A simple experiment has been repeated many times, two matched groups, one on a high-fat diet and the other on a carb-rich diet are challenged with a heavy dose of glucose. The first group’s blood sugar far exceeds the second group. It has taken seventy years to discover the cause of type 2 diabetes, but it may take longer for this discovery to change the approach to this condition.
Diabetes Management and Treatment: Where’s the Problem Carbs or Fats?
A simple experiment has been repeated many times, two matched groups, one on a high-fat diet and the other on a carb-rich diet are challenged with a heavy dose of glucose. The first group’s blood sugar far exceeds the second group. It has taken seventy years to discover the cause of type 2 diabetes.
For blood sugar to be absorbed into our cells insulin is needed. Insulin is the key that unlocks the door to let sugar in our blood enter the muscle cell. When insulin attaches to the insulin receptor, it activates an enzyme, which activates another enzyme, which activates two more enzymes, which finally activate glucose transport, which acts as a gateway for glucose to enter the cell. So, insulin is the key that unlocks the door into our muscle cells.
What if there was no insulin, though? Well, blood sugar would be stuck out in the bloodstream, banging on the door to our muscles, and not able to get inside. And so, with nowhere to go, sugar levels would rise and rise. That’s what happens in type 1 diabetes; the cells in the pancreas that make insulin get destroyed, and without insulin, sugar in the blood can’t get out of the blood into the muscles, and blood sugar rises.
But, there’s a second way we could end up with high blood sugar. What if there’s enough insulin, but the insulin doesn’t work? The key is there, but something’s gummed up the lock. This is called insulin resistance. Our muscle cells become resistant to the effect of insulin. What’s gumming up the door locks on our muscle cells, preventing insulin from letting sugar in? Fat. What’s called intramyocellular lipid, or fat inside our muscle cells. Fat in the bloodstream can build up inside the muscle cells, create toxic fatty breakdown products and free radicals that can block the signaling pathway process. So, no matter how much insulin we have out in our blood, it’s not able to open the glucose gates, and blood sugar levels build up in the blood.
This mechanism, by which fat (specifically saturated fat) induces insulin resistance, wasn’t known until fancy MRI techniques were developed to see what was happening inside people’s muscles as fat was infused into their bloodstream. And, that’s how scientists found that elevation of fat levels in the blood “causes insulin resistance by inhibition of glucose transport” into the muscles. One hit of fat can start causing insulin resistance, inhibiting glucose uptake within just three hours. Then, you can do the opposite experiment. Lower the level of fat in people’s blood, and the insulin resistance comes right down. Clear the fat out of the blood, and you can clear the sugar out of the blood. So, that explains this finding. On the high-fat diet, the ketogenic diet, insulin doesn’t work as well. Our bodies are insulin-resistant.
But, as the amount of fat in our diet gets lower and lower, insulin works better and better. This is a clear demonstration that the sugar tolerance of even healthy individuals can be “impaired by administering a low-carb, high-fat diet.” But, we can decrease insulin resistance—the cause of pre-diabetes, the cause of type 2 diabetes - by decreasing saturated fat intake.
The recommended intake of fat is about 20g. On a Whole Plant Diet a person needing 2500 calories would get 20g of fat but on a animal based diet (meat, fish, dairy) they would be getting nearer 180g of fat, many times more than the recommended level. This is where the insulin effectiveness fails.
Most diabetics can dramatically manage on far less insulin, or often none, when they shift their diet from high animal/dairy/refined carbs towards a whole plant diet of fruit, vegetables, whole grains, pulses and some nuts and seeds.
Visit www.thefoodconnection.org.uk for more information.