03/16/2026
1. Do commercially prepared carbohydrate foods (such as bread, cereal, pasta, potatoes, rice, beans, desserts, soft drinks, and fruit) make up more than 40 percent of each meal or snack that you eat?
2. Between meals, do you feel hungry or crave sweets, starches (such as bread), or caffeine (such as coffee)?
3. Do you feel as if you might be addicted to certain types of sweet foods—as if once you start eating these foods, you can’t stop? When you eat them, do you feel high, followed quickly by an emotional low?
4. Have you recently developed headaches, suffering one more than once a week?
5. Do you gain weight in your stomach rather than in your hips or thighs?
If you answered yes to two or more questions, you probably have an insulin disadvantage. Consider making an appointment with our office. Mention that you think you may have an insulin or blood sugar disorder, and be sure to say whether or not this problem runs in your family. Explain that you are interested in a glucose tolerance test. If you have hypoglycemia (low blood sugar, an early warning sign that diabetes is developing), your 90-minute glucose reading will be lower than your fasting glucose reading. You also might experience a drop in glucose of greater than 30 mm in an hour, or your reading may be below 70. Your sugar is overly high if your fasting glucose is greater than 100, your 2-hour glucose is greater than 140, or if at any point during the test your glucose rises above 200. If you test normal on your blood work but you answered yes to any of the starred questions in the quiz, you may be developing an insulin disadvantage that is not yet extreme enough to be detected. If you make no changes to your lifestyle, it may eventually show up!
