Insulin Resistance - Part 4
So let's review what you need to do. Here are your Solution Steps:
decrease your insulin resistance
increase the way your body burns fuel
maintain your serotonin levels
reduce your fat intake
increase the amount of fuel your body needs so it goes and chomps the stored fat
“Yah right,” you say. I am sure this whole package seems somewhat daunting. Sugar sensitive people have a hard time managing life, let alone sorting out a complex, multi-leveled issue such as this. But there is good news. The solution is incredibly simple . But not necessarily easy to do. It does require commitment. But it is simple.
Here are the things that you will be doing:
Reduce the amount of insulin producing foods you eat.
Maintain an adequate amount of slow carbohydrates.
Eat a timed complex carbohydrate.
Reduce the amount of fat you eat to 30% of your total intake.
Start exercising.
Let's make this even simpler. Start with the PnP/YLD food plan, get steady, eat your evening potato, and start reducing fat and exercise. By now, you may think I am nuts. So what is new about this? Why is this any different than what you have been hearing? Isn't this just one more, cut the calories, cut the fat, cut the carbs and do an exercise plan? Ironically, on one level it is. But on another level, it is going to give you an extraordinary understanding about how this all fits together. I am going to show you just what part each of these recommendations play. There is no magic here, just solid science and lots of experience . You know what to do. I am going to tell you why it will work so well.
Cynical Still
I, like you, have heard these admonitions for forty years. (Maybe you aren't that old yet!) I have been cynical and burned by all the promises. As I have been researching this series, I am floored to see how it fits together. I am hoping you will bear with me. I am truly excited to see a picture emerge from the puzzle. It is a picture of a radiant self who is both slimmer and far healthier. It makes sense to me and I know it will make sense to you as well.
Here is the Reasoning
Let's go back to the solution steps for healing insulin resistance and really understand the reasoning behind each of my recommendations.
We want to increase the receptivity of your insulin receptor sites. We want your body to make more receptors so that the glucose you produce will get sucked up and burned. If it is burned, it won't be stored as fat. To increase the number of receptor sites (called upregulation), we need to decrease the amount of insulin in your body.
You do this by cutting down on the foods that produce insulin - sugar, sweets and white things. So to decrease your insulin resistance you will reduce insulin-producing foods .
We want to make sure you are eating enough complex carbs to enhance your body and brain function. But we want these carbs to be “slow” so they don't spike your insulin. Brown things and green things will do the trick .
Many people ask me the proper ratio of browns to greens. This is not an exact science, but here is what seems to work:
When you are working the Potatoes Not Prozac plan, the best ratio seems to be 2/3 browns to 1/3 greens (and reds and yellows). The larger portion of brown will help you through the transition away from white things and sweet foods. A higher percentage of starchy food will keep you settled and steady.
As you want to lose weight, you can shift the proportion to 2/3 greens and 1/3 brown. More vegetables and less starch. You will be able to find the right combination for your body. Many people have reported their own detective work results. They know what exact ratio that works for them. If the proportion of browns gets too low, they get cranky and restless. This is why your journal is such a valuable research tool. Use it to make your own best ratio.
Continue eating your evening carb. Yes, Mr. Spud does evoke insulin. But it is in a very contained way. A specific time, a specific dose for a specific purpose. Think of spud as medicinal. Food as pharmacology . Spud has one purpose - to increase your serotonin levels. Spud is going to help you learn to say “no.”
Impulse control is a big part of your success . You want to reduce your impulse to eat the foods you are trying to stay away from. And, you want to increase the impulse to exercise. Spud is connected to “steady.” The more I work with serotonin levels, the more I am convinced they are the basis of what we have historically attributed to “self discipline.”
The ability to say “no” is far bigger than saying no to a hot fudge sundae. It is also the ability to say “no” to distraction. It means sticking with it, hanging in there, staying at it. We might say it provides the tools for saying “YES”. Think of spud as giving you the flip side of “no” - the “yes” side .
