Most everyone has heard of Insulin and its relationship sugar and diabetes. However, what does this hormone really do and why is Insulin so important in its role with dispersing sugar. Here is the simple version of a complex subject.

Breaking down food is a twostep process. When you eat food it is broken down when you chew, then of course, it goes to the stomach where it is broken down even further. After the stomach has its way with the digested food, the food particles go to the intestines where the body can absorb those particles and dump them into the blood stream. Now these particles need help getting into the blood stream. Hello Insulin!

The pancreas releases insulin when your body senses that your blood sugar has increased. Now very high blood sugar levels are not good for the body, so insulin acts as a bridge between your cells and the sugar in your blood stream. Without Insulin, you would be walking around all day with high amounts of sugar in the blood stream, and this is exactly what Type II diabetes is! This happens when the body becomes “Insulin Resistant” which means that insulin is simply not doing its job of getting rid of the sugar that is in the blood.

Sugar gets in the blood stream a lot quicker when eating simple carbohydrates or processed sugars such as pies, cakes, candy or any foods with high amounts of sucrose (table sugar). When eating complex carbohydrates, foods such as whole grain rice or breads, oatmeal, potatoes and pasta, then sugar from these foods will still go to the blood stream after being digested but at a much slower rate.

When sugar, either from these simple processed carbohydrates or from complex carbs gets into the blood stream, then insulin will remove the blood sugar and then store it first (in the form of glucose) in the liver. After the liver is full, insulin will direct the glucose into the muscle for energy. Now the extra sugar that can no longer be used by the muscle will be stored as fat in order to lower the blood sugar back down to normal levels.

This is why (especially for diabetics) it is important to weight train to increase muscle mass. The more muscle mass then the more sugar that can be stored in of course, the muscle! However, sad to say, even the most muscular person on the planet is going to have a limit on just how much blood glucose that can be used by each muscle cell. Another important factor to know is that insulin is an anabolic hormone, in that it does cause weight gain and growth. Before your body starts pulling stored fat from fat cells for energy, it will pull stored glucose from your liver, then your muscle cells. This is why “low carb” diets work! It is easy for the body to burn-up the stores of glucose and then go right to the fat stores! This is also why Ketogenic diets work. The body becomes more efficient at using fat for energy, which means more fat is being burned to fuel the body.

Now an important point to remember is that when insulin is elevated you simply will not be burning fat. Insulin, while elevated, will also block Leptin and Leptin is a hormone that let’s your body know when it is full. One can also become Leptin resistant which means that there is nothing to signal the brain to stop eating! To make this complex subject simple, a take away is that having high insulin levels throughout the day simply means weight gain!

So you may ask, how does one go about lowering their blood glucose and insulin levels to burn more fat? The number one thing is to cut back on your carbohydrates, especially those processed sugars. “Complex” or slow digesting carbs as stated earlier will keep the blood sugar levels steady and remain steady for much longer periods of time. However, it is important to remember that one can still gain weight by eating complex carbohydrates or healthier foods. This is why portion control for body size and activity levels are so important.

Another important fact on just how to keep one’s insulin levels low is by consuming a higher protein diet. Protein is the only macronutrient that is not stored in the body. Taking in more protein will also help curb one’s appetite. This along with, (as stated earlier) a consistent weight-training program is very important for the control of insulin, maintaining a healthy body weight and for overall optimum health.

Chip Sigmon, CSCS*D, CISSN, USAW, RSCC*E

Wellness Coordinator, Europa Sports Products

Sigmon Sports Performance