Losing weight can be effortless if you overcome your insulin resistance, says expert.

Syndrome X. The Metabolic Syndrome. The Insulin Resistance Syndrome.

They may be different names, but all three point to the same set of health concerns affecting both the developed and developing world – expanding waistlines along with high blood pressure, cholesterol levels and raised blood sugar levels.

The Metabolic Syndrome, which increases the chances of people developing type 2 diabetes and dying from heart attacks, is now considered to be the driving force for a new cardiovascular disease epidemic, says the International Diabetes Federation.

“After years of inactivity, poor diet and unhealthy lifestyle, people eventually tip over to develop the Metabolic Syndrome, which is really the Insulin Resistance Syndrome,” said Dr. Ray Strand, author of the book Preventing Diabetes and Health for Life, while he was in Kuala Lumpur recently.

However, according to him, you can reverse the Insulin Resistant Syndrome by applying a triad of healthy practices – eating a low glycaemic diet, increase moderate exercise and supplementing your diet with nutrition that helps insulin sensitivity – and lose weight without even trying.

Insulin resistance, the Glycaemic Index (GI) and the Metabolic Syndrome

When we eat or drink food that contains sugar (from simple sugar to complex carbohydrates), it breaks down to its basic units, glucose. Our body produces insulin (a hormone) to help muscle and liver cells absorb glucose from our blood to be used to produce energy or form energy stores.

Cakes

However, when we consume food with high levels of sugar, our blood sugar levels rise rapidly and our body compensates by producing more insulin to bring the blood sugar levels down. Soon, our cells may develop a resistance to insulin and more insulin is needed for the cells to bring glucose from the bloodstream into our cells to maintain the blood sugar levels at a certain range.

So, if our body can produce enough insulin to counter insulin resistance (which prevents cells from taking in glucose), our blood sugar levels will remain the same. It is when our insulin production drops and insulin resistance stays the same that our blood sugar levels will increase, says Dr. Strand.

But not all foods that contain sugar and carbohydrate have the same effect on our blood sugar levels. Some of these foods break down gradually (low glycaemic index) while some break down rapidly (high glycaemic index) during digestion to release glucose into the bloodstream, raising blood sugar levels at varying speed.

Dr. David Jenkins, who was credited for the development of glycaemic index, found in his first study in 1981 that “great differences (of GI) were seen not only between but also within most of the food groups e.g. among cereals, the GI for the wholemeal bread was 72% while for wholemeal spaghetti, it was 42%”.

That means if you eat wholemeal bread, your blood sugar levels will raise to a higher level over two hours as compared to wholemeal spaghetti.

The problem with spiking (rapidly raising) your blood sugar levels by eating high-glycaemic foods is you over-stimulate the production of insulin, which subsequently cause blood sugar levels to drop below the normal range, says Dr. Strand. The low blood sugar levels will, in turn, stimulate the release of stress hormones – cortisol and adrenaline – that causes hunger or craving for food, he added.

“So, what we’ve been calling emotional eating all this while is actually a natural response of the body,” he explained.

In the Metabolic Syndrome, insulin resistance raises sugar blood levels and the excess glucose is diverted into storage in the form of fat.

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Source: Sunday Star 27 April 2008, Reversing the Metabolic Syndrome by Lim Wey Wen.