Metabolism

Important for You: Understanding Insulin Resistance

26. Dezember 2021Dario, we.fit AG 9 min read

Insulin resistance is an underestimated problem caused by more than just carbohydrate intake. Iron levels, environmental toxins, and other factors play a crucial role in your insulin sensitivity.

Important for You: Understanding Insulin Resistance

We're familiar with insulin resistance, but also with insulin sensitivity—the opposite of resistance. Insulin is perhaps our most important hormone. It is—contrary to what is often claimed—not just a "storage hormone" that makes you fat and sick. Quite the opposite. Insulin and what's called "insulin signaling" in our cells normally works like a soothing balm. It serves to build and maintain cellular structures, and insulin works anti-inflammatory and function-preserving. In other words:

When insulin doesn't work in the brain anymore, you become mentally foggy
When it stops working in muscles, they shrink and become weak
When it fails in blood vessels, you get arteriosclerosis and endothelial dysfunction with far-reaching consequences

So far, so good. There are essentially two reasons why insulin stops working well. One reason is why low-carb diets exist in the first place: if you constantly overwhelm cells with excess insulin, they shut down and don't want any more insulin. Hence the idea: simply remove from your diet what normally triggers an insulin spike—namely, carbohydrates.

The logical flaw in this approach is that a) normal carbohydrate consumption actually causes your body to process carbohydrates better over time and therefore requires much less insulin, and b) there exist some of the healthiest indigenous populations in the world, which have far lower insulin levels and much better metabolic health than we do, and they primarily eat carbohydrates. Sure, you can debate wheat flour and refined carbohydrates, but the fact remains that good insulin sensitivity doesn't necessarily have anything to do with carbohydrate intake. Quite the opposite, in fact.

What many people completely overlook is that defective insulin action—insulin resistance—doesn't only occur "top-down," i.e., through carbohydrate excess. It can also happen "bottom-up." In other words, the cell, for whatever reason, doesn't do what it's supposed to do—like burning energy—and as a result, it shuts down and inhibits insulin signaling. This causes insulin resistance to develop gradually and without our conscious involvement. In this case, even the best low-carb diet won't help anymore.

We've addressed this topic frequently—in our blog, in our books, everywhere. And yet, for some inexplicable reason, it's still not widely understood. Here are a few examples:

Research has shown that the level of ferritin—i.e., iron content—in the body correlates inversely with insulin sensitivity. Sounds complicated, but it's simple to understand: lower your body's iron content, and insulin sensitivity improves dramatically. It's a proven fact and a straightforward biochemical relationship you rarely encounter. Vegetarians consistently have better insulin sensitivity—and less iron in their bodies. If you lower your ferritin levels to vegetarian levels, you'll have the same good insulin sensitivity. Bang! Why iron affects insulin so negatively is the subject of ongoing research. More on this in our blog.
It's been repeatedly shown that fatty acids are extremely potent at impairing insulin sensitivity. This too is a straightforward relationship. Reduce your body's fat mass, and your insulin sensitivity improves. Why? Because fatty acids in your cells directly shut down insulin signaling and compete with carbohydrates for fuel. Our body's fat storage is often unlimited, so blood fatty acid levels are correspondingly high—consequence: weak insulin sensitivity. The simple solution is to lose fat mass. Fortunately, there's also "healthy" fat, often subcutaneous fat—fat under the skin—that doesn't release as many fatty acids and doesn't impair insulin sensitivity as much; this is more common in women.
Another topic that almost no one is aware of: heavy metals and other environmental toxins. A real problem these days. Heavy metals block enzymes in energy metabolism and thus inhibit insulin sensitivity, among other things. Add to this so-called "persistent organic pollutants" like PCBs, dioxins, or DDT. We're exposed to an incredibly vast array of chemicals, which can even render animals in waterways infertile and cause birth defects. No one thinks about that...

