How have we gotten it wrong for so long. It seems that the mantra of the mainstream media and general diet guidelines for those who need to watch their blood sugar levels is to eat high carb - but they say not to eat too much refined carbs, but complex carbs - but in reality it is still carbs. Don't they get it that carbs = glucose in the body no matter how you package them or how slowly you release it into the bloodstream?
The body doesn't care if it is refined or not in the end, it is still carbohydrate, so when someone who is diabetic for instance is told to eat plenty of whole grains, and complex carbs, and they are not told to limit fruit or other starchy vegetables, that is setting their body up for continual health problems for years to come because of an increased glucose load and insulin output.
It’s a simple misunderstanding of how the body works in terms of blood sugar control, putting the emphasis on the wrong place (trying to control the level of blood glucose via more insulin) instead of trying to prevent the rise in blood glucose in the first place, which would negate the need for such huge quantities of insulin needed to process all that glucose! The problem with diabetes is not blood glucose but blood insulin levels. When you force your body to produce that much insulin every day in response to huge quantities of sugary and carb foods, your pancreas and cells can only keep up for so long before you start needing extra insulin *which is when most diabetics start needing insulin shots. The problem with this is that insulin as a hormone causes a cascade effect of other hormone disruptions which is partly why diabetics have such a huge list of secondary diseases and problems that they end up having to deal with.
High insulin in the body also ends up causing your cells to basically shut down their gates to glucose because there is just too much floating around in the blood - the cells become "insulin resistant" meaning that they dont become as receptive to insulin signals to let glucose in. It’s a protective mechanism for the cells or else they would be flooded with too much glucose that they wouldn't be able to regulate. However, as a result of this insulin resistance the pancreas thinks there isn't enough glucose getting into the cells because it gets feedback that the insulin isn't working properly so it makes even more insulin to try and compensate and you end up with a vicious cycle. Yikes! On our way to pancreatic and insulin failure if this keeps up!
Simply stopping eating so many carbs and switching to a low carb diet which is rich in healthy fats and proteins would completely alleviate the problem and the potential for worse problems down the line all together, as proteins and fats don't require ANY insulin in order to be digested or broken down into useable energy - they undergo a completely different transformation process.
So my recommendations for anyone with blood sugar control issues - skip the carbs and go for the high fat and proteins - your body will thank you for it later and you will feel much better, and often quite quickly. It is amazing how fast your body can adjust - try doing a high fat and protein diet for a week and see how you feel afterwards. You can measure your progress by how much you are craving, how much constant stable energy you have, whether you have better mental accuity, feel less tired after eating and need less down time.
The body doesn't care if it is refined or not in the end, it is still carbohydrate, so when someone who is diabetic for instance is told to eat plenty of whole grains, and complex carbs, and they are not told to limit fruit or other starchy vegetables, that is setting their body up for continual health problems for years to come because of an increased glucose load and insulin output.
It’s a simple misunderstanding of how the body works in terms of blood sugar control, putting the emphasis on the wrong place (trying to control the level of blood glucose via more insulin) instead of trying to prevent the rise in blood glucose in the first place, which would negate the need for such huge quantities of insulin needed to process all that glucose! The problem with diabetes is not blood glucose but blood insulin levels. When you force your body to produce that much insulin every day in response to huge quantities of sugary and carb foods, your pancreas and cells can only keep up for so long before you start needing extra insulin *which is when most diabetics start needing insulin shots. The problem with this is that insulin as a hormone causes a cascade effect of other hormone disruptions which is partly why diabetics have such a huge list of secondary diseases and problems that they end up having to deal with.
High insulin in the body also ends up causing your cells to basically shut down their gates to glucose because there is just too much floating around in the blood - the cells become "insulin resistant" meaning that they dont become as receptive to insulin signals to let glucose in. It’s a protective mechanism for the cells or else they would be flooded with too much glucose that they wouldn't be able to regulate. However, as a result of this insulin resistance the pancreas thinks there isn't enough glucose getting into the cells because it gets feedback that the insulin isn't working properly so it makes even more insulin to try and compensate and you end up with a vicious cycle. Yikes! On our way to pancreatic and insulin failure if this keeps up!
Simply stopping eating so many carbs and switching to a low carb diet which is rich in healthy fats and proteins would completely alleviate the problem and the potential for worse problems down the line all together, as proteins and fats don't require ANY insulin in order to be digested or broken down into useable energy - they undergo a completely different transformation process.
So my recommendations for anyone with blood sugar control issues - skip the carbs and go for the high fat and proteins - your body will thank you for it later and you will feel much better, and often quite quickly. It is amazing how fast your body can adjust - try doing a high fat and protein diet for a week and see how you feel afterwards. You can measure your progress by how much you are craving, how much constant stable energy you have, whether you have better mental accuity, feel less tired after eating and need less down time.
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