United States: Continuous blood glucose monitors represent a life-saving device for diabetes patients because they deliver real-time blood sugar information through non-invasive measurement.
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The latest expert report states after studying the participants, these monitoring devices fail to demonstrate the expected accuracy, thus resulting in improper dietary choices among users.
The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition released research that indicates that continuous glucose monitors produce (CGMs) elevated blood sugar measurement results when being used on healthy adult test subjects.
Continuous blood glucose monitors displayed high blood sugar readings from two to four times more frequently than standard finger prick tests, which physicians recognize as the best method to measure blood glucose, according to the research.
What are the experts stating?
According to the senior researcher Javier Gonzalez, a professor of health at the University of Bath in the U.K., “CGMs are fantastic tools for people with diabetes because even if a measurement isn’t perfectly accurate, it’s still better than not having a measurement at all. However, for someone with good glucose control, they can be misleading based on their current performance,” US News reported.
Furthermore, “For healthy individuals, relying on CGMs could lead to unnecessary food restrictions or poor dietary choices,” he stated.
“If you want to assess your blood sugar accurately, traditional methods are still the way to go,” he added.
Modern diabetic devices
The developers created continuous glucose monitors primarily for diabetic patients to monitor their blood sugar levels.
Modern devices have shifted from diabetic use to serving health-conscious consumers as a tool that tracks food-related changes in blood sugar levels, according to researcher background notes.
The device-monitoring system permits users to track blood sugar conditions through an adhesive arm patch that sends information to mobile phones and smart watches or wearable technology.
What have the experts observed?
The researchers measured blood sugar responses in 15 healthy people through various examinations of fruit-based products, from whole fruit to smoothies, US News reported.
The monitoring device misjudged the GI value of fruit smoothies by 30 percent since it calculated them at GI 69, while finger stick tests revealed GI 53 as the actual value according to research findings.
Both finger prick testing and human research indicated that whole fruits possess low GI properties, yet smartphone monitors classified these fruits into the higher medium or high GI ranges.
Consumers might abstain from eating whole fruits because of incorrect blood sugar spikes reported through the monitor, according to the researchers.
The data indicates that monitor devices measured time exceeding healthy blood sugar ranges by 400 percent more than actual human activity levels.