Revisited: does the evidence on glucose tracking add up?

Science Weekly

The Guardian

Science

4.2 • 938 Ratings

🗓️ 2 January 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

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Summary

You might have noticed that everyone has recently become a bit obsessed with blood sugar, or glucose. Wellness firms such as Zoe in the UK – as well as Nutrisense, Levels and Signos – claim to offer insights into how our bodies process food based on monitoring our blood glucose, among other things. But many researchers have begun to question the science behind this. In this episode from July, Ian Sample talks to the philosopher Julian Baggini, the University of Oxford academic dietician Dr Nicola Guess, and Zoe’s chief scientist the King’s College London nutrition expert Prof Sarah Berry to find out what we know about blood glucose levels and our health, and whether the science is nailed down on personalised nutrition. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is The Guardian.
0:07.3	Hi, Ian here.
0:08.9	We're on a break at Science Weekly, but we'll be back on Tuesday with a new episode.
0:14.1	As we emerge from our Christmas food comas,
0:17.2	you might know someone whose New Year's resolution is to start tracking their glucose as a way to lose weight and feel healthier.
0:25.1	So today we're returning to an episode from July, where I tried to get to the bottom of whether these trackers tell us anything useful.
0:33.2	I found it a fascinating dive into an area of science that's still up for debate.
0:38.2	I hope you enjoy listening.
0:42.1	You might have noticed that everyone has recently become a bit obsessed with blood sugar or glucose.
0:49.4	There are blood sugar influences like the glucose goddess and Justin Richard, aka stop spiking sugar,
0:57.4	who will tell you how to keep your blood glucose levels down to stay healthy.
1:02.0	If you eat the elements of a meal in a specific order, you can cut the glucose spike by up to 75%.
1:07.4	75%? It's crazy. It's crazy. Let's see what beans and rice do to my blood sugar.
1:13.3	And yeah, there's the spike right here.
1:14.8	You can see that went up by 44 milligrams.
1:17.5	That's quite high.
1:19.3	There are also wellness firms that claim to give you insight
1:23.1	into how your body processes food, like Nutrisense, Levels and Cygnos.
1:28.9	Here in the UK, there's one that you've almost definitely heard of.
1:32.8	Zoe.
1:33.9	You almost certainly would have seen the little video ad with Tim Specter.
1:38.1	He's got one of these blood sugar monitors on his arm,
	...

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