Doctor Natasha Turner inspired today’s episode, as her outlook on insulin is one more people should focus on. Too often we become obsessed about the progress we can ‘see’. You want to lose weight. You want to get fitter and leaner. You want to see the results you achieve…
Yet oftentimes the most important progress happens within, unseen and harder to measure.
This is why most people don’t think about insulin, but after listening to today’s episode I hope you choose to. The impact insulin has on your body, mind and mood is great. It affects what you do and everything you are, yet the perception most people have toward it is basic at best.
In today’s episode we uncover the truth. Because once you know what that is you can take action and transform your life along with it. I’ve written an article that accompanies this episode below, so you can choose between reading or listening (or both).
IN TODAY’S SHOW YOU WILL LEARN:
- The severe impact excess insulin has on your body, mind and mood
- How (and why) those with the least amount of insulin tend to live the longest
- What insulin actually is, and how it goes to work inside your body (unearthing the scientific facts that go beyond the surface level thinking most people focus on)
- What foods increase insulin, and a useful formula to help you choose which are best for you and your lifestyle
- How a misperception toward protein and fructose severely impacts most people, and how it can drastically affect your insulin levels.
- The foods that help lower insulin so you can regain energy, reduce fat and improve your mood quicker than you may think
- The TWO things you can do to massively improve your insulin levels (neither have anything to do with your diet or the foods you consume)
- What happens inside your body once you make minor changes to your insulin levels, and the greater impacts these have in your appearance and physical outlook.
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Those with the lowest amount of insulin live the longest.
Mark Sisson said that. Yet unless you’re diabetic, chances are you don’t think about your insulin levels at all. You focus on your diet and you commit to your daily workouts, and you obsess over how you look on the outside.
But what about on the inside?
Because what happens within has a severe impact on the surface.
And it’s your insulin levels that play a larger role on this than you may think…
I often experience this with my clients. They tell me about everything they do — their diet, workouts, supplements, beauty regimes — but are still not happy with what they see.
Their clothes don’t fit as well as they should. They look better than they did, but they still have a ways to go. They can see they’re on the right track, but find it hard to reach their goals.
No matter what they try, it’s never seems to work…
Sound familiar? I imagine so, and it’s because most people focus too much on the surface. They forget about what’s going on inside, and one of the aspects that has a huge impact on all this is INSULIN.
The Surprising Role of Insulin…
There’s a quote from Doctor Natasha Turner that I love:
“Excess insulin literally causes the slow destruction of bodily tissues and organs, including our bones, muscles, skin, blood vessels, brain, liver and more. And this far-reaching, devastating imbalance is spurred by one basic factor: the frequency, amount and type of carbohydrates we consistently consume over time, and our body’s individual ability to process them.”
Too many people associate insulin with blood sugar levels, and that’s it. It goes much deeper than this, and unless you are conscious of the amount of insulin you produce, it will have a negative impact across your body.
- That great diet you’re on…
- The new workout you’ve committed to…
- Your meditation and journaling…
It will all help, but all progress will come to a halt if your insulin levels are high.
If we revisit Mark Sisson’s quote from earlier: Those with the lowest amount of insulin live the longest
This is because insulin impacts everything.
It’s the final 10% that determines whether you reach your goals or not.
BUT… What Actually is Insulin?
Let’s focus on the basics real quick…
Insulin is a hormone. It acts as a chemical messenger, sending instructions throughout your body based on what’s happening in your body. It facilitates fuel transportation and delivery throughout, not just based on what you’re eating, but also what you already have stored in your muscles and fat.
The issue is…. Insulin isn’t just any hormone, but rather an anabolic hormone.
You likely associate the word “anabolic” with bodybuilders, and that’s because they use anabolic steroids to bulk up. The same applies here, because when there’s an excess amount of insulin, it instructs your body that it’s in storage mode.
Rather than transporting and breaking down, it stores your sugar in muscles, liver and fat to name a few.
So even though you’re committed to your new workout, your body remains in storage mode (rather than breakdown mode). It’s like trying to run in sand… you’re making your workout harder than it needs to be.
