By Change your life energy with this one method.
Changing small things in your diet can transform your life in all aspects. This includes your mind, body and spirit — as well as weight loss and muscle-building. This one method I’d like to discuss is straightforward, and it involves eating your foods in a particular sequence to get the most out of the food whilst allowing your body to respond optimally. This simple way of alternating your food preference is one of the most missed yet crucial aspects of enforcing a holistic health approach.
Why do we want to do this?
Have you ever become overtaken by an intense energy surge, only to be left in a plummeting mess afterwards? After eating (about 30 or 60 minutes later), we experience a glucose spike. The intensity of points is determined by the type of carbohydrate we eat.
Things you must consider in carbohydrates.
Spikes in blood sugar are determined by the following:
- How much fibre the food contains
- How good your body can secrete and use the hormone insulin
- What you ate alongside the carbohydrate source
People with medical conditions should be extra vigilant about how foods react to the situation. For example, if you have diabetes, hypoglycaemia or hypotension, you must be very careful about what you eat. Continually spiking your blood sugar with foods can impact your hormones and cause inflammation. That leads to conditions like diabetes and heart disease. So it’s something we should make a priority.
What are the culprit foods to be aware of
It’s not always about eliminating carbs, but when to eat them and after what foods. Scientists have been trying very hard to encourage us to eat high-fibre-rich foods for our health and to help slowly deliver glucose and other nutrients into the bloodstream. This is because high-fibre-rich foods exit the stomach much slower than white potatoes (for example). Other food sources that can do this are protein and fats. However, protein has more ‘power’ because it stimulates a powerful hormone that slows the gastric emptying rate, even more so than fibre-rich foods.
How can you use this method to protect yourself from disease and control weight?
Now we have come to the million-dollar question of how to sequence food correctly. The first thing you can do is give your body a ‘protein preload’ before a meal. This should be taken 30 minutes before your carb intake. The best preload is a whey protein shake before your meal to slow down the gastric emptying of the stomach and reduce that glucose spike. To simplify this even more, eat protein before carbs to help reduce the glucose spike. For nutrients to exit the stomach, they must turn into excellent particles, and carbs, fats and protein mix in the stomach when this occurs. Some foods take a lot longer to become fine particles than most. For instance, steak takes much longer than, say, mashed potato! That kind of makes sense. Liquids that lack nutrient value are another source that goes ‘straight through you and takes less than 5 minutes to finish the meal. A study was conducted on what five different food sequences did to 16 people who did not have diabetes. These participants had to eat their meals in 15 minutes. Spikes in glucose between the group weren’t different, and it didn’t matter whether these people ate vegetables before a protein source or rice, for that matter.
If this is the case, then why should you care
Glucose spikes are more of a concern for those who have diabetes or a medical condition. A good dietician will help you modify your food intake to help eliminate those spikes. These assumptions might be significant for your lifestyle but check with your doctor first. But for those of us who are ok? Well, it’s probably good practice to think about eating more vegetables for their fibre content and satiety value. A protein shake won’t harm you if you train very hard and you prefer to supplement a shake as a post-workout infusion. Slower gastric emptying in the stomach benefits us, especially those struggling to lose weight. Eating a balanced diet containing vegetables, protein and fat is very important. Don’t worry too much if these are all mixed. If you find that carbs plummet your energy, eat them alongside your vegetables and protein rather than as stock standard on their own. Although you may not have a glucose issue right now, it’s still essential to eat well daily, and that will ensure that you don’t develop a debilitating condition requiring you to sequence your food strictly. It’s better to bypass processed, sugar-filled foods as much as possible — especially when you are eating your meals. Please sign up via my link if you want to read more articles like this or start writing your own. I’d love to see you on the other side. 
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