The Definitive Guide to Insulin, Blood Sugar & Type 2 Diabetes (and you’ll understand it)
BITE ME, ADA
We all know by now that type 2 diabetes is an epidemic. We’re seeing words like crisis and runaway all over the news and in the journals. Heart disease rates have been cut in half since the staggering margarine days of the 1980s, but diabetes has swiftly risen to fill that gaping void and meet the challenge of Completely Unnecessary Disease Epidemic.
Here’s my ultra-simple explanation of the entire insulin/blood sugar/type 2 diabetes mess. Big Agra could really care less about you. That’s just business. The pharmaceutical industry is not in it for the love of life. If that were the case, drugs would be much cheaper. The FDA has to think about public health, but it also has to think about treading carefully on the toes of corporate interests, because that’s how it works when you’re the biggest economy in the world.
Print this explanation out, stick it on your fridge, email it to your aunt. And put down the pasta.
When you eat food, the body digests the macronutrients: carbohydrates, proteins – actually many different amino acids – and fats. (Anything it can’t digest, like alcohol or fiber or toxins, either passes right on through or, if it makes it into the bloodstream, gets filtered by your liver, a beast of an organ if there ever was one.) We measure these macronutrients in grams and calories, but your body operates in terms of fuel. If you eat more fuel than your body needs – which most people do – the body is forced to store this excess. This ability to store excess fuel was an evolutionary imperative in a world that was in a state of constant “feast or famine” 50,000 years ago. In terms of Primal Health and our DNA blueprint, humans became very efficient fuel storage specialists and were able to survive the rigors of a hostile environment and pass those very same genes down to you and me. Thanks a lot, Grok!
Bear in mind that every type of carbohydrate you eat is eventually converted to a simple form of sugar known as glucose, either directly in the gut or after a brief visit to the liver. The truth is, all the bread, pasta, cereal, potatoes, rice (stop me when you’ve had enough), fruit, dessert, candy, and sodas you eat and drink eventually wind up as glucose. While glucose is a fuel, it is actually quite toxic in excess amounts unless it is being burned inside your cells, so the body has evolved an elegant way of getting it out of the bloodstream quickly and storing it in those cells.
It does this by having the liver and the muscles store some of the excess glucose as glycogen. That’s the muscle fuel that hard anaerobic exercise requires. Specialized beta cells in your pancreas sense the abundance of glucose in the bloodstream after a meal and secrete insulin, a peptide hormone whose job it is to allow glucose (and fats and amino acids) to gain access to the interior of muscle and liver cells.
But here’s the catch: once those cells are full, as they are almost all the time with inactive people, the rest of the glucose is converted to fat. Saturated fat.
Insulin was one of the first hormones to evolve in living things. Virtually all animals secrete insulin as a means of storing excess nutrients. It makes perfect sense that in a world where food was often scarce or non-existent for long periods of time, our bodies would become so incredibly efficient. How ironic, though, that it’s not fat that gets stored as fat – it’s sugar. And that’s where insulin insensitivity and this whole type 2 diabetes issue get confusing for most people, including your very own government.
If we go back 10,000 or more years, we find that our ancestors had very little access to sugar – or any carbohydrates for that matter. There was some fruit here and there, a few berries, roots and shoots, but most of their carbohydrate fuel was locked inside a very fibrous matrix. In fact, some paleo-anthropologists suggest that our ancestors consumed, on average, only about 80 grams of carbohydrate a day. Compare that to the 350-600 grams a day in the typical American diet today. The rest of their diet consisted of varying degrees of fat and protein. And as fibrous (and therefore complex) as those limited carbohydrate foods were, their effect on raising insulin was minimal. In fact, there was so little carbohydrate/glucose in our ancestor’s diet that we evolved four ways of making extra glucose ourselves and only one way of getting rid of the excess we consume!
