Our bodies are made of millions upon millions of tiny cells. Each of these cells requires energy to function. Our brains have only one food source for energy and that is glucose, or sugar. Herein lies the problem: our brain requires sugar, but too much sugar causes severe abnormal functions and reactions.
Simply put, when you eat a carbohydrate, it is converted into glucose. Excess glucose in your blood stream can be converted by your liver into a substance called glycogen, a storage form of sugar. This glycogen can be stored in your liver or in your muscles, but the amount that can be stored is limited, much like your car is limited by the size of the gas tank. Imagine that you had a deal with the gas station to buy 10 gallons of gas every day. You’re obligated to buy the gas, but in the course of driving the car, only burn 5 gallons per day. Each day, the attendant would top off your tank with 5 gallons and then give you a 5-gallon container. This container would then be strapped on the car, and you’d be forced to drive around with it on the roof. The problem is that the next day, you would add another 5 gallon can, or you would have to increase your driving to burn off more gas each day - or make a new deal with the attendant to give you less. The excess glycogen is stored on your body as fat.
There is one other factor that differentiates us from the car analogy. Insulin is the factor that causes the glucose to be able to enter the cell and be burned off. This decrease in the ability of insulin to direct glucose into the cell begins in our mid thirties. As a result, we start to see increases in the “love handles” about this age in almost everyone. This condition is called insulin resistance and, as a result, the pancreas is told by our brains to produce more insulin to control the movement of the glucose.
Unfortunately, this excess insulin has the effect of being pro-aging. The conditions that have been associated with this include obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, glaucoma, high blood pressure, increased blood fat levels and many more similar degenerative conditions.
We are seeing an epidemic of diabetes. It is increasing rapidly in our culture. Where type II diabetes was called adult onset, we now see teenagers coming down with it. This is because we have made a dramatic shift in the types of carbohydrates we eat. There are basically two types of carbohydrates. One way of describing them is high and low glycemic. This is basically based on how fast they are assimilated into our bodies. Low or slow glycemic foods usually have a lot of fiber, including beans and most fruits. High glycemic foods are digested quickly and enter the blood stream in a rush. These are foods such as white bread. Another way of easily defining these foods would be “processed” and “non-processed.” Basically, you should eat anything that is natural; anything neither man nor woman has played around with it. If you follow that simple rule, your diet will have almost all low glycemic foods and cause less stress to your pancreas. Historically, it wasn’t until the 16th century that refined sugars started to be added to the human diet, and it was in the 20th century that white pasta and breads became a staple.
Fat increases the rate of aging. Being overweight causes our joints to breakdown ahead of time. Obesity leads to an increase in free radicals - those devils that start almost all of the degenerative diseases. If you have too much fat on your body, you have too much fat in your vascular system. This causes changes in lung and heart function and inevitably heart disease, heart attacks or strokes.
One of the real problems is that many want to lose weight and can’t. They eat less, and when they start to starve the body to lose weight, the brain responds by slowing down the metabolism. Remember, we evolved over centuries when food wasn’t always plentiful. When faced with food shortages, our bodies had to slow our metabolism to make it through the winters when food was scarce. When food was plentiful, we had to “pack it on;” enough to be able to make it through the tough times. The real problem is that our bodies have not adapted to having food available all year round. Consequently, harsh restrictive diets do not work for long. What are really needed are moderate diet changes, coupled with an increase in activity to stimulate the body which will keep up the metabolic
rate, essentially convincing your body it is not preparing for a long winter.
Finally, about 1/4 of us have this condition of insulin resistance, also known as Syndrome X. People with it usually have an apple shaped body. In males, you will see the abdomen falling over their belt. This is a severe problem and a special diet is required to reduce the needs of insulin and, at the same time, provide the patient a constant energy level. Nutritional supplementation is very critical to help this condition.
Controlling weight and insulin needs will help to slow the aging process. The tools used in this fall into two categories. The first is a good, basic exercise program that is tailored to the needs of the patient. This program will depend on your current state of health, cardiac reserve and lung capacity. The second involves a dietary plan including the foods that will not stimulate insulin; supplementing your diet with nutrients that will assist your liver, pancreas and endocrine system to stabilize your insulin and glucose needs.
This may seem like a balancing act, but working together, we can have successful results, yielding more energy and, at the same time, slowing down the aging process.
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