by Libby Weaver
How the biochemistry of insulin relates to appetite and fat storage
Please understand that I am not suggesting that we are not responsible for how much and what we eat. We are 100 percent responsible for this. Nor am I saying that willpower plays no role. Of course it can. My concern is that many people view food, weight, fat, and size simply as components of calories in versus calories burned equation, and they believe that if you eat anything other than what you know to be healthy, then you are useless. What I simply want to point out to the world is that our hormones are powerful, and your drive for safety and survival overrides everything.
Regardless of how frustrated you may be with your ever-expanding size, take the time to explore your whys. Which hormones identified in this book so far stand out to you? Do you think that you eat emotionally? Read on to learn more about the power and interrelationships of insulin.
Over the past 30 or so years what has become known as the “obesity epidemic” has unfolded. People tend to judge others and assume they must eat too much and move too little for them to be the size that they are, and there are times when this is accurate, but there are times when this is not. Judgment is explored in Puzzle Piece 9, Emotions, and is one of unhealthiest emotions you can experience—for both the judger and the person being judged.
However, what I want to explore with you now is—what is it about the physiology of the human body that allows this to happen? Our biochemistry has what are called “built-in negative feedback mechanisms,” which are supposed to stop us from gaining too much weight. In some people, this is not working efficiently or, if it is, it is being ignored biochemically. Scientists have been exploring what has the ability to block the signals telling our body to eat less and move more. Clearly, something is getting in the way. And most research indicates that insulin is precisely this block.12 The entire role of insulin is to store energy for later and, in a world of plenty, in a world full of processed carbs—because insulin does its job—we gain weight.
As described earlier, insulin moves glucose out of the blood and into the muscles and fat cells, which results in weight increase. But regardless of size—although this scenario tends to be more distinct in very overweight people—if insulin levels are high, another hormone called leptin is supposed to kick in and tell your brain that you’ve eaten. Leptin is produced by fat cells, and circulates through the blood, binding to receptors in the hypothalamus, the area of the brain that controls energy balance.
Leptin is supposed to turn off the desire to eat. In addition to this, it also triggers the involvement of the autonomic nervous system—various parts of which either promote or block fat burning. Through research that involved suppressing insulin with a drug, it has been shown that insulin interferes with leptin’s ability to signal to the brain to stop eating. However, studies in which leptin was given to obese people under the hypothesis that it would shut off appetite13 have usually found that it is not the miracle pill it was anticipated to be, and here’s why. It appears that insulin stops your brain from being able to “see” leptin, which leaves leptin lousy at down regulating appetite. The key here is that insulin must first come down for appetite to decrease, especially the desire for carbohydrates, and for weight loss to be sustained.
The importance of exercise
Resistance exercise is essential and the best “drug” of all for dealing with insulin. We are crazy if we think exercise only works by burning calories. Just 20 minutes of jogging equals one chocolate chip biscuit. One fast-food hamburger equals three hours of vigorous exercise to “work it off.” The reasons behind the importance of exercise are far beyond burning calories.
First, exercise increases the sensitivity of skeletal muscle to insulin. When this happens your pancreas can make less insulin, so your levels of insulin will decrease. And the result will be less insulin required in your blood to move glucose into fat cells (after the liver and muscles stores are satisfied). In other words, less insulin means less glucose (sugar) being turned into fat.
The second reason that movement is important is because, after diaphragmatic breathing, certain types of exercise are the single best “treatments” to lower cortisol, your chronic stress hormone. More on this in a moment. Cortisol lays down what is known as “bad” visceral fat, the fat around the middle, stored so your body will always have energy to escape from danger (real or perceived) and to keep you alive. By reducing cortisol you are decreasing the amount of fat that gets deposited around your middle, and this also inadvertently reduces your food intake.
Fructose and the liver: Their relationship to insulin
An excess of any food or beverage over time can make you lay down additional body fat. But there are some that need to be looked at in more detail. One—fructose—is a dietary component well worth discussing when it comes to insulin.
Fructose is the carbohydrate found naturally in foods such as fruit, corn, and honey. The trouble is human consumption of fructose has significantly escalated over the past 30 years or so, as it has been added to more and more processed foods. Our bodies are simply not designed to consume so much of it. Most people (unless you are excluding fruit to see if it decreases your bloating) can handle two pieces of fruit per day and some honey in tea. There is usually no problem with this, except in specific health conditions, relating mainly to liver and/or gut health or an autoimmune condition. Fruit, honey, and corn themselves are nourishing foods. Please hear this. For most people, it is the overconsumption of fructose that is the problem. US statistics suggest that the consumption of fructose has increased from about 9oz (250g) per year in 1970 to 55lb (25kg) per year in 2003, an enormous escalation caused by a massive increase in the consumption of processed foods.
