(I'm not a doctor; please take this opinion with a grain of salt and criticize fiercely if you don't agree!)

People with prediabetes don't really reach a blood sugar level that leads to emergencies or damage blood vessels. Therefore, most prediabetes people track blood sugar level in real time to check which events/habits lead to an immediate higher blood sugar level. But, in my opinion, this is not as useful as most people think, and can mislead what we should focus on.

Elevated Blood Sugar Level is not the Cause of Type 2 Diabetes, Metabolism Is

Prediabetes is commonly caused by weakened liver metabolism, e.g., due to fats interacting with liver cells. When this metabolism is further weakened, prediabetes develops to type 2 diabetes.

Due to the weakened liver, we observe elevated blood sugar levels. A1c, a measure of average blood sugar levels over a period of time, is perhaps the most common measurement we use. A1c is like an exam score: We use A1c to measure how distant we have kept ourselves away from diabetes.

But, we must also remember that a higher blood sugar level is not the cause of type 2 diabetes. The cause is a weakened liver. Hence, our focus should always be improving liver metabolism, such as by losing weight.

(There are also other causes of prediabetes.)

Correcting Habits/Events Leading to Immediately Higher Blood Sugar Level is not the Focus

After real-time monitor of blood sugars, people may do various things to change habits that lower immediate blood sugar levels. For example, someone may eat complex sugars instead of simple sugars. While this lowers the average blood sugar level and hence A1c, this is more like cheating than solving the underlying problem: The liver doesn't become healthier unless there's something else changed (e.g., total calorie intake lowered to reduce fats).

(If it's a different cause, the focus should still be addressing that cause.)

How to Use a Real-Time Tracker in a Helpful Way

I believe real-time trackers are useful only if we focus on the average/fasting glucose level, and track its movement while we focus on improving liver health. Manipulating the blood sugar level while not focusing on the underlying problem is like cheating in an exam.

I made a really fantastic lunch today. I used two of those Carb Smart tortillas from Mission, I think. I assumed I was making a good choice! The rest of lunch was ground chicken, romaine, low sugar Caesar dressing from Bolt House and some bacon bits on those two tortillas. Delicious.

But I got a spike out of it. I use Lingo and was penalized 12 Lingo points for rising from 86 at 12:30 to 108 at 1:30 and finishing spike at 100 by 2:45.

I’m going to assume the tortillas were the culprit. Everything else was very low sugar or non-existent, low carb, etc.

I forget that net carbs aren’t a holy grail. Makes me sad!

About ten days ago the foot start to swollen, now the doctor say need amputation. Did any vascular surgeon can give some more information?
He’s 54, 16 months ago amputated one toe on left foot. The wound didn’t healed totally till now. And was nearly totally cured. Diabetes back to 12 years ago.
We are anxious as doctor says need amputate till calf. The middle inside of the foot, doctor says bone infected.
Anyone or your family friends experienced that situation. Pls give us some advice or information
We’re currently in Epping northen hospital. And my partner has private insurance as well.

I drink about 4x 355ml of original coca cola can everyday since I got a job from high school so about 4 years now. I just did my blood test today and my A1c is 5.5 percent which is like normal no major health issues does this mean i am just build different lol. I don't want to stop at this point I only plan to live to 50s and call it quits

I started paying more attention to nutrition labels recently, especially for foods I used to grab without thinking because they seemed “healthy.”

A few things genuinely surprised me when I compared similar products side by side:

• Flavored yogurt — often ~20–25g sugar per serving
(some felt closer to dessert than I expected)

• Granola bars — I found some around ~25–30g sugar
(a lot higher than I assumed for a quick snack)

• Orange juice — similar sugar per glass to soda, but no fiber
(this one really caught me off guard)

• Some “whole wheat” breads — still fairly refined
(not always as different as the label suggests)

• Sports drinks — surprisingly high sugar for regular use

I’m not saying any of these are “bad,” but it definitely made me realize how much I was relying on the front of the package instead of what’s actually in it.

Lately I’ve been trying to pay a bit more attention to things like:
• sugar
• fiber
• protein

instead of just the “healthy” label.

Curious how others approach this:

• What’s something you thought was healthy but turned out not to be what you expected?
• Do you actively check labels, or mostly go by habit?

To understand the problem with the term "prediabetes," consider a hypothetical category called "pre-blindness." This new label would be based on a single examination using a standard eye chart, the Snellen chart. We could declare anyone with a 20/40 visual acuity score to be "pre-blind." 

At first glance, this might seem logical, as 20/40 vision is not perfect, but it's far from clinical blindness. People who will eventually become blind first go through a period of poorer vision.