And, as always, remember if you can't do spud, you can do an apple, five Triscuits, or a bowl of oatmeal. But remember to do something. It counts. We want to elicit an insulin response in the evening while we are sleeping. We want your blood sugar to rise so your body will produce insulin to help the transport of tryptophan into your brain to make serotonin.
Cut your fat down . Reducing fat from 40% to 30% of your total daily intake can have a dramatic effect on your insulin resistance. You can do this in a number of ways. All of them start with paying attention to what you are eating. Notice your fat levels.
I realize this is a new message from me. You have been most hearing about sugars and carbs. But when I went to write this article, I discovered a citation called:
“Insulin sensitivity is rapidly reversed in rats by reducing dietary fat from 40 to 30% of energy.” [Harris, 1992]
It got my attention. Let me quote their finding:
“...a moderate reduction in fat intake, from 40 to 30% of energy, can produce a rapid improvement in insulin sensitivity in insulin-insensitive rats, independent of changes in body fat content and irrespective of the means used to reduce dietary fat content.”
This means before the rats ever went on a diet, and before they lost any weight, their insulin sensitivity changed dramatically . Shifting from 40 to 30% fat levels is not a big deal. But it does require a shift in our thinking.
For most of the last few years of doing PnP and YLD, I have encouraged you to use some fat to take the edge off of your sugar withdrawal. Consuming fat evokes beta-endorphin. I figured that fat evokes less insulin than sugar so “moderate” levels of fat would be a safe alternative to our previously high sugar intake.
But I never defined “moderate.” Based on what I am reading, I am changing my position somewhat. We do need to pay attention to fat. Use your journal. Count grams for a few days and determine the amount of fat in your diet. If it is over 30% of your total intake cut it back and get a rapid improvement in your insulin sensitivity. The payoff is worth the commitment .
If you choose a carbohydrate that is too slow, (i.e. with a very low GI), you will not get the desired effect. Putting butter on your potato seems to slow it to an ideal intervention. And, lastly, but quite significantly, potatoes scored the very highest in a test measuring the satisfaction index of certain starches.
Back to our friend, exercise. You know I have been pretty laid back about exercise. I have encouraged you to do twenty minutes a day. Walk if you can't do anything else. But, I recently started going to the gym. I couldn't believe what happened to me. Then I started doing research for this article. I want to give you some new insight about exercise. Exercise heals insulin resistance . Exercise will change the way your body functions. If you are insulin resistance and you want to lose weight, exercise has to be part of your plan. No ands, ifs or buts about it.
Let me make the argument that has convinced me. In October, d'Avila [1999] published an article called, “Exercise reverses peripheral insulin resistance in trained L-NAME-hypertensive rats.”
He found that 10 weeks of low intensity [my emphasis] treadmill exercise effected a 25% improvement in insulin resistance after ten weeks. The significant issue here is low - intensity. These little rats weren't working on the Stairmaster, they were simply getting up off the couch and walking.
Simonau [1999] published another study about insulin resistance. He noted that the muscle of overweight people “appears to be organized towards fat esterification rather than oxidation and that dietary-induced weight loss does not correct this.” This means we store it rather than burn it . And, more significantly, “dietary-induced weight loss does not correct this.” Read that a third time. Diets don't change it. This is why we keep getting fatter even though we diet. Insulin resistance zaps us. Even if we do Atkins , and eat a lot of fat, we get more insulin resistant and fatter in the long run.
But exercise reverses insulin resistance ! DeFronzo [1987] showed that a 6 week training period of moderate intensity exercise (I think that means going to the gym), created a 25% drop in insulin levels. Not only did the insulin levels drop, but also the total body glucose metabolism improved. The cells were sucking up the glucose and burning it because the muscles needed it for fuel and the insulin system was working more efficiently.
So, if you want to lose weight, we have a plan that works. Change your food and get moving . Even moderate movement will affect your insulin resistance. If you only change your diet, you will balance your body and your brain, but you won't repair the insulin resistance which is killing you. Yah gotta exercise!
(c)Kathleen DesMaisons 2006. All rights reserved.
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