Want ‘natural’ Ozempic? Try eating your veggies BEFORE your meat – experts say it triggers the same anti-hunger effects as the drug

Eating your veggies before your meat, and your meat before your bread could help you lose weight, experts have suggested. 

This routine, sometimes called nutrition cycling, has been known to slow the rate food leaves your stomach, keeping you fuller for longer.

But now there’s evidence that ordered eating may trigger the release of the same hormone sparked by Ozempic – called GLP-1, physician Dr Jennifer Ashton, who specializes in nutrition, said.

‘If you preload your meal and start with the fiber, which could be raw vegetable, then move to the lean protein and healthy fat, and then at the end go to the carbs, like bread or pasta, that it can stimulate that GLP-1 hormone,’ she said on a Good Morning America segment. 

Many different studies have established this link. 

In people with pre-diabetes, starting with veggies and ending with carbs can reduce blood sugar spikes by 46 percent, a 2019 study from Columbia University’s Institute of Human Nutrition showed.

More stable blood sugars are associated with a lower risk of obesity and cardiovascular diease. 

Another study, which involved 16 people with diabetes, found that eating vegetables, then proteins and then carbs in order, with ten minute breaks in between, could yield similar results to diabetes medication. 

The study, performed by diabetes experts from Cornell and Columbia in 2017, was small, but suggested that nutrition cycling may be ‘an effective behavioral strategy’ to improve blood sugar levels in diabetics. 

Ozempic increases the amount of GLP-1 you produce, which has hunger-killing effects

There could be benefits in nutrition cycling for people without diabetes too, according to a 2023 review posted by researchers from Old Dominion University in the Journal of the American Nutrition Association.

By analyzing 11 previous studies on the topic, they concluded that eating carbs at the end of a meal led to lower insulin levels and higher levels of GLP-1 in many studies. 

High levels of GLP-1 can slow the rate that food leaves your stomach, which makes you feel full for longer- which may help you eat less and have more stable blood sugar, ‘ Dr. Vijaya Surampudi, an endocrinologist at UCLA Health, told the New York Times. 

Put simply, ‘GLP-1 slows digestion and tells your brain you’re not hungry’ ‘GLP-1 slows digestion and tells your brain you’re not hungry’ Dr Surampudi said.

Also, nutrition cycling may help you lose weight because your body begins to fill up on the foods, like vegetables and protein, that have fewer calories. 

It means you may end up eating a smaller portion of carbs – which are more energy dense – by the time you get there, a 2023 study posted in the journal Nutrients found. 

Pasta is one of a type of carbohydrates- which come last in a nutrient cycling option

Since a lot of weight loss comes down to burning more calories than you take in, eating fewer calories could help. 

If you’re looking to lose some weight or eat mindfully, nutrient cycling could help you a little, Dr Ashton said. But, she furthered, the people who will benefit from this the most are people who have diabetes or have had bariatric surgery.

She added that nutrient cycling should only be used as long as its not interrupting your enjoyment of food. 

‘You don’t want to make this into a science experiment, and eating should be enjoyable, it should be fun,’ she said.