Today when we eat too many carbohydrates, the pancreas pumps out insulin exactly as the DNA blueprint tell it to (hooray pancreas!), but if the liver and muscle cells are already filled with glycogen, those cells start to become resistant to the call of insulin. The insulin “receptor sites” on the surface of those cells start to decrease in number as well as in efficiency. The term is called “down regulation.” Since the glucose can’t get into the muscle or liver cells, it remains in the bloodstream. Now the pancreas senses there’s still too much toxic glucose in the blood, so it frantically pumps out even more insulin, which causes the insulin receptors on the surface of those cells to become even more resistant, because excess insulin is also toxic! Eventually, the insulin helps the glucose finds it way into your fat cells, where it is stored as fat. Again – because it bears repeating – it’s not fat that gets stored in your fat cells – it’s sugar.
Over time, as we continue to eat high carbohydrate diets and exercise less, the degree of insulin insensitivity increases. Unless we take dramatic steps to reduce carbohydrate intake and increase exercise, we develop several problems that only get worse over time – and the drugs don’t fix it.
Ready for this? Let’s go:
1) The levels of blood glucose stay higher longer because the glucose can’t make it into the muscle cells. This toxic glucose is like sludge in the bloodstream clogging arteries, binding with proteins to form harmful AGEs (advanced glycated end-products) and causing systemic inflammation. Some of this excess glucose contributes to a rise in triglycerides, increasing risk for heart disease.
2) More sugar gets stored as fat. Since the muscle cells are getting less glycogen (because they are resistant), and since insulin inhibits the fat-burning enzyme lipase, now you can’t even burn stored fat as easily. You continue to get fatter until eventually those fat cells become resistant themselves.
3) It just gets better. Levels of insulin stay higher longer because the pancreas thinks “if a little is not working, more would be better.” Wrong. Insulin is itself very toxic at high levels, causing, among many other maladies, plaque build-up in the arteries (which is why diabetics have so much heart disease) and increasing cellular proliferation in cancers.
4) Just as insulin resistance prevents sugar from entering muscle cells, it also prevents amino acids from entering. So now you can’t build or maintain your muscles. To make matters worse, other parts of your body think there’s not enough stored sugar in the cells, so they send signals to start to cannibalizing your precious muscle tissue to make more – you guessed it – sugar! You get fatter and you lose muscle. Woo hoo!
5) Your energy level drops, which makes you hungry for more carbohydrates and less willing to exercise. You actually crave more of the poison that is killing you.
6) When your liver becomes insulin resistant, it can’t convert thyroid hormone T4 into the T3, so you get those mysterious and stubborn “thyroid problems”, which further slow your metabolism.
7) You can develop neuropathies (nerve damage) and pain in the extremities, as the damage from the excess sugar destroys nerve tissue, and you can develop retinopathy and begin to lose your eyesight. Fun.
Eventually, the pancreas is so darn exhausted, it can’t produce any more insulin and you wind up having to inject insulin to stay alive. Lots of it, since you are resistant. Congratulations, you have graduated to insulin-dependent Type 2 diabetes.
That’s the bad news. And it’s seriously bad. But the good news is that there is a way to avoid all this. It’s all right there in your DNA blueprint. First off, exercise does have a major impact on improving insulin sensitivity since muscles burn your stored glycogen as fuel during and after your workout. Muscles that have been exercised desperately want that glucose inside and will “up regulate” insulin receptors to speed the process. That’s one reason exercise is so critical for type 2 diabetics in regaining insulin sensitivity. It’s also the reason why endurance athletes can eat 400 or 600 grams of carbs a day and stay lean – they burn it all off and make room for more.
Resistance training seems to be as effective as aerobic activity, but a mix of the two is the best. And because you are now “insulin sensitive”, you don’t require as much insulin to store the excess, which “up regulates” all the fat burning enzymes, so you burn your stored fats at a much higher rate throughout the day. Important amino acids and other vital nutrients have access to the cells when insulin sensitivity is high, so you’re building or maintaining muscle and losing fat weight. Go team.
