The two-minute walk after dinner

A short stroll after eating blunts the blood sugar spike. You don’t need a gym, or even ten minutes.

After a plate of rice and curry, the natural move is the sofa. A growing body of research suggests getting up for a few minutes instead is one of the simplest things you can do for your blood sugar.

What the research found

In 2022, researchers at the University of Limerick pulled together seven studies comparing three things: sitting for long stretches, breaking that up by standing, and breaking it up with light walking. Participants took short breaks of two to five minutes, every 20 to 30 minutes across the day.

Standing helped: blood sugar was about 9.5% lower on average than with prolonged sitting. Light walking helped more, at about 17% lower, and blood sugar and insulin also rose and fell more gently. The walking was not exercise in the gym sense. It was a stroll.

Not a workout. A stroll.

How to fit it in

Because blood sugar tends to peak within an hour or so of a meal, the best time to move is soon after eating. Walk to the end of the lane and back. Do a few laps of the garden. Take the stairs. Wash up standing, then take your phone call on foot. At the office, a two-minute walk every half hour does the same job.

It’s not a replacement for medication or a doctor’s advice, especially if you have diabetes. But it’s free, it takes two minutes, and you can start tonight.

Source: Buffey et al., Sports Medicine (2022), a meta-analysis of seven studies, as reported by CNN. This is general information, not medical advice.