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It’s possible to appear “healthy” but not be metabolically healthy. You can be an average weight with no signs of poor health yet still have profound health implications that have not surfaced.
A vast amount of nutrition and health information seems to be released all the time now. For someone stepping into their health journey, this can be overwhelming and leave you with more questions rather than answers.
By removing the noise and focusing on our metabolic processes, I hope to distill and simplify the information for you. I want to give you a foundational understanding of our bodies while providing straightforward methods for achieving optimal health.
When striving to become healthier, we often aim to achieve a specific number on the scale or an enhanced physical appearance. Measures of calorie counting, losing the desired amount of weight, fad dieting, and extreme exercise routines tend to be a chosen path for most. While using these approaches will work for some, most people slam into a wall of exhaustion and are left with a feeling of defeat. Typically, this leads to one of two things happening - a worsening of our health through psychological fears and barriers or the rinse and repeat method.
There is no clear-cut formula or simple solution for individual health and longevity. Nowadays, so many variables exist within our environments and bodies that achieving health, wellness, and longevity seems exhausting before we even begin.
What we do know is that we can activate metabolic switches via hormones through the foods we eat. Exercising a metabolic health approach will undoubtedly release your body’s potential to thrive.
If you want to achieve sustainable health, enhance your performance, and become more optimal, your focus needs to shift to becoming metabolically healthy. Forget everything else and start with this.
A basic understanding of the metabolic health model encompasses how our food interplays with our hormones, organs, brain function, and the prevention of diseases and illnesses.
This post aims to highlight the critical role of insulin in metabolic health, why the food you eat matters and ways to improve your metabolic health through the lens of insulin.
Insulin 101
In regards to metabolic health, the role of insulin cannot be overstated. Insulin’s primary duty is to shuffle glucose into your cells and mediate how much to deposit into those cells. Think of this process as an energy storage system.
So, this is not a destructive or dysfunctional system at all. To sustain life, we need energy from our foods. And in times of starvation or hunger, insulin allows us to tap into energy reserves to continue our regular activities.
Now, for the dark side of insulin.
The way insulin starts damaging our bodies is rooted in its program. We don’t just want our cells to grow and store energy continuously. Our cells need to be balanced with building, growing, and breaking down. The breaking down of our cells is imperative because it releases energy, byproducts and reduces their size.
When insulin levels remain elevated in the bloodstream, absolute hell breaks loose. Under these conditions, metabolic fires start happening everywhere within the body.
The consequences of chronically elevated insulin become metabolic disasters.
Insulin Resistance. This occurs when insulin is elevated for a sustained amount of time. Because of the constantly elevated insulin levels, specific cells in the body become unresponsive to insulin. Therefore, these cells form insulin resistance. This condition exacerbates the issue of elevated insulin levels in the body.
Hyperinsulinemia. Due to sustained elevated insulin levels in the body and cells not responding to insulin, hyperinsulinemia forms. Hyperinsulinemia is a primary trigger for many of the chronic diseases we deal with today.
As we can clearly see, understanding insulin is critical to our health. Things can seem okay and be getting by on the surface, but underneath your skin could be a metabolic catastrophe.
We have to ditch the current health model that makes us sicker, fatter, and more diseased. The modern diet pushes insulin-triggering foods and promotes foods low in protein and fats. By adjusting these knobs, we can nourish our bodies without sounding the insulin alarm.
The Food You Eat Matters.
What we do know is that Food Matters.
Let’s unpack that. The types of food we eat will directly trigger our hormones. Therefore, the body is pushed into a healthy or diseased state depending on the hormonal response from food consumption.
Food => Hormones => Metabolic Response => Outcome?(Depends on Food and Person)
What spikes insulin?
Eating carbohydrates will trigger insulin. Recall its primary role is to get glucose into our cells for energy storage.
Most modern diets tell us that carbohydrates should be the majority of our intake. Furthermore, the guidelines promote eating 4-6 meals per day.
Now that you understand insulin and its triggers, does this make any sense to you?
This approach ensures elevated insulin levels throughout your day and well into your night.
Fat and Protein have little to no effect on Insulin.
To reach an optimal metabolic state, I recommend eating very minimal or zero carbohydrates until your body has become fat adapted. This is your body using stored fat for energy rather than glucose. After this metabolic switch engages, then reintroduce certain carbohydrate foods that will not disrupt your metabolism. In my opinion, continuing a low-carb diet will have the most significant impact on your health.
I’m not here to villainize carbohydrates and think they provide value when necessary.
This message speaks to those with health conditions or possible pre-existing conditions with chronic high blood sugar or insulin.
And, from the graphs above, that is most of the population.
Some noticeable signals that you might develop from insulin resistance or hyperinsulinemia are: hypertension, brain fog, migraines, skin tags, inability to lose weight, hypoglycemia, central obesity (carrying fat in the midsection)
Tips For Improving Metabolic Health
Stop Calorie Counting
Focus on the foods you should be eating.
Eat when you are hungry.
Ditch the scale and start becoming aware of your energy, sleep, mood, cravings
Keep it simple:
Reduce your Carbohydrate Intake
Increase your Fat
Increase your Protein
Eliminate all processed foods. Stop eating refined grains and sugars.
Eliminate seed oils
Implement a fasting regimen. Minimum 12 hours every day.
Stop eating 4-6 meals per day.
Do not rely on your blood sugar or glucose readings. Insulin can still be high in these conditions.
Get your insulin tested by your medical professional
When eating foods that promote metabolic health, weight loss becomes the least impressive outcome.
A diet focused on metabolic health can literally lead to the complete reversal of debilitating chronic diseases.
If you want to learn more about metabolic health and insulin, check out these great resources:
Amy Berger’s book on ways to break through weight-loss plateaus: She focuses on Keto diets and how to continue when you feel like your body has stalled. “The Stall Slayer”
Amy Berger and Eric Westman: “End Your Carb Confusion: A Simple Guide to Customize Your Carb Intake for Optimal Health
Dr.Ben Bickman: “Why We Get Sick: The Hidden Epidemic at the Root of Most Chronic Disease―and How to Fight It”
Keto-Mojo Glucose and Ketone Meter and Test Strips
If you want to measure your glucose response from certain foods, I highly recommend this product. I use it for myself and with clients. This product can also measure your Ketones.
Insulin is something that we should all be aware of. This metabolic syndrome underlies most chronic diseases and affects more and more people. By implementing the steps above, you can keep your insulin and glucose under control. It is a very simple and straightforward method that focuses on eating through a metabolic health model.
If you have any questions, concerns, or just general comments, I would love to hear from you.
I’m here to help!
Take care of yourself and each other,
- Zach Winfield
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