What a person eats for breakfast can influence the way the body manages glucose at the next meal. This phenomenon, known as the "second meal effect," had already been recognized by researchers, but a new study from Vanderbilt University in the United States, published in the journal Frontiers in Endocrinology in April, is helping to better understand its mechanism.
The study identified an important role for glucagon, a hormone that acts together with insulin in regulating blood glucose. According to the researchers, glucagon levels in the morning can leave a kind of "metabolic memory" in the liver, altering its response to the following meal.
Insulin and glucagon have opposite functions. While insulin helps remove glucose from the blood and promotes its storage, glucagon acts in the opposite direction in regulating blood sugar levels.
