Paleo Challenge: Low-carb Diets Ensure Low Glucose and Insulin Levels
Influence of Paleo often have their heads explode when they read it. That’s a good thing. Believing in some simple and tidy theory about how carbs raise insulin and blood sugar and cause insulin resistance and diabetes is absurd. The sooner you can get smarter the better. This glycemic index stuff has really thrown people’s heads out into left field, because people have become obsessed with what happens in the hour after eating, which is meaningless in terms of the long-term portrait of obesity, diabetes, and related disorders.
Gross oversimplifications that the human mind can easily grasp are always popular – regardless of what the oversimplifications are intended to explain. In the health sphere, they are prevalent. The carbs = insulin = fat myth is one of the greatest and most easily refutable. It’s up there with the great fat = cholesterol = clogged arteries = heart attack theory that is simple, easy to follow, makes sense to those who don’t study it, and is completely silly and a total misrepresentation of the etiology of heart disease.
As always, it depends on context. In my program designed to, among other things, restore insulin sensitivity (which it has in every case I’m aware of – shown by increased glucose clearance out of the blood after eating), I do not say “eat starch and you will live happily ever after.”
Instead, I say something like… “Eat plenty of food, don’t overexert yourself physically or mentally, get plenty of sleep, eat only saturated fats and keep omega 6 polyunsaturated fat ingestion pretty low, get sufficient but not excessive amounts of quality protein, and eat plenty of high-glycemic starch at every meal.”
This generally lowers the activity of the sympathetic nervous system, increases thyroid activity, improves glycogen storage, and starts shuttling glucose from ingested food into muscle cells where it creates muscle growth and the generation of heat and energy. This reduces insulin resistance. If you are insulin resistant and have high fasting insulin levels as a result of this insulin resistance, then insulin levels will fall dramatically on this program. For example, below is an email sent to me by someone who has followed 180DegreeHealth for over a year.
A traumatic childhood stress caused this person to suddenly become insulin resistant (as chronic stress hormone secretion is the primary root cause of insulin resistance) and gain something like 60 pounds in a year if I recall correctly from our email exchanges. She has had blood sugar regulation and thyroid problems ever since, which she tried to medicate with the caveman diet plan to varying degrees of restriction.
She has spent the last 4 years on a low-carbohydrate diet, and her fasting insulin levels have varied between a VERY high 14 and 33 IU/m. But after just four months of loosely following my program to increase metabolism with special attention to eating high-starch and low-PUFA (polyunsaturated fats), her insulin has fallen all the way down to a perfect 4.7 IU/m. Her fasting glucose has fallen nearly in half to a level that probably scared the doc into thinking (mistakenly) that she was about to fall into a hypoglycemic coma (yet she no longer experiences high-adrenaline states that many call ‘hypoglycemia’ like she did on a carbohydrate-restricted diet).
If I am not mistaken she did not lose a single pound of body weight during this time, so any drop in insulin cannot be attributed to temporary weight loss or calorie restriction. Her calorie intake has not dropped at all, but presumably increased as she was instructed to intentionally eat beyond appetite.
I am totally serious when I say that I know of no more complete and thorough documented reversal of insulin resistance ever achieved through diet and lifestyle manipulation. Going from 4.1 to 0.6 on a HOMA Insulin Resistance test is absolutely phenomenal. 1.0 is considered perfect – from what I understand 1.0 is the established baseline from testing many insulin sensitive young men. And, if all my audience members were monitoring such physiological changes, I’m sure you would see that this would be the common response – not a fluke or an exception. As I mentioned in a previous chapter, just last week I was contacted by a type 2 diabetic that has already seen her postmeal glucose levels go from 359 to 132 mg/dl in less than 3 weeks. I witnessed the same changes myself as I diligently tracked my blood glucose levels from starting fasting levels in the 90’s to a consistent fasting level below 70 mg/dl. This also included 1-hour postmeal levels as low as 75 mg/dl even after large, mixed
meals with as much as 2 large baked potatoes – this just 4 weeks after seeing a postmeal glucose spike to 173 mg/dl coming off one of those stupid restricted diets recommended for overcoming diabetes.
You will often see long-term low-carbers having abysmal glucose and insulin levels. You can run from carbs, but you can’t hide. There is only a sugar packet or so worth of glucose in your entire bloodstream at any given time. It doesn’t take much glucose to be liberated from muscle or liver glycogen or to be created from the breakdown of ingested protein to create high levels of glucose in the blood. Low-carb diets cause the adrenal glands to crank, and as long as they are cranking, they are working hard to drive blood glucose levels UP. Fasting glucose in the 90’s or higher is typical of a low-carber, even one that went into the diet perfectly insulin sensitive with rock bottom fasting glucose levels. And eating something so insignificant as a half of a sweet potato can drive blood sugar levels up to all-time highs.
It is common knowledge that avoiding carbohydrates makes returning to eating them a nightmare at first, with wilder blood sugar swings, more gas and bloating, more pimples and cravings, fat gain…
But only through persistence and fixing the core of glucose dysregulation can we return to eating carbs and having them affect us favorably. The sooner you start the better. Because glucose, as you will later read, is the ultimate source of cellular energy. Accept no substitutes.
The diabetes and insulin resistance scare is scary indeed. And, when looking through a very narrow perspective, I fully understand that carbohydrates appear to be the villain. I mean hey, here we are with a long list of disorders that can be traced back to high levels of glucose in the bloodstream. And carbs are like pure glucose man! It’s a government conspiracy that tells us to eat 6-11 servings of grains per day! And what about the Eskimos derpie, derp!!
