This action before eating can really help you lose weight and control blood sugar! I strongly recommend you try it

As the saying goes, "Eat sour food in autumn and you won't get sick." This saying emphasizes the benefits of eating sour food in autumn, and believes that eating more sour food can help people spend the autumn better and avoid getting sick.

In fact, it is not just a popular saying. It is said that vinegar, yogurt, sour fruits, pickled vegetables, etc., these common sour foods, when eaten with meals, can lower blood sugar. Is this true? Today, let's take a look at them one by one.

Eat some low GI fruit half an hour before meals

You may wonder, fruits are quite sweet, how can they lower blood sugar?

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In fact, there is no fruit that can lower blood sugar, but choosing the right fruit and eating it at the right time and in the right amount can allow blood sugar to rise steadily and not be too high, which is beneficial to stabilizing blood sugar.

The China Agricultural University team conducted a randomized crossover trial, recruiting 18 healthy young female volunteers on campus and having them eat different breakfasts over 14 working days: (1) glucose solution; (2) white rice with water; (3) apple and rice at the same time (A+R); (4) apple first and white rice 30 minutes later (PA+R); (5) sugar solution first and white rice 30 minutes later (PSS+R).

The results showed that eating an apple 30 minutes before a meal would result in the lowest blood sugar level after the meal and the smallest fluctuation among several types of food.

Source: References

In a study published in Nutrients in 2023, a research team tested the effects of fruit and meal times on blood sugar. Compared with eating only cookies, eating kiwi and cookies at the same time, and eating kiwi 30 minutes after eating cookies, eating kiwi 30 minutes before eating cookies resulted in better blood sugar control.

Source: References

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Why does fruit help stabilize blood sugar?

The reason why eating fruit before meals can stabilize blood sugar is, firstly, because dietary fiber can delay gastric emptying time and slow down the speed of glucose entering the blood; secondly, fruits with low GI value (GI<55) can slowly increase blood sugar and have less impact on blood sugar fluctuations.

In addition, eating fruit before meals can enhance satiety and reduce the intake of high-calorie foods during meals. You can also try this during weight loss.

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How to eat fruits for better results?

Recommended fruits include berries (various berries, such as strawberries, blueberries, kiwis, etc.), apples, and grapefruits, which are low in sugar and slow in raising blood sugar levels (GI < 55). For example, the following varieties↓↓↓

Healthy people should eat 200-350g per day, which is about the weight of a medium to large apple. Diabetic patients should control their daily intake to 200g, which can be divided into two meals. You can eat about 100g before each meal. For example, a small box of blueberries is 125g, and a grapefruit is about 100g.

When eating, you can add some vinegar

In addition, there are indeed studies that have found that vinegar has a positive effect on blood lipids, blood sugar and weight control.

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1

Eat some vinegar with your meals to improve blood sugar levels

Acetic acid in vinegar is a key component in lowering blood sugar. Studies have shown that acetic acid can reduce the activity of disaccharidase, thereby slowing down the rate at which starch in staple foods is hydrolyzed into glucose. This means that when we eat refined carbohydrates such as rice and noodles, adding an appropriate amount of vinegar can slowly release glucose during digestion, thereby stabilizing blood sugar fluctuations.

A 2010 study published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that adding vinegar to a carbohydrate-rich meal lowered blood sugar in healthy individuals.

16 patients with type 2 diabetes were divided into two groups. The first group (Group A) ate high glycemic index (GI) foods (mashed potatoes and low-fat milk) with or without vinegar for two days. Blood glucose and insulin values ​​were measured every 30 minutes for 2 hours. The results showed that the diabetic patients who added vinegar had lower postprandial blood glucose levels than those who did not add vinegar.

Source: References

The second group (Group B) of patients will eat the same nutritional composition as the first group but the blood sugar rises slower isocaloric meal (whole wheat bread, lettuce and low-fat cheese). There is no significant difference in blood sugar and insulin values ​​between patients with and without vinegar.

Source: References

Through this experiment, it was found that vinegar's effect on blood sugar is mainly for high-GI foods such as refined white rice and flour. If you eat a lot of coarse grains or the overall GI of your diet is low, adding vinegar to your food will not have much effect on improving blood sugar.

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How to eat vinegar to be more beneficial to health?

The vinegar that works best in most experiments is 5% to 6% acidity, and the amount is 20 to 28 grams (equivalent to 2 to 3 spoons) .

Therefore, this vinegar can be made into a dipping sauce or added to dishes, such as fish slices with vinegar, cold dishes with vinegar, etc., which can not only promote appetite but also be more friendly to blood sugar than foods without vinegar. However, it is not recommended to drink vinegar on an empty stomach to avoid stomach discomfort.

Don't like vinegar? Try this alternative!

If you don't like vinegar, are there other alternatives? Of course there are, you can try sugar-free or low-sugar yogurt.

