Your body has a complex way of keeping you alive and healthy. The biological make-up of the human body turns the food we eat into energy which keeps us lively and productive. There’s a particular hormone that is very beneficial to the health of the human body called insulin. The body produces insulin and insulin is the hormone that regulates metabolism.
As stated above, the human body isn’t perfect, and a condition called insulin resistance affects millions of people. They have to change many aspects of their lives in order to retain their health. More specifically, switching to an insulin resistance diet plan can make a profound difference in health. For those people who have discovered that they have insulin resistance, and may even be pre-diabetic, you might have many questions that you’d like the answers to. The following article will highlight the best diet for insulin resistance that will make a difference in your life.
What Is Insulin & How Can It Affect You?
Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas which helps transport the sugars we get from food to be used as energy for the body or stored as fat. Insulin plays a key role in your metabolism; this is a chemical reaction that occurs in our bodies and regulates weight.
There are many factors that contribute to the development of insulin resistance in our bodies. For one, genetics plays a big role in this; insulin resistance tends to affect Hispanics and African Americans, people who smoke, people who don’t get enough exercise, overweight or have a poor diet.
When your body begins to resist insulin, the pancreas naturally produces more insulin giving the body a double dose; the excess effort of producing insulin eventually wears out the pancreas. All of this can happen silently, for years without you knowing it. Due to this, your blood sugar increases, which can develop into diabetes and other detrimental consequences.
Apart from an increased chance of forming prediabetes, people who suffer from insulin resistance have an increased chance of other health problems like heart disease, and cancer.
Now, with the basics of this disease out of the way, here are some dietary changes you can make to remedy insulin resistance.
Note, not everyone’s insulin resistance; check with a specialist to know which is the best route for you to take.
A Mediterranean Diet
You don’t have to travel far to get the Mediterranean diet plan that helps with insulin resistance. If you love to cook, you’ll have a lot of fun making these dishes. Recipes from that part of the world are very insulin friendly. Mediterranean dishes mostly consist of fruits and vegetables such as tomatoes, olives, lemon, and capers, which all pair well with lean protein and seafood.
Another thing to note, cook with olive oil. It’s one of the best ingredients for any insulin resistance diet plans. Olive has been proven to reduce insulin resistance; it’s rich in antioxidants and it helps remedy swollen livers. It’s also essential for Mediterranean recipes.
By following healthy and delicious metabolic plans from companies like GOLO, you can see a drastic change in your health, weight, and quality of life.
A Vegetarian & Vegan Diet
You can’t go wrong with switching to a vegetarian diet to combat insulin resistance. It’s been proven that a diet of whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and nuts is the best way to manage the levels of sugar in your blood.
There’s a term used in the medical field called insulin sensitivity, this defines how easily your body assimilates insulin dispersed by the pancreas and how the body reacts to it. High insulin sensitivity allows the body to use blood sugar effectively. If you have low insulin sensitivity, it’s best if you switch to a vegetarian diet in order to prevent prediabetes or any other complications associated with insulin resistance.
Now, if you go on a full-blown plant-based diet like you can with GOLO’s metabolic diet plan, the benefits of such a diet will only increase. With the elimination of all animal products such as milk and cheese, you’re drastically cutting down the fats entering your body. Fruits and vegetables have the fiber and sugars that the body needs and can easily assimilate.
A Low Fat Diet
If you’re a person that loves eating meat and animal products, there are insulin resistance diet plans for you too. They involve eliminating bad fats that the body doesn’t need. First, let’s focus on what foods you should eliminate like trans fat; these fats are found in fried and baked goods. Your body also doesn’t need saturated fats, you can find these fats in most dairy products like ice cream, butter, cheese, and whole milk, and last but not least, cholesterol. This compound is found in all animal products, from the meat itself to eggs; cholesterol should be greatly limited if you wish to combat insulin resistance.
GOLO’s Metabolic Plan doesn’t deprive you of foods you love, it gives you the nutrients your body needs.
Exercise
You’ve probably heard of the health ratio and weight loss ratio, 80% diet/ 20% exercise. This is true. You should incorporate this ratio into your daily life if you wish to see any change or success with insulin resistance. Your choice of diet for insulin resistance works best if you have a regular exercise routine; it can make a difference in multiple areas of your health and body.
For one, when you exercise or lift weights, you’re putting your metabolism to work which then sends signals to the body to use stored fat as energy. Lifting weights are best at invigorating the body’s metabolism.
Diet and exercise need to be in correlation with one another because if you’re improving in one area and not the other, you won’t be moving forward towards better health.
Now, if you choose a diet plan, it’s important to follow it thoroughly but not to an obsessive point. Depending on how severe your insulin resistance is, you can have a little taste of guilty pleasure every once in a while, but you should always remain focused on how you feel and the different aspects of the diet.
