Frequently asked questions

A Telegram coach that tells you how much sugar is in any meal or drink before you order — with a 🟢🟡🔴 verdict and a lower-sugar swap. It also tracks your day and week.

No — it works inside Telegram, which you may already have. If not, Telegram is a free 2-minute download, then you tap Start on our bot.

Tap Start on @SugarCoachAIBot, pick your country and language, and send any food or drink. Your free trial begins straight away.

Whenever you're about to eat or order something, send a photo, a barcode, a voice note, or just type it — you get an instant verdict and a better swap.

Yes — 3 days free, with no charge until it ends. Just send food and drinks to try it.

A photo of your plate, menu or packet; a barcode; a voice note; or typed text — whatever's easiest in the moment.

Yes — anywhere Telegram runs: phone, tablet or desktop.

24+, including Spanish, French, German, Hindi, Tamil and Chinese. Set yours with /language.

Anyone trying to reduce sugar, manage blood-sugar spikes, lose weight or just eat a bit better — without scanning and logging everything.

It reads what you sent, checks a database of 2 million+ foods, and returns 🟢 green / 🟡 amber / 🔴 red based on the sugar and the blood-sugar spike, judged against your daily target.

🟢 good choice (low) · 🟡 ok, tweak it (moderate) · 🔴 high — swap it. The colour reflects both sugar and spike.

A better choice you can actually get right now — same shop or shelf — so a red never just means "no".

Yes — snap the menu or type the dish, and we'll flag the better options before you order.

Yes — send a photo of the barcode (or type the digits) and we'll pull the exact product.

No. Nothing is added to your day unless you tap ✅ Log it under a verdict. Ask and compare freely — it only counts when you confirm.

Describe it or photo it, and we total the added & squeezed sugar across the parts into one headline number, then note the main culprits.

Yes — just say what you're having; we transcribe it and reply with a verdict.

Yes — send a photo of the label or ingredients list and we'll use the real numbers.

Usually a few seconds. Photos and voice notes take a little longer while we analyse them.

Added & squeezed sugar (what experts call "free sugar") — added sugar plus the sugars in juice, honey and syrups — against your daily target (30g by default). The natural sugar in whole fruit and plain dairy doesn't count, in line with the NHS, AHA and WHO.

30g of added & squeezed sugar (about 7 cubes 🧊) by default — the NHS guideline for adults. You can adjust it.

One cube ≈ 4g. We always show grams and cubes so it's easy to picture.

In a whole orange the sugar is locked inside the fibre, so you absorb it slowly and can't eat much. That's intrinsic sugar — it doesn't count toward your 30g.

Juicing or blending frees the sugar and removes the fibre, so it hits your blood almost as fast as cola. The NHS and WHO call that "free sugar", so it counts toward your total.

No — the natural sugar in plain dairy isn't added & squeezed sugar. Sweetened or flavoured versions do count.

Yes — "natural" sugars are still added & squeezed sugar and count toward your 30g.

They're concentrated sugar and spike more than fresh, so they're easy to over-eat — fine in small amounts.

No sugar, so they won't blow your 30g — but they're ultra-processed, so we mark them 🟡 amber, not a clean green.

Industrially-made food with additives or sweeteners — diet drinks, meal-deal sandwiches, processed meats. We flag it (🏭) as "fine occasionally, not a daily habit".

No — the goal is cutting free/added sugar and big spikes, not whole foods. Fruit, dairy, beans and wholegrains are all fine.

The 30g added & squeezed sugar target follows the NHS, the American Heart Association and the WHO.

Added & squeezed sugar is the added sugar your 30g target tracks. A spike is what happens after you eat as carbs turn to glucose — white rice, bread and pasta show little "sugar" yet spike you like a dessert. SugarCoachIQ™ catches both.

Because your body turns them into glucose fast — refined carbs are stripped of fibre, so they hit quickly. We don't add them to your 30g; we flag the spike so you can swap or add protein. This is lifestyle guidance, not medical advice.

The intelligence behind your blood-sugar score. It weighs how much carb is on your plate against how fast it hits you, rolled into one Low/Med/High score — grounded in glycaemic-load science. The exact recipe is our own.

It combines the carbs in your actual portion with how fast that carb type raises blood sugar (refined/fast vs whole/slow). The precise formula is proprietary, but the idea is simple: catch the spike, not just the sugar.

Green is a calm day, amber a moderate one, red a genuinely high-spike day. A normal day of eating reads green or amber.

Send /spike for today's blood-sugar score, or /dashboard for the visual meter.

Yes — white vs brown rice have similar carbs but very different spikes. That's exactly what SugarCoachIQ catches.

Swap white for wholegrain or brown, add protein, fibre and veg, eat the carb after your protein, and keep portions sensible — we suggest the swap each time.

Tap ✅ Log it under a verdict. One tap adds both the sugar and the spike to your day.

Send /today, or open the 🍓 ring in /dashboard.

Send /week for the last 7 days, or /dashboard for the ring and bars.

A simple visual of your day and week — your sugar ring and your spike meter, no clutter.

Yes — send /week to see each of the last 7 days, with the toughest day flagged.

The list of everything you logged today, with each item's sugar and spike.

Send /reset to set today back to 0g, then re-log what you meant.

No — only tapping ✅ Log it adds anything. Asking and comparing is always free.

Optional morning and evening check-ins, plus a Sunday weekly review. Pause with /quiet, bring them back with /resume.

Optionally, with /weight — it's private, never shown unless you ask. The goal is lower sugar, not the scale.

