<story><title>FDA clears first over-the-counter continuous glucose monitor</title><url>https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-clears-first-over-counter-continuous-glucose-monitor</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>pwthornton</author><text>The people at Levels, who do continuous glucose monitoring, say that oatmeal is one of the worst offenders.&lt;p&gt;You really need to spike your oatmeal with fats, protein, and fiber.&lt;p&gt;I regularly eat steel-cut oats for breakfast. My go-to is steel-cut oats, two tablespoons of Chia seeds mixed in (tons of fat and fiber), and a serving of mixed nuts and berries on top. On the side, I eat four scoops of powdered peanut butter mixed with water. This version of peanut butter is much higher in protein and much lower in fat and calories than normal peanut butter.&lt;p&gt;Doing all of this can keep the spikes to a reasonable amount (I also eat the powdered peanut butter first). Any kind of oatmeal by itself is bad. Instant oatmeal is worse. Instant oatmeal with all that sugar and stuff thrown in is terrible.&lt;p&gt;I suspect if you made your oatmeal with milk instead of water, it would help a lot, but I can&amp;#x27;t do this from being lactose intolerant.</text></item><item><author>michaelcampbell</author><text>&amp;gt; I was shocked at how much I spiked from oatmeal.&lt;p&gt;Was it oatmeal, or what you ate oatmeal with (milk, sweetener, etc), or do you know?</text></item><item><author>cleandreams</author><text>I am prediabetic and I have one. It&amp;#x27;s partly covered by insurance. By the metrics my estimated average glucose has gone down from 129 to 98 or so (normal). I haven&amp;#x27;t had my HbA1c in awhile.&lt;p&gt;I think they are amazing. It&amp;#x27;s been SO HELPFUL. However I don&amp;#x27;t think it makes sense for normal people. I am on a reddit group for prediabetes and it&amp;#x27;s not unusual that people who are underweight (anorexic?) and have completely normal metrics come in and post in an utterly freaked out state. These are people who are somewhat compulsive and anxious. I think that if you are normal for blood glucose having access to all this data can make you compulsive and anxious.&lt;p&gt;However, for me as a prediabetic, it is really useful. It tells you what’s going on with your blood sugar in real time with no ideology. In the beginning I was spiking from things that a nutritionist would say was OK. I found whole grains didn’t work for me. I was shocked at how much I spiked from oatmeal. What causes blood glucose spikes does not map directly to number of carbs and also every body is different.&lt;p&gt;After 6 mo of lowered carbs, weight training, and getting down to normal BMI, I can now eat SMALL portions of things like brown rice. My health has improved. It&amp;#x27;s great. IMHO all prediabetics and diabetics should have one, covered by insurance. It would really improve health and reduce complications.</text></item><item><author>mangoman</author><text>I recently had an unusual health event that resulted in me passing out. My wife, who is a physician, thought it might be hypoglycemia, since i&amp;#x27;m at high risk for diabetes. She found a super friendly endocrinologist who put me on a CGM for two weeks. I never hit the hypoglycemia range during those two weeks, so it didn&amp;#x27;t really explain what my issue... but honestly the data was SUPER interesting. Just observing the various spikes made me make healthier choices, or noticing when I was feeling extra tired and seeing if that correlated to not having eaten for little while, or eating something sugary before.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s sort of like tracking your steps when you first get a smart watch. It may not have been the reason you got the device, but seeing the data, people are encouraged to act on it, even if you don&amp;#x27;t have an acute issue. since I didn&amp;#x27;t have a prescription, I couldn&amp;#x27;t get one here (didn&amp;#x27;t want to go through some sketch online site). I tried to get one from my family in India, but the prices were really high and they couldn&amp;#x27;t get the fancier one that tracks straight to your phone, so I didn&amp;#x27;t get one.&lt;p&gt;I think this could be a god send for preventing pre-diabetic people who would take preventative steps if it weren&amp;#x27;t such a pain in the ass to measure consistently.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jkaplowitz</author><text>Consider trying oatmeal with lactose-free milk. The number of lactose-free dairy products varies a lot around the world, but if you’re in a developed Western European or North American country, lactose-free milk itself is almost certainly available in at least two different fat levels. The most widely available brand in the US, but certainly not the only one, is Lactaid.&lt;p&gt;(Special mention: Germany has an impressive variety of lactose-free options. Even lactose-free Nutella equivalent, lactose-free cream cheese, and lactose-free mascarpone! Many lactose-free products in Germany have competition between the store brand, a major brand or two, and&amp;#x2F;or a brand or two focused on lactose-free.)</text></comment>
