“Don’t Just Eat Right. Eat What’s Right For You.” Once the preserve of diabetics, Lingo are taking continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) mainstream, with the aim of helping you understand the real-time impact of food, stress, sleep, and exercise on your blood sugar patterns.
As your “personal metabolic coach”, Lingo leverages your data to help you adjust daily habits in a way that keeps insulin / blood sugar spikes steady and controlled – by effectively adopting a version of the Low GI (Glycemic Index) Diet and Lifestyle. The Lingo biosensor and app work together to translate your glucose patterns into a deeper, more insightful view of the personal habits impacting your metabolism. Your personalised glucose graph offers an at-a-glance view of when and why you spike, alongside weekly progress reports demonstrating the impacts of healthy changes over time, and in-app challenges that encourage you to stay on track long-term.
Created by Abbott
Lingo was created by Abbott, a global leader in continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) technology over the last century. They now distribute products that are used by over 6 million people around the world. As a healthcare company, they’ve set out to focus on prevention over cure, by encouraging better informed habits and behaviours.
Through their subsidiary products and companies, Abbott educates users about metabolic health using proprietary algorithms for personalised insights. Your metabolism directly affects everything from weight management to energy, sleep, mood, and focus. Managing your glucose patterns is key to improving your long-term metabolic health. In short, your metabolism isn’t set in stone; It’s like a muscle, and you can train it.
Wearable Wellness Tech
The Lingo Device is a small disc-shaped Biosensor that attaches painlessly to the back of your upper arm. A tiny flexible filament sits beneath the skin, and your data streams in real time to your smartphone. You can “set and forget” for up to two weeks without charging – after which it will need to be replaced. As it’s waterproof it can usually be worn every day without re-application.
Lingo is designed for healthy individuals seeking personalised lifestyle change, and is not intended for medical use or for the management of diabetes. It is not intended for use in screening, diagnosis, treatment, cure, mitigation, prevention, or monitoring of diseases. However it may help with some of the symptoms of disorders such as PCOS, which have been shown to be affected by blood glucose metabolism.
Created to be fun and engaging, Lingo challenges are your chance to test small, impactful habits and discover what works for you – for example by earning badges as you complete challenges and build your healthiest routines. Metabolism includes all the biochemical reactions occurring in the body, and one key role of these reactions is converting food and drink into energy. Your body uses this energy for vital functions such as breathing, brain power, digestion, repairing muscle, and much more.
As your body breaks down food for energy, one of the nutrients that’s absorbed is glucose. When your glucose is on the rise, your body works to clear this rush of glucose, storing it for future use either as glycogen or fat. When your glucose begins to crash, your body breaks down this stored fuel for energy. Consistently steady glucose is one sign of good metabolic health.
Different meals and activities can spike your glucose – but not all spikes are the same and everyone’s glucose reacts differently. This is where Lingo comes in. Helping bring complex glucose insights to an everyday audience, the Lingo biosensor, app, and proprietary spike detection algorithm work together to translate your daily glucose patterns into one simple number: The Lingo Count. The app then makes this visually easy to understand in real-time.
Mighty Metabolic Benefits
Better Energy Levels: When you eat sugary foods, they give you a short burst of energy – followed by a crash. This up and down can leave you tired, fatigued, and craving even more sugar. The worst culprits are foods that seem healthy but are in fact laden with hidden sugars.
Personalised Informative Insights: Sticking to a balanced diet can be hard. We’re all busy, and sometimes we forget what’s good for us. If you regularly feel low on energy or ‘hangry’, you may need more glucose-friendly foods in your diet. Lower-sugar fruits, healthy fats, non-starchy vegetables, and legumes are all great. There is also evidence to suggest that different foods affect an individual’s blood sugar levels to varying degrees depending on factors such as their unique genetic makeup.
Exercising The Right To Choose: Daily mindful exercise can positively impact your glucose. Even small, mundane movements (like chores or errands) can have a surprising impact. Track it all with Lingo, experiment with different exercises that fit into your schedule, and build active lifestyle habits.
Listening To Your Body: Become a more intuitive eater by decoding your body’s signals. Are you truly hungry? Or is this just a craving, or a need for something else like water? Lingo helps you understand your body’s hunger signals instead of giving into unconscious habits. This can help you better prepare in future. When you experience cravings, it’s easy to reach for quick, high-sugar, high-carb food. So make sure you’re stocked up on high-protein, high-fibre options to stay on track when your schedule gets tight.
Foods Create Moods: Your diet can impact your day-to-day mood. Studies have shown that people on a sugary diet reported having worse moods than those on a low-sugar diet. Sugary foods cause glucose spikes and crashes. This can send your mood on a rollercoaster, leaving you irritable.
Fuelling Focus: Glucose is brain fuel. And for proper brain function, you need to balance your glucose exposure. Too little or too much glucose can throw off your concentration. Staying hydrated is another way to improve concentration. Aim for eight glasses daily.
Sleeping Soundly: Steady glucose means better, sound sleep. And better sleep means steady glucose. Feeling rested is about managing your glucose and building a sleep environment that promotes high-quality sleep. Eating high-carb, high-sugar foods two to three hours before bed spikes your glucose throughout the night, which can lead to a restless night’s sleep. So, stay mindful of which types of foods you eat before bed. They can have a big impact. If you’re craving a late-night snack, go for a low-carb, low-sugar option like nut butter. And have a routine. Our bodies follow a unique daily rhythm, so a sleep routine is essential. Taking a warm bath or reading a book are great ways to wind down. And to top it all off, build your perfect sleep environment. Make your bedroom a calm, comfortable space that actively promotes peace.
