“Hello, I’ve been searching online, but I can’t find an explanation anywhere for the abbreviations on the box: GKbaz, GKpp. What do they mean? Thanks for your reply.” – Monika
We use several indicators to manage diabetes. We measure fasting glucose, or the baseline value, hence “fasting glucose (FG).” This indicates the overall stability of blood sugar levels on the current diet and rises in the event of the disease. It also indicates the effectiveness of insulin therapy. However, this is not sufficient for a properly healthy diet and as a guide for cooking; we also need postprandial glucose readings — postprandial blood glucose (GKpp)—which indicates whether we have composed the meal correctly, or whether blood sugar fluctuates too much relative to the insulin dose.
Glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) indicates the average control of diabetes; it measures the binding of blood sugar to hemoglobin in the blood, and based on this, we assess how successfully we are managing our diabetes. If the average blood sugar level is above 8%, it means that we were above 10 mmol for more than 50% of the day; if we manage to lower it below 7%, our blood sugar was well-controlled for 80% of the day.