Think about the plate of food you had in your last meal…hopefully it was comprised of whole foods with a big portion of healthy protein, maybe some (or a lot of) non-starchy veggies and potentially a little bit of healthy carbohydrates and fats.
Let’s make it more concrete…
Let’s say you had a piece of salmon, a salad with peppers, broccoli, cucumbers, and tomatoes topped with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and a bowl full of strawberries, blueberries, and sliced banana.
That, in my opinion, is a great whole food meal with healthy protein, fats, and carbs.
One question that often comes up is whether the order in which you eat these foods makes any difference for your health? Specifically people often wonder if they consume the fruit first vs last does that affect your blood sugar after the meal?
There is some research that suggests that if you consume the salmon and salad first before the fruit, you will see a smaller rise in blood sugar immediately after the meal (Ordered Eating and Its Effects on Various Postprandial Health Markers: A Systematic Review, 2022). The reason is that eating the protein, fat, and high-fiber vegetables slows down the digestion of the fruit and therefore provides a “slow drip” of blood sugar to your body as opposed to one giant dose.
However this research only looks at blood sugar acutely after a meal. In terms of long term health outcomes it is more important what your blood sugar is doing over the course of 24 hours as opposed to 30-90 minutes after your meal.
To better address the question of the longer term impacts on blood sugar due to the order in which you eat your food a recent study (A Randomized Controlled Pilot Study of the Food Order Behavioral Intervention in Prediabetes, 2023) looked at if eating protein, fats, and non-starchy veggies first impacted blood sugar over the course of 16 weeks.
What they found contradicted what the acute short term research suggested, there was no difference in blood sugar measured via hemoglobin A1C when consuming protein, fat, and non-starchy veggies before carbohydrates.
So where does that leave us with the order in which we eat our food, is it pointless to worry about whether we eat our carbs first or last?
Yes and no.
Let me explain.
First I don’t think most people eat their food according to macronutrient content. Most people don’t look at a plate of food and see protein, carbs, fats, and fiber.
They see a salad, salmon, and fruit. They likely mix and match what they eat based on the foods they are eating. They might take a piece of salmon and some of the salad and put it on their fork and eat it. They might take some berries and put it together with the salad and take a bite of that.
Telling people to eat foods in a certain order and not combine them can take away from their enjoyment of eating their foods and also take away from the taste of the overall meal. And if at the end of the day they don’t need to worry about something like their blood sugar or it ends up not making a difference in their long term blood sugar management why do it?
In addition sometimes meals are not so easily separable. Consider a stir fry with protein, veggies, and some rice. Usually you get that type of meal and everything is all mixed together, what do you do in that case?
Do you then tell people to never have a meal like a stir fry ever again?
That is likely not going to go over well.
On the other hand let’s consider the case where the person does have blood sugar issues and they are really looking to control their blood sugar swings. Should they care about the ordering of the foods they eat?
Let me put it this way…it would not make the top interventions I would suggest for someone trying to address blood sugar issues. As I have spoke about in other blog posts, if you have issues controlling your blood sugar I would encourage you to focus your time and efforts on things like moving your body throughout the day (ie get your 10k steps), strength train to build muscle to dispose of blood sugar, and finally focus on sleep as dysregulated sleep will have a negative impact on your blood sugar.
If you do these things you can worry less about the order of the foods you eat and actually enjoy your meals more.
That all said, if you are doing all these things and still want to play with the order in which you eat your foods to get an extra edge on your blood sugar, GO FOR IT! I think that if changing the order in which you eat your foods is feasible and not taking away from the enjoyment of your meals and provides you with some slight benefits then it can’t hurt to implement it when feasible.
But wait there’s more…
While the research paper that found that the order in which people ate their food didn’t matter in terms of blood sugar it did mention something else that is important when it comes to the order in which you eat your food…
“After 16 weeks, the C group significantly reduced its daily intake of calories, fat, protein, and grains whereas the FO group increased its daily intake of vegetables and protein.”
Just so we are clear in understanding the above quote from the study “FO” stands for food order, i.e. the participants that ate their protein, fat, and non-starchy veggies first and carbs last. The “C” group was the group that did not have any food ordering instructions when eating their meals.
What the researchers noticed was that when participants ate the protein, fat, and non-starchy carbs first they ate more protein and increased their vegetable intake from their baseline levels.
Why am I highlighting this fact?
The food order group lost 1 lb more on average than the control group. While this is not significantly significant and it is only 1 lb, it does line up with what we know about proven ways to lose weight.
Increasing someone’s protein and fiber intake can make eating in a caloric deficit easier.
Think about this in a real life example.
When you go out to eat what type of foods are typically served first?
Bread and chips…processed carbs.
You don’t see carrots and hummus or steak and chicken breast.
If you eat bread and chips, there is always room for your main meal. If you were to eat a big steak and some carrot and hummus first I bet you would have less room for your main meal…partially because that is your main meal!
In other words I think that the order in which you eat your food can be a useful tool when trying to manipulate your caloric intake or control your hunger…especially if you don’t want to measure and weigh your food and want to take a more intuitive approach to eating.
And don’t just think of this in terms of weight loss, the order in which you eat your food could be useful if you are looking to gain muscle. If you want to add some muscle, being in a caloric surplus can be useful (or even required in some cases). For some people eating enough food to be in a caloric surplus can be challenging. One way to make this easier would be to eat your carbohydrates first. By doing so you would have the opposite effect to eating them last allowing you to potentially eat more calories.
In conclusion, while the order in which we eat our foods might have some nuanced benefits, especially in terms of calorie control or addressing specific dietary goals, it’s clear that it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. The research shows us that the impact of food order on long-term blood sugar levels is minimal. More importantly, our focus should be on enjoying our meals and the overall quality of our diet, rather than overly fixating on the sequence of consumption.
Remember, the path to better health and achieving your personal goals, whether it’s managing blood sugar, losing weight, or building muscle, is multifaceted. It encompasses a range of lifestyle factors like quality sleep, regular movement, and balanced nutrition. Mastering these fundamentals will always have a more profound impact on your health journey than micromanaging the order of your food.
So, the next time you sit down for a meal, whether it’s a carefully plated selection of whole foods or a delightful stir-fry where everything is joyfully jumbled together, remember to savor each bite. Focus on the colors, the textures, and the flavors. Eating should be a source of pleasure and nourishment, not a complex puzzle to solve.
And for those eager to delve deeper into the essentials of a healthy lifestyle and keep up with the latest in nutrition and wellness, don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter. Each week, I bring fresh insights and practical tips right to your inbox, helping you to navigate the vast world of health and wellness with ease and confidence.
References
Ordered Eating and Its Effects on Various Postprandial Health Markers: A Systematic Review. (2022, December 27). PubMed. Retrieved January 29, 2024, from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36574255/
A Randomized Controlled Pilot Study of the Food Order Behavioral Intervention in Prediabetes. (2023, October 20). NCBI. Retrieved January 29, 2024, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10610476/