Delhi Delhi: According to a study on Wednesday, although continuous glucose monitors (CGM) can be important helpful for people suffering from diabetes, they can damage healthy adults by showing wrong results, which can implement unnecessary food restrictions.

The CGM was originally designed to help diabetic patients control their blood sugar. This helps by tracking the glycemic index (GI) – it measures how quickly a food item can increase your blood sugar. However, these devices are now being used by health conscious adults how various foods affect their glucose levels.

The conservative research published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition warns that CGMs can extend an excellent blood sugar levels in healthy adults, which can lead to unnecessary diet changes.

“CGMs are great tools for people suffering from diabetes because even though the measurement is not completely accurate, it is better than not having a measurement. However, for someone with good glucose control, they can be misleading on the basis of their current performance,” said Professor Xavier Gonzalez of the Health Department of Bath University.

“For healthy individuals, depending on the CGM can lead to unnecessary food restrictions or bad diet options. If you want to assess your blood sugar correctly, traditional methods are still a way. We want to better identify the sources of error in the CGM so that we can improve their performance in the future and do active research on the subject,” said Gonzalas.

Researchers measured blood sugar reactions in healthy volunteers (within a healthy BMI range) using two methods-a CGM and Golden Standard Finger-Finger-Testing-to assess CGM accuracy in fruit-based products ranging from full fruits to smoothies.

CGM continuously reported high blood sugar levels compared to finger-testing. When the participants consumed smoothies, the device underestimated the GI, 30 percent more, the traditional test results reported 69 (medium) than the results of 53 (less).

The entire fruit by the CGM was misused in the form of moderate or high-GI foods, while the finger-testing showed that they were low-GI. This can make users accidentally assume that fruits can cause harmful growth in blood sugar.

Research also rejected the common myth that their GI increases by mixing fruits in smoothies. Whether it is eaten or blended, GI is less in fruits like apples, bananas, mangoes and oranges. Researchers said that CGM is not a valid way to determine whether a food item has a high or low GI.

Gonzalez said that CGMs may be wrong because they measure glucose in the fluid around your cells, not directly in your blood but in the surrounding fluids of your cells. “This can cause discrepancies such as delay of time, blood flow and glucose flow between different parts of the body.”