The Driving Force of Insulin
If we go back to Doctor Natasha Turner’s quote:
“Excess insulin literally causes the slow destruction of bodily tissues and organs, including our bones, muscles, skin, blood vessels, brain, liver and more. And this far-reaching, devastating imbalance is spurred by one basic factor: the frequency, amount and type of carbohydrates we consistently consume over time, and our body’s individual ability to process them.”
The first thing to mention is that everybody is different. Some people process carbs better than others. Personally, I do not process them well. Even if I eat a bagel, I feel bloated afterward.
So for someone like me, this whole process is even more severe.
Yet even if your body does process carbs efficiently, consuming them WILL have a direct impact on your insulin levels. We’ll look at the wider ranging impact this has on you and your body shortly, but first let’s cover some core science.
Total carbs – fiber + .56x Protein – .725x fructose
This is the equation for your Insulin Load. Don’t let the math worry you. I talk about this in much greater detail in the Primal Potential Podcast Episode that accompanies this article, so if you want further context I encourage you to listen to it in full.
Let’s break this down:
- Total Carbs: when it comes to your insulin levels, carbohydrates play the largest role. The more carbs you consume, the more insulin your body produces.
- Fiber: the fiber you consume directly fights this process, lowering and minimizing your insulin levels. Fiber is the ying to carbs’ yang, if you will.
- Protein: this is where people get stuck, because protein does have a negative impact on your insulin levels. BUT it’s not as great as the role carbs play (0.56 — aka: around half the severity of carbs).
- Fructose: this is what often confuses people, because fructose is a sugar, yet it minimizes the amount of insulin in your body? That can’t be right… well, it is. Fructose doesn’t metabolize like glucose does, but it does get stored as fat. So it does help, but nowhere as much as fibre does.
I talk through this step-by-step in detail, so please listen to this episode of the Primal Potential Podcast for the full insight.
What you need to know right now is that the more carbs you eat, the more insulin your body produces.
This is offset by consuming fiber (ideally, whole foods fiber). So a low carb, high fiber diet is the best one you can have to keep your insulin levels low. BUT both protein and fructose play a direct role in all this, although not to the extent that carbohydrates and fiber does.
But come on… does this all really matter?
Yes, it does, and the impact it has on your body is far greater than you may imagine.
How Excess Insulin Levels Impacts More Than You Think
I cover the greater impact high insulin levels has on you and your body in this episode of The Primal Potential Podcast, so listen to it in full to learn about its full effects.
Here are the main impacts excess insulin levels produce:
- Excess insulin in your body means you experience higher levels of blood sugar. This turns on your sympathetic nervous system, which triggers your body to restrict your arteries (this isn’t good for blood flow or heart health, among many other negative effects).
- Excess insulin also creates aldosterone, which increases your blood pressure and triggers the loss of magnesium and potassium. This means you retain more water, which further tightens your arteries and makes the above issues all the more severe.
- The more insulin present in your body over time increases the likelihood of tumours, which means there’s a direct link between insulin levels and cancer.
- Excess insulin creates plaque in the brain, encourages muscle loss and produces a fatty liver, among many other side effects that I cover in this episode of The Primal Potential Podcast…
I could go on, but the point here is simple: your insulin levels matter.
You could do 90% right, but if your insulin levels are high it acts as the final 10% that halts all other progress. I come across this all the time with my clients, and it’s often why most people want to quit.
You do everything you can and completely transform your lifestyle…
Yet your progress seems to come to a stop, and you can’t understand why.
Maybe you come to the realisation that you will never have the body you desire. Maybe this is just how you are, and nothing will ever change the fact…
NO! There’s a reason for this, and it likely comes down to your insulin levels…
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Thank you for reading. I talk about what you can do to lower your insulin levels in the episode that accompanies this article, so please listen to it in full to get a complete understanding of insulin and its role in your body.
Hardly anyone knows anything about any of this.
It’s not discussed, yet it’s something that impacts everyone.
And if, like me, you don’t efficiently breakdown carbohydrates, the impact is all the more severe. It doesn’t take much to control your insulin levels, and chances are all you have to do is tweak your diet slightly.
But until you do, you may struggle to make the progress you desire.
Thanks again for listening and reading, I hope you’ve taken a lot from today’s episode. Please subscribe to the podcast and connect with me on social media. If you have any questions, share them in the comments below.
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