A diabetes specialist has revealed how to eat foods like pasta and bread without a “significant” blood sugar spike.
An endocrine expert, known on TikTok as The Voice of Diabetes, took to social media to outline two simple things that could do this with gusto.
She said: “We know that carbs – things like potatoes, rice, bread, pasta, all the finer things in life – will cause a significant spike in your blood sugar levels.
“However, there are scientific strategies that actually help keep your blood sugar levels more normalised after having carbohydrates.
“Now, I’m not recommending that you go and eat all the carbohydrates on a regular basis, but if you were going to eat carbs, this is strategy number one that you can actually use to keep blood sugar levels more normalised.”
1.Starch retrogradation
For the first tweak, the expert recommended eating starches after “retrogradation”. The Voice of Diabetes explained that letting foods like pasta or rice cool down overnight in the fridge after cooking them could change their chemical structure.
This means that eating these foods the following day for either lunch or dinner won’t impact your blood sugar levels in such a significant way.
She said: “That starch becomes something called resistant starch, which means it literally becomes resistant to digestion.
“That glucose becomes trapped in that starch and for that reason, we don’t see such a significant spike in blood sugar levels because the structure of the starch has actually changed once it’s cooled down.”
2.Add some vinegar
The expert’s second tip involves having vinegar either before or during your meal. The diabetes specialist said: “You can add one to two ounces of vinegar to your water and you can have it.
“Actually, that will keep your blood sugar levels a little bit more under control and you won’t see such a spike.
“Now, I don’t want you to go too crazy with the vinegar because it can be acidic and have other health consequences like eroding your teeth, [or] stomach issues.
“The best way to have vinegar is actually to add it to your salad, so you can have a salad with vinegar dressing. You can have that before you are going to eat something that is high in carbohydrates.”