The Levels blood-sugar monitor is a bio-hacking tool that claims to boost wellbeing by taking the guesswork out of your diet. But does it deliver?
01 WHAT IS IT?
A small device called a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) is painlessly and unobtrusively implanted into your arm. By combining this info with other health and behavioural data, Levels provides real-time feedback on how your food choices and lifestyle habits impact your metabolic health. Insights are personalised: a 5K or bowl of pasta will affect your own stats differently from those of the person next to you.
02 SCIENCE SAYS
There’s a strong case for bolstering your understanding of your inner workings: seven out of the 10 leading causes of death worldwide are in some way correlated with metabolic dysfunction. It can be tied to major chronic illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke and dementia. There’s limited data on the role CGMs play in behaviour change – but a 2020 study of patients with diabetes by George Washington University suggests they help.
03 HOW WE TESTED
MH’s executive editor, David Morton, spent a month wearing a Levels CGM, logging all meals and using his Apple Watch and Whoop 4.0 to track activity and sync it up with the Levels app. Ideally, daily blood-glucose data would present like rolling hills rather than a San Franciscan seismograph.
TREND ON TRIAL LEVELS
04 THE VERDICT
‘I like pasta. I like bread even more. I’m partial to crisps. I know eating too much of these things isn’t ideal for sustained physical and mental vigour, but I enjoy them anyway. Within a day, Levels’ metrics helped me rethink my dietary crutches: one slice of toast, instead of two; lunchtime carbs scheduled purposefully around workouts. I found the personalised insights to b
