Your editor loves beer, brown rice & apricots. Those of you, particularly registered users, who frequent this page know that he began the original, slightly stricter, version of his current "no carb" lifestyle on July 12, 2009 (basically, meat, fish, dairy products, eggs & leafy vegatables and hard liquor). Because on July 11, his fasting bloodsugar was 167. He then weighted 250 lbs. . On beginning that diet, he said that if he reached 240, he would try to put some carbohydrates back in his diet, or at least designate some carbs as "emergency" food, the idea being that if the diet is not so strict, he might stay on it longer.. He reached 240 lbs on August 18. On August 18, his fasting bloodsugar was down to 117. He then added some "emergency" foods.. Even though he knows his bloodsugar will spike the next morning, he added small amounts of red wine, brown rice, apricots, home-grown grapes, and non-peanut nuts (and nothing else) to his no-carb diet. Sparingly, at least til he gets down to something around 200 lbs. Then perhaps he will add beer to this work in progress.. The basic idea is to "lose" weight forever and too strict a diet won't do that.

(The first bloodsugar number is Accu-Chek Compact (the meter used throughout all editor's tests)..the second bloodsugar number is from a recently purchased TrueTrack bloodsugar meter). "Yesterday" generally refers to something interesting or different your editor ate or drank the day before. On November 2, 2009, based on responses to our poll, he added One Touch Ultra. Here is latest posting.  Read More to get earlier results).

Several years ago, the Journal of Diabetic Nursing did a comprehensive test of numerous bloodsugar meters and found:

Given that the mean of this variation was nearly 14%, these study results would also suggest that glucose meters are not performing to an acceptable standard and that glucose meters can only operate with satisfactory analytical performance in ideal conditions.

There is just no way to control your blood sugar if you don't know what it is. Or was. What was your weight and bloodsugar a year ago? Two? Its probably on some sheet of paper which is or used to be on the refrigerator, or in some blood testing machine with dead batteries. Or some book you were keeping but now can't find.  

We are happy to introduce a new added benefit for our registered users:  an online Blood Sugar and Weight Tracking Chart.  This chart automatically tracks your average weight and blood sugar levels, and may help you find some correlation between your diet and blood sugar readings.

The FDA warned that certain diabetics under certain conditions should not use certain test strips to determine their blood sugar. Though this page is not for those undergoing such treatment, you might take a look at MedPage's article on this.  http://www.medpagetoday.com/Endocrinology/Diabetes/15538