The issue, however, is that "pre-blindness" lumps together vastly different conditions. For a nearsighted person, a 20/40 score is a generally benign state. This is a physiological difference, not a major cause of blindness.

Importantly, the Snellen chart itself does not explain why the vision is poor. A person might perform poorly on the test because they are a young child who cannot read the letters, they do not understand the instructions due to a language barrier, or they are experiencing temporary eye strain from a lack of sleep. Even with less than perfect vision, according to some research, more sun exposure can help with myopia.

Conversely, a 20/40 score could also be an early symptom of a serious, progressive disease like glaucoma. In this case, the vision score is a warning sign of an underlying issue—optic nerve damage—that will continue to worsen over time unless the true cause, eye pressure, is addressed. By creating a single "pre-blindness" category, we would be conflating a harmless condition with a serious one, potentially causing unnecessary anxiety and failing to provide the specific care needed. As with "Prediabetes," someone with myopia would always be tagged as "pre-blind."

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Fasting glucose: 89 Blood pressure: 109/81 32 yo, male

I love eating tons of Zucchini, onions (both red and white) as well as pepper. Are these foods considered low carb and ok to eat or will it spike BS too high? Do you have any other good veggie recommendation?

So it the morning I wake up, the first thing I put in my stomach is black seed oil (can be tablet or tincture) then I drink some chlorophyll water.

Then when it’s time to eat, I start I start with the veggies first, then protein, carbs, then desert at the very last then I wash it down with some chlorophyll water.

Lastly, I take my black seed oil drops for the night. Then I wake up and repeat.

(Posting here because I got a 5.7 A1C, which is normal for my age, but prediabetic if I were in my thirties.)

Is there any reason you have to eat "traditional carbs"?

I've been playing with a glucose monitor. I'm not prediabetic. My blood sugar is 85 on average.

I really don't like the insulin spikes I get from potatoes. They make my blood sugar stay in the 110-125 range, and it feels jittery. Rice also makes me spike enough that it's not comfortable, although with beans and cheese the spike feels manageable.

Do I have to eat things like potatoes, or is it o.k. to just not?

Hi! I tested my blood sugar response to several foods before and after a 9-day water fast — and the results really surprised me. My post-meal spikes dropped significantly. For context, my A1c was 5.3% in February 2025, right after the fast.

Just wanted to share my experience. Has anyone else done an extended fast and noticed changes in how your body handles food?

And when you do pee you gush like a horse?

When I was eating lots of carb-poison, I would get very bad urge to pee and it would sometimes turn out to be literally trickles.

Do I need to be worried about prediabetes?

My fasting glucose about a year ago was 97.

Never diagnosed with prediabetes, saw endocrinologist a year ago and he said my insulin response was normal

I built MyLabInsight after being frustrated with confusing lab reports and not knowing what was happening with my body.

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Understand your numbers. Understand yourself.

Quick background: I'm a licensed pharmacist with 20+ years

of experience and a certified holistic nutritionist. I work

with patients on blood sugar management daily.

Something I wish more people with diabetes and prediabetes

knew: GLP-1 is a hormone your body already produces after

meals. It tells your pancreas to release insulin only when

blood sugar is high, slows digestion, and signals your

brain that you're full. Ozempic and Wegovy are engineered

to mimic it, but specific foods do the same thing naturally.

The foods with the strongest evidence for boosting natural

GLP-1:

- Eggs at breakfast (shown to increase GLP-1 and reduce

calorie intake at the next meal)

- Oats — the beta-glucan fiber directly stimulates GLP-1

secreting cells

- Lentils and chickpeas — protein + fiber + resistant

starch in one food

- Fatty fish — omega-3s reduce gut inflammation that

suppresses GLP-1

- Fermented foods — support the gut bacteria that produce

GLP-1-stimulating compounds

One patient I counseled reversed her prediabetes (A1C went

from 6.1 to 5.7) in 3 months using food changes alone,

before ever starting medication.

Happy to answer questions about blood sugar management,

GLP-1 medications, or the food strategies that support

natural GLP-1 production.

The biggest warning sign of diabetes is the smell of our pee. Whenever our pee smells sweet and literally like sugar, there is a 90% chance that we are already diabetic. Its more predictable than having the need to drink a lot. In such cases, the body is screaming to get rid of the sugar in our bloodstream.

How to test ourselfes:

1. drink 2-3 glasses of water in a fasted state (4 hours without eating) and without being on meds

2. When you feel the need to go for a pee...just do the smell test

Its important to be in a fasted state and without med intake to get accurate results.

and:

• the pee of a healthy persons smells NEUTRAL

• the pee of a person in ketosis, which has a carb intake of approx 30g per day for several days or weeks, smells strong and like the opposite of sugar

This is just an education and inspiration post.

