Food contains carbohydrates, fats, proteins and other micronutrients. Metabolism is the process by which your body breaks down these nutrients and uses them for energy, building blocks and protection. We can monitor metabolic reactions in your body via glucose and triglyceride values. An imbalance of these values after a meal are risk factors for diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. It is therefore very important that you know how your body reacts to food to determine whether your diet is healthy for you. This week we will take a closer look at the influence of lifestyle-related diseases and the importance of keeping your glucose levels under control.

Lifestyle-related illnesses

Many chronic conditions, such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease or obesity, are caused by an unhealthy lifestyle. In the Netherlands alone, 35,000 people die every year from the consequences of smoking, too much alcohol, too little exercise and an unhealthy diet. The definition of and unhealthy diet changes between people since the reaction to food is personal.
We are getting older and in 2040 life expectancy will be 86 years. Unfortunately, the number of healthy years does not increase at the same rate due to lifestyle-related chronic conditions. For example, more than 15% of adult Dutch people are seriously overweight, and 50,000 new diabetes patients join them every year. These lifestyle-related disorders place enormous pressure on healthcare costs. At the moment 5-10% of healthcare expenditures are lifestyle related, but this will increase in the future as we age but not age healthy. Clear’s mission is to combat this rise in lifestyle diseases and to help millions of people worldwide age healthy.

Influence of glucose on these diseases

Much clinical research has been done on nutrition, metabolic processes and health, including measuring lipids, triglycerides, cholesterol, glucose and insulin in the blood before and after consuming a meal. An imbalance of fats, glucose or insulin are independent risk factors for cardiovascular disease. And increased glucose levels after eating increases the risk of pre-diabetes and type II diabetes. We all know that elevated blood pressure can increase the risk of lifestyle-related conditions. But did you know that this also applies to increased glucose levels to the same extent?

Better late than never

Due to the expected pressure on health care costs due to lifestyle-related disorders, there is an increasing focus on preventive care. This is exactly what Clear does because with our program you can discover which food is healthy for you and adjust your lifestyle in time to grow old in a healthy way. It may be, without knowing it yourself, that you are already at risk for pre-diabetes. Fortunately, with a healthy lifestyle and diet you can reduce or even reverse these risks.

In short, your glucose levels after eating food is an important predictor of whether you are at risk for diabetes, cardiovascular disease. We already explained in an earlier blog that everyone reacts differently to food. This means that there is no “one-size-fits-all” method to maintain your glucose levels. The only way to find out which food items put you in the danger zone is to measure. So don’t wait any longer and start right away!