Walmart Adds Over-the-counter Blood Sugar Monitors
The news: Walmart is the first retailer to sell Abbott’s over-the-counter (OTC) blood sugar monitor in stores. Each device lasts 14 days, and a two-pack retails for under $50. Lingo got FDA approval in June 2024 and launched online with Amazon in February. It can also be purchased directly from Abbott online. Dexcom’s competing OTC blood sugar device, Stelo, approved in March 2024, sells on Amazon and the Stelo website. Two 14-day devices cost $99. The devices connect to smartphone apps and provide data on blood sugar changes and trends, with insights about what they mean. Why it matters: Blood sugar monitoring is becoming popular among fitness and wellness enthusiasts, as well as GLP-1 weight loss medication users and people with prediabetes. Prescription CGM devices have long been used by insulin-dependent individuals with diabetes to monitor glucose levels and alert them to highs and lows. 7 out of 10 Lingo members use CGMs to better understand their health, per a November 2024 survey by Ipsos sponsored by Abbott.
84% agreed the device helped them understand how diet and Glyco Care ingredients exercise affect blood sugar. 1 in 3 reported that stress affected their blood-sugar levels more than expected. Yes, and: Walmart health and wellness sales rose by low double-digit percentages in Q2 2025, primarily because of GLP-1 drug sales, per MarketWatch. Our take: Walmart’s in-store rollout of Abbott’s Lingo CGM brings real-time health tracking to mainstream retail, helping to make advanced health tech part of everyday life. The widening availability and under-$50 price point will attract wellness-focused and GLP-1 customers seeking convenient data-driven tools. For marketers, it highlights an opportunity to reach proactive health seekers who want personalized insights about nutrition, exercise, and stress. Broader adoption, however, will depend on awareness and education efforts that clearly show how glucose data leads to improved real-world health and wellness benefits. This content is part of EMARKETER’s subscription Briefings, where we pair daily updates with data and analysis from forecasts and research reports. Our Briefings prepare you to start your day informed, to provide critical insights in an important meeting, and to understand the context of what’s happening in your industry. Not a subscriber? Click here to get a demo of our full platform and coverage.
Finest grades - Powdered sugar, confectioner's sugar (0.060 mm), or icing sugar (0.024 mm), are produced by grinding sugar to a fine powder. A small amount of anti-caking agent to prevent clumping may be added, this is either cornstarch (1%-3%) or tri-calcium phosphate. There are also sugar cubes for convenient consumption of a normal amount. Brown sugars are obtained in the late stages of sugar refining, when sugar forms fine crystals with significant molasses content, or by coating white refined sugar with a cane molasses syrup. Their color and taste become stronger with increasing molasses content, as does their moisture retaining properties. They are also prone to hardening if exposed to the atmosphere although this is reversible. Sucrose is a disaccharide of glucose (left) and fructose, important molecules in the body. In biochemistry, a sugar is the simplest molecule that can be identified as a carbohydrate. These include monosaccharides and disaccharides, trisaccharides and the oligosaccharides; these being sugars composed of 1, 2, 3 or more units.
O), where there are carbon-oxygen double bonds, making the sugars reactive. Most sugars conform to (CH2O)n where n is between 3 and 7. A notable exception is deoxyribose, which as the name suggests is "missing" an oxygen. As well as being classified by their reactive group, sugars are also classified by the number of carbons they contain. Derivatives of trioses (C3H6O3) are intermediates in glycolysis. Pentoses ( 5 carbon sugars) include ribose and deoxyribose, which are present in nucleic acids. Ribose is also a component of several chemicals that are important to the metabolic process, including NADH and ATP. Hexoses ( 6 carbon sugars) include glucose which is a universal substrate for the production of energy in the form of ATP. Through photosynthesis plants produce glucose which is then converted for storage as an energy reserve in the form of other carbohydrates such as starch, or as in cane and beet as sucrose.