How Frequently Should One Check Their Blood Glucose Levels?

Posted on Wed, 16 Nov 2016

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Wed, 16 Nov 2016 Answered on

Tue, 13 Dec 2016 Last reviewed on

Question : Hi, I have recently purchased a glucometer and have a few questions. Note: I am not diabetic but have a strong family history so the purpose of purchasing the glucometer was to make sure I am eating the right foods.
1) If I am testing a particular food, at what time intervals should I check my blood glucose before and after ingestion (I know that for an accurate test I should not ingest anything else with it)
2) how much of an increase in glucose is acceptable? For example if my baseline is 80 mg/dl and it increases to 100 mg/dl 30 mins after ingestion, does that indicate a high sugar/carb content?
3) to test the accuracy of a nutrition label: (a) which ingredients would have the greatest effect on blood sugar, and (b) is there a way to estimate the number of grams of carbohydrates to the increase in glucose in mg/dl? For example, if a nutrition label claims to have 10g of carbohydrates, what should the expected increase in glucose be? What would be a very high increase that indicates an inaccurate label?

You can assume that all parameters are within normal limits.

Answered by Dr. Minal Mohit (3 hours later)

Brief Answer:
seems you are into some research.

Detailed Answer:
Dear XXXXXXX HI! welcome to HCM! I am Dr. Minal.
congratulations for purchasing a glucometer. I am happy to see you are so vigilant.
now to your queries-
1. blood glucose should be checked after 90 minutes of food ingestion.
2. any post meal below 140 mg /dl is considered normal at any point of time in a fed state.
3. (a) carbohydrates have the maximum impact on glucose in the shortest time.
b) glucose : carb ratio is different for every individual with may be minor variation. Actually that depends upon your insulin : carb and glucagon : carb ratio also insulin : glucagon ratio plays a role. also there are many more parallel metabolism going on.
i would welcome more queries if i could satisfy you.
regards!

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Nagamani Ng