By: Dr. Gene Dorio

What if you knew drinking egg nog would not affect your blood sugar?

What if you knew eating a salad increases your blood sugar 100 points?

Would it be invaluable information to know how your body responds to certain foods?

For several decades, we have used glucometers with a lancet to poke a small hole in your finger and analyze blood with a meter. This method has been accurate but has also been inconvenient and traumatic for the patient.

More recently, advancing medical technology has used continuous glucose monitor (CGM). These monitors are now available, but you have to have a diagnosis of diabetes to obtain one through insurance. Really? Wouldn’t a CGM provide real-time feedback so you might understand your body’s reaction to foods and not get diabetes?

CGMs have single-needle sensors that penetrate the skin and transmit glucose readings to your phone in real-time. Thus, whatever you eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or snacks will be reflected in your glucose readings.

No more wondering whether that dessert, waffle, or steak will offset the strict diet you might be on. Despite food packaging bearing nutritional information of calories, proteins, and fats on their labels, we can now see our bodies’ response to these foods. Some of us respond the same, others differently, so we need to become individually aware. Using a CGM may help.

Here are some caveats: 

1) We, patients and doctors, don’t always have access to this technology. You first need to have a diagnosis of diabetes, and then a prescription from your doctor. No diagnosis, no prescription. (Even “pre-diabetes” doesn’t count.) Medical insurance companies and Medicare have made these rules.

2) The CGM skin units must be changed every two weeks. At about $100 each, this can become expensive. Why the change? The manufacturers claim worries of infection, inflammation, and developing needle inaccuracies with time. Or could it be greed?

Are CGMs accurate? My patients keep a diary of readings and foods they consume to learn about their body responses. Doctors rely on this feedback, which allow us to determine a better diet less impactful on overall A1C levels (which measure sugars over the past three months).

Plus, one should realize that glucose readings are affected not only by the foods one eats but also by activity and exercise during the day. Most of us might be shocked at the improved levels after exercising.

To combat the staggering number of newly diagnosed people in the US with diabetes, all of us should have access to CGM devices.

Glucose monitor watches and rings are advertised on TV and online. These may not be accurate, so be careful. I might purchase one when they have a watch or ring that simultaneously measures cholesterol with glucose readings.

Until then, I’ll stay away from egg nog. Also salads.