Bob Arnot, MD - Chief Medical Officer of Goode Health
Are you wearing a continuous glucose monitor (CGM)? So am I! And I love mine. Why do I love my CGM? It takes all the guesswork out of eating. I learned more in the first two days of using my CGM, which measures my blood sugar minute by minute, than I had learned in the previous year.
Why? First I saw the big mistakes almost immediately. Examples include a turkey sandwich on whole wheat bread with stuffing and cranberry. My blood sugar shot over 200 and remained high for most of the afternoon. Then there was the cheese and cracker late night snack - disaster! My blood sugar stayed up for most of the night. It was even high when I awoke the next morning...not to mention my weight! Up two pounds the next morning!!!
Using a CGM, you’ll quite quickly get a sense of what foods and meals are metabolically healthy. There are now excellent lists available of low, medium and high glycemic foods, which can serve as a good guide to foods that will spike your blood sugar on your CGM.
Using my CGM I tried all kinds of foods. My biggest surprise was when I took my morning scoop of Goode Health. What kind of a spike did I see? An almost imperceptible blip. I wondered why Goode almost didn’t register at all, so I corresponded with the top lab in the world (based in Australia), which measures the glycemic index of foods. They said there were certain foods, such as vegetable proteins, that would show such a small response that they would not even be considered on a scale of glycemic index as they would be far below it. That puts Goode health in a whole separate category of ultra low GI foods with little to no glycemic response.
So let's take a look at glycemic index foods from high to low....and then Goode Health.
1) High Glycemic: White bread, crackers, bagels, cakes, doughnuts
2) Medium Glycemic: Sweet potato, corn, Mini Wheats
3) Low Glycemic: Beans, most fruits and vegetables, nuts
4) Too low to register: Goode Health
The Australian lab uses devices, which record and then display blood glucose curves. The key is not just how high, but the entire area under the curve. Have a look at the wonderful graph in the image from the Harvard Medical Center showing how a high GI food spikes your blood sugar and has a very large area under the curve, while low GI foods record a much lower peak and less area under the curve.
On your CGM, you want your curves to look like the low GI curve. With Goode Health, you’d see the area in gray, below even low GI foods.
As you get more and more accustomed to your CGM, you want to aim for fewer big spikes and no prolonged high blood sugar highs. The most successful CGM wearers I know have nearly flat, low blood sugar curves...peaking at about 120. Obviously, as you learn to lower your overall blood sugar spikes and curves day to day, you’ll find your fasting blood sugar comes down as does your A1C, a great measure of month by month blood sugar control.
Prior to using a CGM and drinking Goode Health, my fasting blood glucose neared 100...the point where pre-diabetes starts. After just a few weeks it was below 85! In addition, A1C decreased from high normal to a very good value.
And most important, we have had many customers share their stories and CGM screenshots with us in total disbelief that they are able to stay ‘steady’ while using Goode Health!
Some simple tips:
- 1) Have fun with this as you’ll learn a ton.
- 2) Want to find out how you react to certain foods? Try a food first thing in the morning to see how high your blood sugar goes and how high it remains elevated.
- 3) Then one morning, try Goode Health. You’ll be astonished that there’s almost no reaction at all.
- 4) Learn to use Good Health during the day as a healthy snack. With its high protein and fiber content to make you feel satiated and your blood sugar well within limits.
- 5) If you're on a GLP-1, use Goode to get the extra protein you need to maintain your muscle mass.
Coming soon: While these devices have just been for certain people with diabetes, they are going to be available to the general public. Grab one as soon as you can. They’ll make a world of difference and we will be able to track your progress here at Goode Health.
Additional Note:
Just to give you a sense of what a break through these CGMs are, most of us would have our fasting blood sugar measured once a year for our annual physical. Type one patients with Diabetes and some Type II had to measure their blood sugar several times a day by pricking their fingertips to measure their blood sugar. By comparison the CGM is nearly miraculous with a continuous 24 hour a day blood sugar reading that allows someone to track ever major food error...and learn quickly how to bring their otherwise soaring blood sugar levels down. Patients with diabetes no longer have to prick their fingers and the rest of us can finally learn how best to control our metabolism for longer, healthier life.
