Dr Megan Rossi reveals why she’s not a fan of the new craze for checking your glucose levels 

Which gives you more of a sugar rush, a banana or a meat pie?

You may think this is a silly question, but many people become obsessed with the effect different foods have on their blood sugar levels.

For people with diabetes, it’s an important question. But more and more people without diabetes believe that eating only foods that don’t move their blood sugar much is crucial to their health and weight.

Many now wear monitors that tell them how much effect each thing they eat has.

(For the uninitiated, these monitors usually come as a coin-sized patch with a tiny needle that constantly measures blood sugar and sends it to an app on your phone.)

The problem is that people cut out all kinds of foods just because they think it raises their blood sugar.

I hear it all the time in the clinic. Someone will say, “I ate raspberries and my blood sugar spiked, should I take them out?” Others report that pizza seems to have less effect than a salad.

In fact, these seemingly random results occur because there are many factors that affect our blood sugar levels beyond what we eat, including how well we slept the night before — but more on that in a moment.

Let’s start with the nitty gritty: What is even blood sugar? It’s another term for the glucose that circulates in your blood and is produced when your food — mainly carbohydrates — is broken down.

This glucose is absorbed into the bloodstream from the intestines, and as levels rise, cells in the pancreas pump out the hormone insulin, which soaks up the glucose and deposits it into a cell.

When you need energy, for example during exercise or when you haven’t eaten lately, the body calls on its glucose stores to help.

You don’t want glucose to hang around in the bloodstream, as prolonged elevated blood sugar can make the walls of blood vessels less elastic and more prone to damage, and has also been linked to weight gain, as well as (longer term) heart disease or eye disease. issues.

Therefore, people with diabetes must change their lifestyle and/or take medication to keep their blood sugar levels low.

That’s true of all types of diabetes – type 1 (where the body’s immune system attacks the insulin-producing cells); type 2 (in which the body becomes less responsive to insulin, which eventually puts pressure on the pancreas and produces less and less of the hormone); and gestational diabetes (which occurs during pregnancy).

But what about the rest of us? Despite the hype about blood sugar monitoring, there is surprisingly a lack of evidence that for healthy non-diabetics it really matters if your blood sugar rises above, say, 10 mmol/L (diabetes is usually defined as a value of 7 mmol /l or more). after 12 hours of fasting) occasionally after a carbohydrate-rich meal.

In a healthy person, insulin should bring that level back to normal within minutes – and there is currently little scientific evidence to suggest that if one food pushes your blood sugar a few points higher for a few minutes, it’s automatically going to be worse for you – not in the latter because it does not take into account all the other beneficial nutrients a food provides.

And if you’re focusing solely on a food’s glycemic index — a measure of how quickly it affects your blood sugar; foods with a high glycemic index break down faster and give more of a spike in blood sugar – for example, you’d prefer triple cooked potato chips (lower GI) to boiled potatoes (higher GI), and that meat pie to a banana.

And one of the highest GI foods is watermelon, which not only contains a variety of nutrients, including potassium (good for the heart) and magnesium (important for sleep), but is also a good source of antioxidants like lycopene (which helps protect your body). skin from the sun).

I’m increasingly seeing people skipping carbs altogether for fear they have a higher GI and will spike their blood sugar when we know that whole grains — which include many carbs like barley and oats — have a unique type of fiber that helps cut cholesterol and risk on heart disease, and feeds anti-inflammatory gut bacteria.

And there are many factors outside of your diet that affect the amount of glucose circulating in your blood, so the same foods can push your blood sugar to 8 mmol/L one day and 10 mmol/L the next, for example.

Sleep is an example of this. Research shows that a lack of sleep can mean your blood sugar is higher after eating than when you’re well rested.

In a small study published in The Lancet in 1999, a group of 11 men were restricted to four hours of sleep for six nights and then 12 hours for another six – their blood sugar levels after eating the same foods were higher on the restricted sleep days. .

Researchers suggested that a lack of sleep seems to affect how quickly we respond to insulin.

Stress is another factor. In a 2011 study, scientists asked people to take a math test in front of an audience and then gave them a meal: They ate the same meal on a different day without the test.

The research, published in the journal Diabetic Medicine, revealed that blood sugar spiked significantly higher on math test day — possibly because stress hormones slow the release of insulin.

Other factors that may come into play include where you are in your menstrual cycle, the amount of exercise you did up to three days prior, and what you ate for the previous meal.

In 1988, a University of Toronto study showed that eating a lentil-based dinner led to lower blood sugar after breakfast the next day than a meal based on a protein drink — despite breakfast being exactly the same.

Which brings me back to this: If you’re otherwise healthy, fixating on how much a particular food raises your blood sugar at each meal probably won’t make you healthier or slimmer!

So if you don’t have diabetes, scrub the effect of food on your blood sugar from your list of things to worry about, at least until we have legitimate science saying otherwise.

What you should focus on is making what I call the super six — vegetables, fruits, nuts, whole grains, herbs and spices, and legumes — the most important part of your daily diet.

Try this: Sweet Potato Lettuce Cups

This recipe is a great example of how a carb-based meal can keep your blood sugar stable (due to the fiber in the whole grains and potato skins, and polyphenols — plant chemicals that have been shown to play a role in blood sugar regulation).

For 4 persons

• ½ cup pre-cooked grain mix (any combination of buckwheat, quinoa, lentils, couscous, etc.)

Cut the sweet potato into 1-2 cm cubes (leave the skin on). Steam these with the garlic cloves or bake in the oven at 200c for 20-30 minutes, or until completely soft.

Mash the sweet potato with the back of a fork and combine with the softened garlic. Stir in the paprika and season to taste.

Wash the lettuce leaves well and spread the sweet potato puree mixture in the center of each leaf.

Add a few spoonfuls of your prepared grain mix (hot or cold), and top with hummus and a sprinkling of Brussels sprouts.

Ask Megan:

I read all the time about the benefits of oily fish for menopausal women, but what are the best alternatives for people with fish allergies?

Ruth Calvert, Ballywalter, N. Ireland.

The health benefits of oily fish, thanks to their omega-3 fatty acids, are far-reaching – ranging from improving mental well-being to heart health, and reducing inflammation and symptoms associated with menopause.

Omega 3s are known as “essential” because our bodies cannot produce them; i.e. we have to get them from our diet.

The three main types are EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid), DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) and ALA (alpha-linolenic acid).

The first two, found mainly in oily fish, are associated with the most health benefits. ALA is usually found in high-fat plant foods, including flaxseeds, chia seeds, and walnuts.

Your body can convert ALA to EPA and DHA, but it’s not an efficient process – so if you can’t eat (the recommended) two servings of oily fish per week, supplements are your next best option. Algae oil is a great plant-based alternative (like us, fish can’t produce EPA and DHA either, and they get them from eating microscopic algae).

• Email drmegan@dailymail.co.uk or write to Good Health, Daily Mail, 9 Derry Street, London, W8 5HY — please include contact details. Dr. Megan Rossi cannot comment on personal correspondence. Answers should be taken in a general context; Always consult your doctor in case of health problems