I Wore a Continuous Glucose Monitor and Drank Wine. Here’s What Happened.
When I was 12, I sat in a hospital waiting room all day, drinking a yellow sugar slush and having my blood drawn hourly to check my blood sugar. I was told I was hypoglycemic, meaning my blood sugar was low.
As an adult, I convinced myself I was insulin resistant, pre-diabetic, and fat from eating more carbs than protein—self-diagnosed via Instagram, of course.
Fast-forward to present day: I wanted some concrete answers. Now that some continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) are available over the counter (meaning non-diabetics no longer need a prescription to try one), the nerd in me decided to check out my blood sugar levels for myself.
My Experience Wearing a CGM
Here’s how blood sugar works: When you eat carbohydrates, your body breaks many of them down into glucose, which is absorbed from the gut into the bloodstream, explains Darshan Shah, MD, CEO and founder of Next Health. At the same time, your pancreas secretes insulin, which helps move glucose into your cells to be used as energy. The issue is, if foods are broken down into glucose really quickly (which is often the case with refined carbohydrates and sugars) you can get a rapid rise, or spike, in blood sugar. Those foods have a high glycemic index, which is a measure of how fast a food raises your blood sugar.
Occasional spikes aren’t the end of the world, but when they’re significant and frequent—particularly alongside excess calorie intake and inactivity—it may contribute to insulin resistance and metabolic dysfunction, says Shah. Spikes and crashes can also feel like cravings and binges, high and low energy swings, after-lunch slumps, and irritability (aka being “hangry”).
One of the first proactive steps for supporting your blood sugar is understanding what impacts it the most, which is different for everyone. That’s where my CGM came in. This device helps you get a better picture of what raises your blood sugar, along with habits and foods you can include in your routine to manage those unwanted spikes, explains Shah.
Dry January felt like a safe time to try it: Since I was abstaining from alcohol, I wouldn’t need to watch my blood sugar spike with every cocktail. At least, that’s how I thought it would work.
I ordered the Stelo by Dexcom CGM online because it connects to my OURA ring. I paid $100 for two CGMs; each one lasts two weeks, no prescription needed, and you can use FSA or HSA funds. (If you are hypoglycemic or use insulin, get a prescription from a doctor. My friend who is truly diabetic wears a prescription Dexcom CGM all the time that connects to an insulin pump on his body called Omnipod. He calls mine, “the hipster monitor” so I guess he thinks I’m an amateur, which I am.)
“One of the first proactive steps for supporting your blood sugar is understanding what impacts it the most, which is different for everyone. That’s where my CGM came in.”
I applied the CGM to the back of my upper arm by pressing the applicator against my skin and clicking it to insert. Beware, the applicator has a bit of a jolt to it, which can be jarring. The device measures glucose in the interstitial fluid just under the skin with a small flexible wire, rather than pricking blood with a needle. It’s painless; in fact, you can’t really feel it once it’s on.
The CGM reads your blood sugar every five minutes and transmits the data to the Stelo app via Bluetooth (and on the OURA app, if you wear the smart ring), creating a graph highlighting your optimal glucose range. It’s waterproof so you take showers with it on, as well. Dexcom claims it’s 93 percent accurate, compared to a gold-standard lab blood glucose test.
The Results of My CGM Journey
Throughout January, my blood sugar stayed pretty stable—there was only a noticeable impact when I ate tangerines, of all foods. While I looked forward to drinking wine in February, I was admittedly terrified to watch my blood sugar jump up and down on the CGM.
But during my research, I learned something interesting that stuck with me: Experts have found a strong connection between a healthy gut microbiome and blood sugar balance. Shah explains that the trillions of organisms in our gut produce short chain fatty acids that signal our liver to slow down the production of glucose and improve insulin sensitivity. Shah notes that the beneficial gut bacteria Akkermansia muciniphila, in particular, may “help our intestinal cells signal with GLP-1 to stabilize our metabolism.” In fact, a 2019 study in humans, published in Nature Medicine showed supplementing with Akkermansia improved insulin sensitivity by almost 29 percent.
That said, if you’re already “metabolically healthy with normalized blood sugars and you’re active, adding these probiotics won’t influence you so much,” says Ryan Welter, MD, PhD, who runs a longevity medicine practice in Westwood, Massachusetts.
“During my research, I learned something interesting that stuck with me: Experts have found a strong connection between a healthy gut microbiome and blood sugar balance.”
Welter is a fan of berberine, a plant compound used in traditional Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine for centuries, and personally takes it daily. Some research suggest berberine may help support blood sugar regulation by modulating the gut microbiome (although it’s worth noting these studies are on mice).
With this new information in hand, as a highly unscientific but interesting experiment, I decided to first work on my gut microbiome before applying the second CGM. I took Pendulum probiotics with Akkermansia and berberine by Luma Nutrition first thing every morning for 90s days. I then wore the second CGM for two weeks and noticed something surprising: My wine o’clock habit didn’t spike my blood sugar; neither did strawberries on an empty stomach; the exact tangerines I ate in January; or Monday night pizza, prosecco, and red wine at Gjelina.