Second, cutting back on carbohydrates, especially the obvious sugars and refined stuff is absolutely essential. Make fresh vegetables the base of your food pyramid. I get rip-roaring furious when I see our government suggesting that we get 60% of our calories from carbohydrates. That’s ridiculous, bordering on criminal. Think about what is optimal for human health from a “primal” perspective. Look at the genetic blueprint. Look at the statistics and studies if you like – or simply observe what’s going on around you at restaurants, movie theaters and school cafeterias – and you’ll begin to understand the implications of a diet out of whack with our design. The evidence is nothing short of overwhelming: carbohydrate intake of the refined, sugary sort is enormously stressful to the body.
Not only should diabetics limit carbohydrate intake – everyone should. We are all, in an evolutionary sense, predisposed to becoming diabetic.
Mainstream opinion is, of course, partly correct in that sugar does not necessarily “cause” diabetes – increasingly, scientific evidence is showing that genetic susceptibility plays a huge role in individuals’ potential for developing diabetes. Well, no kidding! The entire mainstream argument boils down to this: sugar does not cause diabetes; it’s genetic. I couldn’t agree more. I would simply say that our shared genetic susceptibility to insulin resistance, inflammation, cardiovascular disease and obesity shows that any sort of refined sugar or grain is the last thing humans should be eating. Our genetic “primal blueprint” indicates that we are not meant to consume sugar.
Next week, I’ll be discussing cortisol, stress, and the adrenals in light of our “primal” blueprints. See you then. I welcome your comments and questions as always.
Further reading:
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Technorati Tags: evolution, DNA, blood sugar, type 2, diabetes, insulin, sugar
Posted By: Mark Sisson
Thank you for this, massive help!
So I guess all those Chinese, Indians, and Asians are going to die off since they eat so much rice?
Yes…India is now number 1 in Diabetes and heart disease and China is number 2. Same villians, wheat, corn, O6, sugar,, fructose, cutting sat fat and coconut for the Indians. Once you are sick…cut out the rice. You can no longer tolerate it. Obesity is exploding here in iIndia and China has an obesity epidemic of 6 months old. Yes…it is happeneing in both places.
Why is it that when Westerners eat grains like rice, they seem to suffer from various diseases, while Asians on the other hand have been eating rice for centuries and have never suffered such problems in similar quantities?
Is the Asian body more capable of handling carbohydrates than the European one?
Historically, they have eaten low levels of calories, while spending little time sitting, and utilizing their own bodies for transportation.
However, obesity rates are rising for Asians.In only one generation, many Asians have gone from consuming between 1,500 and 2,000 calories a day to between 2,000 and 3,000 calories. Cars are becoming more common, with fewer people using mass transit, walking, and cycling.
It’s a pretty simple equation involving caloric input, output, and activity level. I don’t think it has much to do with eating rice. If you burn off the carbs and calories that you ingest, they don’t get stored. And insulin production is affected by energy output (activity).
Westerners eat rice with fried eggs and butter in it along with a huge slab of chicken and maybe a salad with olive oil and a dessert, maybe a coke too. Asians eat rice with some seasoning and a bit of meat or fish for flavor. Thats changing though with beef and western style diet growing. But its not the “rice”.
Hey There!
I have been reviewing your blog post and absolutely am loving it. Great discussions too. I being Type 1 for close to 30 years see amazing results from adhering to a primal lifestyle. When I am strict, my blood Glucose levels fall to that of a non-diabetics range. I would also suggest to those who are insulin dependent to review Dr Bernsteins Diabetes Solution for insulin adjustment advice. This coupled with your site and book are LIFE CHANGING! I am blogging my progress as well. Thanks again Mark!
Just found this on google randomly searching for blood glucose levels after eating an apple; have to say, an excellent lay-mans definition of diabetes and the best way to get around it.
Good job.
