Next time you sit down to dinner, should you eat the bread first or save it for last?

Some social media influencers claim that simply rearranging the order in which you eat foods

can dramatically improve blood sugar control.

So today we're going to take a look at the science behind that idea and whether it really makes a meaningful difference.

Hello, I'm Monica Rineagle, and you're listening to The Nutrition Diva Podcast, a show where

we take a closer look at the latest nutrition news, trends, and research, and answer your food and nutrition

questions. And today's episode was suggested by Cynthia, who's been seeing a lot of posts on

social media claiming that if you eat foods in a specific order, such as eating your vegetables

or your protein first and saving the carbohydrate foods for last,

you can improve your blood sugar control. But she's not sure whether the sources behind those

claims are reliable. And it's a great question because there actually is some research on this

idea. But, as is so often the case, the details really

matter.

And the first detail that matters is who we're talking about.

A lot of the studies on meal sequencing were done on people with type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes, where the insulin response is already somewhat impaired,

meaning that the body has a harder time keeping blood glucose within a normal range after a meal.

And for these folks, strategies that slow the digestion and absorption of carbohydrates can make a noticeable difference

in how high their blood sugar rises.

But this is where the social media conversation often misses the mark.

It does not necessarily follow that it will work the same way in people without diabetes.

Because for these people, glucose regulation isn't broken.

The body is already pretty good at bringing blood sugar back into a normal range after a meal.

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