Unless you have had a specific reason to learn about it, insulin is quite possibly a mystery to you. You know it directly affects the lives of diabetics, and can go up and down depending on your blood sugar levels, but perhaps you don’t know much more than that. How important is it for regular folks to know about? Should you be aware of your insulin levels, or is it affecting your life in ways that you’re not aware? In this article we’ll take a closer look at what insulin does, how your diet can affect its production, and the havoc it could be playing on your system.
First, let’s start with the basics. Insulin is a hormone that is produced in your pancreas to cause cells in your liver, muscles and fat tissue to absorb glucose from your blood and store it as glycogen for future energy needs. Glucose is a form of sugar used by your body for energy, and is derived from the consumption of carbohydrates (e.g. starch). So you eat a donut, your body breaks it down, glucose is released into your blood, insulin is released as a reaction, and triggers your liver, muscles and fatty tissue to absorb this donut derived glucose as glycogen for use down the road when you need it. So the more carbs you eat, the more glucose goes into your blood, and the more insulin your produce. Also, not that when insulin is low, your body will turn from this glucose/glycogen energy cycle and start using your fat as an energy source.
Now, say you’re eating a ton of carbohydrates. Your body will react by producing a lot of insulin. The first problem we run into is that your liver, muscle and fatty tissue cells cannot store a lot of glycogen (about 400 grams total), so any excess glucose gets sent to the liver to be turned into fat. High insulin levels will also prevent your body from using this fat as an energy source, so it simply begins to accumulate. Eventually, if insulin levels remain continuously high, your cells will become insulin resistant, meaning that they will cease accepting any more glucose at all. In effect, they shut down, and stop caring about how much glucose is in your blood. What happens next is that the amount of glucose in the blood stream becomes unregulated, and all hell breaks loose in terms of blood glucose toxicity and insulin damage, which results in even greater risks for diabetes, heart attacks, blindness, the need for limb amputation and other disasters.
However, this is just focusing on the glucose levels in the system. Having consequently high insulin levels is even worse. Insulin is pro inflammatory, and is now believed to cause atherosclerosis, the stiffening of artery walls, the rise in blood pressure, the blockage of your circulatory system and you can figure out where all that takes you.
Finally, think about this: that ‘sugar rush’ you get after eating a candy bar or drinking a soda is your glucose levels spiking in your blood stream. Your brain uses glucose for energy, and the sudden excess makes it very happy, energized and upbeat. You feel great! But a few minutes later your pancreas kicks into overdrive, dumps a lot of insulin into your system, and all that glucose gets stored away, resulting in a ‘crash’ as your brain gets deprived. Suddenly you go from being high to being grumpy, morose, lethargic. Often people will try to fix this with more sugar—a terrible solution! The very worst though is if you no longer get ‘sugar highs’, because that means your system is so out of control that it’s on its way to becoming insulin resistant, and that’s where the real trouble starts.
A key way to help regulate your glucose levels and thus keep your insulin levels low is to exercise. Remember, insulin’s primary job is to store glucose as glycogen in your cells for future energy use. The problems really start when those cells get filled up and there’s no more room, so one easy, healthy method of preventing that from happening is to exercise. Burn up those glycogen supplies, and you will keep that glucose cycle clicking away happily without jamming up the works.
Further, realize that everybody falls somewhere on the range of insulin sensitive to insulin resistant, and that we all need to monitor not only how much exercise we’re getting, but also how much glucose we’re dumping into our systems. A diet high in refined carbohydrates will put a lot of stress on this glycogenesis cycle, so if you’re drinking a lot of sodas, eating a ton of pizza and pasta and white bread, and ordering sugary desserts, realize that you are causing crazy glucose spikes in your system, which leads to massive insulin generation, which upsets your whole system and forces it to work in overdrive to achieve homeostasis once more. So cut back on the carbs, cut back on the sugar, and enjoy the rapid improvement you’ll see in your health!
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