If I asked you to make a list of foods that you predict would spike your blood sugar, what would be on your list? Coca-Cola? Twinkies? Frappuccinos?

Probably not steak and green beans, right?

Well, as it turns out, steak and green beans spike my blood sugar. I wouldn't have predicted that, either, before I started wearing a continuous glucose monitor (CGM). You've likely heard of CGMs, because they're a big trend in the health industry right now, but if you haven't, what they do is pretty self-explanatory. They monitor your glucose...continuously.

Paying attention to your blood sugar is one of the most important things you can do for your health. Poor glucose control is most often associated with diabetes, but it also affects a range of chronic conditions, including Alzheimer's, stroke, heart disease, and more. It can also lower your day-to-day energy levels, impede your ability to control your weight, and decrease your sexual function.

I wear a CGM from a company called Levels. As a self-proclaimed tech geek, I appreciate that the Levels app goes way beyond most companion apps for CGMs. Until I was a Levels member, I thought I understood my metabolic health pretty well. I definitely didn't expect steak and green beans to be on the watch list. But because your body's glucose response to food is highly individual, there's no way to know until you test.

Casey Means, MD, my guest on today's show, is the Chief Medical Officer and Co-Founder Levels, Associate Editor of the International Journal of Disease Reversal and Prevention, and she guest lectures at Stanford University.

Casey's mission is to maximize human potential and reverse the epidemic of preventable chronic disease by empowering individuals with tools that can facilitate a deep understanding of our bodies and inform personalized and sustainable dietary and lifestyle choices. Dr. Means’s perspective has been recently featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Men's Health, Forbes, Business Insider, Techcrunch, Entrepreneur Magazine, Metabolism.

Episode Sponsors:

Levels: If you want to better understand how food affects your health and try a continuous glucose monitor, go to levels.link/Ben to learn more. Check out their well-researched, in-depth blog too.

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Dana Sue Gray Pt. 2