For branded items (Starbucks, Costa, supermarket products) we use verified data. For homemade or unusual items it's a best-effort estimate — close, but not lab-precise.

2 million+ branded products, plus official UK and US government nutrition data.

Yes — Tesco, Sainsbury's, Boots, Greggs, Starbucks, Costa, M&S and many more.

Yes — the US uses USDA data, and barcode scans work globally. Set your country with /country.

It estimates from its own knowledge and says "roughly" so you know it's approximate rather than an exact match.

Give the shop or brand, the size (tall/grande, 330ml), any toppings, syrups or sauces, and for fruit how ripe it is — the more detail, the sharper the number.

That means there was no exact database match, so the figure is a best-effort estimate.

It's a sugar and spike tool, not a calorie counter — it leads with grams and cubes, not calories.

Yes — if a food spikes you more or less than average (say from a CGM), tell it and tap Save, and it tunes your score for that food.

Your personal list of foods you've told it spike you more or less than average. View or remove them any time.

Just say something like "rice spikes me" or "pasta is fine for me", then tap Save when it offers.

Not directly — but you can teach it what your CGM showed via /myspikes, and it remembers it for every meal afterwards.

Yes — the default is 30g of added & squeezed sugar; you can change it to suit you.

Yes — /plan builds a simple low-sugar week. Try /plan keto, /plan med or /plan lowcarb.

Yes — /save (e.g. /save med), then /plans to list them and /use to switch.

Yes — /list turns your current plan into a shopping list.

/challenge — stack green days and share a progress card to keep yourself going.

Yes — /guide shows what's really in everyday foods, in teaspoons of sugar, plus the many hidden names for sugar.

A 3-day free trial, then £9.99/month or £49/year (best value — saves £58). Less than two Starbucks a month.

Full access for 3 days, including a set of photo/voice checks, so you can try everything before paying.

The first 500 yearly members keep £49/year for life — the price never goes up for you.

Text is unlimited. Photo, voice and video checks are capped — 300 in your first month, then 150/month — plenty for normal use.

No — typing is unlimited. Only photo, voice and video checks count toward fair use.

Send /subscribe and pick monthly or yearly — payment is secure via Stripe.

Send /manage — cancel any time and keep access until the end of the period you've paid for.

You have the statutory cancellation and refund rights for UK consumers. Reach us via /support.

Securely through Stripe — we never see or store your card details.

Yes, until you cancel. You can cancel any time with /manage.

Yes — use /manage or /subscribe to change plan.

Yearly is £49 (just £4.08/month) versus £9.99/month — it saves £58 a year, plus founding-member perks.

Send /manage — it opens your secure billing page where you can see your plan, your next renewal date, and manage everything.

Send /manage to open your secure Stripe billing portal, then update your card there. We never see or store card details.

If you've subscribed, billing simply begins. If not, your photo/voice checks pause until you subscribe with /subscribe — your diary and history stay put.

Stripe retries automatically. Pop into /manage to update your card and keep access — we'll let you know if anything needs attention.

No — cancelling only stops billing; your diary and history stay. To remove everything, send /deletemydata.

You keep full access until the last day you've paid for, then checks pause. Resubscribe any time with /subscribe and pick up where you left off.

Yes — send /subscribe whenever you're ready; your diary and history are still there waiting for you.

There's no formal pause, but you can cancel any time (keeping access to the end of the period) and resubscribe later without losing your data.

Send /support with the details and we'll sort it out quickly. You can also see every charge in your billing portal via /manage.

Send /manage — if you have an active plan it opens your billing page; if not, it'll point you to /subscribe.

Your Telegram ID and first name, what you send for a verdict, your sugar diary, and your subscription status. Not your card details.

No — never sold, and never used for advertising.

Send /export — you get your food diary as text and CSV, plus a photo-diary PDF, all shareable from your phone.

Send /deletemydata — it permanently wipes all your data.

Raw message transcripts auto-delete after 90 days; your sugar diary stays while your account is active so you can see trends.

Telegram (delivers messages), Anthropic (the AI), OpenAI (voice transcription only), Stripe (payments), Railway (hosting).

Yes — it's optional, kept private, and never shown unless you ask.

A reference to your food photos is kept so you can export a photo diary. /deletemydata removes everything.

No — it's lifestyle and habit coaching to reduce sugar, not a substitute for a professional.

You can use it for sugar awareness, but follow your healthcare team for medical decisions — it doesn't give insulin or carb-counting-for-dosing advice.

It can help you spot and cut spikes as lifestyle support — not treatment. Talk to your GP or pharmacist too.

Cutting added & squeezed sugar and spikes often helps, but it's a sugar coach, not a diet program or a medical weight-loss tool.

It's intended for adults (18+).

It's general lifestyle guidance, not pregnancy advice — check with your midwife or doctor for anything medical.

Discuss any health products with a pharmacist — the bot won't prescribe or recommend treatment.

A red just means it spikes — we always give a way to handle it (smaller portion, add protein, swap to wholegrain). No shame, just a nudge.

Give it a moment (photos and voice take longer). If it seems stuck, send it again, or reach us with /support.

Send more detail (brand, size, toppings) for a sharper check, and tell us via /support if something's off.

Send /ask — our assistant answers questions about how SugarCoachAI works.

Send /support — type your question and it goes straight to our team, who reply right in the chat.

Re-run /export. The photo-diary PDF only appears once you've sent at least one food photo. Still stuck? /support.

/country sets your food data region; /language sets the language I reply in (24+).

Send /quiet to pause them, and /resume to turn them back on.

Send /help any time for the full list — on WhatsApp just type menu, or on Telegram tap the menu (≡) button.