- Healthy everyday habits after a meal can help you manage your blood sugar.
- Take a short walk, drink water and add post-meal fiber to help lessen a rise in blood sugar.
- More healthy habits include smoking cessation, daily movement and better sleep quality.
It’s not just what you eat that can influence your blood sugar—but what you do after a meal too. Certain small post-meal actions can reduce spikes, prevent crashes, improve energy and support overall metabolic health. These don’t replace medication, so if you have diabetes, talk to your doctor about treatment strategies needed to stabilize your blood sugar. Here are three practical things dietitians recommend doing after eating for better blood sugar.
1. Take a 10-Minute Walk
Light movement after eating is one of the best ways to blunt your body’s blood sugar response to a meal. “Walking after eating is effective because it helps your body use the glucose from your meal right away, instead of letting it build up in your bloodstream,” says diabetes educator Amy Kimberlain, M.S., RDN, CDCES. In addition, she points out, exercise also diverts blood flow away from the intestines, lessening glucose absorption.
Research supports the idea of heading out for a short walk. One small study found that a 10-minute walk right after eating effectively lowered blood glucose levels in healthy young adults better than a control group who rested instead. Plus, the effects of a 10-minute walk were similar to a 30-minute walk, so researchers recommend the shorter stroll for being more practical for daily life. And in research involving people with type 2 diabetes, physical activity done right after a meal is also effective in lowering blood sugar—and may be a sound strategy for improving long-term blood sugar management.
Can’t get outside? That’s okay. Move around your home, whether that’s light housework, clearing the table or doing the dishes, recommends Grace Derocha, RDN, CDCES, spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Personally, she saves her laundry for after a meal, which gives her a task that requires going up and down the stairs. That’s a great idea, too, as one study found that one to three minutes of stair climbing improved after-meal insulin and glucose levels.
2. Drink Water
Drink up after a meal—but make it water. Ideally, you’ll also be drinking water throughout the meal, too. “Drinking water can help, but it won’t stop a spike on its own—it’s more of a gentle support strategy than a powerful intervention like walking,” says Kimberlain. Hydration helps by assisting your kidneys in removing excess glucose from the bloodstream, she explains. Staying hydrated helps to maintain normal blood volume, which is also impactful for blood sugar levels. “Drinking water dilutes the concentration and supports more stable numbers,” Kimberlain says.
3. Add a Healthy Fruit Dessert
You finished your main meal—now what? “I recommend adding a ‘finishing fiber or fruit,’” recommends Derocha. “Certain foods that we eat can support a smoother glucose response, as well as digestion.” She recommends having a high-fiber fruit (such as berries) or fiber-rich dessert (such as chia seed pudding). Fiber helps slow down the absorption of carbohydrate foods from the meal. And sometimes you just need a little something sweet to tell you that you’re done.
If you’re not into sweet, finishing the dinner with a fermented food like kimchi is another idea, says Derocha. Fermented foods may help regulate glucose metabolism, and their probiotic properties aid in digestion and reduce inflammation.
Other Everyday Habits for Healthy Blood Sugar Levels
Follow these tips throughout the day to keep blood sugar levels in check:
- Focus on fiber: One of the simplest things you can do to reduce spikes is eat more fiber, says Kimberlain. Doing so helps prevent glucose from entering your bloodstream quickly. Ultimately, higher-fiber meals will keep after-meal glucose levels steadier, she says. Oatmeal with berries, beans in a salad and quinoa, farro and sweet potatoes at dinner are all examples of fiber-rich options.
- Make a balanced plate: When planning your meals, complex carbohydrates, lean protein, healthy fats and fiber are an ideal combination for healthy blood sugar, says Kimberlain. Plus, this type of plate also helps keep you full.
- Eat foods in order. “The order that we eat food can help impact the glucose response in the body,” says Derocha. She advises eating vegetables and protein before carbohydrate foods (like rice, potatoes or bread) to slow digestion and reduce a spike.
- Stay active: Aim for 50 minutes of moderate- or vigorous-intensity cardio with resistance exercise to strengthen muscles and bones at least three days per week. Plus, limit sedentary screen time.
- Avoid smoking: This includes cigarettes, e-cigarettes and other tobacco products. If you need help quitting, ask your doctor for a referral for treatment for tobacco cessation and possible medication.
- Improve your sleep: Relaxing pre-bed routines, keeping a regular bed and wake time, sleeping in a dark, quiet, cool area, putting your devices on silent and avoiding alcohol before bed all help improve sleep quality—which is necessary for proper blood sugar management.
Our Expert Take
To blunt a rise in blood sugar after a meal, the most powerful thing you can do is take a short, 10-minute walk right after eating. In addition, hydrating during and after the meal, as well as chasing the meal with a high-fiber fruit, can also help decrease the rise in glucose that happens after eating, as well as support your body’s ability to get rid of glucose. Blood sugar management is an all-day thing, though, so remember to eat balanced meals containing fiber-rich carbohydrates, lean protein and healthy fat, exercise regularly and get good sleep.
