Our CGM experiment on my husband Alex — Amy McKinnon Nutrition

In mid-March my husband Alex let me put a continuous glucose monitor on him for 10 days to see how a non-diabetic’s blood glucose levels would react to food, exercise and daily activities.

I was super excited for a couple of reasons. Firstly, that he agreed to a diabetes related experiment that involved putting a device on him and giving him responsibility to check his BGLs (we used the Freestyle Libre so he had to scan the device with the reader to get his BGLs) , to take photos and to report back. I was also excited of course to see the range that non-diabetic BGLs would be within, how much they would fluctuate and the BGL response to certain food.

So before we share the insights and 10-day journey, thank you to Alex for letting me do this!

Although Alex and I follow a very similar diet, overall Alex would consume more processed sugar than me. So we used this to see how a non-diabetics BGLs respond to natural sugars (e.g. in fruit) vs refined/processed sugars such as brown sugar in coffee.

In a type 1’s mind, I would have presumed that Alex would be able to maintain a straight line all day no matter what he consumed because his pancreas will always be on high alert to produce insulin as soon as the sugar in his foods hit his blood stream.

I had done some research on this prior to our at-home experiment and knew a non-diabetic’s BGLs could fluctuate depending on the food that was consumed.

So, seeing this in real time was fun and insightful.

Note, Alex’s A1c when tested annually at the doctors is around 5.5%. A number most type 1’s dream of.

Now let’s join Alex on his CGM wearing journey…. these photos are in chronological order.

My BGLs on my Dexcom - screenshot taken same time as Alex’s above

vs my post-lunch BGLs…. I win this time.

And then the post-sugar crash… this is real!

Bowl of veggies, wholegrain carbs and tofu… yum!

Alex’s day vs mine - a few more ups and downs for me!

The JOY of overnight perfect BGLs! With uninterrupted sleep. Oh how type 1’s dream of this!

And then my morning BGLs…. not bad until the post-breakfast/morning insulin resistant spike

Wholegrain carbs, low fat and medium protein …. the magic meal for stable BGLs! Type 1 or not.

Another great night (I was very envious of!)

My rare day of stubborn lows. This would have been good for a non-diabetic as they have a lower threshold than type 1s who run their BGLs a little higher to prevent serious lows.

If only my spikes where like this! Post breakfast BGL response.

And my day. Still within range but more ups and downs (range is 75-150 mg/dL)

And to end things on what type 1’s call a unicorn - the ideal BGL of 100.

The purpose of this experiment wasn’t to compare Alex’s BGLs to mine but rather to gain some insight into a non-diabetics sugar levels, their range, the fluctuations, the response to processed foods/sugar vs wholegrain carbohydrates.

At the end when the CGM had expired, Alex said “I’m going to miss my CGM…” which make me smile inside.

Another big thank you to Alex for taking all these photos and tracking his BGLs for 10 days. Hopefully giving him insight into some of the management required by type 1’s in monitoring our BGLs on a daily basis. He was just lucky enough that his pancreas would give it’s own insulin and he didn’t have to do that ;-)