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For the first time in history we are seeing cases of type 2 diabetes in kids and teens at an alarming rate. This report from CDC https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2017/p0412-diabtes-rates.html breaks down some of the figures. One of the main culprit for this is the fact that there is sugar in literally everything we consume, and the population at large who are constantly consuming these sugary foods are falling victim to becoming insulin resistance leading to a rise in type II diabetes.
Welcome to info central and in this article we are going to discuss how our current lifestyle and diet is making us all insulin resistance and how we can fix this through intermittent fasting.
First let's quickly identify what it means to be insulin resistance. When you are insulin resistant your body becomes less efficient at maintaining a normal blood sugar level from the food you eat, and unfortunately at this day and age there is abnormally high amounts of refined sugar in almost everything you eat. And although there is very little we can do about the food industry putting mass amount of sugar in our foods, we can use intermittent fasting to make our bodies more insulin sensitive allowing it to better process the sugar we do consume.
Being Insulin resistant may not seem like a huge cause for alarm but staying insulin resistant can overtime lead to diabetes and if you are someone who is constantly snacking and eating every few hours, you may look relatively healthy on the outside but all the refined sugar and carbs you are consuming will make you insulin resistance and eventually lead to type II diabetes. And according to this CDC report https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2017/p0718-diabetes-report.html more than 100 million Americans are already diabetic or pre-diabetic, which means on average 1 out of every 3 people you know is at risk of diabetes and even you might become part of that statistic.
However, it's not all doom and gloom, there is some light at the end of the tunnel, but first you need to understand what your body is doing every time you consume any calories. As I have talked about in the very first video in this series of videos on the power of intermittent fasting, every time you consume food your body releases insulin. The amount of insulin varies depending on where the food falls on the glycemic index chart but insulin is released non-the-less. If you are constantly eating large meals every 4 to 5 hours and having snacks in between meals, your pancreas are worked overtime to keep pumping out insulin. However, when you intermittent fast and abstain from food for a period of time, you give your pancreas a break and allow it to function better when food is eventually consumed and it has to make insulin.
This research https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5394735/ looked at adults with type 2 diabetes and put them on an intermittent fasting protocol. Researchers found that even adults that are already diabetic showed improvement in fasting blood glucose, and other health markers, compared to the control group. Furthermore, in this artcile https://medium.com/@drjasonfung/towards-reversing-type-2-diabetes-9f693f964f90 Nephrologist Dr. Jason fung goes into depth about some extreme cases where type 2 diabetes can be reversed through intermittent fasting.
But for the majority of us that consider ourselves healthy, it is important to start being mindful of what we are putting inside our body. Especially at this day and age when there is refined sugar in literally everything we consume!! from hot sauce to pasta sauce, you name it (I will do a separate video on this topic very soon) So when you are consuming these high fructose, sugary foods, your body's main goal is to keep your overall blood sugar level between 70-100 milligrams/deciliter (which is only about one teaspoon of sugar) and it will work your pancreas as hard as it needs to, to make that happen.
You can imagine that overtime this can take a big toll on your pancreas if you are always eating, eventually leading to your pancreas not being able to produce enough insulin to deal with the oncoming sugar, causing high blood sugar in the body and eventually leading to diabetes.
A good check to do on yourself is to be mindful of how you feel after a large meal. It has become the american norm to feel tired and sluggish after a big meal. Specially after lunch, the post lunch "afternoon slump" has even become a marketing target for the energy drink industry.
There was a time when I accepted this to be a normal thing that we all experience without realizing that there were bigger issues at play. However, since I started intermittent fasting and my body has become extremely efficient at maintaining a level blood sugar, when I break my fast with a large 1000 calorie meal, I do not feel any type of sluggishness or brain fog what so ever, and I keep going forward with the same level energy that I had all day while I was fasting. And if you are someone who does intermittent fast please comment below about your experience to help everyone in this community gain other points of view.
Ray Bradbury once said "Too much of anything, isn't good for anyone" and we can certianly see that this is the case with the food we consume. Something that is supposed to give us life can also end it if we are not mindful of how we are using it, especially the processed food we all consuming at this day and age. So at this point the only thing left for you to do is to give intermittent fasting a shot, and at the end of the day you have nothing to loose but a few pounds.