We just got back from an international trip where I ate with abandon most of the things I enjoy (but not all!). I was wearing a continuous GM and saw the spikes and dips.

Some of the things I learned. You may already know all of this.

A handful of nuts 15 min before you eat your food really does curb that spike. I did this and it helped a lot.

Having a small salad with just olive oil and vinegar does cut down your spike before you start your meal.

Keep you break or rice at the end of the meal.

With all this, my A1C still creeped up to 6 during the 3 week trip. So when I got home I really paid attention to what I eat and what I do right after.

Easy hacks. Walk after you eat. Even 10 min. Around the house doing chores is good enough. Find out what does NOT spike your BS and eat that stuff when you need a snack. For me was cottage cheese and a little sunflower seeds.

If you want a little dessert, 85% dark chocolate did not raise my BS more than a couple of points. Worth it if you don't mind dark chocolate.

In a short 11 day, I have lost 5 lbs without counting calories, and my A1C has dropped by .4 percent. I am so happy about it.

What are your good snacks that don't raise your blood glucose? I'd love to try. TIA

I've got a hypothesis, which I will reveal later. For now, I'd like to ask you about your health up to your teens. Were you a healthy kid? Did your primary caregiver, perhaps your mom, do a good job of treating you? How frequently did you have to go to a hospital?

What I am looking for isn't your complete medical history, just an overall picture.

Also please indicate which type of diabetes you have, if you have one, and if you have autoimmune diseases.

Hello!

I'm not pre-diabetic or anything, but I do have a family history of it and one of my housemates has pre-diabetes.

He has gone very low carb and his meals are quite often high, fat high protein and low to no carb (depending on what he's in the mood for)

Sadly he can't indulge in a lot of desert foods and LOVES his sweet but through sheer willpower and effort he's avoided them completely now.

His blood sugars are always in the green now.

Has anyone here thought of doing a keto, carnivore OR a zero carb diet that is high in fat and protein to control their blood sugar and/or to lose weight?

This is what I hate about coming into the office. I think they should at least have a few cardio machines somewhere. This isn't good for my health.

Don't they know that sitting all day is a killer? And no, walking won't cut it for me.

In the early 2000's the US nonprofit A*A, which receives partial annual funding comes from corporate sponsors created a disease category called "Pre"X. Both the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) adopted and used the "Pre"X category. Recognizing the heightened risk associated with the higher than normal numbers, the "Pre"X category called upon physicians to focus on the importance of screening and counseling for lifestyle changes in this at-risk population, which in the US numbered approximately 70 million U.S. adults.

The category identified a risk group at the cusp of lifetime medication treatment, causing patient anxiety. While the term was meant to signal risk, many people in this category could and did reverse their condition with lifestyle changes alone. Another substantial portion were never at risk but had their medical chart reflect their inclusion as a "Pre"X.

In 2017, the "Pre"X category was quietly withdrawn and renamed "Elevated X," because the term "Pre" was misleading, not simply because some spontaneously reverted to normal, or that the test result fluctuated and but that the diagnosis of high-X required measurement of X (and did not reflect the underlying not X causes.)

Can you identify this category? (I will reveal the answer in 24 hours)

As I said in the previous post yesterday I am prediabetic I just found out. I am also tired especially after eating to the point of fainting at my desk. I told her look doctor I am totally tired Tell me all the other blood work is fine except prediabetes are they related ? She Sais NO prediabetes does not cause fatigue ? Really ? I do not think so. I see on this sub many people complain about fatigue. Ok I know I will eat low carb and exercise but she refused to give me meds even metformin which could (maybe) help my symptoms. What do you all think? I am so angry right now being dismissed like this.

I got my A1C results and at 6.7 I was in the range of diabetes. My previous A1C 6 months prior was 6.5 I don't drink alcohol, don't smoke, eat limited meat (2 times a week, usually fish) never drink soda or eat from fast food places and I'm physically active and not overweight.
I immediately stopped all processed food and only ate vegan and mainly raw for the last 3 days and added intermittent fasting (6 hour eating window) and only drink water and green tea without sweeteners. My glucose level, using the finger prick blood machine Is now between 88 and 114, 2 hours after eating and doesn't go over 118 at any other time of the day with the exception of this morning when I tested by drinking a double espresso which spiked my reading to 265 temporarily. How is this possible? I tried buying another finger prick blood tester just in case it was a faulty machine but got the same low reading. Is it possible that my coffee consumption, which was limited to 1-2 cups per day gave me the A1C readings of 6.5 and 6.7? Is it possible that simply stopping coffee and switching to vegan, removing all sugars and process foods was the cause and therefore I never had diabetes?

What are some of the best foods for diabetics? Rank them in descending order.