If you have Type 1 diabetes, your pancreas can’t produce insulin. That’s the hormone your body needs to control your blood sugar, or glucose. In order to know how much insulin to take through the day, you need to know how much glucose is in your blood.

That’s why part of your daily routine is testing your blood sugar before every meal. This helps you plan the carbohydrates in your meal and adjust your insulin. "You do the test and decide what to have for breakfast and how much insulin to take," says Tabitha Palmer, a certified diabetes educator at the Centre for Clinical Research in Halifax, N.S.

You may also need to test your blood sugar after meals, before snacks, before exercise and before bed. "That’s the whole day," says Palmer. "Each time, you test to see where your blood sugars are at, and carry on."

Testing is made simple with a blood glucose meter, a device that chemically reads the amount of sugar in a small drop of your blood. Today’s meters have large digital-number displays and other functions like reminder alarms and data storage.