Bonkers GP appointment

It sounds like advice more relevant to pre-diabetes rather than cholesterol, although both are linked to heart problems.

1 The walk after eating is standard advice for diabetes. The rationale is that most people with diabetes (or pre-diabetes) have insulin resistance, which means that the muscles aren't using taking up glucose, so it gets left to slosh around the blood system, where it causes damage. Exercise forces the muscles to use more glucose, so the "spikes" after eating are avoided. I'm diabetic and I don't go for a walk after a meal, but I do get up and do something (even washing up) and maybe do some running on the spot while making a cup of coffee.

2 I've never heard the advice about eating a salad before eating and I think it's a bit weird. All veggie based salad consists of carbs, so it will add to your carb count, but presumably the idea is that it's a way of getting you to eat essential micro-nutrients and possibly reducing the glycaemic load of a heavy starch-based carb meal.

Personally, my own "trick" is to add some healthy fat to almost every meal, while keeping my carb count low. Fat and protein don't contain carbs - they keep me feeling full and keep the glycaemic load low. (But I'm no dietician.)

Eating some salad before other foods improves blood sugar control by slowing down the absorbtion of sugars into the bloodstream helping to control spikes. It also potentially reduces overall calorie intake as it contains fibre which fills you up.

More about the science here:

www.sciencealert.com/salad-before-carbs-here-s-the-science-of-food-sequencing-and-your-health

Just a simple garden salad will do: just some some mixed leaves incluging some baby spinach for iron, perhaps add some shredded carrot, cucumber, edamame beans for variety.

Eating a salad or plain veg before a meal is the advice given by the Glucose Goddess, aka Jessie Inchauspie, in her book The Glucose Revolution and in her recent tv programmes. Doing this helps regulate blood sugar. Well done to your doctor for being aware. Many are not.

Both Swiss and French generally start a meal with a salad.

not sure about a pre or just breakfast salad though. If it was fruit maybe..but that is sugar so…

Granmarderby10

not sure about a pre or just breakfast salad though. If it was fruit maybe..but that is sugar so…

So are veggies.

Quite honestly, I'd take anything Inchauspie claims with a pinch of salt (actually, I wouldn't because I avoid salt). She earns her money from "influencing" and her claims aren't always based on science.

Eating more green (grown above ground veggies) is a good thing, but the idea of having a green salad before every meal would send me craving for doughnuts after a while and there's little evidence it's of benefit.

Here's one link to an evaluation of her claims:

www.womenshealthmag.com/uk/food/a63479623/glucose-goddess-hacks-reviewed-nutritionist/

stbell13

Both Swiss and French generally start a meal with a salad.

Our favourite Spanish bar owner always ate a salad first course for lunch and dinner before eating fish or meat as the main and rarely had dessert. Always dressed the salad with lashings of peppery olive oil 😋

Is anybody with a glucose monitor prepared to do an experiment?

I've got one and I'm prepared to eat the same things for two weeks running at exactly the same times. In one week I'll eat a green salad before my meals and test my post-eating sugar levels and see if there's any difference. I'll et you all know the results.

growstuff

It sounds like advice more relevant to pre-diabetes rather than cholesterol, although both are linked to heart problems.

1 The walk after eating is standard advice for diabetes. The rationale is that most people with diabetes (or pre-diabetes) have insulin resistance, which means that the muscles aren't using taking up glucose, so it gets left to slosh around the blood system, where it causes damage. Exercise forces the muscles to use more glucose, so the "spikes" after eating are avoided. I'm diabetic and I don't go for a walk after a meal, but I do get up and do something (even washing up) and maybe do some running on the spot while making a cup of coffee.

2 I've never heard the advice about eating a salad before eating and I think it's a bit weird. All veggie based salad consists of carbs, so it will add to your carb count, but presumably the idea is that it's a way of getting you to eat essential micro-nutrients and possibly reducing the glycaemic load of a heavy starch-based carb meal.

Personally, my own "trick" is to add some healthy fat to almost every meal, while keeping my carb count low. Fat and protein don't contain carbs - they keep me feeling full and keep the glycaemic load low. (But I'm no dietician.)

Thanks for this- not so wacky after all then!

I love a quick walk on a summers evening anyway so maybe I'll get back out there...

can't do any harm.

Silverbrooks

Eating some salad before other foods improves blood sugar control by slowing down the absorbtion of sugars into the bloodstream helping to control spikes. It also potentially reduces overall calorie intake as it contains fibre which fills you up.

More about the science here:

www.sciencealert.com/salad-before-carbs-here-s-the-science-of-food-sequencing-and-your-health

Just a simple garden salad will do: just some some mixed leaves incluging some baby spinach for iron, perhaps add some shredded carrot, cucumber, edamame beans for variety.

I made myself a quick salad- mixed leaves, tomato, cucumber, pepper and grated carrot, sploshed with olive oil.

It can't do me any harm, thank you.

Sparklefizz

Eating a salad or plain veg before a meal is the advice given by the Glucose Goddess, aka Jessie Inchauspie, in her book The Glucose Revolution and in her recent tv programmes. Doing this helps regulate blood sugar. Well done to your doctor for being aware. Many are not.

