Sugar and carbs are not always bad, and fat is not always good, but insulin resistance (the opposite of sensitivity) is always the gateway to metabolic diseases, including diabetes and heart disease
I have recently met several patients who have put much effort into correcting their metabolism but have yet to succeed. Despite using the latest technology, such as continuous glucose monitoring (CGM), eating healthy real food, and pursuing good physical activity, their blood sugar still needs to be adequately controlled with high haemoglobin A1C, which often reaches prediabetic levels despite their strenuous efforts.
Reviewing these patients’ diets, I have found common factors related to high fat intake, including sources of saturated fat, like meat and dairy products, commercial trans-fat, or even a high quantity of healthy fat, but often processed and oxidised.
The consensus among these patients was that sugar and carbs are evil and that fat, overeating, snacking, and bingeing are safe. They do not pay attention to high-calorie fat content or the type and form (the processing) of fat. These patients’ predicaments have inspired this blog. We discuss the complex relationship between food types and our bodies, how our organs process food, and the ideal diet.
Carbs are not always evil, and fat is not always innocent. However, the quantity and quality of each can cause insulin resistance and poor blood sugar control. The dose is the poison.
Instead of focusing on individual up-and-down blood glucose readings, you should give full attention to creating a healthy, flexible metabolism, switching spontaneously between burning sugar and burning fat, like a real hybrid man-machine.
Focusing on glucose and carbohydrates only reflects one part of the problem. You also need to observe the quantity and quality of your fat intake, which can cause insulin resistance and influence your blood glucose level.
A healthy metabolism requires accurate planning of the quality and quantity of carbohydrates and fat in your diet and the timing of your meals—what and how much to eat and when.
Carbohydrates like sugar and starch cause sugar spikes within 3 hours of a meal. Proteins like meat, chicken and fish take 3 to 4 hours to digest, causing a late insulin response 3 to 8 hours after the meal.
Overeating saturated or toxic fat (trans-fat) prolongs blood glucose spikes. Eating small amounts of healthy fat maintains normal blood glucose levels.
Maintaining a healthy energy balance
The body’s energy balance centre is in the brain’s hypothalamus, monitoring energy intake and expenditure to prevent unnecessary energy storage. Saturated fat, especially palmitic acid and trans fat causes inflammation in the hypothalamus. Inflammation occurs within 24 hours of eating a high-fat meal. This results in insulin resistance, disrupting the normal hunger and satiety balance, increasing our feeling of emptiness and thus our calorie intake, ultimately causing weight gain.
Excess energy can be safely stored in adipose (fat) tissues, but the ability to do so is compromised by increasing inflammation and insulin resistance in fat cells. Excess fat in the bloodstream is diverted to other organs like the liver and muscles, which cannot store fat safely, causing lipotoxicity.
Lipotoxicity means the accumulation of lipids or fat in organs that are not expected to store it. This compromises metabolism and energy generation, lowering insulin sensitivity and triggering metabolic diseases.
A high-fat diet, particularly with saturated fat, is the standard method for inducing obesity in animals. Within 24 hours, inflammation inhibits leptin and insulin signals, which are necessary for creating a feeling of satiety, resulting in overeating and weight gain.
Are there good and bad foodstuffs?
On the one hand – the bad side – we eat palmitic acid in foods such as palm oil, meat, milk, butter, and cheese. The liver also makes palmitic acid when converting excess glucose into fat for storage.
In addition, trans-fats are commercially made by adding hydrogen to cheap vegetable oils, which turn solid at room temperature. The partially hydrogenated oil prolongs the shelf life of baked goods such as cookies, pies and cakes and is used to make shortening and margarine.
On the other hand, the hypothalamus has receptors to bind omega-3 fatty acids. Having adequate omega-3 in your diet decreases inflammation in the hypothalamus. A study confirmed that injections of omega-3 into obese rats’ brains reduced insulin resistance, resulting in weight loss.
However, even excessive healthy fat intake can fill the safe fat storage space in the adipose (fat) tissue and cause it to spill over into the bloodstream, where it is stored in the liver, muscles, and pancreas.
Adipose tissue is rich in stem cells, which are necessary for making more fat cells to expand the storage capacity. This provides healthy fat storage space without any adverse effects except weight gain. One-third of obese individuals stay metabolically healthy and are categorised as “healthy obese.”
