The Times - UK (2022-05-17)

4 Tuesday May 17 2022 | the times

health

blood sugars are higher than they

should be.

Twice, on separate days a week

apart, participants were asked to

consume carbs — in this case ciabatta

bread and orange juice — before or

after eating a protein-rich meal of

skinless grilled chicken breast with a

side serving of lettuce, tomatoes and

cucumber. Results, published in the

Diabetes Care journal, showed that

eating carbs at the end, rather than

beginning, of a meal led to

significantly lower blood glucose

levels. Other beneficial effects were

seen for insulin, which was reduced,

and the gut hormone glucagon-like

peptide-1, known to reduce appetite,

which increased. “Some carbs are

broken down rapidly in the body and

this produces blood sugar spikes,”

Marber says. “Protein foods can help

to slow this process if consumed first.”

Chew your food methodically

for 30 seconds

Rushing food is a known route to

indigestion, but researchers have also

shown that chewing food thoroughly

can help with weight loss and with

prevention of metabolic syndrome, a

cluster of symptoms including raised

blood pressure and blood sugar, excess

body fat around the middle and raised

cholesterol levels, that put you at risk

of heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

Last year, in a paper published in

Scientific Reports journal, a team from

Waseda University found that in

people who chewed their food once a

Delay your coffee! The new

Drink wine

only with

food

A

s if thinking about

what we should be

eating isn’t stressful

enough, scientists

are increasingly

coming up with

rules about how we

should consume

food. And, indeed, what we should

drink with it.

For instance, researchers from

Tulane University in New Orleans

recently presented findings to the

American Heart Association’s

epidemiology and prevention, lifestyle

and cardiometabolic health conference

that suggested if you want a glass

of wine, it is probably best to drink

it with a meal rather than before or

after eating.

In their study of nearly 312,400

adults from the UK Biobank, all

described as regular but moderate

drinkers — typically imbibing the

equivalent of one glass of wine or

other alcoholic beverage daily for

women and up to two glasses daily

for men — they found that

consuming alcohol, most notably

wine, with meals is associated with

a lower risk of developing type 2

diabetes over 11 years.

Over the course of the study about

8,600 of the participants developed

type 2 diabetes, but drinking wine

with meals rather than without food

was associated with a 14 per cent

lower risk of the condition because

of how alcohol affects blood sugar.

Alcohol interrupts the processes

involved in the production of glucose

and insulin, one of the hormones

needed to regulate it, raising the

risk of low blood sugar, or

hypoglycaemia, which causes light-

headedness and fatigue.

Advice from the charity Diabetes

UK is that people with type 2

diabetes should “avoid drinking

on an empty stomach, as this

will quickly increase the amount

of alcohol in your bloodstream”.

However, the latest findings

suggest having wine with meals

might reduce the risk of getting

the condition in the first place.

“The message from this study is

that drinking moderate amounts of

wine with meals may prevent type 2

diabetes if you do not have another

health condition that may be

negatively affected by moderate

alcohol consumption,” said Dr Hao

Ma, a biostatistical analyst and the

study author.

Drinking with a meal slows the rate

of absorption of alcohol by the body,

says Ian Marber, a nutrition therapist.

“Food helps to regulate the

metabolism of alcohol so that the

sugars in something like wine don’t

have such a dramatic effect on blood

sugar,” he says. “And the proteins, fats

and fibre in food also help to slow

down the absorption of the alcohol so

that it is processed more slowly,

A shot of caffeine could start your day

badly, say researchers — far better to

have a yoghurt to optimise your health.

Peta Bee on the latest food science

reduce post-meal blood sugar spikes

that, over time, “may help reduce the

risk of cardiovascular and metabolic

diseases”, the researchers said.

Eat green and orange

vegetables before meat

and fish

Selecting certain foods before others

from your plate could make a

difference to your health and weight.

From a plate of meat or fish and

green or brightly coloured

vegetables, it is the veggies that

should be eaten first. In a study of

children, those who ate the meat or

fish at the start of a meal were

found more likely to be overweight

than those who stabbed vegetables

with their forks first. And a Japanese

study revealed that adults with type 2

diabetes who ate vegetables first had

better blood sugar control. “Vegetables

contain fibre, which fills you up and

helps to regulate blood sugar,” Marber

says. “It makes sense to consume them

first, although you’d need to do this

every day for a significant effect.”

And eat protein before carbs

Put potatoes, rice, pasta and bread on

the back burner until you have

consumed the lean meat, fish, eggs,

cheese or tofu on your plate.

Researchers at Weill Cornell Medical

College in New York suggest that the

worst time to eat carbs is at the

beginning of a meal or on an empty

stomach, especially if you have type 2

diabetes or pre-diabetes, meaning your

meaning fewer of the after-effects.”

Here’s how else you should be eating

and drinking:

Don’t kick off the day with

a coffee

If you head, bleary-eyed, for the

coffee machine as soon as you wake

up, it’s a habit you might want to

consider changing, particularly if you

have had interrupted sleep.

Researchers at the University of

Bath’s Centre for Nutrition, Exercise

& Metabolism showed that drinking

black coffee in an attempt to wake

you up can have a negative effect on

blood sugar control. In the British

Journal of Nutrition, the lead author

Professor James Betts reported that

slugging a coffee first increased the

blood glucose response to breakfast

by about 50 per cent, causing a sugar

spike. “Blood sugar control is

impaired when the first thing our

bodies come into contact with is black

coffee, especially after a night of

disrupted sleep,” Betts says. “It’s better

to eat something first and then drink

coffee later if you need it.”

Eat yoghurt before a meal

Low in fat, rich in calcium, protein

and gut-friendly bacteria, plain natural

yoghurt is a great addition to your diet

for many health reasons. And the best

time to eat it could be before a meal,

according to food scientists at the

University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Women participating in the trial, half

of whom were overweight or obese

and the rest a healthy weight, were

Eat protein

before carbs

asked to start with either a 226g dish

of plain yoghurt (there’s usually 150g

per small carton) or a non-dairy

dessert followed by a large high-fat,

high-carb breakfast of two sausage

muffins and two hash browns,

totalling 900 calories. This was

designed to stress their metabolism to

its limits. Results showed that not only

did the yoghurt starter improve

biomarkers of gut inflammation as the

hefty meal was digested, but in

overweight participants it helped

Eat yoghurt

before a meal