Eating fats before carbohydrate-rich food can significantly blunt sharp rises in blood glucose, an international team of researchers has found, according to ScienceDaily, as reported by infohub.kz.
The experiments were carried out on mice at Kyoto University. The animals were divided into three groups: the first received olive oil 15 minutes before glucose, the second immediately after it, and the third only water and glucose. It turned out that taking vegetable fat beforehand slows gastric emptying, so that glucose reaches the intestine gradually.
The study also included mice with type 2 diabetes and with a pronounced insulin deficiency. The positive effect persisted even in them. According to the scientists, the mechanism works through a complex interaction of gut and pancreatic hormones, as well as the vagus nerve, which relays signals to the brain.
The authors of the work hope that simply changing the order in which food is eaten will become a convenient way to control blood sugar. At the same time, the researchers stress that so far the experiments have been conducted only on animals, so the approach's effectiveness for people has yet to be confirmed in clinical trials.