You said it yourself “eat too many carbs”. The reason you overeat on carbs is you either eat processed carbs (sans the fiber) or you eat carbs in addition to high calories foods like fatty foods (meat). In addition excess fat blocks the insulin receptors. Every cell runs on sugar, even if you “burn fat” you turn it into sugar. And btw the only reason you burn fat is you’re cells are starving for sugar! Simple formula, body (liver, muscles) stores about 2000 calories of glycogen. Now isnt that amazing that happens to be the same amount recommended for sedentary men to eat? Eat more than 2000 than it gets converted to fat. Exercise and you need more than 2000 calories per day based on how much you exercise. Thats it. This detail on carbs and insulin only has to get analyzed because modern society eats so much fat, overeats really. This is always missing from paleos so called analysis. Every study including the only scientific study on diet, concluded none of the bad things happen when you eat mainly carbs as long as fat is 10% of total calories, meaning whole plant foods. As soon as you eat fatty foods, whammo. So I applaude the advice for those who will refuse to eat very low fat, but its not the healthiest nor the fittest advise.
Martinella you sound like a lot of nutritionists I have talked to, but I have tried, very hard, that way( fat>10%, plant based) and my blood sugar still crept up- yet it dropped when I started eating 0 carbs and 0 fruit..would love to read something documented based on what you say, in practice it didn’t work for me..
I LOVE this article. This information is not new to me but reading about it again is very helpful. I have PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) and in addition to the many unsightly symptoms (hair loss, weight gain) is insulin resistance! I am lucky that my weight has never been as bad as other women with PCOS but I was entering the overweight category when a specialist explained the insulin resistance issue to me. I was never a junk food eater and I thought I was being healthy eating according to the food pyramid. I only ate when I was hungry and I exercised. I couldn’t understand why my weight kept going up! After my “realization” I stopped eating refined sugar and starches and only eat whole grain. I also pair my carbs (grains and fruits) with a protein to try to control my blood sugar. I lost 13 pounds without making any other changes, it was amazing. I can’t believe I never realized how unhealthy I really was, I wasn’t hungry because I needed food, I was hungry because all that extra insulin in my system told me to “eat more carbs!”. I feel different, I have more energy, I do not get tired after meals anymore and have’t experienced any hypoglycemia. I am stuck though and still want to lose ten pounds. Reading this has reminded me of some things. I am still eating too many grains, even if they are whole grain, I need to monitor my carb intake more and I need to increase the veggies even more. Thanks for this information, it is a great motivator. Cake is just not worth it!
Mark,
I’ve just been reading your piece on insulin resistance and diabetes. Quite good indeed and very clear.
One small error though… You state: “Eventually, the pancreas is so darn exhausted, it can’t produce any more insulin and you wind up having to inject insulin to stay alive. Lots of it, since you are resistant. Congratulations, you have graduated from Type 2 to Type 1 diabetes.”
This is not exact. Type 1 and type 2 diabetes are two different diseases.
In type 1 diabetes, because of an auto-immmune reaction (a virus at the wrong place and the wrong time, exposure to cow’s milk [there is a protein in milk that looks nearly identical to a protein in the pancreas] and the immune system develops antibodies against that milk protein. Because of their similarities, the antibodies get confused and attack the pancreas protein as well, destroying it. An hypothesis, but evidence in its favour is that kids that develop type 1 diabetes are heavy milk drinkers.
You can read this in this article: N Engl J Med. 2010 Nov 11;363(20):1900-8.
Dietary intervention in infancy and later signs of beta-cell autoimmunity.
Knip M, et al. Abstract
BACKGROUND: Early exposure to complex dietary proteins may increase the risk of beta-cell autoimmunity and type 1 diabetes in children with genetic susceptibility. We tested the hypothesis that supplementing breast milk with highly hydrolyzed milk formula would decrease the cumulative incidence of diabetes-associated autoantibodies in such children.
This other article found on PUB MED can show you this interesting link: “Nestle Nutr Workshop Ser Pediatr Program. 2011;67:187-95. Epub 2011 Feb 16.
Milk A1 and A2 peptides and diabetes.
Clemens RA.
Abstract
Food-derived peptides, specifically those derived from milk, may adversely affect health by increasing the risk of insulin-dependent diabetes. This position is based on the relationship of type 1 diabetes (T1D) and the consumption of variants A1 and B β-casein from cow’s milk. It appears that β-casomorphin-7 (BCM-7) from β-casein may function as an immunosuppressant and impair tolerance to dietary antigens in the gut immune system, which, in turn, may contribute to the onset of T1D”
So, having type 2 diabetes (insulin resistance with an EXCESS of insulin) is quite different from having type 1 diabetes (ABSENCE of insulin due to auto-immune destruction of the beta-Langerhans cells of the pancreas).
