Well, folks—the old A1C has done its number on me again, reaching 6.3. If you’ve followed this blog for any length of time you know all about my struggles to keep that insidious number at a level below what is considered full-blown diabetes, 6.5. The A1C number is the percentage of your red blood cells that have glucose molecules attached to them. People with diabetic tendencies have higher blood-sugar levels than normal due to a condition known as insulin resistance. You may remember my striking analogy using the idea of a key (insulin) and a lock (on the door to the cell). A person with insulin resistance has cell locks that are hard to turn, needing a good strong key. (Hmmm. This analogy is already going off the rails.) In other words, more insulin than normal is needed to get the glucose out of the bloodstream and into the cells where it can be broken down (“burned”) for energy. Since excess sugar in the bloodstream is toxic, the best thing a diabetes-prone person can do is to avoid much in the way of sugar and other refined carbs in his or her diet. If blood sugar levels are kept stable and relatively low, the pancreas doesn’t get called upon to produce big surges of insulin to deal with the glucose spikes typically caused by ingestion of such foods.