weight down and controlling carbohydrate intake. Even if you have a hereditary predisposition to diabetes, you may be able to stall or completely avoid its onset.
A Subject of Intensive Study
Don ' t think the mainstream medical profession hasn ' t noticed the correlation between insulin resistance and disease. In the past fifteen years-and this is a trend that only keeps buildingmedical journals have published studies of the powerful association between obesity-usually accompanied by hyperinsulinism-and the probability of heart disease or stroke. All around the world the studies pour in. For example, using data from several epidemiological studies, Dr. B. Balkau found links between high glucose levels and mortality in thousands of men whose medical histories had been followed for two decades. Uniformly, high blood-glucose levels and insulin resistance signified markedly higher risk of death from cardiovascular causes.
American research points in the same direction. The Bogalusa Heart Study followed four thousand children and young adults." Even in childhood, a high insulin level corresponded to higher triglyceride levels and higher VLDL cholesterol-a particularly damaging form of " bad " LDL cholesterol. Not surprisingly, these associations were even more marked in the overweight. We ' ll go over this ground in greater detail in Chapter 27 when I discuss heart health. For now, just remember a bad diet produces results that are not merely cosmetically unattractive; it flies the black flag of some of the very worst health catastrophes.
Ah, but you came to this book for weight loss. All right, let ' s make crystal clear the connection between high insulin levels and excess weight.
This Is Why You Can ' t Lose Weight
I am about to recount a horror story that might be headlined: Innocent Human Is Turned Upon By Own Hormones! But we did it to ourselves, you know. Remember, no culture in world history has ever consumed even a fraction of the sugar we twenty-first-century Westerners do.
Perhaps you ' ve been overweight for a long time. Once there was a stage in the progress of your metabolic disease when you could lose weight pretty easily, if you sharply cut your caloric intake. You ' d gain the pounds back, but at least at the price of hunger, you could shed them again. Then, although your weight continued to yo-yo up and down, you began to notice that the yo-yo went up easily, but getting it to fall down again was harder and harder.
Now maybe you ' re past even that stage, and you simply cannot drop pounds. If you are, insulin has really closed the trap. The pancreas, faced with your abuse of simple and refined carbohydrates, has become so efficient at secreting insulin that just a touch of blood sugar will release a flood. In response to high insulin levels, your body has become intent on storing fat by the process I ' ve explained. Group A responders( see pages 34-35) will recognize the role that excess insulin plays in preventing weight loss by giving you an ongoing sensation of hunger that can be satisfied only by constant overeating.
Now that you ' ve reached this understanding of the metabolic basis of being overweight, imagine going into your doctor ' s office after diligently eating a low-fat diet that was quite possibly high in sugar and carbs. And imagine being told, " Well, if you just had a little more
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