Insulin Resistance & Sensitivity

This page is aimed at Type 1 Diabetics. Different rules apply to us..

Unnaturally high levels of insulin are still bad – whether diabetic or not. There are two primary factors in insulin levels, or requirements of insulin:

  1. The type of food you eat.
  2. The level of insulin resistance.

The Type of Food You Eat

There are three main categories, or food types:

  1. Fats – these provide our body with essential fatty acids (omega 3 and omega 6), and fuel, and are also used to construct fatty parts of cells/organs etc.
  2. Proteins – these provide our body with essential amino acids, used as raw material to build and repair structural parts of cells/organs etc.
  3. Carbohydrates – these are used as a source of fuel too. There’s no such things as essential carbohydrates.

Insulin enables glucose (ingested via carbohydrates, or released by the body in the form of glycogen) to be taken in by cells, and used as a fuel source. The more carbs you eat, the more insulin your produce.

The Level of Insulin Resistance

The amount of insulin your body needs to enable cells to absorb glucose, is affected by how resistant your cells are to insulin itself. The higher the insulin resistance, the more insulin is needed for a comparable effect.

The Normal Body

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