Monitoring the Effects
Testing your blood sugar will help you better understand how the foods you eat affect you over the short and long term.
Immediate changes to blood sugar
Testing about two hours after a meal will tell you if certain foods cause an unpredictable change in your blood sugar. Of course, you'll be able to make an educated guess about how most foods will affect you by the grams of carbohydrate you've eaten. But there are other variables to consider.
Eating fat, protein, or fiber along with carbohydrates will slow the absorption of glucose into the bloodstream.
|
Type of Food |
Amount Converted to Blood Sugar |
Conversion Time |
|
Carbohydrate |
100% |
15 to 90 minutes |
|
Protein |
58% |
3 to 4 hours |
|
Fat |
10 to 30% |
Several Hours |
Because a number of factors - even the way a food is cooked - can affect how it's absorbed, self-monitoring is the only way to really gauge the results. A typical reading two hours after eating is 140 mg/dL1, although your target may differ, depending upon your doctor's recommendation.
Long-term effects of blood sugar
Over time, uncontrolled blood sugar can have two effects on the body.
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Consistently high blood sugar can lead to a wide range of long-term complications, from eye disease to heart problems.
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If you take in more food than your body needs to function, the extra calories will be stored as fat. That's the body's way of saving energy for later, but it can eventually cause unwanted weight gain.
1Â American College of Endocrinology: Consensus statement on guidelines for glycemic control. Endocrine Pract 8 (Suppl. 1): 5-11, 2002.