It seems that it’s the build up of visceral fat that creates metabolic dysfunction.
To control these issues, you need to make lifestyle changes that reduce visceral fat and prevent the building up of it again.
So from my understanding it is the presence of visceral fat and being overweight / obese that leads to insulin resistance and metabolic disease. I struggled with this question myself, but from my understanding doing whatever it takes to lose body fat, such as going keto, Whole Foods plant based, or just severely restricting calories, all lead to improved metabolic function and increased insulin sensitivity. I have IR myself so I went on a healthy keto diet with as much fiber that I can manage while being under my carb limit, while also limiting red meat and processed meat and in general, saturated fat. So I rely heavily on lean meat fish nuts extra virgin olive oil etc. so far I’ve lost like 50 pounds in a short period of time on keto and will have my blood tests taken so time will tell. I’ll also be speaking to my endocrinologist for the first time and if she suggests a plant based diet for IR and my metabolic disease then I’ll guess I’ll have to switch over once I’ve lost as much weight as I can on healthy keto. The question is, does consumption of dietary fat such as mono and polyunsaturated fat and saturated fat gum up glucose intake at the cellular level, or is it intake of excessive carbohydrates that get converted to fat in the body? Whichever it is, I believe in one thing for either diet and that is intermittent fasting. It’s been a game changer for me. EDIT: I think the argument for healthy keto is that you are, through a low carb diet and intermittent fasting, consistently keeping insulin levels low, and although the exact mechanism is not clear, the low levels of insulin is believed to increase insulin sensitivity. I hope this is the case because I find healthy keto sustainable.
I’m not a pro in nutrition/this topic, but my most of my family are predisposed/have type 2 diabetes even they’re all physically healthy and good BMI. As a result I’m very much concerned about myself for the future. It’s good you’re thinking about it now. That shit, unchecked, will lead to a really bad life down the road.
Everyone is saying good stuff, like eat unprocessed foods, maintain foods that promote hdl, and a balance of everything that is good (reduce carb intake). If you are very serious or have diabetes that runs in the family, get a calorie tracker and it’ll help you manage calories (obviously) and macro and micronutrients. It’s an extremely effective tool to monitor yourself.
After that, exercise regularly, get lean, and replenish your calories with healthy foods and you will likely be fine (barring actual genetic issues).
Also, allicin, the bioactive ingredient from garlic supposedly does help a good amount (multiple papers written on this subject). Ive been taking those 2-3x a day. Also ginger has shown to help in various ways.
According to Dr Roy Taylor, How to cure type 2 diabetes – without medication, diabetes is caused by overconsumption of calories. He stated that everybody has a “personal fat threshold”, and if you go above this, fat starts to be stored in your liver, muscles and pancreas, instead of you fat cells. The solution is to lose weight. Look up the “Direct Trial” where people were put on a very low calorie diet (fairly balance carbs/fat/protein), and reversed there diabetes. However diabetes is complex, and not always reversible. People have also reversed diabetes by losing weight on vegan WFPD diet (Barnard, 2009) or using a low carb approach - like the Virta health trial.
If you lost weight on a low carb/keto diet, that is great, but you should not fear carbs, but do not over eat things like cakes, pizza etc. Whole grains, beans, fruits vegetables are among the healthiest foods. Mono and poly unsaturated fats are considered healthy, while saturated fat should be limited. Highly process foods should also be limited.
There are countless diet studies, and generally you should not assign to much weight to any individual study, and the ones that are in the news are usually the most sensational ones that say “everything we knew was wrong”. Saturated fat raised LDL-cholesterol, and LDL-cholesterol increased risk of heart disease. Even though there are many cohort and meta-analyses showing that there is no link, by far the preponderance of evidence shows that saturated fat raises LDL-C, and this causes heart disease.
The science collectively supports several healthy diet patterns like the Mediterranean diet or the dash diet; mainly whole food, plenty of fruits, vegetables, adequate protein and limiting red meats. This is reflected in most countries dietary guidelines. The AHA and ADA also have some healthy diet recommendations.
Cite the source of the published scientific paper, “high carb low fat diets actually increase insulin sensitivity” Please don’t cite Disinformation podcast/utube/weblog/…
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Before Homo Sapiens starts mass farming, it is extremely difficult to eat mass volume of Carbohydrate.
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Anyone see FAT wild people in Amazon Jungles? There is a drone utube video of unknown Amazon tribe people. Everyone in the video is skinny.
Lack of exercise is the biggest. You can get away with eating plenty of sugar and plenty of fat if you are exercising enough. If you also have a good diet? Way better. No exercise and a great diet? Also works. But the lack of exercise and physical activity is what really gets people.
I found a great podcast about this that made sense. Although I must confess it also left me with some questions as I am a thin person with IR, but that’s not the point. Here’s the link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/113-dr-adrian-chavez-what-is-insulin-resistance-is/id1518859017?i=1000567839515&fbclid=IwAR0CBWCZUVtYmi1eL2EV3UlhwQLNeC9J85tjoqga\_daE0TlhyTpMbNrNUBY
One cause of insulin resistance can be due to chronic stress. Stress leads to the release of cortisol. High levels of circulating cortisol result in the fight or flight response which leads the body to produce and release glucose. This causes high blood sugar and, over time, chronic hyperglycemia results in resistance to insulin.
Are there any studies that look at insulin resistance on people that are not overweight? Meaning, if you manage your overall calorie intake, despite macronutrient ratios, are there any instances of insulin resistance at all based on macros ?
I think it really mainly comes down to total calories consumed. I think even a high carb/sugar diet can improve md, if calories are low enough.
Now in practice, a high carb diet is going to be hard to not over-consume calories. So you want a diet that fills you up, soo one with lots of fruit and veg.
To control it, just have a good diet, exercise and sleep.
There’s a lot of carbs in veggies, but they are allowed. It’s more the carbs & sugars in white starchy processed foods that you want to minimise/ eliminate. If you have a widely varied diet of as many whole and plants foods as possible ( including nuts, and seeds, and beans, and teas too) you will lower your intake of processed carbs and sugars which will greatly lower your insulin response as well as improve the nutrient intake in your gut which should effect your overall health for the better.
You are right to think there is some merit in the low carb approach .
The most merit occurs when people are doing low carb with a nutrient-filled emphasis rather than focussing on Weight loss only via a diet consisting only of bacon, steaks, cream, cheese and diet drinks. This sort of diet is what concerns nutritionists and gives low carb a bad name.
A lot of factors can play into it. Maintaining a healthy gut microbiome and cutting out as many processed foods as possible while doing some sort of physical exercise on a consistent basis is powerful. Saturated fats have been made out to be the boogeyman but the truth is our bodies really do need these fats for proper brain function and hormonal balances. I eat tons of eggs, love em lol.