Does the order in which you eat your food affect your digestion?

The available studies do not answer the question about eating order. The research provided covers other topics: food allergies in children, plant-based versus animal proteins, comparative digestive physiology in animals, and how the duodenum detects nutrients. Whether it matters if you eat your vegetables before or after your carbohydrates simply cannot be determined from these sources.

One small related topic does come up: chewing. A small study involving eleven healthy men showed that chewing for longer and taste stimulation in the mouth increase energy expenditure directly after a meal. That effect originated in the mouth itself, not in what happened afterwards in the stomach or intestines. However, the study was very small, conducted only in men with a healthy body weight, and provides no information about digestion in a broader sense. The study did not report how much additional energy was burned.

In short, there is no usable evidence available here regarding whether eating order does anything for your digestion. That does not mean the effect definitely does not exist, but it would not be fair to draw any conclusion from these sources at this point.