The eventual need for insulin in type 2 diabetics is due to increased insulin resistance to the point where blood sugar levels are totally out of control – rather than working at the input (nutrition), we give MORE insulin to the body to force sugar into the cells. But this does not resolve the diet issue… Eventually, due to chronic overstimulation, the pancreas collapses and produces less and less insulin (but never to the point of type 1 diabetes). Because of the North American diet just pumping in more carbohydrates, there is then a need for extra insulin.
So what you should have said is: “Eventually, the pancreas is so darn exhausted, it can’t produce any more insulin and you wind up having to inject insulin to stay alive. Lots of it, since you are resistant. Congratulations, you have graduated to insulin-dependant Type 2 diabetes.”
Otherwise, an excellent article, clear and to the point. Cheers for your excellent work!
To correct you , a simple C Peptide test can determine the loss of beta cells to the point of needing insulin. Not because you are resistant to insulin but because you have killed off enough betas by chronically high BS, high insulin, or taking sulphonreas. I happen to be one of those new Type 1.5s or Type 3s…I have been labled both. You can kill off enough betas and slip into insulin dependance because you dont produce enough. Better terms are Insulin Dependant and Non Insulin Dependant. Better umbrella terms.
I got type2 – that’s type 2 – in 1977, when I weighed 150 lbs (5’8″) and had run three miles a day for five years. My research points to at least three types of Type 2. Mine’s all genes. I’m now 315 lbs and insulin-dependent.
I have been to the best specialists that America can afford and a couple of German geniuses, too. But it may be too late. Why? Because, I followed the instructions of the best dieticians in the business, who have basically told me to eat carbohydrates. They almost killed me.
It is possible that the turnaround I have experienced by eating lots of lean red meat, fish, chicken, and green vegetables, and doing as much exercise as a 65 year old fat guy can do will keep me going a few more years. But your readers MUST understand, if you haven’t already convinced them; For many people carbohydrate intake, as proffered by the American Diabeties Association, is a death sentence.
No two people are alike.
Keep up the good work reminding people that pasta is not the way. And that exercise, a SMALL amount of carbos, and lean protein are.
I love this, like loving the game of basketball. This is a complete i opener.Thanks a lot.
I love this, like loving the game of basketball. This is a complete i opener.Thanks a lot.I will stay close to this site for more
This is the best description i’ve seen yet on type 2 diabetes… I’d like to know the role weak adrenals might play in the onset of type 2 diabetes. The same symptoms I have now with diabetes are the same (but on a smaller scale) as when I was a child. Is it possible to be born with weak adrenals?
Thank you so much for the clarification. I was diagnosed as a type two diabetic and eventually was prescribed two different types of insulin. As it got worse, the insulin doses began to rise. For the world of me, I couldn’t understand why more insulin was the answer to the type two diabetic. My body was not utilizing insulin, why pump more into my body. Second, I exercise, try to eat right and turn into the muchie monster at night. Hence, great legs and a beer belly (no beer drinking involved). Still not clear on what this disease is doing to me. Any input? Thank you!
Great site
However, you Americans REALLY need to get to grips with the phrase “could care less”.
It’s “COULDN’T care less”.
If you COULD care less, then you DO care.
Get it?
Back to topic ….
THANK YOU!! – From A Concerned Canadian Living In America
I can’t believe I’m not the only one who thinks this!
It’s appropriate time to make a few plans for the long run and it’s time to be happy. I’ve learn this post and if I may just I desire to recommend you few fascinating issues or tips. Perhaps you could write subsequent articles referring to this article. I desire to learn more things approximately it!
I want to know when insulin inj is resortd to. My wife has recently become type 2 diabetic, with postparadial 300 and fasting around 200. She takes GP 2 and Glvus 50 twice, but when given the3rd dose after lunch, sugar level came to 220. She has dementia and aged 81.
