DR MICHAEL MOSLEY: Why you should AVOID coffee first thing… and eat last night’s pasta for lunch!

I like self-testing: I regularly test my blood pressure and cholesterol. And as many of you will know by now, I was once diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, and although I have reversed that, I still monitor my blood sugar levels.

It’s something more of us should do: millions of Brits have abnormally high blood sugar levels, but many are completely unaware of the damage this is doing to their blood vessels and nerves.

An estimated seven million people in Britain have prediabetes (i.e. elevated blood sugar levels that can be a precursor to full-blown type 2 diabetes) – but a large proportion will not know it.

And even if you don’t develop type 2 diabetes, the fact that you have prediabetes increases your risk of premature death by more than 60 percent.

You can check your blood sugar levels with a standard do-it-yourself finger prick test (for around £20) on the High Street or online. These kits are reliable; If the result indicates that you have a problem, contact your doctor.

Many people with diabetes now use a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) – the coin-sized device that sticks to your arm and has a tiny needle that measures your blood sugar levels: you then connect it to your smartphone, and within an hour it’s finished. starts by providing readings, which are updated every 15 minutes. Theresa May, who has type 1 diabetes, wears one.

But although these devices are aimed at people with diabetes, anyone can buy one (they cost around £60 and last for two weeks), and they are increasingly used by people – including TV presenter Davina McCall – who want to see which foods (and activities) increase their blood sugar levels.

The idea is: the fewer major glucose peaks, the better.

I decided to try this out for myself, not least to put some popular social media ‘hacks’ to the test.

So two weeks ago I bought myself a type of CGM called Freestyle Libre. So what have I learned?

Firstly, the device needs a while to settle down; for the first few days it suggested that my blood sugar levels were much higher than my fingerstick monitor readings (which are more reliable). If I hadn’t known this, I might have been very worried.

Then – and not surprisingly – I discovered that anything sweet or high-carb (like cake or cereal) quickly pumped my blood sugar levels very high, followed by a crash that left me hungry – and irritable. Unfortunately, this also applied to one of my favorite treats, dark chocolate, which contains a fair amount of sugar, about 4 grams (one teaspoon) per square.

More tragically, I found that coffee – even black and without sugar – led to major blood sugar spikes, especially if consumed first thing in the morning.

This is because your body releases a good dose of the stress hormone cortisol a few hours before you wake up to get you ready for the day ahead.

If you introduce caffeine while your cortisol is high, you will get a big blood sugar spike.

The advice I received from James Betts, professor of metabolic physiology at the University of Bath, is to delay drinking coffee until at least an hour after waking up, when your cortisol levels drop. And that trick certainly seems to help control my blood sugar response. I also found that going for a brisk walk shortly after eating was a good way to lower my blood sugar levels – this is because my muscles used up some of the excess sugar.

Recent research from the University of Limerick found that a brisk walk is best 60 to 90 minutes after eating, as this is when your blood sugar levels are at their highest.

Ideally you should walk for at least 15 minutes, but even something is better than nothing.

This is because your body releases a good dose of the stress hormone cortisol a few hours before you wake up to get you ready for the day ahead.

Strangely enough, exercising more vigorously had the opposite effect: After a long bike ride, I was shocked to see my blood sugar levels spike.

This was probably because more vigorous cycling led to the release of adrenaline, which caused my body to release sugar into my blood to cope with the extra training.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that vigorous exercise is bad, but it can be alarming if you look at your monitor and see your blood sugar levels rising instead of falling.

So what about those internet hacks to avoid blood sugar spikes?

One of the most popular is to drink a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar in water before consuming a sweet snack or high-carb meal.

This is based on the idea that the acetic acid in the vinegar slows the breakdown of carbohydrates into sugar. It seemed to work for me, but it didn’t taste great.

Another hack I tested was the claim that cooking, cooling and reheating foods high in carbohydrates, such as rice, pasta or potatoes, changes their structure so that they become ‘resistant’ to intestinal enzymes that break them down, causing a lower blood sugar levels are created.

Two consecutive days I ate pasta for lunch, but on the second day I used leftover pasta that had been in the refrigerator and then reheated. This time my blood sugar was half of what it had been.

This too has been confirmed in studies, including a 2021 study from the University of Surrey, which found that cooking, cooling and reheating pasta made a significant difference in blood sugar levels.

Despite these positives, there are serious limitations to consider if you are using a CGM and do not have diabetes.

It was interesting to look at which foods cause my blood sugar to spike, but I became a little obsessed and even checked my readings in the middle of the night, which is clearly not healthy.

And it’s important to note that blood sugar levels don’t tell the full story.

Lentils and a chocolate bar both boosted mine, but that doesn’t make them nutritionally equivalent; Lentils have significant benefits, including being prebiotics, so feed the ‘good’ bacteria in your gut.

A recent study from the US National Institutes of Health also found that you can get very different results from eating the same meal on two consecutive days, for a variety of reasons, including how stressed you are and how well you slept.

So don’t rely on a CGM as a way to shape your future diet.

And if you really just want to know whether you have prediabetes or not, a cheaper and easier way to find out is a visit to your doctor or a finger prick test.

Finally a crackdown on the lip filler cowboys

If you are going to have injections in your face, it is clearly a good idea to have this done by someone who knows something about the underlying anatomy (Stock Photo)

Thanks to fillers, a lot of young – and not so young – people seem to have big, pouty lips these days.

Although many people are happy with the results, thousands of people are traumatized every year by botched procedures.

If you are going to have injections in your face, it is clearly a good idea to have this done by someone who knows something about the underlying anatomy.

That’s because there is a complex network of arteries and veins beneath the skin, and if you inject filler into any of them, it can restrict blood flow and cause permanent tissue damage.

Amazingly, this industry is almost completely unregulated, so virtually anyone can pick up a needle and start advertising. There is no guarantee that the person on the other side of the needle knows what he or she is doing. A few years ago I did a TV series about adjustments and was shocked by some of the stories I heard, including people being blinded by fillers inserted too close to the arteries that supply the eye.

In light of these disasters, the Department of Health and Social Care recently announced a consultation on changes to make them safer and keep the cowboys (and cowgirls) in check. About time.

Fall is just around the corner, but pesky mosquitoes and other flying insects are still looking for me – I seem to be a magnet for them.

But the good news is that scientists at the University of California may have found a solution. They have isolated a type of bacteria, found on some people’s skin, that is good at keeping mosquitoes away. These bacteria produce a range of chemicals, including butyric acid, that mosquitoes find disgusting.

The researchers hope to test this effect by spraying animals with the bacteria before proceeding to human trials.

We know that people in their 60s and 70s who develop new skills (such as painting) experience great improvements in memory and other cognitive skills.

Now a major study of aging Britons has found that adult education classes can significantly reduce the risk of dementia. One theory is that being mentally active increases your brain’s ability to deal with damage or decline in later life – or it could be that learning something forges new neural pathways. The bottom line is that the benefits of learning last well into old age.