The Glucose Never Lies
Science, storytelling, and lived experience — for people with type 1 diabetes
An independent education platform that translates complex diabetes science into clear, practical understanding. Built by clinicians and people living with type 1 diabetes, grounded in peer-reviewed evidence, and designed to help you explore how glucose really works.
What is The Glucose Never Lies?
GNL is an educational explorer for type 1 diabetes. It explains the mechanisms behind glucose behaviour — why insulin, food, activity, and physiology interact the way they do — so that you can build your own understanding through observation, exploration, and conversation with your care team.
This is not a clinical decision support tool. It does not tell you what to do. It describes what tends to happen on average, explains the science behind it, and invites you to compare that against what your own CGM data shows.
Where to start
New here? Start with Foundations
The Foundations sequence covers the essential building blocks of type 1 diabetes — insulin, carbohydrate, activity, CGM, and glucose patterns. The rest of the site assumes this knowledge is in place.
Know the basics? Explore the Guides
The GNL Guides go deeper — covering insulin on board, exercise physiology, CGM technology, AID systems, and more. Each guide explains the mechanism and invites you to test it against your own data.
From foundations to self-discovery
Understanding type 1 diabetes well enough to act on it requires two things: foundational knowledge, and the experience of applying it to your own body. The GNL platform is built around both.
The GNL Guides provide the foundations. They explain the mechanisms — why insulin behaves the way it does in the presence of exercise, why carbohydrate quality matters, what drives a glucose pattern up or down. These are not rules to follow; they are frameworks for understanding.
The GNL Explorers are the next step. They are interactive tools that let you put in your own numbers and see what the evidence says should happen. Then you compare that against your CGM. Over time, this process builds something that no guide can give you: a working model of how your body specifically responds.
Your CGM is the teacher. The glucose trace never lies — it reflects exactly what is happening at the intersection of insulin, food, activity, and physiology. Every session with an Explorer is a hypothesis. Every glucose reading is the result.
Start with the Guides if you are building your foundations. Move to the Explorers when you are ready to test those foundations against your own data. Your care team is the constant throughout.
Explore the platform
The GNL Podcast
Over 34 episodes covering the science, technology, and lived experience of type 1 diabetes. Hear from world-leading researchers, clinicians, and people living with the condition every day.
GNL Explorers and Calculators
Interactive tools built around the four majors that drive glucose behaviour. Explore AID algorithm logic, activity-based glucose response, hypo and hyper management, and exercise carbohydrate estimation — using your own numbers.
Inspiring Stories
Real experiences from people living with type 1 diabetes — exploring what it means to manage a condition that never takes a day off, and finding strength in shared understanding.
Latest episodes
What’s new
Episode 35 — CGM Accuracy and Study Design
Why CGM accuracy evidence matters for insulin dosing decisions, and what to look for in study design quality — with Professor Othmar Moser.
EASD 2025 — Diabetes Technology Report
CGM as hospital infrastructure, AID across all populations, multi-analyte sensing — the technologies reshaping diabetes care.
AID System Explorer — all four systems
The AID Algorithm Explorer now covers Control-IQ, CamAPS FX, MiniMed 780G, and Omnipod 5. Explore the logic of your system.
The GNL approach
Everything on this platform is built around one idea: that understanding the mechanisms behind glucose behaviour — and testing that understanding against your own CGM data — is the most powerful form of diabetes education.
GNL does not tell you what to do. It explains what tends to happen on average, describes the science, and invites you to explore. Your care team provides the individual clinical guidance. Your CGM provides the feedback. The learning happens in the space between.
The Glucose Never Lies® Team
GNL is built by a team of clinicians, researchers, and creators united by science, storytelling, and lived experience.
John Pemberton and Anjanee Kohli
Registered Dietitians and Diabetes Specialists at Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust — the clinical and creative core of GNL.
Scientific Advisory Team
Dr Dessi Zaharieva, Professor Othmar Moser, and Dr Adrian Brown provide independent scientific review and challenge on every GNL output.
The person who built the explorers
Phil Hayes is John’s best man and closest friend of more than two decades — and the lead developer who turned the idea of interactive T1D education into working tools. In 2004, John smashed his degree with 80% and a distinction in nutrition and dietetics. Phil took that as a challenge and sneaked home with 82% — a margin that resurfaces every time they go running together, with Phil reliably two steps ahead. Except on the badminton court. “Fifteen love” — Frankie Wilde.
Contact
We welcome opportunities for consultancy, educational projects, speaking engagements, and content development.
- john@theglucoseneverlies.com — John Pemberton, for consultancy, speaking, and educational projects
- anj@theglucoseneverlies.com — Anjanee Kohli, for content creation and development
Stay connected
Stay up to date with new episodes, visuals, and educational content:
We invite everyone who reads, listens, or learns with us to judge our work by its accuracy, transparency, and value to the diabetes community. That is what The Glucose Never Lies® stands for, and always will.
Hello
Great pods casts, I’ve not finished them yet. I’ve been T1 for 45 yrs, everyday is still a learning day.
Currently I’m using Libre 2 plus & Omnipod 5, with humalog. after some inital bedding in problems I’m now achieving 90 day averages of 87% TIR with far fewer manual corrections than before.
A question, in the blog you suggest turning the insulin time down to 2hrs, this leaves me with a an incorrect IOB figure (which I use regularly) any suggestions?
Hey!
It’s a challenging one.
Setting the active insulin at 2 hrs is helpful to allow more user given corrections. It should really be called an aggressiveness setting not active insulin!
But
It means if you prefer to know how much is working in your body you would need it set close to 3-4 hours but you will get less aggressive user corrections!
You gotta decide what’s the best balance for you!
Hope that helps
John
hi
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