Continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) are increasingly used by non-diabetics to track blood glucose levels after food consumption. However, their accuracy remains unvalidated. To explore this further, researchers have compared the CGM readings with capillary blood glucose tests in 15 healthy individuals following the consumption of oral carbohydrates, whole fruits, and various smoothies. The study found that CGMs overestimated fasting and postprandial glucose levels compared to capillary blood glucose tests.
Alarmingly, they overestimated the glycemic index (GI) of a smoothie by approximately 30% postprandially (69 vs. 53) and the time spent above the blood glucose threshold by nearly 400%. Furthermore, while CGMs misclassified whole fruits as medium- or high-GI foods, capillary blood tests identified them as low-GI foods. Researchers attribute these inaccuracies to the fact that CGMs…