...and especially not when it comes to eating organisms from the sea. Seafood is often literally a garbage dump, loaded with all the substances we pour into the oceans. Anyone who regularly consumes fish will inevitably expose themselves to a huge amount of pollutants. Back in 2011, an important study showed that farmed salmon containing persistent organic pollutants caused insulin resistance and obesity in an animal model. Who would want to eat that?

Just a few years ago, a study was published showing that "38 percent of the 175 countries analyzed had populations exposed between 2001 and 2011 to weekly methylmercury doses far exceeding the maximum safe level for fetal development." Why? Because heavy metals—in this case the highly toxic organic methylmercury—have massively accumulated in the world's oceans over many decades. You can assume the same for essentially all other environmental toxins.

This means: good insulin sensitivity, a normally functioning energy metabolism, depends on many factors. In our Western world, however, it often depends on factors we don't even recognize. We're slowly eating and living ourselves sick—and then believe that simple carbohydrate restriction will make things better again. The simplest starting point: just try eliminating fish from your diet for a few weeks and see what happens. Plant-based and vegan diets are undoubtedly so successful and valuable in part because they remove exactly what often impairs insulin sensitivity from the menu. Red meat (= lots of iron), fish (see above), eggs too (still often with very high dioxin levels!), and other things. Beyond that, you shouldn't forget that heavy metals and environmental toxins especially love to accumulate in animal organisms and are often in a particularly bioavailable form there.

This doesn't mean you shouldn't eat animal products. No, they're extremely nutritionally valuable and irreplaceable. But you should consider whether it's a good idea to eat low-carb and then consume a kilogram of salmon every week, five eggs daily, or 300g of beef. That can very quickly become very harmful to your insulin sensitivity. And then you wonder why.

So the circle closes. For the new year, we're resolving to achieve good insulin sensitivity.

Important for You: Understanding Insulin Resistance

When insulin doesn't work in the brain anymore, you become mentally foggy

When it stops working in muscles, they shrink and become weak

When it fails in blood vessels, you get arteriosclerosis and endothelial dysfunction with far-reaching consequences

We've addressed this topic frequently—in our blog, in our books, everywhere. And yet, for some inexplicable reason, it's still not widely understood. Here are a few examples:

Research has shown that the level of ferritin—i.e., iron content—in the body correlates inversely with insulin sensitivity. Sounds complicated, but it's simple to understand: lower your body's iron content, and insulin sensitivity improves dramatically. It's a proven fact and a straightforward biochemical relationship you rarely encounter. Vegetarians consistently have better insulin sensitivity—and less iron in their bodies. If you lower your ferritin levels to vegetarian levels, you'll have the same good insulin sensitivity. Bang! Why iron affects insulin so negatively is the subject of ongoing research. More on this in our blog.

It's been repeatedly shown that fatty acids are extremely potent at impairing insulin sensitivity. This too is a straightforward relationship. Reduce your body's fat mass, and your insulin sensitivity improves. Why? Because fatty acids in your cells directly shut down insulin signaling and compete with carbohydrates for fuel. Our body's fat storage is often unlimited, so blood fatty acid levels are correspondingly high—consequence: weak insulin sensitivity. The simple solution is to lose fat mass. Fortunately, there's also "healthy" fat, often subcutaneous fat—fat under the skin—that doesn't release as many fatty acids and doesn't impair insulin sensitivity as much; this is more common in women.

Another topic that almost no one is aware of: heavy metals and other environmental toxins. A real problem these days. Heavy metals block enzymes in energy metabolism and thus inhibit insulin sensitivity, among other things. Add to this so-called "persistent organic pollutants" like PCBs, dioxins, or DDT. We're exposed to an incredibly vast array of chemicals, which can even render animals in waterways infertile and cause birth defects. No one thinks about that...

So the circle closes. For the new year, we're resolving to achieve good insulin sensitivity.

Important for You: Understanding Insulin Resistance

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Important for You: Understanding Insulin Resistance