Its a popular belief that carbs and sugar cause weight gain, insulin resistance, and diabetes, but according to peer reviewed scientific studies, it turns out that’s not really the case. I’ve put together this article to clear things up on this topic and explain what actually causes insulin resistance, and the steps you can take to fix this issue. Here’s the breakdown.
- What is insulin resistance
- What causes insulin resistance
- Possible signs of insulin resistance
- How to fix insulin resistance
What Is Insulin Resistance
Insulin resistance is directly associated with type 2 diabetes, but being insulin resistant doesn’t always mean you’re diabetic. There are varying degrees of insulin resistance and as this condition worsens, diabetes occurs. So here how it works.
There are certain types of cells that operate primarily on glucose from carbs and sugar. These types of cells are muscle, liver, and brain cells. When glucose enters the blood stream, insulin is released from the pancreas. That insulin then carries the glucose to these cells. The cells have insulin receptors that are responsible for opening up the cell and allowing the glucose to enter. The problem with insulin resistance is that the cell’s insulin receptors stop working, which in turn doesn’t allow the glucose to enter.
What Causes Insulin Resistance
If these cells primarily rely on carbs and sugar for energy, then how can carbs and sugar be the thing causing insulin resistance? Doesn’t make much sense does it? Now if we take a look at the dysfunction in the insulin receptors of these cells, things start to make more sense. It turns out that when the cell is full, the insulin receptors will not respond. Upon further study, scientists have discovered lipotoxicity to be the issue with these cells. Lipotoxicity is a metabolic syndrome that results from the accumulation of fat in tissue cells that are not meant to store fat.
The next question of course would be, how does fat get stored in muscle cells. The short answer is that a diet high in saturated fat causes lipotoxicity. Take a look at the standard American diet. Typically its high in fatty foods like meat dairy and eggs, which are loaded with saturated fat and cholesterol. Even the foods that people consider to be high carb like pizza, and donuts are high fat foods. Its because of this misunderstanding that people find it easy to demonize carbs.
Fat takes much longer for us to use as energy which makes it so much easier for our body’s to store as fat. As a response people go to extremes like high fat low carb diets like the keto diet. The problem with this is that the worlds most nutrient dense foods are fruit, vegetables, grains, legumes, and seeds, which are high in carbs. The subject of diet has become so warped that people believe that taking the bun off of a cheeseburger is a great weight loss strategy.
Possible Signs Of Insulin Resistance
In my 11 years of experience as a coach and from the research I’ve done, I’ve noticed commonalities with insulin resistant people. See if you experience any of these issues when you eat carb heavy foods.
- Sluggishness
- Bloating
- headaches
Also frequent light headedness and urination can also be an indication of insulin resistance.
How To Fix Insulin Resistance
Intermittent Fasting
Fasting is known to be one of the best methods of healing the body. Of course raw fasting can be really tough for most people and unsustainable overall. However there is a way to make fasting much more practical and sustainable. That method is intermittent fasting. This is where you have a 6-8 hour eating window and a 16-18 hour fasting window. This change to your eating schedule can be maintained on a daily basis. The reason why the fasting works so well for improving insulin sensitivity is that the fasting window allows you to use fat for energy at a much higher rate. This is how you can start draining that lipotoxicity out of your cells.
Whole Food Plant Based Diet
Cutting the saturated fat and cholesterol out of your diet and replacing them with nutrient dense plant based whole foods will allow your digestive tract to heal and drain the lipotoxicity out of your cells. I specified whole foods because these are the most ideal foods for the human species. These foods contain the essentials to the human diet in the ideal ratios. Plant based foods also contain fiber which regulate blood glucose and cholesterol levels. This goes a long way towards protecting against insulin resistance, obesity, and diabetes.
10-15% Fat
Most people don’t have a clear understanding of what a low fat diet actually is. An ideal low fat diet is where your fat intake makes up for 10-15% of your total macros. This method combined with a whole food plant based diet high in starchy foods has actually reversed type 2 diabetes.
Citations
SATURATED FAT PRODUCES INSULIN RESISTANCE
SATURATED FAT & CHOLESTEROL ARE HARMFUL TO INSULIN PRODUCING BETA CELLS
KETOGENIC DIETS DO NOT HAVE A METABOLIC ADVANTAGE
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