Insulin Resistance
My goal is to help you understand your health and give you the tools you need to feel your best. Insulin is a popular but sometimes confusing topic. Let's break it down.
We want to be more insulin sensitive, NOT insulin resistant. Insulin resistance is found in conditions like type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome), cardiovascular disease, and more.
Quick review of what insulin does for us.
Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas in response to eating that tells our cells, “Glucose is on the way, open up!” When cells become insulin-resistant, they don’t respond to the signal to open up. This means they do not get enough glucose, their main source of energy. This causes two big problems. First, the cells begin to starve, so they turn to other fuel sources including protein. This is bad news for your muscles. The second issue is that the glucose then stays in the blood, causing high blood sugar that struggles to come back down, and is eventually stored in fat.
Why?
Cells become more insulin resistant for several different reasons; two main ones are diet and lifestyle (stress, exercise, sleep, etc.). Diet directly affects inflammation, fat buildup, and sugar spikes, which all cause cells to be less responsive to insulin. And lifestyle includes sleep, exercise, stress and more. Sleep affects insulin in so many interesting ways but let me give you one amazing example. When we do not get enough sleep, our stress hormones send out loud signals that cause our body to release loads of quick “food”. This quick food is free fatty acids that are from fatty acid chains that are broken to get them. gets higher levels of free fatty acids. When our blood gets filled with too many free fatty acids, they physically cause a blockage for insulin.
Now the best news is that we have the power to improve our insulin sensitivity through diet and lifestyle!
Lifestyle Tips that help:
- Sleep and exercise. They both make our cells more sensitive to insulin.
Sleep heals. Cortisol (a stress hormone) decreases while sleeping. Think about what your body needs during flight-or-flight, a lot of energy! So, to keep you safe, you need a big boost of energy, which causes glucose to be released when cortisol is high. Lower cortisol = less glucose in your blood.
Exercise is like a loophole to get around insulin. When exercising, our muscles ask for glucose and open the door on their own to receive and use it.
Have you ever heard the tip to walk after you eat? It is genius!
Diet Tips that help:
1) Adding Fiber
- There are different categories for fibers, and the most impactful for managing blood sugar are soluble/viscous fibers. Soluble means it does dissolve in water, unlike insoluble fiber, like the stem of a broccoli, which is used for adding bulk to stool. Add soluble and viscous fibers in each meal. Viscous fibers turn into a thick gel that makes it take more time for digestive enzymes to get to the food to break it down into glucose. Having gel in your stomach may sound weird, but once you see the effects of viscous fiber, you will realize it can be a powerful tool in your diet.
The gel causes you to feel satisfied longer, which then releases more satiating hormones like GLP-1! Yes, like the weight loss drugs! These drugs imitate the GLP-1 hormones, but your body naturally releases them when you eat fiber.
There are many sources of viscous fiber (e.g., barley), so the most important thing is to find a few that can be realistically added to your diet.
2) Removing foods that make insulin resistance worse. Processed foods, sugar, and saturated fats. The goal is to lower these types of foods, but in a sustainable way. No stretching the rubber band so tight that it snaps.
I have walked many clients through the process of changing their diet, and the most important thing is to make one small change at a time and not expect perfection.