Thanks. I may look her up.

growstuff

Quite honestly, I'd take anything Inchauspie claims with a pinch of salt (actually, I wouldn't because I avoid salt). She earns her money from "influencing" and her claims aren't always based on science.

Eating more green (grown above ground veggies) is a good thing, but the idea of having a green salad before every meal would send me craving for doughnuts after a while and there's little evidence it's of benefit.

Here's one link to an evaluation of her claims:

www.womenshealthmag.com/uk/food/a63479623/glucose-goddess-hacks-reviewed-nutritionist/

Interesting- I shall look her up and form my own opinion, but can't see it doing me any harm for a week.

growstuff

Is anybody with a glucose monitor prepared to do an experiment?

I've got one and I'm prepared to eat the same things for two weeks running at exactly the same times. In one week I'll eat a green salad before my meals and test my post-eating sugar levels and see if there's any difference. I'll et you all know the results.

The GP told me I could hire one at the cost of £250 a week!
I told her I wasn't Rothschild...

As you have one I would love to know how you get on!

Thanks for all your replies- maybe not so bonkers after all.

I'm tucking into my salad now...!

Take on board te advice.

Slightly off topic, I had a book a couple of years ago, "Why Frenchwomen Never get Fat" I'm sure some of them do but from what I can remember the pre dinner salad played a pivotal role in that reasoning which would be some sort of a light green salad of leaves with a vinaigrette dressing. It's probably good advice, I think now summer is upon us almost, I'll resurrect the idea.

I just looked up Inchauspie. Apparently she has a bit of a cult following on Instagram and Youtube for her obsession with sorting out blood sugar issues.

She does have a qualification in Biology, although none of her claims have been subjected to peer reviewed scientific study. She does not have a medical degree.

She is also a good business woman and has made a lot of money fom her books and promoting blood sugar monitoring equipment (which is what I think my doctor was referring to). In some ways she reminds me of Gillian McKeith in her missionary zeal.

Some of her ideas are not that new- such as drinking apple cider vinegar (raging heartburn? No thanks!) and as some have commented eating salad starters is a very continental thing, and she is French.

Although eating more salad can't be a bad thing, I am sceptical about some of her ideas and also surprised my GP seems to be a convert to someone whose scientific claims are suspect at best, and could be harmful at worst.

However I will give the salad started thing a go for a while.

keepingquiet

growstuff

Is anybody with a glucose monitor prepared to do an experiment?

I've got one and I'm prepared to eat the same things for two weeks running at exactly the same times. In one week I'll eat a green salad before my meals and test my post-eating sugar levels and see if there's any difference. I'll et you all know the results.

The GP told me I could hire one at the cost of £250 a week!
I told her I wasn't Rothschild...

As you have one I would love to know how you get on!

That's absolute rubbish! Your GP was probably talking about a FreeStyle Libre, which you attach to your arm and wear all the time.

I have a simple glucose monitor with lancets and test strips, all on prescription.

A glucose monitor is quite cheap (about £25-40 I think). The lancets are cheap too. The test strips are expensive and depend on which monitor you have. They're about 25p each and you need to decide on a testing regime which uses six strips a day (you don't need to test every day). You can buy them all from a pharmacist or online.

keepingquite Very few of her ideas are new. As you say, she's good at marketing herself and selling books and pills. As far as I can see, she has absolutely no qualification in nutrition.

This is the 2015 study on which the salad/protein before carbs is based:

diabetesjournals.org/care/article/38/7/e98/30914/Food-Order-Has-a-Significant-Impact-on

Firstly, it's based on a sample of just 11. Secondly, I wouldn't drink orange juice or eat ciabatta anyway. Thirdly, I already eat protein/fat/veggies before anything sweet anyway. It's not the same as eating an extra salad before every meal. Is she she suggesting that people eat a salad before tucking into a breakfast of chocolate covered Coco Pops?

I'm a bit horrified that a GP would latch on to her.

TerriBull

Slightly off topic, I had a book a couple of years ago, "Why Frenchwomen Never get Fat" I'm sure some of them do but from what I can remember the pre dinner salad played a pivotal role in that reasoning which would be some sort of a light green salad of leaves with a vinaigrette dressing. It's probably good advice, I think now summer is upon us almost, I'll resurrect the idea.

It depends what you eat after the salad.

PS. Leave out the carrot if you want to cut sugar spikes.

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3882489/

An interesting research paper on this subject.
I would imagine it would be common sense to think that eating a salad before a meal would reduce subsequent intake of food. It was one of the things discussed when I did the Zoe trial.

If you want some common sense advice about reversing pre-diabetes, try these:

lowcarbfreshwell.com/prediabetes-and-type-2-diabetes/what-is-prediabetes/

lowcarbfreshwell.com/prediabetes-and-type-2-diabetes/how-to-reverse-your-prediabetes/

Dr Oliver isn't the most inspiring of speakers, but he talks sense. Freshwell was my GP practice before I moved and I know that following their advice has worked for me. Unfortunately, it was too late for me to benefit fully, but it's 35 years since I was first diagnosed as diabetic and I've hardly got any worse in all that time.