Insulin resistance can also contribute to weight gain. Insulin resistance is a condition in which receptor sites on the individual cell walls have lost the ability to receive insulin (and the attached sugars) through the cell wall where it can be used properly. The result is increased levels of insulin circulating throughout the blood accompanied by symptoms of low insulin levels. Essentially, insulin is locked out of the cells. Often, the resistance cannot be overcome by replacing the hormone and is a significant issue with many obese people.
One of the most common causes of insulin resistance is obesity itself. As fat in the body accumulates, glucose tolerance diminishes. As the cells become increasingly impervious to the effects of insulin, the whole cycle of pulling glucose into the liver and muscle cells to be burned as energy gets disrupted. In the process, thyroid function is pulled down. As a matter of fact, the whole system of burning food for energy (thus reducing the tendency to store it for future use in BAT cells) shuts down, and the weight just piles on, unimpeded by glucagon or other weight-favoring hormones.
For other people, the overconsumption of processed fats such as margarine, polyunsaturated oil, and other oils has contributed to insulin resistance.13 In a letter to the editor in The Townsend Letter for Doctors, Jeffrey Moss, D.D.S., wrote:
One of the most intriguing and least-known aspects of the insulin model of disease is that it also incorporates ingestion of certain types of fat, specifically, saturated fat, linoleic acid, long chain fatty acids (EPA, EFA, and arachidonic acid), and trans fats. This connection particularly fascinates me because even though we have talked about the dangers and benefits of the above fats, we have never before, as far as I know, been readily able to place these fats into a unified concept of disease that also includes subjects as diverse as ingestion of fruit, physical activity, and stress. . . . [One researcher] presents compelling evidence that not only does saturated fat raise insulin resistance, but linoleic acid and trans fats do the same. Since the Western diet has seen a tremendous increase in the intake of linoleic acid and trans fat due to indiscriminate use of vegetable oils and margarines, this finding is particularly significant.
Did you catch the meaning of what Moss is saying? Those of us who have stripped our cupboards bare of butter in favor of “heart healthy” margarine and corn oil are doing it all wrong! The “trans” fats to which Moss is referring are the artificially saturated fats like margarine and shortening and all foods that contain these fats. Corn and other vegetable oils (except for olive oil and other select vegetable oils) are implicated here as well. These foods are creating a problem with insulin resistance that keeps us heavy and just a little unbalanced in our blood sugar.
Aside from obesity or eating too much of the wrong kinds of fats, there is another cause of insulin resistance. We can be born with enzyme defects that prevent insulin from being taken up and used by the cells. But let’s be honest about it: Most of the time we do it to ourselves! A high-carbohydrate diet wears out the insulin-binding capacity of the cell, as can obesity or muscle inactivity. In other words, sitting around all day eating bonbons and gaining a few extra pounds wears out your body’s ability to use insulin effectively and keep circulating insulin levels down so that you’re not so prone to store those excess carbs as body fat.
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