What you eat may be the most important strategy for optimizing your metabolic health and reducing your risk of diseases like Type 2 diabetes. However, the order in which you eat your food is also important. For example, you can consume the same foods — the same calories, the same total carbs, the same nutrients — and have different metabolic effects depending on what you eat first. .
In the video above, Dr. Jason Fung, a nephrologist (kidney specialist) and author of several books, including “The Rule of Diabetes: Preventing and Reversing Type 2 Diabetes naturally,” explains how you can get a more beneficial response, including lowering insulin and glucose, by pre-loading protein and fat with your meal and leaving the carbs for later. .first
Eat Last Carbs for Better Health
In the past, it has been found that consuming whey protein before meals reduces postprandial sugar levels.2 Based on this, a pilot study by researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City revealed that food order also has a significant impact on postprandial glucose and insulin levels ( or after meals).3
The study included 11 overweight or obese adults with type 2 diabetes who fasted for 12 hours overnight and then ate the same meal on two separate days, one week apart. All that is different is the order of the meal.
On day one, subjects ate carbohydrates, including ciabatta bread and orange juice, first. Fifteen minutes later, they consumed the protein ingredient (skinless grilled chicken breast) and vegetables (salad with Italian vinaigrette and broccoli steamed with butter).
A week later, the food order is reversed, with vegetables and protein eaten first, then carbohydrates last. Better results were achieved when carbs were consumed last. Specifically, post-meal glucose levels decreased by 28.6%, 36.7%, and 16.8%, respectively, after 30, 60, and 120 minutes when vegetables and protein made up the first portion of the meal. Postprandial insulin levels were also significantly lower in this case.
The beneficial effects of food ordering on blood glucose levels are so strong that the researchers say they are “comparable to the effect observed with pharmacologic agents that target glycemic preference after meal”.4 Furthermore, the reduced insulin levels observed in this experimental setting suggest that this diet may improve insulin sensitivity, they further suggest.
“In contrast to conventional nutrition counseling in diabetes, which mainly restricts and focuses on ‘how much’ and ‘what not to eat’, this pilot study showed that improvements in blood glucose can be achieved by optimal carbohydrate intake timing during meals. “
Food ordering problems in pre-diabetes
Worldwide, 463 million adults have Type 2 diabetes, the number is expected to rise to 700 million by 2045 and not counting many others with prediabetes, which increases the risk of developing diabetes. develop Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.5 About 1 in 3 adults in the US, or 96 million people, have prediabetes, more than 80% of whom are unaware they have it.6
Changing the order of food “offers a new, simple behavioral strategy for lowering blood sugar in prediabetes,” according to a study published in the journal Diabetes, Obesity & Metabolism.7 The study involved 15 participants with prediabetes eating the same meal on three days in random order:
- Carbohydrate first, 10 minutes later protein and vegetables (CF)
- Protein and vegetables first, carbohydrates 10 minutes later (PVF)
- Vegetables are protein and carbohydrates first (VF)
Total glucose was reduced by 38% after the PVF meal compared with CF, while the ascending glucose peak was decreased by more than 40% during the PVF and VF meals, compared with CF.
The CF meal pattern showed a marked change in blood glucose while glycemic levels were stable under the PVF and VF meal conditions, the researchers note.8 explains that simply by altering the order of food for final carbohydrate consumption, it can help to minimize the metabolic effects of carbohydrates.9
Consume Carbs Ultimate Benefits Type 1 Diabetes
Even in children with type 1 diabetes, consuming carbohydrates at the end of a meal is beneficial. 20 patients with type 1 diabetes aged 7 to 17 years were included in the study.ten They ate two meals in random order. For the first meal, the protein and fat components are consumed first, followed by carbohydrates 15 minutes later.
In another meal, protein, fat, and carbohydrates are consumed together, the way they would in a regular meal. The average sugar level was 1 mmol/L lower when consuming carbs last than with a typical meal. Fung explained:11
“This can mean a lot, including that you need less insulin, which can lead to less weight gain overall because we know that high blood sugar, that high insulin level, will increase weight.
