Weird Diabetes Tips: Eating Bread After a Meal

Learn about managing diabetes with these strange but helpful diabetes tips!

How does eating bread after a meal affect diabetics? We know that living with diabetes means eating food that is low on the glycemic index, and that sugar and starches (carbohydrates) are high on the glycemic index. Eating bread would normally spike blood sugar levels in diabetics, because it is a carbohydrate that is quickly converted into sugar in the bloodstream. So what is this new weird science all about? Diabetes research has discovered a new finding that provides some diabetes tips when eating a meal.

Research and Findings

New research was done at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York. The diabetes tips that resulted from the study suggest that Type 2 diabetics should begin their meal with proteins and vegetables, and finish the meal with carbohydrates. The researchers saw a lower rise in blood sugar when meals were consumed in this order.

Eating carbohydrates first will immediately spike your blood sugar level because carbs are quickly converted into sugar on an empty stomach. By eating proteins and vegetables first, your body will be busy digesting these foods so that when you introduce the carbs it will take a longer amount of time for them to be converted into sugar in the blood.

The study promises to aid those living with diabetes. The most common form of diabetes is Type 2, which is closely connected to obesity. Type 2 diabetes occurs when the body cannot produce enough of the hormone insulin or the body is resistant to insulin. Insulin is the hormone that aids the body in using sugars in the blood for energy. Because this process is impaired in those people living with diabetes, blood sugar levels are not balanced. Adding carbohydrates to a diabetic’s diet will often spike blood sugar, but the new research claims that blood sugar can be better controlled by eating meals in a specific order. Participants in the study showed lower blood sugar levels up to 120 minutes after starting the meal when they ate proteins and vegetables first, and carbs last.

Diabetes Tips

One of the diabetes tips suggested by the researchers was to begin your meal with a salad, which is low on the glycemic index. Vegetables take longer to digest and this slows the process of glucose absorption.

David Ludwig, a director at Boston’s Children’s Hospital suggests eating bread at the end of your meal to slow down the absorption of glucose into the bloodstream, and also help to tamp down your appetite. These are excellent managing diabetes tips to help avoid high spikes in blood sugar.

By managing the order in which meals are consumed, diabetics and others can also control their weight. It is suggested that eating carbs at the end of a meal can help with weight loss. Patients who stopped eating carbs to lose weight often put the weight back on when they start eating carbs again. But if they eat the carbs at the end of the meal they may be able to keep the weight off. This is good news for those living with diabetes.

Managing diabetes tips includes starting your meals with non-starchy vegetables, fish or meat that impacts your blood sugar levels the least. Grains, starchy vegetables and legumes should be added next, and fruit and refined carbs last. Another of the diabetes tips that will be helpful to those living with diabetes is to eat protein such as eggs in the morning to stabilize blood sugar levels.

Proteins and carbohydrates are digested and metabolized at different rates. Simple carbohydrates can breakdown into sugar in 5 minutes. The higher the fiber content in the food the slower it will be digested and metabolized. Proteins take about 2 hours to break down into sugar, and can be eaten first before adding carbs. These managing diabetes tips will help you control your blood sugar levels and also help to maintain a healthy weight. Learn more about dietary strategies at www.BetterHealthKare.com