Most Replayed Moment: Insulin Is The Reason You're Gaining Fat! How To Lower It Now

Steven Bartlett (0:04)

So, when you say this is an insulin problem, can you explain this to me like I have no idea what glucose and insulin are? For any of my listeners out there that have an inexperienced understanding of these terms and what they do and mean.

Pradip Jamnadas (0:16)

It's crucial. Everybody needs to understand the relationship between sugar, which is glucose, and insulin. When you consume sugar or glucose, the body has to get rid of that glucose very quickly from the bloodstream because glucose actually is toxic inside the bloodstream. Even though it is what the body uses for energy, in the bloodstream, it glycates all the blood vessels and the walls and the components in blood and hemoglobin as well, glycates it. That means the glucose attaches itself to that molecule. So now that molecule can't work properly. That is why the higher your blood glucose, all your chemicals don't work well. Your enzymes don't work well. Your hormones don't work well. Nothing works well in your age prematurely because you're getting glycation. A glycated molecule can't work normally. It doesn't function normally.

So when you consume the glucose, the glucose has to come out of the bloodstream and how does the body do it? It sends a message to the pancreas. The pancreas says, aha, I'll make some insulin. It pours insulin into the bloodstream. Insulin comes into the bloodstream, pushes the glucose into the cells. And where does it push it? Into the liver, into the muscles, into every cell in the body. Insulin will push glucose out. Now, how much insulin is the question?

If I'm eating every three hours and I'm consuming glucose or I'm consuming starchy foods or I'm consuming carbohydrates, now watch where I'm going with this because you're already beginning to know where I'm going with this. I'm consuming glucose and carbs every two, three hours. I'm stimulating my pancreas. I'm stimulating my insulin. My insulin goes up, it comes down. But before it even gets a chance to come down, it goes up again.

So the repeated consumption of, and frequent consumption of glucose is causing my insulin to stay up because insulin stays a little bit longer in the blood stream than the glucose. Glucose will come down in about two to three hours, but the insulin stays higher for about four hours. Now what happens is that you continue this lifestyle for a few years. Now the body, because these are all hormones, will say, well, you know, it's, I'm going to need to make more insulin now. You become insulin resistant. Any hormone that stays in your body for a long time, the body becomes immune to it.

So the next time I eat the sugar, I'm going to have to make more insulin to produce the same effect. That is called insulin resistance. So now you got this patient who's been eating carbs, sugar, processed foods. What does that mean, processed foods? That means foods that are quickly absorbed into the bloodstream. Processed foods. These are products without fiber.

So the absorption is very quick. So the poor pancreas has to react just like that. Produces a whole bunch of insulin. And then the frequent eating and the frequent consumption makes you insulin resistant. So now you produce a whole bunch of insulin in order to bring that sugar level down. So then you say, okay, well, it doesn't matter because the insulin is bringing the sugar level down. So what's the harm done? Because your A1C is still good, you're not diabetic. No, but it's that background high insulin that is destroying your metabolism. It's that high insulin level in the background. So insulin pushes glucose into the liver and you develop a fatty liver.

It pushes the calories into production of new fats around your viscera. The viscera means in your belly, around your pancreas. You get visceral fat. Now this fat is produced from glucose. It's a different kind of fat. Look, if I gave you a high calorie diet right now of all sorts of foods, you put on weight everywhere, okay?

But if I give you glucose, you put it on mostly in your stomach and your stomach will protrude. That's called visceral fat. It's on the inside. You can't pinch it. It's on the inside.

Steven Bartlett (4:29)

Around your organs.

Pradip Jamnadas (4:30)

Around the organs. This is very detrimental fat and that's the epidemic that we have today.

Steven Bartlett (4:37)

That's a direct result of eating starchy glucose, carbohydrates, which creates insulin, which creates this downstream effect on-

Pradip Jamnadas (4:45)

Wrong foods and eating too frequently.

Steven Bartlett (4:48)

Too frequently, okay.

Pradip Jamnadas (4:49)

Because remember, it's also the frequency of eating. Because before that insulin gets a chance to come down, you're already popping yourself with more food. Hence, you develop insulin resistance. You get a very high insulin. It takes this much insulin now just to bring that sugar level down. And then one day, when you cannot control that sugar, now that sugar will go out, and now your doctor will say you're a diabetic. But by that time, you've already had 10 years of hyperinsulinemia.