Yeah I went through that phase too. Nothing to be ashamed about. But there’s simply more to the story. More than I ever could have imagined when I first attempted to take on the field of health and nutrition. The more you learn the less you know about this mysterious human organism. I promise you that! And I can promise you that there is no magical macronutrient ratio or dietary prescription that is gonna save humanity from all its perils! So, per the advice of Dave Coulier… “Cut it out!”
Gross oversimplifications that the human mind can easily grasp are always popular – regardless of what the oversimplifications are intended to explain. In the health sphere, they are prevalent. The carbs = insulin = fat myth is one of the greatest and most easily refutable. It’s up there with the great fat = cholesterol = clogged arteries = heart attack theory that is simple, easy to follow, makes sense to those who don’t study it, and is completely silly and a total misrepresentation of the etiology of heart disease.
As always, it depends on context. In my program designed to, among other things, restore insulin sensitivity (which it has in every case I’m aware of – shown by increased glucose clearance out of the blood after eating), I do not say “eat starch and you will live happily ever after.”
Instead, I say something like… “Eat plenty of food, don’t overexert yourself physically or mentally, get plenty of sleep, eat only saturated fats and keep omega 6 polyunsaturated fat ingestion pretty low, get sufficient but not excessive amounts of quality protein, and eat plenty of high-glycemic starch at every meal.”
This generally lowers the activity of the sympathetic nervous system, increases thyroid activity, improves glycogen storage, and starts shuttling glucose from ingested food into muscle cells where it creates muscle growth and the generation of heat and energy. This reduces insulin resistance. If you are insulin resistant and have high fasting insulin levels as a result of this insulin resistance, then insulin levels will fall dramatically on this program. For example, below is an email sent to me by someone who has followed 180DegreeHealth for over a year.
A traumatic childhood stress caused this person to suddenly become insulin resistant (as chronic stress hormone secretion is the primary root cause of insulin resistance) and gain something like 60 pounds in a year if I recall correctly from our email exchanges. She has had blood sugar regulation and thyroid problems ever since, which she tried to medicate with the caveman diet plan to varying degrees of restriction.
She has spent the last 4 years on a low-carbohydrate diet, and her fasting insulin levels have varied between a VERY high 14 and 33 IU/m. But after just four months of loosely following my program to increase metabolism with special attention to eating high-starch and low-PUFA (polyunsaturated fats), her insulin has fallen all the way down to a perfect 4.7 IU/m. Her fasting glucose has fallen nearly in half to a level that probably scared the doc into thinking (mistakenly) that she was about to fall into a hypoglycemic coma (yet she no longer experiences high-adrenaline states that many call ‘hypoglycemia’ like she did on a carbohydrate-restricted diet).
If I am not mistaken she did not lose a single pound of body weight during this time, so any drop in insulin cannot be attributed to temporary weight loss or calorie restriction. Her calorie intake has not dropped at all, but presumably increased as she was instructed to intentionally eat beyond appetite.
I am totally serious when I say that I know of no more complete and thorough documented reversal of insulin resistance ever achieved through diet and lifestyle manipulation. Going from 4.1 to 0.6 on a HOMA Insulin Resistance test is absolutely phenomenal. 1.0 is considered perfect – from what I understand 1.0 is the established baseline from testing many insulin sensitive young men. And, if all my audience members were monitoring such physiological changes, I’m sure you would see that this would be the common response – not a fluke or an exception. As I mentioned in a previous chapter, just last week I was contacted by a type 2 diabetic that has already seen her postmeal glucose levels go from 359 to 132 mg/dl in less than 3 weeks. I witnessed the same changes myself as I diligently tracked my blood glucose levels from starting fasting levels in the 90’s to a consistent fasting level below 70 mg/dl. This also included 1-hour postmeal levels as low as 75 mg/dl even after large, mixed
meals with as much as 2 large baked potatoes – this just 4 weeks after seeing a postmeal glucose spike to 173 mg/dl coming off one of those stupid restricted diets recommended for overcoming diabetes.
You will often see long-term low-carbers having abysmal glucose and insulin levels. You can run from carbs, but you can’t hide. There is only a sugar packet or so worth of glucose in your entire bloodstream at any given time. It doesn’t take much glucose to be liberated from muscle or liver glycogen or to be created from the breakdown of ingested protein to create high levels of glucose in the blood. Low-carb diets cause the adrenal glands to crank, and as long as they are cranking, they are working hard to drive blood glucose levels UP. Fasting glucose in the 90’s or higher is typical of a low-carber, even one that went into the diet perfectly insulin sensitive with rock bottom fasting glucose levels. And eating something so insignificant as a half of a sweet potato can drive blood sugar levels up to all-time highs.
It is common knowledge that avoiding carbohydrates makes returning to eating them a nightmare at first, with wilder blood sugar swings, more gas and bloating, more pimples and cravings, fat gain…
But only through persistence and fixing the core of glucose dysregulation can we return to eating carbs and having them affect us favorably. The sooner you start the better. Because glucose, as you will later read, is the ultimate source of cellular energy. Accept no substitutes.
The diabetes and insulin resistance scare is scary indeed. And, when looking through a very narrow perspective, I fully understand that carbohydrates appear to be the villain. I mean hey, here we are with a long list of disorders that can be traced back to high levels of glucose in the bloodstream. And carbs are like pure glucose man! It’s a government conspiracy that tells us to eat 6-11 servings of grains per day! And what about the Eskimos derpie, derp!!
Yeah I went through that phase too. Nothing to be ashamed about. But there’s simply more to the story. More than I ever could have imagined when I first attempted to take on the field of health and nutrition. The more you learn the less you know about this mysterious human organism. I promise you that! And I can promise you that there is no magical macronutrient ratio or dietary prescription that is gonna save humanity from all its perils! So, per the advice of Dave Coulier… “Cut it out!”
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