Diet and Nutrition

Are You Insulin Resistant?

Do you feel tired and sluggish all the time? When you try to diet, do you get so hungry that it defeats all your efforts to stay on your diet? Have you been gaining weight and can't seem to get it off? If these conditions apply to you, you could be Insulin Resistant. And if you are insulin resistant, you are at risk for morbid obesity--that's weight gain so extreme that it threatens your life--and even developing Type 2 Diabetes.

Insulin resistance can be caused by a number of things, or combination of several: A lack of exercise, a diet of too much fast food or too many carbohydrates, not enough fiber, complex carbohydrates, fruits and vegetables in your diet, or simply not getting enough sleep at night can contribute to insulin resistance. Here's what happens when you are insulin resistant:

Insulin is the hormone "key" that unlocks your body's tissues, enabling them to process sugar and use it as fuel. This is vital to a healthy body, because your muscles need sugar to function, and so does your brain! When you are insulin resistant, your body's tissues "resist" the insulin's attempt to unlock the door so the sugar in your blood can be used as fuel. This can raise your blood sugar to dangerously high levels. Prolonged, elevated levels of blood sugar can cause nerve and circulatory damage that may lead to heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure and blindness.

When your body's tissues resist the insulin your body produces and your blood sugar levels begin to rise, your pancreas responds as it is programmed to do, by producing and releasing still more insulin. Too much insulin in your blood has two very undesirable side effects: it makes you feel hungry, and causes your body to store all that excess sugar as fat! No wonder your every attempt to lose weight ends in failure! Not only that, but if this "insulin resistant" condition continues for too long, your pancreas can simply become exhausted from producing all that insulin and greatly reduce its output or stop altogether. When that happens, it causes the condition known as diabetes. Diabetes simply means your body does not produce enough insulin. Without insulin to activate the processing of sugar in your body's tissues, the sugar simply builds up in your blood--causing the damaging effects described above.

That doesn't mean you are doomed to become a diabetic. If you make changes to your diet and lifestyle now, you can reverse the process and your body will again accept and utilize insulin the way it should to keep your blood sugar levels within safe, normal range.

Diet and exercise are the key to making this happen! (You knew I was going say that, didn't you?) Exercise is the number one, best way to increase your body's sensitivity to insulin! Your muscles are fueled by sugar. When you exercise, your muscles stop resisting the action of insulin and allow the sugar to be utilized as the fuel they need to meet the demands placed upon them by the exercise. A combination of aerobic exercise, such as walking and strength training--working with small weights to increase muscle mass--has proven to be the most effective combination to combat insulin resistance or lower your blood sugar levels, if you are already diabetic.

And yes, diet is important, but how you diet is even more important! Simply cutting calories or eating less just doesn't work, if you are insulin resistant. What DOES work is paying attention to the "glycemic index" of the foods you eat to avoid dumping a large amount of sugar into your blood all at once, thereby triggering a flood of insulin your body refuses to use, thus starting the hunger/fat storing cycle caused by too much insulin in your blood.

Put simply, the "glycemic index" of a given food is a number assigned to that food, based upon how fast it turns to sugar in your blood, once it's digested. Many foods, when broken down, turn to sugar, since that is your body's primary fuel. But it happens much faster with some foods, than with others. In general, "white" foods have a low glycemic index, meaning they will very quickly turn to sugar in your blood, triggering a flood of insulin. These white foods include white bread, potatoes, white rice and (go figure!) white sugar.

But you don't even need to count "glycemic points" to make this work for you. Just remember that instead of simple carbohydrates that break down quickly to sugar, you need to eat complex carbohydrates that digest more slowly, thus slowing the release of sugar into your blood. Instead of white pasta, eat whole wheat pasta. (It looks "brown" before it's cooked, but once it's cooked and paired with sauce, it's hard to tell the difference!) Instead of white bread, find a good, whole-grain bread you like, and eat that, instead. Instead of orange juice--which is high in sugar and is transformed almost instantly into sugar in your blood--eat the whole orange. The fiber in the orange will slow the arrival of the sugar into your blood. So: eat complex carbohydrates like whole-grain pasta, whole-grain breads, beans and lentils. (Like split pea soup with ham? That's an excellent choice of a low-glycemic index food! Fresh fruits and veggies are good, too.) Mixing these more complex foods with protein slows the breakdown into sugar even more.

And here's the best part: If you follow this method of eating, you'll find those hunger pangs will fade and disappear. You'll stop storing fat and start losing weight, and you'll feel great! If you simply must have one of those "bad" high glycemic index foods, combine it with one of the complex foods described above. This will help to slow down how quickly the sugar from that "bad" food will hit your blood, thus avoiding the unwanted "insulin spike".

Moreover, this is a very healthy diet--one that's safe to use indefinitely--and one that's so easy to live with that you'll be able to stick with it! You need not starve yourself or live on lettuce leaves and celery--you can eat real food in reasonable quantities and still lose weight! A couple of cautions, though. Of course you can't eat unlimited amounts and expect to lose weight, so watch your portion size, and try to choose foods that are low in fat, as too much fat in your diet can sabotage your efforts (not to mention raising your cholesterol levels and other undesirable effects!) But you'll find if you stay on this diet for a week or two that you can eat smaller portions and still feel satisfied. If you add exercise to your diet plan, you'll lose weight even faster, and have less trouble controlling those "insulin spikes" that sabotage your efforts.

If you want more information, there are a any number of books on the subject--many containing recipes using low gycemic index foods and providing much more information about the subject. One I've personally read and found helpful is "The Sugar Solution" from Prevention Magazine. You can find this one just about anywhere they sell books.

Note: This article is a general guide to healthier eating. It is not offered as medical advice, nor should it be used as such. Please consult your physician before starting any diet or exercise program.