How much a bowl of rice — the staple of the Korean diet — raises blood sugar depends less on how much is eaten than on the order in which it is eaten, according to a new study. Changing neither the type nor the amount of food, but only the sequence, can cut post-meal blood sugar spikes by more than 70%.
More than half of diabetes patients in South Korea are also obese, according to the Korean Diabetes Association's Diabetes Fact Sheet 2025, released on the 9th. The rate of obesity among patients was highest for those in their 30s and 40s, pointing to rising diabetes risk among younger adults. National Health Insurance Service data from the same period showed that one in six adults aged 30 and over has diabetes, and that the high-risk population approaches 20 million when people with prediabetes are included.
The key to managing blood sugar is sequence rather than quantity. In a paper published in the international journal Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism, a research team at Ewha Womans University examined how the order of food intake affects post-meal blood sugar in 33 healthy young Korean women. When participants ate in the order of vegetables, then protein, then carbohydrates, the area under the post-meal blood glucose curve was 74.1% lower than when they ate in the reverse order.
Peak post-meal blood sugar averaged 125 mg/dL when vegetables came first, but climbed to 147 mg/dL when carbohydrates came first. Mean amplitude of glycemic excursions, a measure of how much blood sugar swings over the course of a day, was 0.76 mmol/L when vegetables were eaten first — less than half the 1.66 mmol/L recorded when carbohydrates came first.
When carbohydrates such as rice or noodles reach the stomach first, blood sugar rises quickly and the pancreas must release insulin sharply to process it. Eating vegetables first, by contrast, allows dietary fiber to slow the absorption of carbohydrates, flattening the rise in blood sugar. A growing body of research points to eating protein next and carbohydrates last as the more favorable approach for blood sugar control.
Nutrient sequencing has recently emerged as a health trend, according to the U.S. health outlet Everyday Health. Eating protein and fiber first also draws attention for prompting the release of GLP-1, or glucagon-like peptide-1, a hormone that helps regulate appetite. The growing number of people at buffets who fill their plates with protein and vegetables first and turn to rice or noodles last reflects the same shift.
Experts said common Korean eating habits — mixing rice into soup or stew at the start of a meal, or adding rice to leftover ramen broth — leave diners most exposed to blood sugar spikes. If changing the order of a meal is difficult, they advised, simply eating a few seasoned vegetable side dishes or some salad before the first spoonful of rice can make a meaningful difference in blood sugar control.
