Eat Your Veggies and Proteins Before You Eat Your Carbs

Was Pink Floyd onto something?

Very cool, very small, very preliminary study.

Those qualifiers out of the way, the study, published in this month's Diabetes Care, looked at the impact of order of food ingestion on post-meal glucose levels, in 11 adults with type 2 diabetes who were taking metformin. The subjects, after a 12 hour fast, were offered two meals spaced one week apart. The meals included carbs - ciabatta bread and orange juice, protein - skinless grilled chicken breast, and vegetables - lettuce and tomato salad with low-fat Italian vinaigrette and steamed broccoli with butter. What differed was when they ate the carbs. One week it was first, the next, last. Post-meal glucose levels were measured at 30, 60 and 120 minutes.

Though the study definitely left me scratching my head as to why the diabetic patients were given juice with their meals at all, results wise, when protein and veggies were consumed before a meal's carbs, post meal glucose and insulin levels were markedly lower!

And though indeed this is a very small study, given the incredible ease of the intervention, and with no obvious downside or hardship attached, it may well be worth considering the order of your meals' foods if diabetes or impaired glucose tolerance is a concern.