Do Continuous Glucose Monitors Promote Disordered Eating?
When a new wellness trend emerges, Im among the first to be curious about it. As someone whos fought hard for her health, successfully having beat numerous chronic illnesses holistically, I do everything I can to stay well for the long term. In the last few years, though, Ive found myself rolling my eyes more often than wanting to try new health tools and protocols. Thats because as biohacking continues to gain popularity, the trending ways to enhance your health are becoming more and more outlandish. Additionally, the more extreme wellness trends get, the more they also tend to cost, furthering the idea of health as a commodity for only the wealthiest among us. In this vein, I was skeptical when a PR company recently offered me a complementary Levels continuous glucose monitor and the $500, four-week app program that goes with it. Id seen numerous acquaintances posting about these devices, with one specifically, a biohacker for whom I wrote recipes for her intermittent fasting book, sharing frequent videos about them. I said yes to the offer... under the presumption that Id write an article about how much they lead to stress around what one eats. Its not just that the app tells you about the effects of food on your body, either: it literally gives you a graded score every day for how well your glucose performed. Little did I know, the food stress situation would be the least dramatic part of my week, which was a whirlwind of terror. Before I get into the details, I want first to acknowledge how useful this device can befor diabetics. People like my father, who has managed his type two diabetes for decades through mostly holistic means, have no choice but to prick their fingers if they want to find out how their body is reacting to the food they eat. A continuous monitor with a program offers not just less physical pain but significantly less effort to discover important information. For anyone else, though, these monitors are just one more way to hyper-focus on your otherwise good health. Even before receiving the device, I began to worry. Its not just that the app tells you about the effects of food on your body, either: it literally gives you a graded score every day for how well your glucose performed. My first attempt at sticking the tiny needle housed in the plastic casing in my arm went badly. I followed the instructions, which involve doing something that looks and feels like staple gunning yourself, but I placed it too low. It hurt intolerably. The next day, I tried again up higher, and while it was tolerable, its a complete lie that you dont notice the device. (Thats a claim made by both the influencers and the maker companies themselves.) Its a needle in your arm, with a hard plastic shell adhered atop it and a fabric sticker over that. Once you have it implanted, you read your glucose level by holding your phone up to the monitor while the app is open and in scanning mode. Your result is displayed along with a chart of your entire day and its course. Because I have a history of orthorexia that Ive worked hard to overcome, I ate in an aggressive rebellion the first day with the monitor. I had cookies and cheese for lunch and pasta and wine for dinner. In retrospect, that was a little kooky, but its better than having done nothing but nibble on veggies all day in fear. Oddly, there were no noticeable spikes at all: my blood sugar stayed well within the range the monitor chose for me as ideal, 70 to 110. I went to bed relieved but still stressed and experienced discomfort sleeping on that side. Ariane Resnick/Design by Cristina Cianci  The next day, things got interesting quickly. My glucose was going low often. Not just low, but seriously low. Im talking about glucose levels under 60, which the internet says require medical attention, yet I felt fine. I have never had low blood sugar symptoms. I ate more normally than the day before, thinking maybe it was a fluke. The next day, though, the low glucose persisted. I discovered that the only causes of it, outside of diabetes (which I have zero symptoms of), are pancreatic tumors, alcoholism, and anorexianone of those fit. Even worse, when I researched why I didnt notice the extremely low levels, I found out something terrifying. When you have hypoglycemic blood sugar occurrences often enough, your body stops sending you the typical signals of it, like shaking and dizziness, and it can be life-threatening. Mayo Clinic says that over time, repeated episodes of hypoglycemia can lead to hypoglycemia unawareness. The body and brain no longer produce signs and symptoms that warn of low blood sugar, such as shakiness or irregular heartbeats. When this happens, the risk of severe, life-threatening hypoglycemia increases. MedicineNet notes, Hypoglycemia unawareness can result in prolonged exposure to hypoglycemia, resulting in seizure, loss of consciousness, or brain damage. The development of hypoglycemia unawareness also makes intensified blood glucose control more difficult and puts the patient at risk for severe hypoglycemia-related complications.  We need nutrient variety, we need relaxation, and we need joyprograms like this aim to steal that joy under the guise of enhancing your health. Upon learning this, I made a virtual consult appointment with my naturopath for the following week, hoping Id safely last until then. I began to check the monitor compulsively, and since its continuous, every time, I would get the information of whats gone on since the last time I tracked it. This lasted several days, with the worst event being a night during which nearly the entire time I slept, my glucose was in the 50 or lower range. I was convinced I had a serious health problem Id been unaware of due to having no symptoms and confirmed the monitor's supposed 90-something percent accuracy with the PR company. Then, the weekend happened, and with it, out of the blue, I had the opposite problem. My blood sugar wasnt low at all. Instead, it spiked repeatedly, with a couple of events that were in the hyperglycemic realm. Just like when it was reading low, I was eating in my normal healthy way, with my macronutrients in excellent balance. By Sunday afternoon, after Id spent nearly a day at ridiculously high levels no matter how long it had been since I ate, I removed the device despite it having another week of usage ability in my arm. Presumably, yes, it was. Not in the slightest. Ive been close enough to deaths door and for long enough to know what illness feels like. Thats not me or my life. I work out intensely, Im active, incredibly self-aware about my health, and my memory is amazing. This device was exactly what I initially feared: an expensive tool designed to get users to think they have problems they dont so that they then spend even more money on health tools. Beyond the money factor, I dont see how anyone could find a daily grading system of their bodys performance not to be extremely stressful. Knowing every inner working of our bodies will only lead us to micromanage everything within our control. Perhaps for some people, this seems fun. For anyone who has ever struggled to let themselves enjoy snacks and treats, though, this is detrimental to emotional wellness. We all know that basically anything except lean protein and vegetables can have health downsides. But we need nutrient variety, we need relaxation, and we need joyprograms like this aim to steal that joy under the guise of enhancing your health. Healthy people dont need our vaginas steamed, we dont need ozone up our rear ends, and we definitely dont need glucose monitors. The worst part of wellness trends like this one is how wholly inaccessible they are to those who actually need them most. For example, 25% of diabetics cant afford to buy insulin, putting a $500, four-week program well outside the scope of possibility. While privileged, healthy humans are monitoring their daily blood sugar journey in the quest to optimize their longevity, Black and Latinx people are falling ill with, and dying from, Covid-19 at horrifically disproportionate rates. The wellness world at large projects an image of young, fit, white people, often not catering to POC. However, if you look at who the leaders are of the biohacking movement, which this device targets, theyre all white and mostly men. Biohackers want to live longer and stronger as if the world needs them more than it needs anyone else. This device plays into that lie, perpetuates the idea that only the wealthy deserve health, and aims to get users to scrutinize their diets for flaws. But despite the hype, healthy people dont need our vaginas steamed, we dont need ozone up our rear ends, and we definitely dont need glucose monitors.