Originally, fructose was used in food products for people with diabetes; it has a low glycemic index (GI), meaning it is digested slowly so drives a very modest insulin response. Researchers had suggested that fructose was not actually regulated by insulin and, therefore, it was presented to the world as the “perfect sugar for people with diabetes.” High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) came on the market after it was invented in 1966, and it began to find its way into US foods in 1975. In 1980, soft drink companies started to introduce it into soft drinks. Research suggests that the prevalence of childhood obesity in the USA can be traced back to this shift. Even though the chemistry of fat burning is multifaceted, widespread use of HFCS certainly hasn’t helped and research suggests that it has added dramatically to the roadblocks to fat burning.
The difference with fructose is not the number of calories per gram. In this respect, it is no different from glucose. The biggest difference is that the only organ in your body that can actually take up fructose is your liver. The body cannot use fructose for energy; it must first be changed into glucose and an enzyme made by the liver makes is essential for this process. Every organ, on the other hand, can take up glucose, and only about 20 percent of your glucose load arrives at your liver. The fewer loads on the liver, the better! It is important to note, however, that sucrose (table sugar) is made up of glucose and fructose joined together, so sucrose also places an additional load on the liver particularly due to its fructose content, and sucrose is the predominant sweetener in foods in Australia, New Zealand, and the UK.
The excessive consumption of fructose has been shown to do three not so great things within the liver; in fact fructose has been shown to be a hepato-toxin (“hepato” meaning liver). First, it drives the liver to make additional uric acid, the accumulation of which causes gout. It has also been suggested that elevated uric acid is the basis of some forms of high blood pressure. Uric acid inhibits nitric oxide, which is one of the body’s natural blood-pressure-lowering agents. Second, excess fructose consumption initiates what is called, in scientific circles, de novo lipogenesis, meaning “new fat synthesis,” which can lead to problems with blood fats and the ratio of cholesterol and triglycerides (free fat) in the blood. And, third, it appears that excessive consumption of fructose can
drive inflammation in the liver, which appears to stop the liver’s insulin receptors from working effectively. When this happens, insulin levels throughout the entire body rise, so even though we link insulin to blood glucose and the pancreas—since that is where it is made—you can also see how blood sugar dysregulation and/or insulin resistance is related to liver function. I say it again: we must look after our liver! The effects of elevated insulin are actually systemic.
As you now know, when insulin levels rise, they tell every cell of your body to store fat, and they can interfere with normal brain metabolism of the insulin signal, which is linked to leptin (as described above). If you put all of this together, elevated insulin not only leads to increased body fat but also to increased fat in the liver and the liver driving more and more deposition of body fat as well as increased inflammation. My goodness! What you end up with is what has become known as a non-alcoholic fatty liver, which is now known as a disease.
When this is going on, your brain can’t receive the signal from leptin to stop eating, so you consume more, and this is usually processed carbohydrates. What a vicious cycle! Imagine if you threw in a few alcoholic drinks each week on top of that chemical chaos! And so many people do. It is not surprising so many people feel lousy. In the USA, soft drinks and many processed foods, such as pretzels, contain high fructose corn syrup, which is either 42 or 55 percent fructose. In Australia, New Zealand and the UK, soft drinks and most of what I call “birthday party” foods contain sucrose. Sucrose (table sugars) is 50 percent fructose (the rest is glucose), so both are of great concern. Ouch, our liver!
Before you panic and go to a dietary extreme, as humans are so good at doing—sometimes to their long-term detriment—remind yourself that fructose, when combined with fiber, such as naturally occurs in fruit, is far better for us (obviously) than cakes, cookies, chocolate, and candy (sweets). For example, an average-sized orange has 20 calories, 10 of which are fructose, and it is high in fiber. A glass of orange juice has 126 calories. It takes six oranges to make that glass of juice, and it contains zero fiber. Dietary fiber is important because it slows the rate of intestinal carbohydrate absorption, which in itself reduces the insulin response.
Do your best to choose food as you would find it in nature. Don’t be a fruit bat and eat eight pieces a day. Two is perfect or, as I said earlier, zero for a four-week trial to get on top of bloating or for specific health reasons. An experienced health professional will guide you if you need additional vitamin C or other nutrients in your diet without fruit.
If you have eliminated fruit and are reintroducing it, bring it back first on an empty stomach, and see how you tolerate it. Remember, one aspect of exploring your health is about giving you answers to pain, feelings of discomfort, or even illness in your body; four weeks of dietary changes may provide you with some insight. It is up to you to decide what you do with your new information. Truly caring about yourself is paramount, and Puzzle Piece 9, Emotions, will reveal a new way of doing this.
The glycemic index and glycemic load
The glycemic index (GI) is the response of your blood glucose to 50g of carbohydrate in that food. Discovery of the GI in 198114 gradually changed the face of treatment for Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, which are in fact biochemically two very different conditions. A food can be classed as low GI because it makes your blood sugar rise very slowly, causing only a small amount of insulin (fat storage hormone) to be secreted. On the other hand, a carbohydrate that is digested quickly causes blood sugar to rise quickly, requiring insulin and hence fat storage signals to surge.
