“I’ve been browsing the internet and am a little confused about fasting blood glucose levels because I’ve seen conflicting information. Just out of curiosity, I’ve been measuring my glucose for the past three days, and my morning fasting levels were 5.7, 5.6, and 5.8 mmol/l, while my postprandial readings—that is, 90 to 120 minutes after a meal—ranged between 6.2 and 6.4 mmol/l. I’m concerned about the morning readings because they seem high compared to the postprandial ones. Should I be worried? Thank you, and have a nice day.” — Mateja G.
There is no need to “worry” about elevated fasting blood sugar levels, as they are merely a warning sign. They are usually elevated in people who have relatives with diabetes or who are overweight, physically inactive, and consume dinners that are too high in calories relative to their activity level.
We don’t treat these levels, but we do take preventive measures: we recommend a healthy diet, enough exercise, maintaining an ideal body weight as much as possible, and so on. And, of course, we monitor progress two or three times a year. Kids use a step counter on their phones: if you have one too, 10,000 steps a day is ideal, though six to seven thousand steps is also satisfactory. However, if our activity drops below 3,000 steps a day, we usually gain weight, our blood sugar rises… and minor issues can develop into something more serious.