There are two different types of Diabetes. Type 1 diabetes, also known as juvenile diabetes is unrelated to diet and lifestyle and arises by chance in a small percentage of the population. Those with Type 1 diabetes are incapable of making insulin in the pancreas and must inject it in order to clear glucose out of the bloodstream and stay alive. Type 2 diabetes is more common and most often arises in discussions of obesity and diet.
It is Type 2 diabetes that afflicts many of the citizens that HopeBUILD serves, and it develops like this:
Whenever you eat carbohydrates , your digestive system breaks them down into a sugar called glucose, which enters your blood and gets pumped to the rest of the body to feed hungry cells. The glucose in your blood is often referred to as “blood sugar,” and it goes up as you eat carbohydrates. After you’ve broken down carbohydrates into glucose, it still can’t get get into cells without help from your pancreas. The pancreas detects glucose in the bloodstream and releases insulin to further “digest” glucose so it will pass into cells which will use it for energy or store it. Without insulin, glucose would stay in the bloodstream with nowhere to go. Unfortunately glucose is toxic at high levels in the bloodstream, but the body knows this and has an effective way of keeping itself safe. It releases plenty of insulin to make sure that glucose is drained as completely as possible from the bloodstream. A problem arises, however, when insulin becomes a regular presence in the bloodstream: it stops working as well as it used to. Like a drug addict who needs higher and higher doses to get the same high, insulin receptors on cell walls need more and more insulin to do the same job that lower amounts used to do. As cells become insulin resistant, glucose starts building up in the bloodstream, and, knowing that glucose can be toxic, the body starts searching for places to put it. As it turns out, fat cells don’t become insulin resistant (until things start to get really bad), and, as a last resort, the body drains glucose into them. This is why weight gain, excess body fat, and obesity are closely related to diabetes. Fat cells are an acceptable destination for glucose as long as they themselves don’t become insulin resistant, but, over time, you guessed it, they do. As fat cells become insulin resistant, your pancreas gets too worn out to make enough insulin to adequately clear toxic glucose out of your bloodstream. Without a dramatic increase in insulin production, glucose would poison the body and eventually kill you. When you reach this stage, you need to inject insulin with a syringe to clear glucose from your bloodstream and stay alive.
Diabetics are at risk for heart disease, obesity, cancer, and other diet related diseases due to glucose and insulin being toxic at high levels. Like fire, both glucose and insulin are needed to sustain life, but can become destructive when out of control. Most disturbingly, diabetics risk foot amputation; glucose damages nerve tissue and an otherwise harmless blister or cut can become irreversibly infected and require limb amputation.
If you are overweight, it is an indicator not that you have a “slow metabolism,” but that you are insulin-resistant: glucose is being drained into fat cells as a last resort when all normal destinations stop detecting insulin. If you are thin, it is an indicator not that you have a “high” or “fast” metabolism, but that you are, for the time being, insulin-sensitive. Your muscle and liver cells (the normal, healthy destinations of glucose) effectively detect insulin when it is released and use it to store glucose in a normal, healthy way. But beware, insulin resistance develops over time if carbohydrates are a staple food. Insulin receptor cells become more and more tolerant to the hormone over time, which explains why people gain weight with age. Weight gain is closely tied with insulin sensitivity.
Glycemic Index:
When carbohydrates (vegetables, fruits, farm crops, sugar) are consumed, the body turns them into a sugar called glucose for the body to digest. Some carbohydrates break down faster into sugar than others. These are said to have a high glycemic index. Other carbs take longer to be broken down into sugar. These are said to have a low glycemic index. The fiber content of vegetable matter keeps sugar molecules found in the flesh of the plant trapped and hard to release. When you eat vegetables, it takes a lot of work to break the sugar molecules apart from the fiber matrix that contains them. As they break apart from the fiber, these sugars enter the bloodstream at a slower pace than if the same vegetable was juiced. The pancreas responds by releasing insulin as needed; in this case, at a slow, deliberate, and controlled pace. This is the healthiest and most natural way to digest carbohydrates. Carbs with a high glycemic index are very quickly broken down to become sugar in the bloodstream. The pancreas releases lots of insulin to deal with this spike of glucose. White bread has been vilified in recent years due to its high glycemic index, and whole wheat bread has taken over as the bread of choice for health-conscious people. However, even whole wheat has a glycemic index that is higher than what the human body was designed to handle. People who are genetically incapable of handling high glucose loads will have trouble even with whole grains. In the company of fiber-dense vegetables and fruit, all grains have a high glycemic index. The worst violators, however, are sugary products, especially liquids. Gatorade is already sugar water when you drink it, so the body has no trouble dissolving it into digestable sugar. The sugar goes straight into the bloodstream, with no obstacles, and demands a huge dose of insulin. The ensuing saturation of both glucose and insulin in the blood is a stepping stone on the path towards diabetes, fat-storage, and inflammation.
A way to distinguish the glycemic index of a carbohydrate:
Picture a spinach leaf floating in water, it keeps its shape over the course of two days. A Cheerio floating in water becomes bloated after only a few hours, and can be stirred into the liquid with more or less ease after the first day. Clearly, the spinach leaf (being a raw vegetable) breaks down slower. It has a lower glycemic index.
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