Are there any animated-type videos or visual aides out there which could be used as a teaching aide to help people understand this whole process a little better?
what is the average amount of insulin in body of person with diabetes and what is average amount of insulin in a insulin shot
I have been browsing on-line greater than three hours today, yet I by no means discovered any fascinating article like yours. It’s lovely worth sufficient for me. Personally, if all webmasters and bloggers made just right content material as you probably did, the internet can be much more helpful than ever before.
Im 38. Take four tablets a day. Eat well. My sugar levels are still around the 20 mark when fasting. Im only fifty five kg. so need to put weight on. Hard when I cant eat carbs. Very frustrating. Any help?
I am diabetic taking metformin, diet, exercise to manage my blood sugar, and my parents are also diabetic. Recently my 13 year old daughter diagnosed as Type 2. She lost 4-5 kg weight before the diagnosis. Dr. put her under two type of medication, Gucovance 500/5, Januvia 100, levothyroxin 50 mcg. I think she has insulin resistance. When she was diagnosed 1 month before, her HA1C is 12.4, c-peptide – 2.65, TSH – 7.5, T2 and T3 was normal, and slightly overweight BMI -26. After 1 week medication, she was frequently reaching low sugar and felt very bad during school hours. When we asked our Endocrinologist, he insists continue with the same medication. So we stopped her medication for last 10 day because of her frequent complaint of low blood sugar. After the diagnosis, she completely changed her life style. Now she eats more vegetables, fruits and whole grains, a-zinc mineral tablets and fish oil. Every day she is doing 30 minutes walk after dinner. Now her fasting sugar is OK, and the average is around 110, but her sugar elevated after each food reaching 210 in 2 hrs time, but come down to 140 in 3 hrs time. My question is how long she can continue with this practice? Should she require any additional supplementary? or she requires metformin? I would appreicate your answer to this regard.
Thanks.
Why on earth is she eating whole grains? Read the article, again.
Ditch them and she will improve, out of sight. Report back.
Whole grains don’t spike bloodsugars as fast for diabetics… But I got to say it still kicks them up, just doesn’t give us the huge roller coaster bloodsugars that simple carbs like white bread simple sugars give. I haven’t tried this diet yet but I am going to start! I’m so excited to see what it does!
No, actually, I don’t think heart DISEASE rates have been cut. It was my understanding that the heart attack DEATHS have decreased, but that the disease RATES have *increased*. And the only reason deaths have dropped is we’ve got better heroic medicine to treat someone who’s had a heart attack.
Mind you, some of the increased diagnosis probably has to do with better diagnostic medicine and perhaps the standards for diagnosis have gotten pickier. But still.
And with the increase in diabetes you’re going to see a lot more heart disease from *that*, too.
Reading this, I became nauseated and tearful. My mother recently passed away from a heart attack at the age of 55, but she might as well have been dead for years before that. Type II diabetes had ravished her body. She couldn’t see, couldn’t walk, was continually on dialysis, and in-and-out of the hospital several times per year. Despite her health issues, she still ate like there were no consequences. There was never a time that she wasn’t sipping on soda. Since her death, I’ve been researching various diets and lifestyle changes to make certain I don’t follow in her footsteps. I have become convinced that this blog will save my life. Thank you, thank you, thank you! I am passing on this particular article to my siblings in the hopes that they will join me. We are all terrified of diabetes and I hope that this will kick us into gear towards real life changes.
I am a type 2 diabetic.. I am eating like I should to keep my glucose level down lately I cant keep it down in the morning its over 200 it will go down slowly until noon to about 145 I am taking Januvia, glyburide, & Metformen my Dr says to stay on the same track for 4 more months. I need more help can you tell me your plan?
i have t2 i take 4 shots a day can you tell me if i loose weight and exercise i can get off these shots i just had a tripple bypass done,,i was on metformin 500 x2 daily then i started to have to take shots please help i dont like needles is it possiable ??
Hello Mark (and the Primal Community)
Thank you so much for this site and all the information on it. I really appreciate your unbiased and evidentiary based approach to understanding how our bodies work – and that fact that you are making a real difference in peoples lives.
