's revolutionized the process of adjusting insulin levels with precision. However, with CGMs now being marketed as wellness tools for everyone, I wanted to explore how this data could impact my eating habits and overall health.
When I first started using the CGM, I became fixated on keeping my glucose levels within a narrow range. It wasn't just about eating what was healthy for me, but about avoiding any spikes that would be logged by the device. I soon found myself avoiding foods I once enjoyed—like granola bars—because they would cause a glucose spike. Cheese, on the other hand, didn't seem to affect my glucose levels, leading me to gravitate towards high-protein, low-carb foods, inadvertently adopting a keto-like approach. My husband joked, "Is this thing just inadvertently putting you on the keto diet?" He had a point. I became obsessed with the idea of controlling my glucose, even if it meant straying from normal eating patterns.
The first week of using the CGM even showed a small drop in my weight, probably due to stress from trying to maintain stable glucose levels.
They have revolutionized people's lives with type 1 diabetes in how it prevents patients from entering life-threatening diabetic ketoacidosis conditions. They allow users to check their blood glucose levels in real time and are unlike the traditional finger-stick tests. When they are sold for the general populace, they promise insights into personal health in terms of food and exercise effects on glucose levels.
For people without diabetes, Abbott's Lingo, which I used, is available for about $89 a month without a prescription. These devices are supposed to give people valuable health data that could help them adjust their diets or lifestyle habits for better health outcomes. The idea behind these devices is to empower individuals to make more informed choices based on how their body reacts to different foods, stress, and sleep. At first, I obsessed over checking my glucose levels after every meal. Lingo was always pushing me to exercise to "balance" my glucose after meals and even suggesting squats after a rise in blood sugar. I became anxious, focused on minimizing my "Lingo Count," which recorded fluctuations in my glucose. I had to step back and reassess my approach. I was eating in ways that didn't come close to my regular habits to meet the monitor's criteria. As I began to explore more organically, I discovered that foods I used to believe were healthy—like a salad with quinoa—caused a greater glucose spike than I would have expected, possibly due to the sugar in the dressing. Meanwhile, a slice of pizza and wine didn't spike.
Although I was shocked to hear that, it didn't make a big difference in what I eat at the moment. The application of CGMs on non-diabetes patients is not agreed on among experts. Experts such as Dr. Robert Lustig feel that monitoring glucose is a basic requirement for everybody since glucose stabilizing lowers the risk of chronic metabolic diseases. Others, like Dr. Nicole Spartano, note that there's not enough evidence to determine with certainty the advantages for non-diabetics.
While the devices can offer insights, many researchers say they also have the potential to cause unnecessary anxiety or even mislead people into thinking they need to change their eating habits drastically. It took time to appreciate how the CGM might help me monitor patterns and nudge me toward better behaviors, such as avoiding mindless snacking. During the repetition of meals, I got to see how my glucose responded consistently, hence helping me understand which foods and behaviors were leading to healthier outcomes. As such, I noted that banana bread increased my glucose significantly, while replacing it with Greek yogurt showed less fluctuation.
I also realized that, although the CGMs could give useful feedback, they were never the ultimate way to take care of health, especially without the proper context or guidance.
By the end of my six weeks, I saw the promise in CGMs and realized the necessity of balance as well. In the early days of research in non-diabetic populations, such devices are just beginning to emerge and their long-term value is questionable. So for now, while I had some valuable understanding of how my body reacted to things, it also taught me not to become fixated on all the data—to find the healthy balance between knowledge and food-obsession fear.