But, if the adipose tissue cannot expand to store more fat, the excess fat is diverted for storage in other tissues, such as the liver and skeletal muscles. This results in lipo-toxicity, which causes total body insulin resistance.
How does our diet affect our body?
The quantity and quality of fat in the diet can significantly impact how the body processes sugar.
The combination of fat and sugar does not exist in nature. It only exists in unhealthy, ultra-processed, addictive food or meals such as burgers, French fries, milkshakes, and cola.
Of course, the combination of carbs and fat in modern food is delicious and addictive—it gives a dopamine response and stimulates hunger, resulting in obesity and overweight. Consuming an ultra-processed, refined, high-fat diet adds 700 extra calories per day. It is energy-dense (9 calories per gram of fat) and low in essential nutrients, like vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and essential fatty acids.
This lack of essential nutrients is another reason for overeating and weight gain. The body needs micronutrients to process calories into energy. The lack of nutrients in ultra-processed food diverts calories to be stored as fat rather than burning them to supply energy.
Eating more fat and protein but fewer carbs will give satiety. However, moving from a high to low fat intake aligns with a 37% calorie reduction.
Reducing carbs and eliminating ultra-processed foods that combine carbs and fat improves satiety and helps with weight loss. Eating more protein is also satiating.
If blood glucose increases more than 1.6 mmol/L (30 mg/dl) in the first three hours after eating, it is an indication that you should reduce your carbs. Shifting from carbs to a fat diet can help you get off the blood sugar rollercoaster.
Insulin requirements vary according to your BMI/weight. The bigger you are, the more body fat you store, so your pancreas must produce more insulin.
A high fat intake could raise haemoglobin A1C and result in weight gain. Because of insulin resistance, daily insulin requirements also increase.
People can lose weight and drop their haemoglobin A1C by following a healthy diet and high-satiety nutrient recipes. They should prioritise protein, leaving carbs and fat to optimise nutrient intake, satiety, and blood sugar control.
What should we eat?
The ideal meal consists of high-fibre carbohydrates, including low-calorie vegetables, lean protein and beans, and healthy fat in avocados, seeds, and nuts. Paleo and Mediterranean diets, which have been proven to help sufferers of metabolic diseases, follow a similar pattern.
The Department of Health recommends limiting daily fat intake to less than 35% of total calories (equivalent to 70g of fat per day) and saturated fat to less than 10%. However, it is important to pay attention to the type of fat.
Our healthy diet has no place for processed carbs or processed fat. We also need to observe the quantity of fat we consume since fat has very high calories (9 calories per gram) compared with 4 grams in carbs and proteins. A high amount of fats (even healthy ones) could fill the storage space early and result in lipo-toxicity and insulin resistance.
So, avoid saturated and trans fats. Saturated fat is found in butter, cheese, and meat. Swap this with polyunsaturated fats such as avocado, olive oil, nuts, and seeds. Healthy fats reduce inflammation and maintain cell integrity.
An average avocado contains 250 calories, 25g of fat, 22g of unsaturated fat, and 3g of saturated fat. Due to moisture removal, roasted nuts weigh less than raw nuts, making them higher in calories. Salted peanuts have high blood salt, which may increase blood pressure. Some nuts like cashews, Brazil nuts and macadamia are high in saturated fat. Pistachios have a relatively low fat content. Eat raw nuts not salted or roasted.
Peanut butter is unhealthy because it contains high aflatoxin due to storage in moist conditions. It is also high in the pro-inflammatory omega 6, which is in a harmful oxidised state due to processing. High in oxalates known to cause kidney stones. Eating processed almonds in almond butter and almond milk can have a similar effect.
Seeds, including chia, pumpkin, and flax, are fibre-rich and have moderate fat content. Ground seeds are preferred because they are easily digested. Buy organic seeds and grind them at home for optimal nutritional value.
Finally, it is important to stay active so that your muscles burn accumulated fat within and suck glucose from the bloodstream to lower blood glucose and reduce insulin release.
So, my friends, you can see that our food is vital to our health. We all knew that already! But the difference between what is good for us and bad can often lie in the food’s processing and the portion size you allow yourself. Eat healthily to avoid insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, and chronic diseases – especially with the Vitality Clinic’s support to set you on the right, sustainable path!
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References
The role of fatty acids in insulin resistance
Insulin is not making you fat
https://optimisingnutrition.com/does-fat-spike-insulin/
A single day of excessive dietary fat intake reduces whole-body insulin sensitivity
