Page 65 - Winter2017

because at the bottom were all the starchy to get the proper effect of lowering blood sugar. And then it decreases
grains, breads and pasta. Higher up, they had the sugar too much.
fruits and vegetables in a separate category. That Imagine you are in the desert in Arizona, and your air conditioner is
might have added to our confusion. super sensitive. Let’s say the air inside the house goes up to eighty degrees.
The air conditioner kicks on, but instead of bringing it to a nice seventy
LW: Absolutely, they are completely separated degrees, it takes it to fifty degrees. Suddenly you go from being slightly
in everyone’s brain. They are and they should uncomfortably hot to grabbing a blanket because the air conditioner is
be considered separate food groups but, at the too effective. Basically what is happening in the body is that an overly
end of the day, our body does not see food in reactive pancreas is overproducing insulin. We’ve got sugar coming in,
nine different food groups. It sees it as “this is and if it is coming in quickly, our body gets nervous: “Oh, there might
fat,” “this is sugar” or “this is a protein” and that be a lot more sugar behind it.” Even if it is just a banana, if it hits our
is what it breaks down to. Of course, we want blood sugar quickly, the body is going to overreact. You just went from
to have a holistic view of food. I don’t want to eighty degrees to fifty degrees too quickly; the air conditioner kicked
look at my plate and see macronutrients. I want on too strong. The insulin you produced was too much for what you ate,
to see where the food came from and what ani- and now you have low blood sugar.
mal made it. For our bodies, though, we need
to avoid overloading our plate with just sugar. HG: I know people who are on this sugar roller coaster. They will grab a
banana for breakfast and then a couple hours later, they will be “hangry,”
HG: Let’s say I start my day with some bananas as they call it, meaning they are irritable because of hunger. I understand
and berries. What is happening inside my body that something else should be eaten with that banana, because the banana
when all that sugar is coming down the pike? alone is going to cause a problem. I don’t understand all the science behind
it as you do, but I can see what happens to them isn’t good.
LW: When you start your day with fruit, you
think you are doing the “right” thing, but at the LW: Absolutely. It is so common, and it plays out in the entire day. You
end of the day—or unfortunately, at the begin- grab sugar for breakfast, no matter what it looks like, then you get some
ning of your day—this is what begins the blood kind of sugar mid-morning. By lunch, you are craving carbohydrates, so
sugar roller coaster, particularly if you are eating you have what turns into sugar for lunch. I don’t know how people stay
all that sugar with very little fiber, protein or awake from 2:00 to 4:00 PM if they are on this sugar roller coaster. That is
especially fat with it. Think of fruit juices, even when it hits the hardest. That is when you see everyone in line at a coffee
fresh fruit juices. Juice is just the fruit sugar shop trying to get themselves through the work day. Then they expect
taken away from the fiber. If you want to enjoy to sleep through the night and have energy. It is a terrible vicious cycle.
fresh-pressed juice, make sure you’ve got some
raw milk to add to it or a nice dab of raw cream, HG: When I think of insulin, I think of diabetics. Can you help us get a
because the fat will help slow the absorption of better understanding on what it means to be insulin-resistant?
that sugar into your bloodstream.
The reason the rate at which sugar hits the LW: My favorite way to think about insulin resistance is to compare it to
bloodstream is so important is because that is a car alarm. Hearing a car alarm is really annoying. Immediately, you get
what determines how much insulin you produce, up and shut your windows. You may try to figure out where the noise is
or whether your body has to overproduce insu- coming from and try to make it stop. In our body, insulin is a signal that
lin in response to your sugar. If you start your says, “Hey, there is too much sugar in the blood. Muscle cells, liver cells,
day with fruit juice, your blood sugar is going brain cells, whoever you are, take up this sugar and get it out of the blood
to increase very quickly. Your body is going to because there is too much there.” It is alarming, so all of our muscles, our
produce insulin to compensate. Then comes the cells, everyone listens. They get the blood sugar back to normal.
sugar crash. It’s 10:00 AM and you are reaching Now, imagine you are that person who is eating fruit for breakfast,
for coffee, because you’re tired. Or you reach for drinking a lot of coffee and eating a lot of carbs. You are on a blood sugar
a muffin to get you back up, to keep you going roller coaster, which means you are hearing that car alarm all day long.
until lunch. You’ve become accustomed to it, so it is not alarming anymore. It is
That is the sugar roller coaster. Your blood slightly annoying, but it isn’t causing you to take action. When your body
sugar increases. Most people are insulin-resis- sees the insulin, it now thinks it doesn’t need to do anything. Your cells
tant so they have to overproduce insulin in order stop listening and that is what insulin resistance is, which usually leads

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