If your meal or snack is mostly carbs without other macronutrients, you’re eating a naked carb — and that can have a noticeable impact on your blood sugar.
When carbohydrates aren’t paired with fat, fiber or protein, they’re absorbed and converted to glucose faster.
This rapid rise can lead to a spike in blood sugar, followed by a crash that leaves you tired, hungry, and craving more. Over time, repeated spikes may reduce insulin sensitivity and make blood sugar harder to regulate, leading to metabolic health issues.
How to pair your carbs
Add fiber, protein, or fat
These nutrients slow down glucose absorption and support a more stable response. Ideas include avocado or eggs on toast, or nuts in your oats.
Watch your portions
Even complex carbs can spike blood sugar if the serving is too large for your body’s current glucose sensitivity or activity level.
Favor complex over simple carbs
Whole grains, legumes, and vegetables release glucose more gradually than refined options like white bread or fruit juice.
Order matters
Your body handles the same foods differently depending on the sequence you eat them in.
Research shows that eating fiber first, then protein or fat, and carbs last can significantly improve your post-meal glucose response. This simple sequencing trick—sometimes called the “food order” method—slows gastric emptying and reduces the speed at which glucose enters your bloodstream.
How to apply it:
- Start with fiber: A small green salad, sautéed vegetables, or a handful of raw carrot can prime your system.
- Follow with protein or fat: Think grilled chicken, eggs, tofu, Greek yogurt, nuts, or avocado.
- Finish with carbs: Save rice, bread, fruit, or starchy veg for the end of the meal.
Even a few bites of fiber or protein before carbs can help. For example, eating a boiled egg or a few almonds before your toast, or having salad before your pasta, can flatten the glucose curve without changing what you eat.
This “food flow” slows gastric emptying and flattens the glucose curve, without changing what’s on your plate.
Summary
Carbs on their own are a on-way ticket to a glucose spike, thanks to rapid absorption into the blood. Slowing that absorption by eating fats or protein first, can make a big difference to the size and severity of those spikes.