In my opinion and experience, the GI is a very small part of this picture. I prefer to talk about choosing foods that are low HI—low human intervention. Nature knows best. Furthermore, what is now known as the glycemic load (GL) has come to be shown as a far better guide when it comes to foods, if we need a guide other than nature, which I suggest we don’t. Take carrots for example. Carrots are very high GI. If you eat 50g of carbohydrate in carrots (please note, that does not mean 50g total of carrots, it is referring to 50g of the carbohydrates in carrots, as they contain other substances such as fiber and water), your blood sugar goes up very high; hence it is a high-GI food. Fructose, on the other hand, has a low GI. Soft drinks in the USA have a GI of 53, which is low, but this is because they are based on high fructose corn syrup. If you only considered the GI, you would say carrots are bad for fat storage and soft drinks are fine, but of course common sense, nature, and, in this case, science must prevail. Enter the GL.
The GL is the GI multiplied by the amount of food you would actually have to eat to ingest the 50g of carbohydrate. So with carrots, you would have to eat an entire truckload to go close to eating 50g of carbohydrates from carrots. I’ve not met anyone who has done that, and I’m not suggesting you try! So even though carrots have a high GI, they have a low GL, whereas soft drinks have nothing going for them from a nutritional perspective and have a very high GL, despite having a low GI. Plus we now understand the impact excessive fructose has on the liver. Nature shows us we are supposed to eat our carbohydrates with fiber as this helps to lower the GL of the carbohydrate.
Or to keep it simple, which is always the best way with food… when it comes to food, nature gets it right. Use common sense. Choose low-GI food.
Sweetness of life
I hope it is clear that although this book is about solving your weight-loss puzzle, I am also gently unfolding information that might open your eyes and your heart to the concept that weight loss involves the superb interaction of many biochemical systems, and that your thoughts, beliefs, and perceptions are just as powerful, if not more powerful than the food you eat.
Louise Hay teaches that blood glucose is all about the sweetness we perceive in our life. In Type 2 diabetes or insulin resistance, when the blood sugar is elevated, she suggests that your perception of your life is that you have nothing to look forward to. If this resonates for you, I suggest you schedule things in your life that you love and start to notice the immense beauty around you. You can look forward to the surprise of what the sunrise will look like tomorrow.
Signs your blood glucose or insulin response needs support
You crave sugars and/or starches. You really love carbohydrates
You feel like you live on an energy rollercoaster and when you feel exhausted or bored, you go hunting for carbs (or caffeine)
You eat processed foods
You have Type 2 diabetes
You have been diagnosed with “pre-diabetes (Type 2)” or insulin resistance
You have a poor (low) muscle mass
You focus more on exercise than dietary changes as a weight-loss strategy
You live on adrenalin
You feel like you run out of petrol in your energy tank if you go too long without carbs
You feel like life is full of pressure and urgency
You have skin tags
Most days you warm up with caffeine and cool down with alcohol, and you eat processed foods in between
You have been diagnosed with a fatty liver
You have elevated blood cholesterol
You have elevated blood triglycerides.
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INSULIN SOLUTIONS
As I said earlier, I live in the same world as you with the same food on offer, and I want to offer practical solutions for you. However, I encourage you to be strict in the initial phases of change, partly to show you how good you can feel but also to break your habits. If you first need to increase your greens or whole-food fats before omitting sugar, then do that. And then cut it out for four weeks. No excuses.
Eat food the way it comes in nature as often as you can.
> Limit foods out of packets.
> Limit refined sugar and foods that have had sugar added to them; after beautiful cane juice is squeezed out of sugar cane, the liquid is processed 14 times to create the white powder that you then eat. There is zero goodness in sugar.
> Only eat completel
y natural carbohydrates for four weeks.
> Eat lentils, root vegetables, berries, and other fruits, but keep fruit to two pieces a day maximum to reduce the requirement for insulin. Please note, this does not mean cut the carbs out. It means just what I said, which is don’t eat carbs out of packets, and limit fruit to two pieces per day.
> Limit alcohol, as it drives an enormous blood glucose surge and a rapid elevation of insulin.
> If you do drink alcohol, consume it with food.
> Many people are actually hungry and/or thirsty when they want a drink. Do an experiment. If it is the sugar (carbs) in the alcohol you want, eat a carrot or have a sparkling water in a wine glass with some fresh lemon or lime. Notice if the fizz from the water or the coldness of the drink helps quench your thirst.
> Many people tell me that if they make it past the “witching hour” their desire for alcohol passes. Get some strategies to get past this time in your day.
> Have blood tests for blood glucose levels (BGL) and blood insulin.
Eat five to six small meals per day—every three hours—if you are hungry and if this assists you to make better food choices, rather than waiting until you are ravenously hungry and craving poor-quality food. You will notice that the more fat from real food you include, the more satiated you will feel. As your metabolism starts to shift from relying solely on glucose as its fuel, to one of efficient fat burning, your hunger will decrease and you won’t feel like you need to eat as frequently. This is a journey. I’ve had countless clients go from eating six times a day and struggling not to overeat, to eating two to three times a day and feeling very energized and satisfied.
