The Real Meal Revolution: The Radical, Sustainable Approach to Healthy Eating

by Tim Noakes

A key finding is that the single best predictor of heart attack risk is the blood concentration of glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c). The blood HbA1c concentration is a measure of the average blood glucose concentration over the previous twelve weeks. It is an indicator of the extent to which elevated blood glucose concentrations have damaged key body proteins by adding glucose (glycosylation) to any proteins in direct contact with the blood. Glycosylation alters protein function, making them less effective in their various functions. Since haemoglobin is one of the most abundant proteins in blood, the extent to which it is glycosylated gives a good indication of the extent to which other critical body proteins have been damaged by too-high blood glucose concentrations.