When the bread basket arrives at the restaurant table, do you dig in before your meal arrives? Most of us know that eating a high-refined carbohydrate diet is detrimental to our health, especially diabetics. But could the order of how you eat your carbs at meal times matter too? Maybe so. If you are going to indulge in the bread basket, it may be a little more helpful on your blood sugars to save it until after your meal.
A recent study suggests the order in which you eat your food makes a difference on your blood sugar levels. Consuming your carbs at the end of the meal has been shown to keep your blood sugars more stable compared to eating the same carb before your meal. And keeping your blood sugars stabilized is important for everyone, not just diabetics.
The study was carried out by researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College, Columbia University and Boston Children's Hospital. According to the Weill Cornell Medicine website, the study used 11 patients who were obese with type 2 diabetes and taking Metformin (a drug that helps control blood sugars). The patients consumed a meal consisting of carbohydrates (ciabatta bread and orange juice), protein, vegetables and a fat (chicken breast, lettuce and tomato salad with low-fat dressing and steamed broccoli with butter) twice, on separate days a week apart.
The first week patients’ blood sugars were checked at 30, 60 and 120-minute intervals after consuming the meal that begin with the carbohydrates first, followed by (15 minutes later) the protein, vegetables and fat. A week later, researchers checked the patients’ blood sugars after consuming the same meal but with the order reversed: protein, vegetables and fat first, followed by (15 minutes later) the carbohydrates.
The results showed that the blood sugar levels were much lower, at the 30, 60 and 120 minute blood sugar checks — by about 29 percent, 37 percent and 17 percent — when the carbohydrate was consumed at the end of the meal.
This study shows saving carbohydrates until the end of the meal may lower blood glucose levels. This may be possible because leaving carbohydrates until the end of a meal could slow the emptying of the stomach and give it a chance to digest the protein and vegetables first, which could help prevent a blood glucose spike. Eating proteins at the start of a meal also stimulates glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLlP-1), a gut hormone that helps regulate glucose and satiety. Other studies have shown that eating whey protein before a meal can reduce blood sugar after a meal. Also, by eating carbs last, you may be full by the time you get to them, helping to reduce the amount of carbs you eat at a meal.
Research is fairly new on timing of carbs, but it may be worth trying. If you are a diabetic and check your blood sugars regularly, try this and let me know if it helps to lower your blood sugars. Even if you are not a diabetic this strategy could be beneficial for anyone and could help aid in weight loss and weight management because the blood sugar your cells don’t use is stored as fat. Even if you don’t begin following the rule of eating your carbs last at a meal, the worst thing you can do at mealtimes is eating refined carbohydrates alone because there's nothing to slow down the digestion of that carbohydrate into sugar. When you eat a refined carbohydrate food, be sure to pair it with a protein rich food to help slow down a blood sugar spike.
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