It’s little secret that sugar isn’t doing wonders for your health. One major problem with overloading on the sweet stuff is the way it mucks with our hormone insulin.
Here’s how it works. Before we get started, we want to make clear this is a pretty complex area, and we’re just giving a broad overview of insulin resistance, and how it’s related to sugar consumption.
What is insulin anyway?
Our body basically runs on hormones, little chemical messengers secreted by our glands and organs in response to certain stimuli. Their job is to keep everything in balance so our bodies can do their thing.
One hormone secreted by our pancreas is called insulin. (Your pancreas also secretes a bunch of stuff to help us break down food, but that’s a whole other story.) Insulin is released in response to a rise in blood sugar levels after we eat.
Insulin tells our cells to take up sugar to use for energy. It also tells our liver to start converting any excess sugar into something we can store for later (often fat).
What we mean when we say sugar
Now, here’s where it gets a little complicated. The sugar we’re talking about in blood sugar levels is glucose. This is our bodies major energy source, and we need it to live.
The added sugar we tend to talk about in foods is called sucrose. It’s made up of two smaller sugars: glucose and fructose. Fructose basically gets broken down by the liver into glucose so our bodies can use it. (Again, fructose is a whole other story, and comes with its own host of issues when consumed in large quantities).
Glucose is found in almost everything we eat. But it’s particularly abundant in high-carb foods (think bread, pasta, cake), and high-sucrose foods (think cake, chocolate, and ice cream).
Okay, so what’s this insulin resistance thing?
It makes sense that overindulgence in high-sugar, high-carb foods can lead to chronically elevated blood sugar levels.
When our levels remain out of whack over long periods of time, our body can get overwhelmed and stop responding to our insulin messengers properly.
This is insulin resistance. Other things contribute too, but our collective penchant for cake is a major factor.
It’s a bit of a viscous cycle. Insulin resistance leads to even higher blood glucose levels, which can damage cell function and promote inflammation, making the Insulin resistance worse.
Why is that so bad?
Glucose, while vital in the right quantities, can be toxic at higher levels.
Too much glucose floating around in your blood can damage your pancreas, your cells your blood vessels, and eventually lead to type 2 diabetes. A type 2 diabetes diagnosis comes about when your blood glucose levels exceed a certain threshold.
Left untreated, type 2 diabetes can lead to serious complications that all revolve around that blood vessel damage.
Because it effects your smallest and most delicate vessels first, common complications include kidney failure, nerve damage, vision loss and increased susceptibility to infection. Heart disease is also a major associated problem with both type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance.
An easy fix
It’s not all doom and gloom though. In many cases, it’s fairly easy to reduce or completely reverse insulin resistance through simple lifestyle changes.
Daily exercise is literally a wonder drug here. Laying off high-sugar foods and opting for a diet full of veggies, lean proteins, healthy fats and more complex carbs that take the body a little longer to break down (think sweet potato, brown rice, and quinoa) is also super helpful.
Reducing stress levels, quitting smoking, getting quality sleep and even intermittent fasting have also been shown to be effective in reducing insulin resistance. So basically, all the habits already associated with a long, healthy and happy life!