<story><title>FDA clears first over-the-counter continuous glucose monitor</title><url>https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-clears-first-over-counter-continuous-glucose-monitor</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>pwthornton</author><text>The people at Levels, who do continuous glucose monitoring, say that oatmeal is one of the worst offenders.&lt;p&gt;You really need to spike your oatmeal with fats, protein, and fiber.&lt;p&gt;I regularly eat steel-cut oats for breakfast. My go-to is steel-cut oats, two tablespoons of Chia seeds mixed in (tons of fat and fiber), and a serving of mixed nuts and berries on top. On the side, I eat four scoops of powdered peanut butter mixed with water. This version of peanut butter is much higher in protein and much lower in fat and calories than normal peanut butter.&lt;p&gt;Doing all of this can keep the spikes to a reasonable amount (I also eat the powdered peanut butter first). Any kind of oatmeal by itself is bad. Instant oatmeal is worse. Instant oatmeal with all that sugar and stuff thrown in is terrible.&lt;p&gt;I suspect if you made your oatmeal with milk instead of water, it would help a lot, but I can&amp;#x27;t do this from being lactose intolerant.</text></item><item><author>michaelcampbell</author><text>&amp;gt; I was shocked at how much I spiked from oatmeal.&lt;p&gt;Was it oatmeal, or what you ate oatmeal with (milk, sweetener, etc), or do you know?</text></item><item><author>cleandreams</author><text>I am prediabetic and I have one. It&amp;#x27;s partly covered by insurance. By the metrics my estimated average glucose has gone down from 129 to 98 or so (normal). I haven&amp;#x27;t had my HbA1c in awhile.&lt;p&gt;I think they are amazing. It&amp;#x27;s been SO HELPFUL. However I don&amp;#x27;t think it makes sense for normal people. I am on a reddit group for prediabetes and it&amp;#x27;s not unusual that people who are underweight (anorexic?) and have completely normal metrics come in and post in an utterly freaked out state. These are people who are somewhat compulsive and anxious. I think that if you are normal for blood glucose having access to all this data can make you compulsive and anxious.&lt;p&gt;However, for me as a prediabetic, it is really useful. It tells you what’s going on with your blood sugar in real time with no ideology. In the beginning I was spiking from things that a nutritionist would say was OK. I found whole grains didn’t work for me. I was shocked at how much I spiked from oatmeal. What causes blood glucose spikes does not map directly to number of carbs and also every body is different.&lt;p&gt;After 6 mo of lowered carbs, weight training, and getting down to normal BMI, I can now eat SMALL portions of things like brown rice. My health has improved. It&amp;#x27;s great. IMHO all prediabetics and diabetics should have one, covered by insurance. It would really improve health and reduce complications.</text></item><item><author>mangoman</author><text>I recently had an unusual health event that resulted in me passing out. My wife, who is a physician, thought it might be hypoglycemia, since i&amp;#x27;m at high risk for diabetes. She found a super friendly endocrinologist who put me on a CGM for two weeks. I never hit the hypoglycemia range during those two weeks, so it didn&amp;#x27;t really explain what my issue... but honestly the data was SUPER interesting. Just observing the various spikes made me make healthier choices, or noticing when I was feeling extra tired and seeing if that correlated to not having eaten for little while, or eating something sugary before.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s sort of like tracking your steps when you first get a smart watch. It may not have been the reason you got the device, but seeing the data, people are encouraged to act on it, even if you don&amp;#x27;t have an acute issue. since I didn&amp;#x27;t have a prescription, I couldn&amp;#x27;t get one here (didn&amp;#x27;t want to go through some sketch online site). I tried to get one from my family in India, but the prices were really high and they couldn&amp;#x27;t get the fancier one that tracks straight to your phone, so I didn&amp;#x27;t get one.&lt;p&gt;I think this could be a god send for preventing pre-diabetic people who would take preventative steps if it weren&amp;#x27;t such a pain in the ass to measure consistently.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>prirun</author><text>&amp;gt; I suspect if you made your oatmeal with milk instead of water, it would help a lot, but I can&amp;#x27;t do this from being lactose intolerant.&lt;p&gt;I dunno about that: milk contains a lot of sugar.  Water doesn&amp;#x27;t.  You could add 3 tbsp of cream for an extra 150 calories (no protein, no sugar) vs 1 cup of milk at 150 cals, 8g protein, 12g carbs.&lt;p&gt;I add almond flour to oatmeal and protein shakes for an extra 100 cals of fat.</text></comment>