Adelle Davis said, “You are what you eat.”
Truer words were never spoken. What you eat will comprise 80% of how you look, feel, and age. Exercise, genes, good or bad luck will take care of the remaining 20%.
INSULIN
Where does it come from? & What does it do?
Today I want to talk to you about insulin and exactly what it does to and for your body and your overall health. Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas. More specifically, it is produced in specialized little nodes within the pancreas called The Islets of Langerhans. Insulin production is stimulated by the presence of glucose in your blood. Insulin is assigned as the escort for all those sugar molecules to usher them to the places in your body that need them for energy. Insulin has a priority system as to where to take your fuel.
Once insulin has ushered fuel to your most vital organs such as your brain, the first priority is directly to your muscles. This will only be accomplished when your muscles are in ‘work mode’ and requiring immediate fuel. When you exercise, there’s a small amount of energy stored in your muscles in the form of glycogen to be used for a short period of time. When the glycogen is exhausted, the insulin will bond to the glucose in your blood stream to provide additional fuel to your muscles.
The second priority, once immediate needs are met is to create more glycogen which is the short-term energy source we just talked about. The insulin will return the glucose to the liver where it will be converted to glycogen and returned to the blood stream where it will once again either be used immediately if you’re “working” or it will be deposited in your muscles in small amounts to be used whenever there’s a short term requirement for energy. Once those storage units are filled, the insulin will usher any remaining glucose to your long-term storage facility – Also known as fat cells.
Insulin Management
You can see that insulin is the GATEKEEPER! The ONLY way your food is ultimately converted to fat is via the hormone insulin. To say it another way: Without insulin, you simply cannot store fat. You can control the amount of insulin your system produces by controlling the amount of glucose entering your blood stream. When you control the amount of insulin you produce by controlling the amount of glucose in your blood stream, you can dramatically affect the amount of glycogen that is deposited to your fat cells. Let me say that again….
When you control the amount of insulin you produce by controlling the amount of glucose in your blood stream, you can dramatically affect the amount of glycogen that is deposited to your fat cells.
“So how do I control the amount of glucose in my blood stream?” you might ask. It’s simple. Really!
You control the amount of glucose in your blood stream by eating foods with a low Glycemic Index. Simply stated, the Glycemic Index (GI) of a food measures it’s ability to cause a short-term (a couple hours) increase in the amount of glucose in your blood stream. Pure sucrose has an index of 100 and is the basis for the scale. Everything else is measured in comparison to sucrose. Here’s a couple of examples:
- Corn Syrup (found in MANY processed food and drinks) – 115 (yes… GI higher than drinking pure sucrose!)
- Baguette – 95
- Corn Starch – 85
- Corn Flakes – 81
- Rice Krispies – 82
- Spaghetti (white) – 81
- Rice Cakes – 77
- Whole Wheat Bread – 72
- Bagel – 72
- Oatmeal – 58
- Snickers Bar – 55
- Brown Rice – 55
- Corn Chips – 53
- Black Beans – 30
- Cashews – 22
- Artichoke, Asparagus, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Celery, Cucumber, Eggplant, Green Beans, Lettuce (all), Peppers (all varieties), Snow Peas, Spinach, Summer Squash, Tomatoes, Zucchini – 15
- Carrot – 3
- Salmon – 0 (yes, zero)
- Avocados – 0 (again)
- Chicken, Turkey, fish, other lean meats – difficult to measure because of zero to low carbohydrate content. Generally has very little effect on blood glucose rendering a GI of essentially zero
- Eggs – 0 (yep, zero again)
The healthy goal is to flatten your blood glucose highs and lows. The best way to achieve that with diet alone is to build your daily intake of food around foods with a low GI — Lean meats, vegetables, some fruits, & nuts. If you really want to do your body a favor, consider seriously minimizing or even eliminating wheat, beans and all processed foods (cookies, crackers, breads, pretzels, rice cakes, canned soups, SpaghettiOs, etc.) Wheat has more sugar in the form of complex carbohydrates than a Snickers Bar. A good rule thumb is that if the can or jar lists more than 5 ingredients or has words you can’t pronounce or don’t know what they are, then put it back on the shelf. Read your labels and if you see corn starch, high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, etc. — well, you’ll know what to do.
Stick to the perimeter of the store (lean meats, vegetables and some fruits) and you’ll do better. Don’t venture into the middle aisles unless you need Kitty Litter!
Obviously I’m not a doctor or trained nutritionist. Don’t make any diet changes without consulting your doctor or at least doing some of your own research. Information for this article was gleaned from:
Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health
Dennis Volz Live 