Today, I'd like to quickly go over the last piece of the puzzle: glucagon. Glucagon is like the jelly to insulin's peanut butter. Insulin keeps blood sugar from rising too high (by taking glucose out of the blood and storing it) whereas glucagon keeps these levels from going to low (by promoting the burning of fat and fat stores for energy). It's all about a counterbalance between these two hormones (that most Americans never achieve).
So what have we learned so far? The government wants us to eat a diet full of carbohydrates to support our domestic wheat, corn, and soybean industries and have convinced us that this is an ideal diet that promotes health and longevity through a a series of carefully selected studies funded by our domestic wheat, corn, and soybean industries. We also know that carbohydrates provide us with quick energy in the form of glucose that circulates through our blood to our cells. This causes insulin to be released that tells the liver to store the glucose for a short time. If those stores are not used in a timely manner (or more carbohydrates are eaten), insulin tells those stores to become fat tissue.
Storage of fat isn't so bad really. In fact, we need it to survive, but chronic elevated insulin levels are so bad.
Did you know that chronic elevated insulin levels lead to all the diseases of civilization: heart disease, obesity, diabetes, osteoporosis, etc.? These are the results (read: symptoms) of the complicated havoc that high levels of insulin plays on your system. Doctors (and pharmaceutical companies) like to treat all of these symptoms as the disease with different drugs that cost a fortune per month. What happens when you go to the doctor and have to pay for expensive pills each month? Your health care costs rise and the pharmaceutical companies have a customer for life and we end up in a mess like we are currently in. Some of these drugs work. Sure, but you can eliminate the problems (and the bills) with your diet which we will finally discuss next time.
Sorry for the tangent. Can you tell I'm passionate?
"The government wants us to eat a diet full of carbohydrates to support our domestic wheat, corn, and soybean industries and have convinced us that this is an ideal diet that promotes health and longevity through a a series of carefully selected studies funded by our domestic wheat, corn, and soybean industries."
ReplyDeleteVery good summary of how the system works. Thanks!