Insulin spikes and fatty deposits

Our body releases insulin when blood sugar rises above fasting levels. Our insulin has got to deposit it somewhere, because if it doesn’t and a lot of sugar stays in the blood, it will kill us graveyard dead! Most cases of diabetes have to do with over-taxation of the pancreas with loads of sugar and foods that break down rapidly into sugar.

The cells of our body really appreciate insulin helping them get adequate sugar (glucose) for energy, but they don’t appreciate it when insulin keeps trying to get them to take in something they already have enough of. Cells will then start to develop resistance to insulin, forcing the pancreas to produce more insulin, which in turn forces the cells to take up more energy, causing them to swell and become fat.

This is like a parent forcing a child to do something over and over that is not good for them, which will result in growing up to resist the parent, perhaps to the point that communication is dead by the time the child is older, creating a need for outside intervention.

Constant acute insulin spikes cause insulin resistance and overwork our pancreas, eventually leading a person to depend on medication to keep insulin levels steady.    

When we eat high-fat foods with high-carb/sugar combinations, it creates a perfect storm for fatty deposits. Insulin will flood our system to keep blood sugar levels in check, and it will not only increase the storage of fat in fat cells but also prevent the release of fat as a usable energy source!

There are 8 hormones that stimulate fat burning: epinephrine, norepinephrine, adrenocorticotropic hormone, glucagon, thyroid-stimulating hormone, melanocyte-stimulating hormone, vasopressin, and growth hormone.

There is ONE hormone that prevents the release of fat as energy: insulin.

What we can do:

1. Avoid eating/drinking sugars and fast-digesting carbohydrates with meals that are high in fat. Avoid packaged snacks that have less than 5 grams of fiber per 25 grams of carbs.

2. If you mess up and overdo it, exercise or get active for the next hour or so after a meal, doing something that requires physical activity. This will help burn off these blood sugars and take the burden off the pancreas by making our muscle cells hungry for energy, thus making them more receptive to glucose delivery from insulin that is attempting to lower blood sugar to safe levels.

3. Add in cinnamon/cinnamon capsules with your meals. Cinnamon has an antioxidant that makes our cells more sensitive to insulin, which means our pancreas doesn’t have to work as hard.

In summary, it’s what we eat. Coincidentally, the same things (diet and exercise) help most of us avoid diabetes or manage it, and also help us turn on our fat-burning switch!