Even the most drastic food coma-inducing indulgences—I’m not proud of what follows—like my multiple Chardonnays, plus black licorice and chocolate, at a Bruce Springsteen concert, did not raise my blood sugar out of range. I am proud of that part. With all that getting-to-the-concert stress plus the sweet snacks, my blood sugar did curve gently to the tippity-top of a non-diabetic range (140 mg/dL) and then sloped back down to its normal resting place (around 99 mg/dL), where it stayed all night.
During my testing journey, I had a couple of other small spikes—sadly from two of my favorite food groups, milk chocolate and rosemary flatbread crackers. And, surprisingly, my non-alcoholic Bud Zero and fresh lime juice margarita raised my glucose level more than wine.
What I Ultimately Took Away from This Experience
“It’s the sugar that spikes blood sugar,” says Shah. “Not the alcohol.” He explains the alcohol itself usually doesn’t raise blood sugar because, well, it’s an alcohol not a sugar; it can actually decrease liver glucose output because your liver is busy metabolizing the alcohol. With mixed drinks, “there’s a ton of sugar added to mask the taste of alcohol,” says Shah. “Those directly spike your blood sugar.” The margarita I had was made of tequila plus lime juice (juice removes the fruit’s fiber, which slows digestion and sugar absorption) and agave (which is 85% fructose, higher than high-fructose corn syrup, but surprisingly has a low glycemic index) so the lime juice was probably the culprit.
As for my Bud Zero happy hour, “Bud Zero is all carb load,” says Welter. “It’s a quick maltose hit to blood sugar. And maltose has a high glycemic index.”
“It’s the sugar that spikes blood sugar. Not the alcohol. —Darshan Shah, MD”
Wine is an interesting case, since it naturally contains sugar—after all, it’s made from grapes—which means some residual sugar remains after fermentation. Shah says that for him, white wine gives him a spike in blood sugar. “Dry red wine has a lot of polyphenols and less sugar and less carbohydrates, so less blood sugar spiking occurs,” he says. I have gratitude and deep relief that red wine does not present any blood sugar issues for me.
I also learned that although my glucose spikes were not nearly as bad as I had dreaded, maybe I don’t need to eat white flour crackers and Bud Zero for my mocktail hour any longer. I also now know that as an adult, I’m not hypoglycemic.
As for the probiotics, there’s no scientific way to confirm what they did, but anecdotally I felt they stabilized my blood sugar—plus, at the very least, they helped regiment me in a positive way. All this to say: Everybody is different, and the challenge I always have with supplements is it’s hard to measure exactly what they do.
At the end of my second stint with the Stelo CGM, I celebrated. I had pasta and red wine for dinner at Pizzeria Mozza, and didn’t check any blood sugar app. I’ve heard those trackers can make people crazy, even health nerds like me.
How to Support Healthy Blood Sugar Levels
There are many things we can do to maintain a healthy and stable blood glucose levels, including daily exercise, building muscle mass, and prioritizing well-balanced meals. Here, the experts break down what you can do on a daily basis:
Eat plenty of fiber.
Fiber is key to slowing down glucose absorption, according to Welter. He says vegetables alone are not enough; he takes six psyllium capsules a day. Note: It’s best to slowly ramp up your fiber and always drink plenty of water to keep it moving through your system.
Shah actually recommends starting every meal with fiber: “Vegetables first, then protein, then carbs.”
Incorporate healthy fats.
Fat slows sugar absorption. So go ahead and eat cheese with the crackers, avocados on toast, sour cream with potatoes, nuts with tangerines, and dip your bread in olive oil.
Eat whole foods.
Whenever possible, avoid foods that are stripped of their fiber, including ultra-processed foods, white flour, sugar, and fruit juice. Since these foods are devoid of fiber, it can cause them to turn into sugar very quickly.
Support your gut.
Beyond supplementation, supporting your microbiome through diet is crucial. “Eat a lot of fermented foods like kimchi, sauerkraut, and yogurt with live cultures; these help create more beneficial bacteria in the gut,” says Shah.
Move your body.
Take a 10-minute walk after a meal. Exercise prompts muscle tissue to call for glucose, so it lowers blood sugar levels. Strength training is also important. “If you have a good muscle mass, that generally leads to good glucose metabolism,” says Welter. “So, you’re not relying on the liver to do it all.”
Be mindful of sugary beverages.
Avoid sugary mixed cocktails and skip sugary sodas altogether. If you’re having a glass of wine, go for dry options over sweet; typically, red wine has less sugar than white because it’s drier, plus you get the benefit of polyphenols.
Find your peace.
“Stress is horrible for blood sugar,” says Welter. “Cortisol instability will kill you quickly in a lot of different ways.” So, meditate, pray, do whatever you can to “get back to your place.”