Insulin Resistance:
The Hidden Saboteur of Weight Loss
Do you keep gaining and losing over and over again? Is it nearly impossible to maintain a stable weight? You may be up against a hormone imbalance. There are many hormone networks that can be culpable for our inability to lose weight, but perhaps the most common is insulin resistance, known these days as "Syndrome X".
Because of the way our culture eats, many of us are insulin resistant. Here's how this works. When we eat, our body breaks down the food into glucose, which is used for energy. When we refer to "blood sugar", we are really referring to "blood glucose". After a meal it rises, and what you eat determines how much it rises. If you eat a meal high in protein, fat and vegetables, it will stay relatively stable. If you eat a meal high in sugar, refined grains, and other processed foods, it will spike drastically. When it rises, the pancreas releases insulin in order to process the glucose into energy.
If you consistently eat a diet full of high glycemic index foods such as the ones listed above, your pancreas will flood your system with insulin, but your cells eventually become resistant to the effects of insulin. This means more and more insulin is needed to achieve the same effect. This also means that your blood sugar is constantly soaring and crashing. When your blood sugar drops, you may crave foods that will make it spike, such as sugar and refined foods - the exact foods you should avoid. The cycle continues, and finally, so much glucose builds up in the bloodstream that your body becomes susceptible to diabetes. In 2007, the US Department of Health and Human Services estimated that 1 in 4 US adults aged 20 or over had pre-diabetes: a condition in which blood glucose levels are higher than normal. Excess glucose in the blood can also cause kidney damage and blindness.
Are you wondering whether you may have insulin resistance? You may have low blood sugar, and the corresponding symptoms: fatigue, dizziness, carb/sweet cravings, agitation/jitteriness, abdominal bloating, depression, increased fat.
Fortunately, insulin resistance AND pre-diabetes can be reversed by eating whole, unprocessed foods and eating moderate amounts. Focus on protein and vegetables. It is important to remember that fats stabilize your blood sugar, so please do not avoid them. Any grain you eat should be a whole grain: think brown rice, quinoa, oats (not the instant kind!), millet, buckwheat. Just because a bread is brown doesn't mean it's whole wheat, by the way!
Exercising can also help with insulin resistance by reducing blood glucose. According to one 2009 study, combining strength resistance and aerobic exercise was optimal for reducing insulin resistance. If you have full blown diabetes, exercise should be at the mild to moderate level, at least initially.
