No diabetes diagnoses, no problem, right? Think again. A study conducted by researchers at Stanford University, found healthy individuals experienced blood sugar spikes—similar to the common symptoms diabetics experience. In the study, the researchers gathered about 500,000 measurements from 57 participants. Their goal was to monitor blood sugar fluctuations throughout the day, as opposed to the current standards to measure in a fasted state or through glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) tests. Both these methods only give one reading for a specific time. To compare results, they studied patterns in changes after meals between people who ate the same thing.

Based on the findings, they ultimately placed the participants into three groups—“low variability” (little to no spikes), “severe variability” (spiked often) and “moderate” for those that fell in between. By measuring more frequently, the researchers found that many people who would normally be characterized as healthy may in fact be at higher risk for diabetes than expected.

The researchers also examined individual’s responses to common foods including corn flakes and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. They found most of the participants experienced significant spikes in blood sugar after eating these foods.

The results of this study are published in the journal PLOS Biology.

For more information visit: https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.2005143

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