There's a popular internet health hack: Eat foods in the "right" order — vegetables first, proteins and fats second, carbohydrates last — and you'll reduce the resulting spike in blood sugar, which can therefore reduce cravings, fatigue and health risks like Type 2 diabetes.

Past research on the topic, sometimes referred to as nutrient or meal sequencing, has concluded that it can indeed benefit blood sugar, especially for those with Type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes. For everyone else, however, it's not as cut-and-dried, said Dr. Alpana Shukla, a physician and researcher at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City.

However, there are some reasons to consider giving it a try, she said.

Existing studies on the benefits of meal sequencing are small, but the results are consistent. In one 2023 review of 11 studies, researchers concluded that people who saved carbohydrate-rich foods for after vegetables and proteins had significantly lower blood sugar levels than when they consumed them first.

In a 2019 study of 15 people with pre-diabetes, Shukla and her colleagues asked the participants to eat a meal of skinless grilled chicken, salad and ciabatta in three different sequences on three different days: ciabatta first, followed 10 minutes later by the chicken and salad; chicken and salad first, followed by the ciabatta; and salad first, followed by the chicken and ciabatta.

Researchers measured participants' blood sugar levels before they ate, and every 30 minutes for three hours after each meal. They found that when the participants ate the chicken and salad before the bread, their blood sugar spikes following the meal were about 46% lower than when they ate the bread first.

Experts aren't entirely sure why this might be. One theory is that eating fats, fiber and proteins first delays stomach emptying, which could slow the absorption of sugars from the carbohydrates into the bloodstream, Shukla said.

Barbara Eichorst, vice president of health care programs at the American Diabetes Association, said it makes sense for people with Type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes to consume vegetables and proteins first because, unlike carbohydrates, they don't rapidly turn into sugar and cause high blood glucose spikes.

For those who have Type 2 diabetes, some limited research even suggests that this blood sugar lowering effect could be comparable with certain diabetes medications, said Nicola Guess, a clinical dietitian and researcher at the University of Oxford in Britain.

But that doesn't mean that everyone should eat like this. The experts said that healthy people usually don't need to micromanage their blood sugar in this way. A properly functioning body will bring blood sugar levels back down to normal within hours of eating a meal, said Dr. Vijaya Surampudi, an endocrinologist at UCLA Health.

Nonetheless, research also suggests that saving carbohydrates for the end of a meal can make you more likely to fill up on vegetables and protein and eat fewer simple carbohydrates, which tend to have fewer nutrients and more calories.

The bottom line, the experts said, is that while meal sequencing is one of many healthy eating strategies, it's not something to stress about. Dietary trends like these sometimes result in making people anxious, which can lead to disordered eating.

In short, opt for high-quality food you enjoy.