in today's video we are going to be talking about the best foods you can eat
to reverse insulin resistance if you are insulin resistant this means
that the cells in your body are not responding to insulin in the way that
they should this leads to high insulin and
high blood sugar levels and can eventually lead to
type 2 diabetes and pcos insulin resistance affects over half of the us
population with a lot of these cases going
undiagnosed so this is something that we should all
be concerned about but thankfully if you are insulin
resistant it can be reversed now one thing that i
found really frustrating when i was
researching this video is that a lot of sources agreed with me
that insulin resistance is reversible but the advice they were giving
on how to reverse it was extremely unhelpful
lose weight by eating less and moving more
was the most common advice i saw and this is so
frustrating because this advice is so broad
it's the most generic advice you can give
and if it really were that simple obesity and insulin resistance would not
be as widespread as it is thankfully today i have some
tips for you on how to reverse insulin resistance that are more
specific and that actually work in today's video we are
going to talk about some of the steps you can take to reverse
insulin resistance and the foods you can eat that will accelerate the process
a few weeks ago i did a video on signs and symptoms of insulin resistance
so if you aren't too familiar with what insulin resistance
is pause this video check out this one and then come back i'm going to quickly
recap what insulin resistance is and what
causes it and then we will get into how to reverse
it and what foods you should eat insulin
resistance is when your cells stop responding to the hormone insulin
insulin is the hormone responsible for transporting sugar
or glucose from our bloodstream to the cells in our body
every time we eat carbohydrates they are broken down into sugar
and our blood sugar goes up then the pancreas releases insulin
and if everything is working properly the insulin
takes the glucose to where it needs to be and blood sugar
returns to baseline when you are insulin resistant however
your cells do not respond to insulin correctly
your insulin stays high and your blood sugar stays high
this can make it extremely hard to lose weight
and it can increase your disease risk the opposite of being insulin resistant
is being insulin sensitive when you are insulin sensitive
your cells are responding to insulin in the correct way and everything works
smoothly but what causes insulin resistance
insulin resistance is caused when insulin levels are
sufficiently high over a prolonged period of time as
mentioned earlier when we eat carbohydrates
insulin is released in response to the blood sugar rise
the other macronutrients fat and protein do stimulate
insulin as well although to a lesser degree
protein only stimulates insulin moderately and to fat there's only a
very very tiny response it's not very much
at all if you eat more carbs insulin rises more
and with our dietary guidelines being based around bread pasta and cereal
most of us are eating a lot of carbs but there are two parts to insulin
resistance because there are places around the
world where carbs such as rice are a big part of the
traditional diet and these countries have not
historically suffered from insulin resistance
so the second part to insulin resistance is eating frequency the average american
eats five to six times a day whereas in the 1970s the average
american ate three times a day when you are
constantly eating throughout the day insulin doesn't have a chance to come
back down in between meals it is still trying to deal with the
glucose from your last meal the solution to
insulin resistance is the opposite of the cause you want to
eat more foods that have a lower insulin response
and you want to eat less frequently both of these strategies paired together
will help you to become more insulin sensitive and now
let's get into the top foods you can eat to reverse insulin resistance
number one is nothing the best food you can eat
to reverse insulin resistance is nothing we will get to some actual foods
in just a moment but please hear me out on this point first
our bodies are always in one of two states fed or
fasted when we're in a fed state insulin is usually
up and we are digesting the food from our last meal
when we are in a fasted state the food from our last meal has been digested
and insulin lowers fasting has been shown to improve
insulin sensitivity in clinical trials and this has led to the trend
of intermittent fasting taking off the most popular variation of intermittent
fasting is 16 8 where you fast for 16 hours a day and
then eat all of your food in an 8 hour window if this sounds
overwhelming you don't need to push it so far
even just cutting snacks out of your day and eating three meals
can make a difference number two olive oil
as i mentioned earlier carbs raise insulin the most
and protein and fat less so for someone who is
insulin sensitive protein only raises insulin moderately
but for someone who is insulin resistant the impact
can be greater fat has next to no response no matter if you are insulin
sensitive or resistant if you can shift your diet so your
macros are high in fat and low in carbs with moderate protein
this will improve your insulin sensitivity
olive oil is a great way to add more fat to your diet
you can use it for cooking at low and moderate temperatures
and you can also add it to your food after cooking
now when you are buying an olive oil make sure to buy a good quality brand
as cheaper versions are often blended with vegetable oils
which we want to avoid these are really really bad
for our health number three salmon wild caught salmon is one of the best
foods on the planet this fish is high in healthy fat
omega-3s and also is a good source of protein
salmon is also really filling and will help keep you
satiated for longer number four eggs every time i do a top
foods list i always have to include eggs because
they are just the best for so many reasons egg yolks specifically are
packed with nutrition and contain just about every
micronutrient except for vitamin c the high fat
content of the yolk won't have an impact on your insulin
although the egg whites might for this reason if you're insulin
resistant it might be worthwhile to discard some of the egg whites and
eat more of the yolks just to make sure that your fat is
higher and your protein is still moderate
avocados are a fruit that is high in fat once again this is beneficial for
improving insulin sensitivity but additionally avocados are also a
good source of the electrolyte potassium potassium plays a role in influencing
the pancreas and its release of insulin lack of
potassium is thought to lead to reduced insulin secretion and impaired
glucose tolerance one study done on almost 5 000 people
over 30 years showed that 373 of these participants
developed type 2 diabetes and that the potassium intake of these individuals
was lower than average this is just a correlation of course
but it does bring up an interesting point
and finally we have butter as we talked about earlier
eating less frequently can help to improve insulin sensitivity
and yes simply cutting all of the snacks out of your diet
can make a big difference but intermittent fasting can help to
accelerate your progress even more a lot of people simply skip
breakfast and do not eat their first meal until
lunch time this helps to extend their fasting window but if the thought
of skipping breakfast and not eating for so long
sounds intimidating to you there is a compromise
fat fasting or bulletproof fasting is when you have a drink filled with fat in
the morning which helps you push your first meal
until later in the day because this drink only contains fat
your insulin is not stimulated and it helps to keep you full and
energized for a few hours longer usually this drink includes a hot coffee
blended with butter and mct oil butter in your coffee might
sound bizarre if this is your first time hearing about bulletproof fasting
but i have been doing this for years i absolutely swear by it
and bulletproof coffee it's honestly delicious
and that is my video on the top foods you can eat
to reverse insulin resistance let me know in the comment section down below
if there are any other foods that you ate or are
currently eating to reverse insulin resistance
if you like this video you might also like my video on the pros and cons of
intermittent fasting and how to get started you can check it out here
if you want to catch up on my most recent upload you can click here
and if you want to check out my keto and carnivore diet coaching programs
you can click here thanks again guys i'll see you next time
bye