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In March this year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a statement: it agreed that yogurt can reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes. Of course, the claim should not be exaggerated, and a more appropriate statement is: "Based on limited scientific evidence, eating at least 2 cups of yogurt per week can reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes."

There are actually many reasons why yogurt is beneficial for controlling blood sugar.

One reason is that yogurt contains high-quality protein and a certain amount of fat. The "Encyclopedia of Chinese Nutrition Science" points out that on the premise of providing an equal amount of available carbohydrates, adding protein to the diet can stimulate a higher insulin response, and fat helps delay gastric emptying, which is beneficial to lowering the overall blood sugar level of food.

Second, yogurt is a fermented food, which improves the composition of intestinal flora through fermentation, thereby affecting blood sugar metabolism. In addition, branched-chain hydroxy acid metabolites, calcium, vitamin A and other ingredients in yogurt are beneficial to blood sugar metabolism.

So how much yogurt should we consume each day to reap its health benefits?

Researchers at Harvard University analyzed the health data of more than 100,000 participants and found that eating a serving of yogurt a day can reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes by 18%. The recommended serving is 8 ounces, which is about 244 grams.

Generally speaking, one cup (about 200-250 ml) of low-sugar or sugar-free yogurt per day is a suitable range. This amount can meet most of our needs for dairy products without causing too much burden on blood sugar.

Therefore, for those who don't like vinegar, drinking some yogurt with meals is also a good choice. This can not only add to the taste of food, but also help us better control blood sugar. Of course, if you are full, don't drink extra yogurt to avoid consuming too many calories.

References

[1]Hadi, A., Pourmasoumi, M., Najafgholizadeh, A. et al. The effect of apple cider vinegar on lipid profiles and glycemic parameters: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials. BMC Complement Med Ther 21, 179 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12906-021-03351-w

[2]Ostman E, Granfeldt Y, Persson L, Björck I. Vinegar supplementation lowers glucose and insulin responses and increases satiety after a bread meal in healthy subjects. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2005 Sep;59(9):983-8. doi: 10.1038/sj.ejcn.1602197. PMID: 16015276.

[3]Liatis S, Grammatikou S, Poulia KA, Perrea D, Makrilakis K, Diakoumopoulou E, Katsilambros N. Vinegar reduces postprandial hyperglycaemia in patients with type II diabetes when added to a high, but not to a low, glycaemic index meal. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2010 Jul;64(7):727-32. doi: 10.1038/ejcn.2010.89. Epub 2010 May 26. PMID: 20502468.

[4]Lu J, Zhao W, Wang L, Fan Z, Zhu R, Wu Y, Zhou Y. Apple Preload Halved the Postprandial Glycaemic Response of Rice Meal on in Healthy Subjects. Nutrients. 2019 Dec 2;11(12):2912. doi: 10.3390/nu11122912. PMID: 31810219; PMCID: PMC6950014.

[5]Mishra S, McLaughlin A, Monro J. Food Order and Timing Effects on Glycaemic and Satiety Responses to Partial Fruit-for-Cereal Carbohydrate Exchange: A Randomized Cross-Over Human Intervention Study. Nutrients. 2023 Jul 24;15(14):3269. doi: 10.3390/nu15143269. PMID: 37513687; PMCID: PMC10384001.

[6]FDA.FDA Announces Qualified Health Claim for Yogurt and Reduced Risk of Type 2 Diabetes. https://www.fda.gov/food/hfp-constituent-updates/fda-announces-qualified-health-claim-yogurt-and-reduced-risk-type-2-diabetes

[7]Chen, M., Sun, Q., Giovannucci, E. et al. Dairy consumption and risk of type 2 diabetes: 3 cohorts of US adults and an updated meta-analysis. BMC Med 12, 215 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-014-0215-1

[8]Zhang XF, Qi Y, Zhang YP, Deng JL, Chen XL, Li RN, Zhou QL, Fan JM. Fermented foods and metabolic outcomes in diabetes and prediabetes: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2024 Sep;64(26):9514-9531. doi: 10.1080/10408398.2023.2213770. Epub 2023 May 19. PMID: 37204758.

[9]Teo, WZ, See, JY, Ramazanu, S., Chan, JCY, & Wu, XV (2022). Effect of lactic acid fermented foods on glycemic control in diabetic adults: a systemic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, 64(10), 2863–2878. https://doi.org/10.1080/10408398.2022.2128032

[10] Yang Yuexin. Chinese Food Composition Table 6th Edition Volume 1[M]. Peking University Medical Press, 2018

[11] Yang Yuexin, Ge Keyou. Chinese Nutrition Science Encyclopedia 2nd Edition (Volume 2)[M]. People's Medical Publishing House, 2019.

Planning and production

Author: Li Chun, registered nutritionist

Review丨Zhang Yu, researcher/PhD, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, national health science expert

Planning丨Yinuo

Editor: Yinuo

Proofread by Xu Lai and Lin Lin

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