Bread and oil as appetizer triggers natural GLP-1

Interesting! I would like to learn more about this. Just to clarify, will any bread dipped in olive oil work? Also, how much bread before a meal?
Thank you

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When I started on Mounjaro for diabetes, I spoke with my Mayo oncology doctor. She explained what to eat or not, since my cancer treatment med, Tamoxifen with Mounjaro cause some initial food challenges.
I now only cook with extra virgin olive oil. Eat mostly protein. Two diets suggested, Mediterranean and Vegetarian, eating more Indian food.
Mounjaro also causes muscle loss, I eat more protein and exercise.

Taking weight loss med and its effects vary by patient.

@carbcounter So, AI may be technically correct here, based on the question you asked. BUT the real answer is far more complicated.

It is not the specific combination of bread and olive oil that moderates blood glucose. It is adding oil/fat to the carbohydrate within the meal. While I am not a trained nutritionist, my understanding of the mechanism it that it moderates the speed with which the starch is absorbed, creating less of a "spike." The combination can be bread and olive oil, toast and a nut butter (even adds a 3rd benefit of protein), root vegetables roasted in oil and seasonings or other combinations.

CAUTION! This is not a "license" to freely consume carbohydrates if you are diabetic. It simply means your body converts the carbs more slowly, it doesn't erase their overall effect. Your body still doesn't make enough insulin to process the carbohydrates, so overall your personal limits apply. You still need to follow your eating plan to manage blood sugar. Post-eating tests are only one measure of how you are doing, your A1-C is the measure of management over time.

@hititpats7
Pretty much any bread seems to work, what they serve at the pizza place is a typical pizzeria hard white bread, each person gets two or three pieces each about one ounce, and fairly limited amounts of EVOO, less than a tablespoon per piece. I've also tried it with single slices of (organic) white and whole wheat bread. Sometimes I sprinkle some garlic powder or "umami blend" into the oil, pizzerias use oregano and a bit of red pepper.

It's a small amount, it's just a trigger, and your body reacts by creating an equally small amount of GLP-1. You can certainly overwhelm it. AI suggests that's why taking it as a drug is stronger, doses can be much larger and last the week - but just doing it one meal at a time seems fine by me.

It's easy and safe to try and see. A piece of bread, a tablespoon of EVOO, give it five minutes, then have a normal meal, and see if your reading is better than expected five hours later.

As I will also answer below, it is not only bread and oil that does this, it turns out there are a number of foods and combinations that do this! An egg might do this - and by coincidence of sorts, that's how I sort of standardized my breakfasts a couple of years ago which, even without EVOO, have given me much better pre-lunch readings than with miscellaneous other breakfasts. Oatmeal and walnuts, too.

So there are a lot of similar options, bread and oil are just one, actually eating a salad with oil and vinegar as the first thing in a lunch or dinner has much the same effect - no it does not have to be EVOO, at least the AI says other oils will do this, too.

What I'd LIKE to find is an authoritative source that HAS sorted this all out, because it seems tremendous to know, and tremendous to do!

Has anyone EVER seen ANY written or authoritative diabetes diet guide that mentioned this? That's what has me ranting about the whole thing.

@malebreastcancer47
Yes, if you're already taking a GLP-1 class drug, I guess this has less relevance. Actually though, that's a question, not an assertion!

It is the timing here that matters, if you finish the meal with bread and oil it would presumably have much less benefit. I've seen many suggestions that it's generically good to have some protein before you eat carbs, but this goes far beyond that with specific and reasonably well understood methods.

Will it FURTHER improve your blood glucose readings, to do this, if you're already on the med? Could it go too far and lower your blood glucose too much? Since you might do these things accidentally, that would be good to know about!

@sueinmn
Absolutely. What I want most now is to see this mapped out. It seems I accidentally fell into one good pattern, and now I finally understand it better. And perhaps the cultural traditions of bread and oil appetizer, and salads with oil and vinegar as first course. But that these have actual benefits and are not just folklore, I'm finding this awesome!

@malebreastcancer47
Hi Arvind,
I agree Indian food does wonders, as that's exactly what I eat myself. I am on a low sodium/no sodium but use alot of lemon in my curries. Somehow the other it surely helps alot with my #s . I do eat rice and parathas sometimes.
Keep up the good work. Cheers.

The GLP-1s your body produces have a half-life of less than 2 minutes. DPP4 inhibitors (Sitagliptin, Saxaglipin, Linagliptin, Alogliptin) suppress the enzyme that breaks GLP-1 down and extends the half-life to a few hours. Ozempic has a half-life of 7 days, Mounjaro 5 days. Being present 24x7 is what makes the pharma GLP-1 clones more effective at reducing appetite than the GLP-1s our bodies naturally produce. There is a limit what stimulating natural GLP-1s can do. Most of the effect is the oil slowing carbohydrate digestion as previously mentioned.

@jim18
Excellent, thanks.
For how long after being triggered, does the body produce more GLP-1?

I would suppose the shorter half-life is a feature not a bug, meant to affect the body for just the current meal.

Yet when I've tried this for several meals in a row, I've been wondering if I'm feeling a general effect, a reduction in appetite, that now lasts somewhat longer.

--

How does Ozempic have such a longer life, by being largely immune to the enzymes in the first place, or by including inhibitors of the enzyme? Oh heck, I'll ask Google. Also answers my question above, GLP-1 can continue to be produced and have effects for 2-3 hours after first triggering, with various foods increasing its production and others natural DPP4 inhibitors.

Really, it's time for some fully qualified people to map this all out for us poor patients out in the world, there seems a LOT that is known now. And it seems I've "accidentally" been doing a lot of it right, for years already, but am just now learning the molecules and processes involved. Wild.