Just 2 minutes of walking after eating can help blood sugar, study says
For centuries, people in the sunny Mediterranean would get up
after long, leisurely meals and take a walk, often to the town square to see
neighbors and socialize. Walking is so much a part of that lifestyle it is
listed as a foundation of the über-healthy Mediterranean diet.
That
may be one of the reasons studies have found the Mediterranean diet can reduce
the risk for diabetes, high cholesterol, heart disease, stroke and some cancers – all the while strengthening bones, improving brain health, warding off dementia and depression and helping with healthy weight loss.
Now you can
add another reason to take a post-meal stroll – it may lower your blood sugar.
That
excursion doesn’t need to take up a huge amount of your time either: Walking as
little as two to five minutes after a meal can do the trick, according to a 2022 study in the journal Sports Medicine.
Standing
after a meal can help, too, but not as much as putting one foot in front of the
other, said study coauthor Aidan Buffey, a doctoral student in the physical
education and sport sciences department at the University of Limerick in
Ireland.
“Intermittent
standing breaks throughout the day and after meals reduced glucose on average
by 9.51% compared to prolonged sitting. However, intermittent light-intensity
walking throughout the day saw a greater reduction of glucose by an average of
17.01% compared to prolonged sitting,” Buffey told CNN via email.
“This
suggests that breaking prolonged sitting with standing and light-walking breaks
throughout the day is beneficial for glucose levels,” he added.
Standing
is good, but walking is better
The
meta-analysis, published in February, analyzed seven studies comparing the
impact of sitting, standing and walking on the body’s insulin and blood sugar
levels. People in the studies were asked either to stand or walk for two to
five minutes every 20 to 30 minutes over the course of a full day.
“Between
the seven reviewed studies, the total activity time throughout the observation
was roughly 28 minutes with the standing and light walking breaks lasting
between 2 to 5 minutes,” Buffey said.
Standing
was better than heading straight for the desk or the couch to sit when it came
to blood sugar levels, but it didn’t help lower insulin in the bloodstream, the
analysis found.
However, if
people went for a short walk after eating, their blood sugar levels rose and
fell more gradually, and their insulin levels were more stable than either
standing or sitting, the study noted.
Keeping
blood sugars from spiking is good for the body as large spikes and fast falls
can raise the risk for diabetes and heart disease, experts say. Studies have shown blood sugar levels will spike within
60 to 90 minutes after eating, so it’s best to get moving soon after finishing
a meal.
How does
movement help? Muscles need glucose to function, so movement helps clear sugars
from the bloodstream – that’s the reason why many runners rely on carbo-loading before a marathon or race, for example.
Want to get
more out of your efforts than
lower blood sugars? Step up your game to meet the minimum physical activity
standards for Americans: 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity
and two days of muscle strengthening activity a week.
“People
who are physically active for about 150 minutes a week have a 33% lower risk of
all-cause mortality than those who are physically inactive,” the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes.
Translated,
that means if you get up and move for just 21.43 minutes each day of the week,
you cut your risk of dying from anything by
one-third.
That’s worth
the effort, right?
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