Please answer my inarticulate request for recommendations. page

[annieloux]

I am having difficulty wrapping my brain around this whole blood sugar/insulin thing/glucose/fructose/sucrose/goofcrose/poopcrose. I suspect it's some combination of my small woman brain and my penchant for being easily distracted by shiny things.

I am also in the very early stages of recovering from alcoholism and I am trying to understand the effects this is having on my blood sugar.

Anyways, what I'm looking for is a good book or three that explains insulin and blood sugar in depth yet doesn't recommend I eat 6 meals a day of 60% whole grains to stabilize my blood sugar levels throughout the day.

Please feel free to tell me I'm crazy and/or this just does not exist, but I have a feeling (read: hope) someone out there has an idea of what I'm looking for, because I clearly do not.

P.S. I have The PB, but it's just not doing it for me.

ETA: You are also welcome to tell me to shut up, not worry about it, and keep eating protein and fats and you'll feel better soon.

[kiss]

Two I'd recommend are Why We Get Fat by Gary Taubes. It explains the science in a fairly easy to understand way. Also, Primal Body, Primal Mind by Nora T Gedgaudas. I'm in the midst of reading this book, but one of the early chapters about gluten is something everyone should read.

Also, don't worry so much. Stress is bad, remember? Eat some fat, you'll feel better soon.

I'm editing to add that both books discuss insulin, blood sugar and diabetes in easy to understand ways as well as many other topics of interest to anyone wanting to improve their health and well being.

[Goldstar]

I've found in doing my own research on insulin resistance that there is alot of disagreement and confusion out there about what causes it and how to treat it. After weeding through a bunch of stuff on the internet and in books I believe I have learned the following things about blood sugar:

When we eat, a part of the digestive process produces glucose among other things. In response to this glucose that goes into our blood (ie. "blood sugars), our pancreas puts out a specific amount of insulin which is used to transport that glucose from the blood into various cells like muscle cells via insulin receptors. That's how things work normally. However, if our insulin receptors are locked, turned off or tuned out, we are not able to use the normal amount of insulin for this purpose. The insulin is knocking on cell doors and the cells are not answering. The cells are still expecting glucose at this point, though, and when they don't receive what they were expecting, the pancreas responds again by pumping out more insulin. Now there is more insulin in the body than is necessary. This has the effect of making you very hungry so you will eat more and provide more glucose. If it gets out of control, it can turn into diabetes as you gain weight from eating and not using the glucose properly.

I'd love to know if there are any faults in my understanding so far regarding insulin resistance.

As far as alcohol, my brother gets hypoglycemia from drinking lots of wine. I don't know what kinds of sugars are in it but I know it's loaded with sugars. I do not believe he is insulin resistant. We both overproduce insulin but for different reasons and while mine is being ignored, his is working too well. What happens to him is that he takes in a lot of sugar from the wine, which creates alot of glucose, which puts a lot of demand on his pancreas to put out a lot of insulin to deal with it. In the end this removes too much glucose from his blood and he has "low blood sugar". Even if his insulin receptor cells are working great, my brother's pancreas overestimates and overshoots the amount of insulin needed and he ends up depleting his blood sugars too much in the end. Then he gets hypoglycemic symptoms and has to drink orange juice to get his blood sugars back up to normal range. It can become a never ending rollercoaster.

Edited to add that I understand insulin receptors begin to turn off when there is continually too much insulin in the body. They become "desensitized" over time. It is possible my brother is on his way to where I am now.

[Griffin]

You can check out Robb Wolf's The Paleo Solution as well.

[annieloux]

Thanks so much for the suggestions, you guys and gals. I really appreciate it. Definitely going to look into the books.

Goldstar, I like your explanation of everything and thank you for providing some insight on how alcohol affects your brother's blood sugar.

[befitby40]

There are some easy to understand animations in the Fat Head Documentary
Fat Head Movie Review - Tom Naughton

You can watch if for FREE on Hulu.com, Hulu - Fat Head - Watch the full movie now.

Edit: This may be the animation

[RitaRose]

Also, Primal Body, Primal Mind by Nora T Gedgaudas. I'm in the midst of reading this book, but one of the early chapters about gluten is something everyone should read.

LOVE this book!

[Adrianag]

Bernstein explains these things I depth in his books. They are intended for diabetics but I suspect there will be enough detail there.

[Lewis]

I am having difficulty wrapping my brain around this whole blood sugar/insulin thing/glucose/fructose/sucrose/goofcrose/poopcrose.

Alcohol will spike your bloodsugar just like table sugar will—only faster. That's all there is to it, really.

A lot of recovering alcoholics are big sugar addicts because they're unconsciously using it as a replacement. Sugar addiction is probably, in many cases, a precursor to alcohol addiction.

Tom Naughton is interesting on this:

Fat Head » Primal Body, Primal Mind, Primal Tools

He's also talking about Nora Gedgaudas' book there, already mentioned in this thread. Sure, worth a look. Nora herself does neurofeedback (a kind of biofeedback for the brain) as well as nutrition. I'd guess that she'd probably advise any recovering alcoholic to try that if they possibly can. It has been used treating alcoholics with pretty impressive success. You might like to try Nora's podcast number 41, available here:

Primal Body Primal Mind Radio - Download free podcast episodes by Nora T. Gedgaudas, CNS, CNT on iTunes.

Is alcoholism really a disease? --Or might it just be a symptom of something else? Nora discusses the relationship between carbohydrate intolerance/addiction and alcoholism. In the first half hour Nora will be joined by documentary filmmaker, Tom Naughton (writer, comedian and producer of the excellent documentary “Fat Head”) to talk about his own firsthand experience with chemical dependency recovery; In the second half hour Nora will be talking with a former neurofeedback client, now a recovered (as opposed to “recovering”) alcoholic.

Her podcast number 14 may be relevant, too.

ETA: You are also welcome to tell me to shut up, not worry about it, and keep eating protein and fats and you'll feel better soon.

That may not be enough in itself—or may take longer to kick in than you'd want. I'd suggest tackling it from other angles—neurofeedback sounds like it would be the best option, but failing that meditation or something of the sort may help. You may also be short in one of more neurotransmitter, a precursor to which you can temporarily supply as a dietary supplement. Try the Mood Cure questionnaire:

The Mood Cure

Yes, enough fat and protein, and little or no refined carbohydrate, are vital steps, but there are other strategies you can add in.

[Adrianag]

Get a glucose meter and see for yourself how your body responds to foods. Meters are cheap, Walgreens TrueTest has a 100% rebate right now. Test strips are expensive in store but you can get 100 for $29 pn Amazon Amazon.com: TRUEtest Test Strips, 100 Count: Health & Personal Care. You will go through 30 just getting baseline readings over a couple of weeks. Test your Fasting Blood Glucose and Do your own glucose tolerance test by eating 60 g carbs and checking every 15, 30, 45, 60, 120 and 180 min. I did the same thing with several all protein meals and tested the rsult of exercise as well. Good information to really get in tune with your body.