Food has a strong impact on glucose fluctuations and some commonly consumed foods have been found to cause a large glucose spike in most participants. The amount of glucose that circulates in the blood changes during the day and night and is influenced by the food we eat, activity, hormones, health and more. The most common way to measure your blood sugar is by testing a fasting blood sample that will reveal the level at that particular time. Another common way is to test the levels of glycated hemoglobin, “HbA1C”, which reflects the average blood sugar in the last 3 months. Unfortunately, none of these measurements reveals the dynamic changes that occur during the day. More recently, some diabetic patients have used continuous blood glucometers – relatively new devices – to understand these daily changes. It is known that glucose levels above or below certain thresholds can cause damage to organs over time.
However, a new study published on July 24 in the open access journal PLoS Biology by Stanford University researchers reveals that “normal” blood glucose levels are often not normal – they move farther away from healthy intervals than we thought. In the new study, however, continuous glucose monitoring in healthy participants showed that large fluctuations in blood glucose occur much more commonly than expected. Observing the glucose peaks of 57 study participants, the authors found that people can be classified into 3 different “glucotypes” or glucose behaviors: those whose glucose does not vary much (low), those who often beat (severe), and those in the middle (moderate). To assess how different people react to the same meal, the team provided three different standardized breakfasts to study the participants: bread with peanut butter. corn flakes with milk and a nutritional bar. Individual responses to these meals were unique, suggesting that people metabolize the same nutrients in an individualized way.
Some commonly consumed foods, such as corn flakes, have also caused a large glucose spike in most participants. Because food has a strong impact on glucose fluctuations, the team is building patterns to predict the foods that personally affect each individual. “We were very surprised to see the blood sugar in the pre-diabetic and diabetic range in these people so frequently,” said Michael Snyder, PhD, professor and president of Genetics at Stanford and senior author of the study. “The idea is to try to find out what makes someone a” spiker “and be able to give them feasible advice to move them into the low glucotype. Our next study will investigate the physiological causes of glucose dysregulation. These include not only the variation genetics, but also the composition of the microbiome, the pancreas, the liver and the functions of the digestive organs”. In this way the Stanford team hopes to better control glucose dysregulation and prevent diabetes and its associated complications such as cardiovascular diseases, kidney and neuropathic dysfunctions.
This does not mean that you can eat pasta, bread and pizza at will. With the metabolism does not work as “law written, deception found” ….
- edited by Dr. Gianfrancesco Cormaci, PhD, specialist in Clinical Biochemistry.
Scientific references
Hall H et al. Snyder M. PLoS Biol. 2018 Jul 24; 16(7):e2005143.
Zapata RC et al. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2018 Apr; 26(4):730-39.
Stefanaki C et al. Contemp Clin Trials Commun. 2018 Jun 2; 11:55-62.