In your article you said:
“But here’s the catch: once those [glycogen] cells are full, as they are almost all the time with inactive people, the rest of the glucose is converted to fat. Saturated fat.”
We’ve had difficulty tracking down evidence for this and would LOVE IT if you or anyone else could help us get to the bottom of this.
So far, we have found evidence that where individuals have an energy surplus, DNL (de novo lipogenesis) does convert glucose from Carbohydrate to fat.
However, in most cases, the amount of carbohydrate converted to fat makes up only a very small amount of the total fat stored – i.e. the majority of fat stored in a calorie surplus situation is coming from somewhere other than carbohydrate.
For example, in the study below, McDevitt reported that, in all settings, the total de novo lipogenesis flux represented a small fraction of both the surplus carbohydrate energy ingested and the total fat stored in the body.
http://www.ajcn.org/content/74/6/737.abstract?ijkey=be05a00f703d80a7f12451f8f95de95e41917112&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha
Now there are some exceptions, such as when people eat LOTS of carbohydrates – see the Guru Walla Men study here:
http://www.ajcn.org/content/56/3/483.full.pdf+html
But otherwise, for the most part, when we have a calorie surplus, only a small amount of additional carbohydrate that is digested is converted to fat.
Does anyone have any evidence which says that the majority of carbohydrate consumed in a calorie surplus scenario is converted to fat (aside from the small amount accounted for by DNL)?
If no one has any evidence to support the above, then where does the rest of the stored fat come from?
Does it from dietary fat?
Thanks for your comments.
p.s. please provide references to existing studies to support your argument.
I just found out that I have PCOS with insulin resistance. I already do HIIT as a part of my gym rotation, but I’m planning on stepping it up (more often/more intensity). My question for Mark is: what’s the best post-workout recovery meal for someone with insulin resistance? I think I understand how a workout taps the glycogen stores in the muscles, and as a result, cells draw glucose from the blood. But what happens if I drink a protein shake right after an intense workout? Does my blood glucose shoot right back up again, negating all my hard work? If you can help me understand this, I would be most grateful!
Hey there
Just thought people would be interested in seeing what the Australian health authorities are currently saying about the link between sugars & starches and diabetes. Here’s the link: http://ginews.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/gi-update.html
There still seems to be many misconceptions and basic errors about the status of saturated fat and the link between sugar consumption and diabetes!
Cheers
Richard
Dear Sir, I just got out of the hospital again. They claim I am a brittle type 2 diabetic. I try to control everything. I learn 14 months ago about it and I have currently lost 70 pounds but nothing helps. Today I have been in hospital all day with levels around 600. I am now at home and levels won’t register on my machine. I wish I knew what to do. I took
1000 metformin and 42 units and 10units of fast acting and nothing is happening. I think no one cares and i am only 40 with 3 kids. GOd Bless…
Tammy, you should definitely talk to Steve Cooksey: http://www.diabetes-warrior.net/
He is a type II diabetic that has managed to reverse his symptoms and medication with diet.
He has a lot of experience dealing with the medical community. Maybe he can help.
Hope that helps,
Kristjan
Hey bro….dont despair. Get Dr. Richard Bernstein’s book…”The Diabetes Solution”. In it you will read that there is no such thing as a brittle diabetic. I know, because I was labeled the same thing by top endos in the US. Dr. Berstein says” you are just eating too many carbs”. As a Type 1, insulin dependant diabetic, the next day after reading this I followed Dr. Bernsteins recommened carb count…6 in the morning, 12 for lunch and 12 for dinner…my blood sugars reab
hed normal ranges for the first time in 10 years. Caution…you must reduce and adjust your medication to fit the lower carb count. I suggest giving your self a month to reduce down to normal and stairstep your meds down at the same time. FIRST..get the book. Read it . Show it to your doc. Get him/her one. Do it together. THen …after you know diabetes…get Marks books and become primal and leave diabetes in your past. Contact me at andreboco@yahoo.com….lets get you healthy for your kids and you.