This really has big implications for how we need to structure our meals. If eating the same amount of calories, eating the same food, but just switching the order means we can face 40% less glucose, which means we can prevent prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes.
We can take less medicine. We can lose weight, because lower insulin levels cause less weight gain. And that means you actually have to preload your meals so you’re adding your protein, fat, and veggies in the first place and leaving the carbohydrates for last. “
For best results, he says, wait about 10 minutes after consuming protein and fat before you eat carbs, similar to how you might eat an appetizer before your next meal.
The timing of your meals is also important
As science increasingly proves, what you eat is not the only factor that affects the health of food. Along with dish order, the timing of your meal is another important factor. Fung is a big proponent of fasting, or what I like to call time-restricted eating (TRE).
He believes that the answer to type 2 diabetes is to stop supplying your body with sugar and burn off the sugar already in your cells, and the most effective way to do this is TRE. In our previous interview, he explained that metabolic treatments like TRE are the only way to tackle diabetes:
“It’s so real that you can’t follow this old model [of drug treatment] because you will fail… Remember, glucose goes into cells, and insulin resistance is when glucose doesn’t go out of cells. So for many years we have been using this lock and key model.
That is, the cell has been removed. There’s blood outside the cell, and when the insulin arrives, it turns the key, opening the gate and the glucose comes in. So, if there’s insulin, why doesn’t the glucose come in? … You can measure insulin and high insulin levels. You can look at the insulin receptor, the port is completely normal.
Therefore, [conventional medicine] say something like, ‘Well, maybe something is messing up the mechanism. It got stuck in the lock so it didn’t open properly, so the glucose couldn’t get into the cell. ‘ There’s a big problem with this kind of model, because if that happens, the cell doesn’t have glucose and will starve.
You should lose a lot of weight; you have a very thin liver. All your fat will melt away, because if you think about untreated Type 1 diabetes, where you don’t have enough insulin, that’s exactly what happens. Cells literally starve and everything just goes to waste… But that’s not what’s happening here.
In type 2 diabetes, you see that people are generally obese, they have big abs… Instead, what’s happening is that it’s really an effusion syndrome. Cells can’t take in any more glucose because the jam is already full of glucose. That’s what makes you insulin resistant. Insulin is trying to move glucose into the cell but the cell is full… So it’s really an overflow mechanism…
It’s also why your liver is full – it’s a large fatty liver. The liver is busy trying to get rid of all this sugar by turning it into fat… Now, if Type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance are the same thing, it’s really too much sugar. That is the key point.
And if you understand that the whole problem is too much sugar, then the solution is not to use more insulin to put more glucose into a already full cell. It is important to get rid of it all. So what you want to do is: 1) Don’t put more sugar in your system, because you already have too much sugar, and 2) Burn it off. “
Limit your eating time to six to eight hours a day
While fasting may sound scary, TRE is manageable as it involves limiting your eating time to six to eight hours a day instead of more than 12 hours like most people. TRE promotes insulin sensitivity and improves blood sugar management by increasing the rate of insulin-mediated glucose uptake,twelfth This is very important to tackle type 2 diabetes.
In another study, when 15 men at risk of type 2 diabetes restricted their intake even to a nine-hour period, they lowered their fasting blood sugar on average, regardless of time. start the “dining window”.13 A 2022 review also highlights the many benefits of TRE for the prevention of Type 2 diabetes, revealing that it:14
- Mild weight loss from 1% to 4%
- Reduced fasting insulin
- Improves insulin sensitivity in people with prediabetes or obesity
- Improves glucose tolerance
- Reduce oxidative stress
So simply by limiting your eating time to six to eight hours a day and consuming carbs at the end of your meal, you can dramatically improve your metabolic health. This is not to say that food quality is not important, especially for ultra-processed foods.
The linoleic acid (LA) in seed oils – commonly known as vegetable oils – plays a key role in creating chronic diseases like diabetes.15 Linoleic acid is found in almost every processed food, including restaurant foods, sauces and salad dressings, and even “healthy” foods like chicken and pork. So, in addition to capturing TRE and optimizing food ordering, reducing LA is essential for diabetes prevention and management.
