Dietary Revelations

Recently I've been learning a lot about the cause of most Western diseases such as obesity, CVD, diabetes and appendicitis. My two main sources of information have been Mercola.com and Gary Taubes book, Good Calories, Bad Calories.

My view on health and eating has been drastically changed. Dr. Mercola writes often about the dangers of sugar and refined carbohydrates and their effect on insulin.

Then I read Taubes' book and everything made sense to me. It was an Ah-Ha moment. But this was because there was actual fact and biochemical explanation behind the ideas.

To sum it all up, what I've learned has been that high insulin levels caused by too much sugar and carbohydrates in our body cause a defect in fat mobilization. Insulin in the bloodstream inhibits the release of fat from adipose tissue because it is a signal to those tissues that there is glucose in the bloodstream available for energy. Insulin also promotes the uptake of glucose into adipose tissue where it is converted to fat. This is a normal and necessary function. As we eat during the day, we have to store excess energy for those hours at night when we are sleeping and need that stored energy for metabolic processes.

The problem with this occurs when chronic overconsumption of refined carbs leads to the over secretion of insulin by the pancreas. This in turn leads to muscles and other tissues (except for the brain and adipose tissues, for the most part) becoming insulin resistant, requiring the pancreas to secreted even more insulin in response to carbohydrate ingestion. Therefore, glucose in the blood is quickly taken up by adipose tissue causing a quick drop in blood sugar leading to hypoglycemia. Normally at this point your fat cells should begin releasing fat for energy but high insulin levels in the blood inhibit this metabolism as previously mentioned.

To summarize, energy is essentially being trapped in fat cells while other tissues are being starved, leading to fatigue and decrease in energy. This cellular starvation causes us to be hungry and crave even more carbohydrates. And it continues in a vicious cycle.

Already knowing this was insulin's function, it's amazing I didn't recognize this effect and cause of obesity before now. Fat and protein do not cause such a spike in insulin levels and should be the primary macronutrients to consume when trying to lose weight. This allows the body to begin releasing energy from its own stores. Once fat metabolism is corrected by lower insulin levels, the body will begin to use its own energy, decreasing hunger as the body cannot tell the difference between energy released from adipose and energy ingested and absorbed by the gut.

This is only the basics of how insulin contributes to all of the chronic diseases that are plaguing developed countries.

I will continue to describe more effects of insulin, sugar and specifically fructose on metabolism and disease but I feel like this has been a good start.