Veggie Appetizers
Part of the Healthy Habits series
Let’s talk about veggie appetizers…
I have been doing veggie appetizers for several years now to curb my own snacking and encourage vegetable eating in my house.
Recently, I learned that this habit is also a scientifically-backed way to help with glucose spikes when I heard the Glucose Goddess Jessie Inchauspe on a podcast talking about how veggie appetizers help with glucose levels. Not only does it help slow the glucose getting into your bloodstream, the fiber in the veggies also forms a mesh on the lining of the intestines which reduces absorption of glucose and fructose.
How Veggie Appetizers Work
In my house, I get the veggie appetizer ready first, and we munch on it while the rest of dinner is cooking. The requirements are that it be primarily a vegetable and part of the overall balanced plan for that meal. From an ease perspective, I find this is a fun simple way to get a meal on the table – focus on one thing, and consume it while the other parts are cooking. There’s less pressure to have everything ready at the same time.
From an ease perspective, I find (veggie appetizers are) a fun simple way to get a meal on the table– focus on one thing, and consume it while the other parts are cooking. There’s less pressure to have everything ready at the same time.
Benefits of Veggie Appetizers
My Favorite Veggies Appetizers
Some of my family’s favorite veggie appetizers are simple crisp roasted veggies with a dipping sauce. This sauce is usually a yogurt base (yay for probiotics!), but is sometimes a cheese sauce or vinegar based sauce. We also love vegetable spreads with raw veggies and maybe a little whole grain bread. Salads are a typical dinner side, but my favorite way to eat a salad is as a veggie appetizer. I find that the sometimes delicate flavors in the salad don’t get lost among the bolder ones of the meal, and I can really appreciate them.
Try this: Plan to have a veggie appetizer with 2 or three of your meals this week.
Sources:
Looking for veggie appetizer recipes?
These veggie appetizer recipes will help you get started with this healthy habit.
INCHAUSPE, JESSIE. Glucose Revolution: The Life-Changing Power of Balancing Your Blood Sugar. SIMON & SCHUSTER, 2023.
Papakonstantinou E, Oikonomou C, Nychas G, Dimitriadis GD. Effects of Diet, Lifestyle, Chrononutrition and Alternative Dietary Interventions on Postprandial Glycemia and Insulin Resistance. Nutrients. 2022 Feb 16;14(4):823. doi: 10.3390/nu14040823. PMID: 35215472; PMCID: PMC8878449.
Shukla AP, Dickison M, Coughlin N, Karan A, Mauer E, Truong W, Casper A, Emiliano AB, Kumar RB, Saunders KH, Igel LI, Aronne LJ. The impact of food order on postprandial glycaemic excursions in prediabetes. Diabetes Obes Metab. 2019 Feb;21(2):377-381. doi: 10.1111/dom.13503. Epub 2018 Sep 10. PMID: 30101510; PMCID: PMC7398578.
