The ability to effectively regulate blood sugar is essential to a healthy body for two primary reasons:
For one, sugar provides a valuable (and for some tissues, necessary) source of energy, and it is of utmost importance that tissues throughout the body receive energy that they need to function properly.
For another, elevated blood sugar is acutely toxic. As sugar builds up in the bloodstream, sugar becomes very capable of sticking to proteins, resulting in their damage and dysfunction in the process.
Insulin is the body’s primary method of managing varying blood glucose levels. It is released in response to rising blood glucose levels and can be thought of as the key that allows sugar to enter cells, allowing cells to use this source of energy while also serving to modulate the amount of sugar in the bloodstream.
Under what we may call “traditional” conditions (i.e. a healthy body consuming real, whole foods), sugar is released into the bloodstream in a controlled fashion, resulting in a slight increase in blood sugar. Under these conditions, low amounts of insulin are released slowly to allow this glucose into cells, to be used either as fuel or stored for later use.
However, given the highly processed nature of modern, industrialized food, this controlled release of glucose is no longer the norm. Rather, these novel industrial not-so-foods (foods that deliver a dose of refined carbohydrate to the body) result in a large dose of glucose entering the bloodstream.
High blood sugar is dangerous because it results in direct damage to tissues (e.g. blood vessels) and proteins throughout the body. Therefore, the body has been designed to release a large amount of insulin when it detects high blood sugar – it is crucial to get that blood sugar down or the body may face life-threatening conditions.
The problem with this design is that it results in the plummeting – as opposed to the slow decline of – blood sugar, and the resulting hypoglycemia is also dangerous. Certain tissues (e.g. the brain and red blood cells) need that glucose to function. Without an adequate supply of glucose, these life-supporting components cannot function.
This is why, when blood sugar drops too low, the body does what it needs to do to get blood sugar levels back up: it sends a signal to the brain to make the body go get carbohydrate – any carbohydrate – and do it now!
In today’s world – a world saturated with highly refined carbohydrate – this means that this particular individual finds him/herself searching frantically for the nearest candy bar or bag of chips.
Which, as we just learned, results in what?
Another blood sugar spike!
Resulting in the following:
This is why consuming refined carbohydrate is so dangerous. It is not necessarily the fact that it results in a surge of insulin, resulting in a large signal to store energy. Even more dangerous is the dynamics of the insulin spiking cycle. One spike leads to a crash, leading to another spike, followed by another.
Meanwhile, each time blood sugar and insulin spike, the body is put into a strong energy storage mode. Each time blood sugar spikes, the systems supporting the body are exposed to the acute damaging effects of the hyperglycemic state.
Unfortunately, this is just the beginning. The immediate effects of insulin spiking should be enough to direct us to the avoidance of these industrial not-so-foods. However, if they are not, then proceed to the next part of the story.
From here the story gets worse, as this is just the first step as the body progresses from energy dysregulation to metabolic dysfunction and modern disease.
For more on insulin and insulin resistance, read the full series here.