Dessert first or dessert last? Same bowl of chè, a whole different story

Full, but there's always a "dessert stomach"

This is a real thing, and it has a name: sensory-specific satiety.

Since the 1980s, researchers have noticed that when we keep eating one food, we slowly get bored of that particular food. But something with a different taste, color and texture still looks as appealing as ever.

After a savory meal, your tongue is "tired" of salty flavors. Along comes something sweet and cold, and your brain perks right up again. The dessert stomach isn't in your stomach at all. It lives in your brain's appetite.

Once you know this, you'll see why buffets make it so easy to overeat. The more different flavors there are, the more "second and third stomachs" open up.

Food order: veg and protein first, carbs and sweets later

This is the part that's been studied most in recent years.

In 2015, a research team in the US had participants eat the same meal in two different orders:

• Round 1: bread and orange juice first, then chicken and vegetables 15 minutes later.
• Round 2: chicken and vegetables first, then bread and orange juice 15 minutes later.

Same foods, same amounts. But when participants ate vegetables and protein first, their blood sugar after the meal rose noticeably less than when they ate the carbs first.

Why? Vegetables have fiber, and meat and fish have protein and fat. They slow down digestion in the stomach. When starch and sugar arrive afterward, they have to "wait in line", so they enter the bloodstream more gradually.

The study was small, and the participants were a specific group. Later studies found a similar direction, but the size of the effect varies from person to person. So think of this as a small habit worth trying, not a magic secret.

Same bowl of chè: empty stomach vs. after a meal

Apply this to sweets and it all clicks:

So if you want something sweet today, right after a main meal is usually the gentler time. In Vietnamese that's tráng miệng, literally "rinsing the mouth" at the end of a meal. Turns out our grandparents had it right all along.

There's one more bonus: after a meal you're already full, so you usually only eat a small bowl. On an empty stomach, a large cup slips down before you notice.

Sweet drinks are a special case

Soda, milk tea and juice differ from sweet foods in one way: you drink them, you don't chew them.

Liquid sugar enters your body very quickly. It also doesn't fill you up the way food with the same calories does. After a can of soda, you still eat dinner as usual.

So if you have to choose, a small slice of cake after a meal is usually "gentler" than a soda on an empty stomach. Even if the sugar looks similar on paper.

A few easy little habits

1. Pick up vegetables first. Every meal, take a few bites of veg before digging into the rice.
2. Eat protein with or before rice. Meat, fish, eggs, tofu.
3. Save sweets for dessert. Rather than eating them alone when you're hungry.
4. Choose small bowls. A small bowl of chè, a small slice of cake. Because the dessert stomach is very good at tricking you.
5. Make whole fruit your go-to dessert. It has fiber, needs chewing, and it's refreshing.

Frequently asked questions