● Food Intelligence · Fruit
Across 12,934 single-item logs of apples from 5,975 Signos members, the average glucose peak was +31.5 mg/dL — but the range is wide: a light-carb meal with apples averages +29 mg/dL, while a very heavy carb load pushes that to +47 mg/dL. Form and pairings matter too: a whole apple alone anchors at +32 mg/dL (cohort mean), while a smoothie blend adds +5 mg/dL on top.
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Yes — for nearly half of members, with an average peak of +31.5 mg/dL across 12,934 single-item apple logs. Across our cohort of 12,934 single-item apple logs from 5,975 unique members, the mean glucose peak was +31.5 mg/dL — putting apples in a moderate-response tier. Three levers drive most of the variance: total meal carb load (the single biggest factor, at +45% when the meal hits ≥60g carbs), sugar content (≥20g raises the peak 34%), and what you pair the apple with. The whole-apple cohort mean is +32 mg/dL (n=67,965), but load it into a high-carb meal and it climbs to +47 mg/dL. The IQR spans 24 mg/dL (p25: +18, p75: +42), confirming that individual response matters as much as the food itself.
Some members spike +29 mg/dL. Others spike +46.6. The only way to know how you'll spike is to measure with a Signos CGM.
Apples produce a mean peak of +31.5 mg/dL across 12,934 single-item apple logs — moderate by CGM standards, with a wide enough spread that individual response varies far more than the average implies. The IQR spans 24 mg/dL (p25: +18, p75: +42) and 46% of logs exceeded +30 mg/dL. Three levers explain most of that range. First, total meal carb load dominates: meals in the very heavy carb bucket (110g+ carbs) spiked +46.6 mg/dL on average — 61% more than the lightest-carb meals (+29 mg/dL). Second, the apple's own sugar content matters: high-sugar logs (≥20g sugar, n=20,694) ran 34% higher than the low-sugar baseline. Third, fat pairings offer a modest but measurable counter-pressure — almond butter trimmed the mean peak from 33.1 to 27.3 mg/dL in 3,487 paired logs. These effects are observational from matched-pair Welch's t-tests, not controlled trials.
This page is grounded in three nested cuts of the Signos production PPGR cohort. The page-primary number — cited everywhere above the swap calculator — comes from the single-item cohort: 12,934 logs where an apple was eaten alone, from 5,975 unique members, with a mean peak of +31.5 mg/dL, a median of 29 mg/dL, and an IQR of p25 +18 to p75 +42 mg/dL. The broader cohort (69,226 logged meals containing apples in any form, ~14,000 members, mean +32.0 mg/dL) describes what real-world apple meals look like with all their pairings included; we cite it only here in methodology. The swap calculator's matched-pair table draws on a slightly different filter and powers the per-option Ns shown in the modifier slots below. Data was filtered to meals with a measured glucose rise between 0 and 100 mg/dL (ppgr_case='regular') to exclude outliers and sensor artifacts. Statistical comparisons between modifier groups use Welch's t-test on matched pairs; all effects reported at p<0.05 minimum, with the dominant modifiers reaching p<0.001. Apple logs were identified via a regex cohort match on the canonical food name "Apples" and its common sub-forms (whole apple, apple slices, baked apple). Sub-cohorts for apple juice and applesauce returned zero qualifying meals and are excluded. A minimum of 100 matched meals was required for any food pairing to appear in the recipe builder.