Whenever we eat - but especially when we eat sweet tasting or starchy (bread, pasta, potatoes, rice, cereal) foods, the sugar level in our blood will go up temporarily. Sugar in the blood is sort of like “Thing One” and “Thing Two” from Dr. Seuss’s The Cat in the Hat. That sugar is wreaking havoc you can’t do anything else until you get them out of the house. The first job of insulin is to get the sugar out of the blood into some place where it can be used or safely stored.
I think a good way to understand how sugar is dealt with is to think about it in terms of a purse, and overnight bag and big suitcase or trunk. The purse is like your cells - you can always use a little more currency so the first place insulin will try and put that glucose is in the cells. But if your wallet is already overflowing insulin won’t be able to stuff in more sugar.
HUMANS CARRY A QUICK ENERGY SNACK CALLED GLYCOGEN IN THE LIVER AND MUSCLE CELLS
The next place insulin will try and put glucose is in the overnight case. An overnight case can hold a lot more than a purse, which is a good thing because when small glucose modules need to be stored they string together in a long chain that is bulkier than a single glucose molecule. This chain is easily converted back to those simple glucose molecules again. That means when you have a chain of glucose you always have emergency back up of essentials - just like what you would carry in your carry-on or overnight bag. Just like the airlines there is no extra charge for this -- the body will first try and fit any extra glucose into glucose storage depots in the body.
When glucose forms a chain in a plant it is called "starch". When glucose forms a chain inside the body of animal it is called glycogen. Glycogen is stored in the liver and the muscles. It is really almost the same glucose. Glucose is a fast and easy fuel source whether it is a single molecule or an easily dissolved chain. The body doesn't carry excess glucose - it's like cash - you don't want to keep all you have on hand. Just enough glucose is stored in the body for emergencies - like a snack. Glycogen stores or "snack packs" aren’t very big - just like an overnight bag. There is only enough there to cover the emergencies like the quick burst of energy to run from the tiger that is trying to eat you.
FUEL FROM FOOD THAT ISN'T NEEDED IMMEDIATELY IS STORED AS FAT FOR A FUTURE THAT NEVER COMES
If you have had a meal or snack in the past few hours and you haven’t been exercising vigorously your glycogen stores are probably full. That’s the thing about modern life - there are always well-stocked cupboards, convenience stores, and 24 hour drive-thru's around to replenish your purse and overnight bag. As far as your brain is concerned this is "free food". Your brain doesn't care what you look like naked. Your brain is fond of the seafood diet - if you "see food" (even in your imagination) you should eat food. Your brain knows there is a way to deal with any excess fuel because the human body has dual fuel tank - like one of those monster trucks. What can't be used now can always be stored for later.
If you eat food and your cells and glycogen stores are already "topped off" there will be extra fuel in your blood that needs to be put somewhere. insulin is going use that sugar to store fat. When insulin can't put more sugar in the cells or the organs the extra fuel goes into fat storage. Fat cells are very easy going and compliant. Fat cells believe the more the merrier - they are always willing to accept more fat. That is how humans are designed. If humans wanted to store food they couldn't put in in freezer. They had to eat it and wear it -- bundle up winter is coming. it is very easy for us to store fat when insulin is circulating.
So a primary job of insulin is to get the blood sugar down to a safe level. The cells usually get first dibs on the fuel, followed by short-term storage in the liver and muscles. Any glucose that doesn’t go to the cells or short-term stores goes to the trunk as fat.
THE INSULINATOR - GUARDIAN OF THE FAT
Insulin is also the guardian of the fat. As long as insulin is hanging around then no stored fat will be released to use for fuels for the cells. What this means is that insulin makes your body fatter in two separate ways. First of all it makes it easy for you to accumulate fat and secondly it makes it impossible for you to use your stored fat as fuel.
Under certain circumstances insulin becomes what I call “the insulinator”.
Insulin becomes the insulinator when he becomes over zealous about his fat storage job. The insulinator will work very hard to wrap you up in a layer of fat. The insulinator explains why it isn’t just overeating that is making us fat. When you have an insulinator is like having your wages garnished. When you eat instead of cells getting first dibs the insulinator lets the greedy swollen fat cells "eat first". They take all the fuel and leave the cells nothing. The cellular machinery starts to slow down from lack of fuel. The brain responding to the frantic "text messages" from the fuel depleted cells signal the body to go find something to eat RIGHT NOW PLEASE! But when you eat the same thing happens again (except your fat stores have gotten a little fatter). If the cells are like a purse the fat stores or adipose tissue is like a big trunk. There is a lot of room for junk in the trunk.
When the insulinator is in charge then you will be tempted and tortured by hunger. But just like “the terminator” resistance is stressful, exhausting and ultimately futile. Nothing stands it the way to the insulinator and his fat storing mission. There is no negotiating with the insulinator. You must make him go away, otherwise, just like the Terminator, he’ll “be back”. In the Evolutionary Eating Program we teach people how to make him come back to be on their side - just like Arnold in Terminator 2.
What on earth would make insulin turn into the insulinator? What on earth indeed. In the natural world, where sugar is scarce and seasonal, the only situation that calls for the insulinator is summertime. That’s when we humans, especially females, would have had to stock up the pantry for winter. Before electricity there was only one reliable way to stock up — get stacked. Big breasts, big hips and a big booty — all those things are the only guarantee you and your baby would have to make it through those times when food was scarce. Men are a little different - I will cover that a future blog post - but our ability to store fat was so critical to our survival and our brain health all humans need a mechanism like the insulinator.
Take Home Point - The Insulinator can never "be back" if he never goes away!
