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INSULIN IS a hormone that helps regulate your blood sugar by controlling how much glucose your cells can absorb. If your cells do not respond to insulin the way they should, a condition known as insulin resistance can contribute to your risk of diabetes.
The good news is that by choosing the right foods for you, you can reduce your insulin resistance and help keep your blood sugar in check. According to Dr Orlando Thomas, medical doctor and functional medicine practitioner at Thomas Medical and Shockwave Centre in Old Harbour, St Catherine, dietary choices can lower insulin.
“Every food that you eat, including vegetables, will stimulate insulin. There are a couple categories of food that can raise insulin even more. We measure them by what we call the glycaemic index, that is, how much these foods will raise your blood sugar by,” Dr Thomas said.
Among these categories of foods, the number one is sugars that include glucose, sucrose, fructose, and corn syrup that comes in the form of juices that you consume. Pastries, snacks, various forms of desserts, and added sugars such as condensed milk are some of the biggest stimulants that can raise your insulin levels and make you put on weight.
“To lose weight in the long term, you must take these foods out of your diet. You can regulate added sugar to the occasional special event. However, 90 per cent of your diet should be devoid of simple sugars,” Dr Thomas said.
Eliminating grains, moderate protein consumption, increase in your natural fats, and including prebiotics, probiotics, and post biotics can help to improve your insulin resistance.
GRAINS
Refined grains, and to a lesser extent whole grains, for example, wheat that comes in the form of flour, biscuits, buns, bulla, cakes, rice, especially white rice, barley and oats (refined) are high stimulants for insulin resistance. When broken down, these foods will release sugar into your system, but they also open the pores in your intestine, causing leaky gut. The sugar they contain that is digested and released into the intestine is rapidly absorbed.
MODERATE PROTEIN CONSUMPTION
This strategy is recommended, as proteins do stimulate insulin, but not as much as carbohydrates. High protein can also increase your risk of kidney problems. The meats that we have available these days are high in saturated fats because they are fed GMO foods, given vaccines and antibiotics, and are not healthy. You will be way behind on your health journey if you consume a lot of protein.
INCREASE YOUR NATURAL FATS
Fats that are essential include Omega 3, 6, and 9, plant fats such as shea seeds, flack seeds, hemp, and avocado. Polysaturated fats that do not raise your cholesterol, including coconut and olive oil. The amount of insulin they stimulate is minimal, so they will give you the nutrients you need without triggering an insulin response.
PREBIOTICS AND PROBIOTICS
To help to reduce your insulin spikes, everything goes through one channel, and that is your gut. If you have poor gut function, you will have poor health. Changing gut bacteria using special diets including prebiotics, probiotics, and more recently, postbiotics work together to create the environment in your gut that will close those channels so that the glucose won’t rush in and moderate the amount of inflammation in your system.
These are some broader guidelines for people with insulin resistance:
• Boost your fibre intake by eating more whole grains.
• Eat food that provides polyunsaturated or ‘good’ fats.
• Focus on non-starchy vegetables. For example, opt for fewer potatoes and more leafy greens.
• Choose whole foods rather than processed foods
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