What a Month on a Glucose Monitor Taught Me at 71

For about a month I wore a Stelo continuous glucose monitor on the back of my arm. My subscription just ended, and I’m not renewing, so here is everything it taught me.

I’m over 70 and trying to live to 200. Blood sugar matters for that goal, because high glucose over time is tied to diabetes, heart disease and faster aging. I wanted to see my own numbers instead of guessing.

How I Tested

I did something a little different. Instead of just wearing the monitor and eating normally, I often ate a single food on an empty stomach and watched what happened over the next two hours. Then I logged each food in my health app with the starting number, the peak and how long it took to come back down.

It is not a lab study. It is one man, one sensor and a notebook. But the numbers surprised me.

What Are Normal Numbers?

My overall numbers looked healthy. In my last week, my average was 87 mg/dL and I spent 97% of the time between 70 and 140, the range most people aim for. My lowest reading that week was 61 and my highest was 126.

The averages hide the interesting part, though. The spikes are where I learned the most.

The Foods That Spiked Me the Most

Here are my biggest rises, measured from where I started to my peak:

Chips and salsa: up 96 points, from 85 to 181. It took almost two hours to peak.
Clif bar: up 85 points, to 183. That was the highest number I saw all month.
Chocolate eclair: up 84 points, to 169.
A Factor pizza meal: up 71 points, to 173.
A bowl of blueberries: up 57 points, to 154, and back down fast.
Ice cream, a Snickers, French toast and honey: all in the 44 to 56 point range.

The Clif bar bothered me the most. It is sold as a health food, and it hit me harder than an eclair.

The Foods That Barely Moved It

Red wine: no rise at all.
Barbecue ribs: up only 3 points.
Nuts: up 21 points.
My four morning coffees: up 34 points, which surprised me.

The pattern was simple. Fat and protein kept me flat. Fast carbs, sugar and processed snacks sent me up, sometimes into numbers I would never have guessed.

Healthy People Spike Too

I am not alone. A 2018 Stanford study put continuous glucose monitors on 57 healthy people. Researchers found blood sugar climbing into the prediabetic and even diabetic range far more often than expected, and a simple breakfast of corn flakes and milk spiked most of them. You can read a summary of that study from Stanford Medicine.

That is the real value of a monitor. Your fasting number at the doctor’s office can look perfect while your blood sugar is riding a roller coaster after meals.

My Clove Experiment

Near the end of the month I started chewing and swallowing two whole cloves right before bed. Before the cloves, my wake-up glucose averaged about 92. After I started, my morning readings were 76, 77, 78, 80 and 84, an average of about 79.

That is a drop of roughly 13 points. I can’t prove the cloves caused it. Sleep, what I ate the night before and plenty of other things move morning glucose. It is only a few days of data. But it was interesting enough that I keep taking them. I wrote up the whole thing in my clove experiment post.

What I’m Changing

I’m done with “healthy” snack bars. They spiked me as hard as dessert.
When I do eat carbs, I eat them with protein or fat, not alone.
I pay more attention to processed foods like chips and pizza, which hit me harder than I expected.
I keep the cloves at bedtime for now.

Is a Glucose Monitor Worth It?

For a month, absolutely. I learned more about how food affects my body in four weeks than in the rest of my life combined. I don’t think I need to wear one forever. The lessons stick once you see your own numbers climb.

If you are thinking about trying one, talk to your doctor first, and don’t panic over a single high reading. Look for patterns.

What food do you think would spike you the most? Tell me in the comments.

You can see everything else I do in my protocols, follow my numbers on my tests and stats page, and check out my fitness routine.

Live long and prosper,
Gary

A note from Gary: I am not a doctor, and I am definitely not your doctor. I’m running a public experiment on myself, and this is one man’s experience with one glucose monitor, not medical advice. If you have diabetes or take medication that affects blood sugar, talk to your physician before changing anything.