Hi everyone this is Monica Reinagle the nutrition diva here with your quick and

dirty tips for eating well and feeling fabulous. If you've ever had a blood test where they asked you not to eat

for 12 hours beforehand, then one of the things they were probably testing for

was your fasting blood glucose level. This week I got an email from a reader who'd recently had such a

test and she found out that her fasting glucose was a little too high. She's wondering

exactly what that means and what, if anything, she needs to do about it.

It's normal to have a certain amount of glucose or sugar in your blood.

It's there because it's on its way to your cells where it will be converted into the energy that powers all of your body's functions.

No glucose means no energy, and that means no life.

It's also normal for your blood sugar to rise after you eat. Blood

sugar levels go up as the food you've eaten is digested and converted into

glucose and then as that glucose is taken up by your cells, your blood

sugar levels fall back to baseline.

At least they're supposed to.

Doctors test your glucose after you haven't eaten for 8 to 12 hours in order to see

where your baseline is.

If your fasting glucose levels are high,

it's a little like having an elevator that only comes down to the fifth floor

instead of returning all the way to the ground floor.

Although there are a few different things that can cause high fasting glucose,

this test is usually done to screen for diabetes.

If your glucose levels are really high,

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