Therefore, it is recommended that high‑risk groups — including the elderly, obese, overweight, sedentary individuals, those with a family history of diabetes, a history of gestational diabetes, or concurrent cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases — should add regular postprandial blood glucose testing to their routine checkups, in addition to fasting blood glucose.To be precise: 2 hours after the first bite of food.
For people with impaired glucose tolerance, lifestyle interventions can reduce the risk of developing diabetes and its complications, and may even reverse the process. These include:
Healthy eating habits;
Smoking cessation and alcohol restriction;
Regular physical activity.Diet composition should be controlled as:
50%–60% carbohydrates;
20%–25% fats.Exercise should total more than 150 minutes per week, preferably aerobic exercise. Anaerobic exercise can increase ketone bodies in the body and disturb the body’s acid‑base balance.
However, even with lifestyle interventions alone, 50% of people still have persistently high postprandial blood glucose. For these prediabetic patients, medication should be considered when necessary.
Studies in the United States have found that a small amount of vinegar may improve postprandial blood glucose levels, although the mechanism is not yet clear.A Japanese study found that vinegar can reduce food intake, and researchers recommend about 15 mL of vinegar per day, which may help prevent metabolic syndrome.
Thus, vinegar consumption has a mild beneficial effect, but its glucose‑lowering effect is limited. It can be used as an adjuvant measure together with diet and exercise.