Influencers in the health and fitness industry mislead about glucose "spikes"

According to lifestyle content producers, glucose monitors, which are advised for use by diabetics, can help non-diabetics maintain their health. However, nutritionists assert that an increase in blood sugar following a meal is natural, and medical specialists caution social media posts offering advice on preventing "spikes" may cause more harm than good.

On my continuous glucose monitor, I tested Chick-fil-A, and it sent my blood sugar skyrocketing. How many individuals in the comment area seemed to think that was commonplace just astounded me. In a video posted on TikTok on May 24, 2022, that has received 3.4 million views, Jason Wittrock, who goes by @bloodsugarking, states, "For the record, I am not diabetic. I am quite fit and healthy.

Wittrock, a maker of fitness material who declares to "fight a war" against fat, believes that eating eggs and bacon instead caused his blood glucose levels to rise in a "healthy" way.

Wittrock asserts in a more recent video that consuming a red apple caused "a shockingly bad" blood sugar reaction. He advises choosing a Granny Smith apple if you're going to eat one.

His videos are part of an ongoing social media campaign to use continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) devices, which are small, minimally invasive sensors that may be worn on the arm or abdomen to monitor blood sugar levels.

On TikTok, "CGM" had amassed two billion views as of April 2023.

Jessie Inchauste, a French biochemist who goes by "The Glucose Goddess" online, posted graphs of her blood sugar levels after meals and shared "hacks" to prevent "spikes" in a best-selling book titled "The Glucose Revolution," which helped her Instagram following grow to over 1.8 million.

She has claimed that she teaches "glucose science" and can help individuals prevent glucose "events" by having vinegar before a meal or eating veggies first. She has made this claim on a variety of platforms, including podcasts and television interviews.

However, blood sugar normally rises after a meal, and medical experts claim that this kind of information may encourage bad habits.

Body response

Less than 140 mg/DL of blood sugar is regarded as normal. Although Wittrock refers to readings above 140 as a "danger zone" in his writing, experts told AFP that reaching that level for brief periods after a meal shouldn't raise too many red flags.

According to Dawn Davis, professor in the Department of Endocrinology, diabetes, and Metabolism at the University of the Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, "everyone's glucose will spike after they eat, especially food that has a high glycemic index" like fruits or sugary drinks.

General health

This is typical. She stated on April 3 that in people without diabetes, the body will produce insulin to help clear this glucose load, and the blood glucose will recover to normal baseline levels in about 2 hours.

Registered dietitian Christine Byrne from Raleigh, North Carolina, concurred. She told AFP on March 23 that there is "no need to constantly check your blood sugar levels unless you have a medical condition like diabetes that causes it."

According to British doctor Robin Francis, who has founded a YouTube channel devoted to science education, a "laser focus" on glucose is not even advised for diabetics because it can cause people to avoid healthful foods. He claimed to have witnessed patients make unneeded cuts.

Diets designed around CGM data

On April 4, he said: "If a healthy, non-diabetic individual eats a fruit, they would see their glucose rise somewhat before settling back to normal. However, if they eat a burger, the glucose might vary less. It is erroneous for a non-diabetic to "conclude that the fruit is more harmful to them than the burger," he said, even if high glucose levels can be terrible for diabetics.

In his glucose monitoring video, Wittrock describes bacon as "healthy," while the World Health Organization considers processed and cured meats, including bacon, as carcinogens.
Francis claimed that while influencers like Inchauste offer "some sensible advice," they sometimes blend it with "factually incorrect statements." Francis cited the value of dietary fiber as an example.

He called into doubt the evidence that decreasing glucose spikes is superior and referred to her anecdote-driven "hacks." For instance, Inchauste quoted a review that emphasizes diabetic individuals in this piece about vinegar.

My primary worry is that we are pathologizing non-diabetic patients' typical glucose physiology, the man added. It's what they're doing with that data — and what influencers are telling them about that data — that has the potential to harm, not the fact that people are collecting data and are interested in how their bodies function.

Risk of eating disorder

Drawing similarities between eating fudge and running immediately after, as Inchauste did in this post, could set up restrictive dieting responses, according to Abby Langer, a registered dietician in Toronto, Canada.

After consuming sweets, running 5K is disorganized. We don't have to work out to 'burn off' what we consume," she said to AFP on April 1.

The same holds, according to Langer, for suggestions on the order of eating meals.
Although eating vegetables before starches may assist to lessen glucose spikes, why?
This probably won't affect people who don't have diabetes. It is abnormal, she advised, to feel that meals must be broken down so that someone can consume separately each food.

Access for people with diabetes

According to Davis of the University of Wisconsin, there is also concern among medical experts about shortages of glucose monitoring equipment for diabetics.

She stated, using the diabetes medication Tampico as an illustration, "There are already several shortages/accessibility issues with many pharmaceuticals and supplies for patients with diabetes."

The injectable, prescribed medicine Ozempic was first created and approved for many countries to treat type 2 diabetes. However, it was also demonstrated to decrease hunger in patients, which increased Ozempic popularity among those without diabetes.
Even if this "off-label" use is not what is causing the scarcity, it still implies that when there is a shortage of these items for any reason, our patients will compete with people who don't genuinely require the drugs or gadgets to enhance their health.