Earlier this week, I was off on a nerd safari in the blog-o-sphere and I came across a couple of articles that people had written expressing concerns around whey protein and how it increases insulin levels which derails weight loss.
So that got me thinking more about insulin.
This blog is a post in defense of insulin.
If you were to walk through a mall and stop people at random to ask if they knew what insulin was, most of them would tell you “Yes” and then probably say something about diabetes or blood sugar. They would be on the right track, but missing many pieces of the puzzle. Saying that insulin only affects blood sugar is like thinking of the Beatles as a one hit wonder.
In diet-land, low carb proponents often talk about how essential it is to keep insulin levels as low as possible to prevent fat storage and encourage fat loss.
While there is some truth to this claim, insulin is not evil. In fact, ask any diabetic, not having enough insulin is catastrophic to your health.
Insulin organizes how different kinds of fuels are either used or stored. It has major effects on carbohydrate (sugar), protein, and fat metabolism. It also significantly influences mineral metabolism.
The most well known effect of insulin is that it decreases blood sugar. It does this by turning on glucose transporters embedded in cell membranes.
When your cells need sugar for energy, the only way they can get it is through a special transporter. If the transporter is the vehicle, insulin is the key that turns the vehicle on and allows it to work.
The link between insulin and gaining body fat is this: If your cells do not use all of the sugar that you take in, the sugar will be sent off to your fat cells to be converted into glycerol and then stored. In order for sugar to be taken into the fat cells for storage, insulin has to be present. If insulin stops working, none of your cells (including your fat cells) can take in sugar. Insulin also prevents fat from breaking down. It does this by blocking the activity of the enzyme lipase, which converts fats from their storage form into their useable form.
Based on that information, you might be thinking (like many people) that if you want to lose weight you need to keep your insulin levels as low as possible all of the time.
The problem is that insulin does lots of other important stuff.
In addition to causing sugar (glucose) uptake, insulin enables your cells to take in protein (amino acids). When insulin is low, your body shifts into muscle breakdown mode in order to make the proteins necessary for your immune system, nervous system and organs to keep functioning.
Insulin also helps cells take in potassium, magnesium and phosphate. These are essential for energy production, nerve conduction and muscle contraction. The body works very hard to keep the balance of minerals inside and outside your cells at certain levels. The ability for your cells to stay alive and undergo their usual activities depends on movement of these differently changed mineral ions across their membranes.
For anyone who can remember back to biology or biochemistry class, do you recall the analogy “salty banana”? Healthy cells have more sodium outside and more potassium inside. Insulin is key in keeping your cells in their salty banana happy place.
Hopefully, you are starting to see just how important insulin is.
In fact, one of the keys to good health is to have normal insulin levels. This vital hormone needs to be able to operate in its sweet spot.
If you are constantly eating large amounts of carbohydrates (especially refined sugar) your insulin levels get jacked up regularly. This means that all of the hard work you do at the gym to get “back in shape” is being wasted because your fat metabolism is being turned off every time you eat. This is one of the reasons why low fat, high carbohydrate diets do not work unless you severely restrict your calories and push your body into starvation mode.
Another problem with continuously eating sugar and causing insulin elevation is that the body starts to tune insulin out. Just like you tune out background noise and the smell of your own perfume, your body stops ‘listening’ to insulin when it is always around. This state is called insulin resistance.
Once insulin resistance occurs, your pancreas has to work harder and put out more insulin to bring the same amount of blood sugar down into a normal range. Eventually, after years of over stimulating your pancreas, it will start to shut down and you will become diabetic. Your body will lose its ability to make insulin altogether.
If you keep eating sugar (as most diabetics do since they are told to eat whole grains, fruit and low fat milk), in the absence of adequate insulin, the sugar will stay in your blood for long periods of time. The effects of high blood sugar are devastating to your body.
Excess blood glucose engages in chemical reactions that would never normally occur in your body. One of the most important of these reactions is the binding of glucose to proteins, forming what are known as ‘AGEs’ (Advanced Glycosylation End products).
AGEs are evil.
AGEs are able to link up with each other and with other proteins leading to damage and thickening of cell membranes. This particularly affects the cells lining the walls of your blood vessels. It changes how the cells can interact with each other and with the important chemical messengers in their environment.
Once AGEs cause this type of damage to blood vessel walls, it can (and does) lead to deposits of fibrous and fatty material – this is called atherosclerosis.
On top of that, AGEs can hinder the ability for blood vessels to relax, so they become ‘constricted’ and narrower than they should be.
Are you seeing where I am going with this? When you do not have properly functioning insulin and you eat sugar, you end up with plaque in your arteries and artery constriction (high blood pressure). In other words dysfunctional insulin, plus sugar, equals... heart disease.
Other effects from sugar-damaged blood vessels include systemic inflammation, arthritic changes, brain and neurological damage, blindness, recurring infections, slower wound healing and accelerated aging. Diabetes is also closely related to many types of cancer.
I am not trying to scare you. But you do deserve to know how all of these things play out in your body.
What I am hoping you will remember from this post is the following:
- Insulin is not evil. Insulin is really important for your body to be able to function properly.
- Do not be concerned about insulin spikes caused by eating protein. Insulin production is necessary for keeping your muscles strong and healthy. Strong, healthy muscles ramp up metabolism and improve insulin sensitivity. Both of which lead to fat loss.
- Your body is designed to handle moderate amounts of carbohydrate in real food forms, especially after physical activity.
- Stop eating refined sugar. This is especially true if you already have signs of metabolic dysfunction including insulin resistance, diabetes, obesity, hypertension, and thyroid dysfunction.
I hope this helped you to understand your body better. Knowledge shared and put into action is power! Share this post with anyone you love who might need some more information on this important topic.
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