What is the connection between grains and insulin resistance?
Insulin resistance means that the hormone insulin, when it is in the insulin receptor sites on the cell membranes, that they cannot easily allow the glucose or sugar to move into the cells to make cellular energy. Insulin resistance can occur for a number of different reasons, from having a diet high in sugars, from stressors like inflammatory foods or toxins that activate the HPA axis leading to an increase in cortisol and increases our insulin levels and can lead to that insulin resistance picture or from taking in toxin loads that can injure the insulin receptors.
The other contributing factor to insulin resistance can be grains. When we consume grains, they rapidly turn to sugars in the body. The same way, if we consumed a large amount of sugar in our diet, when we consume a large amount of grains in our diet, we end up with a high amount of sugar in our blood, then we are asking a lot of our pancreas to release a lot insulin to try to bring those sugar levels down in the body and bring them into the cells to make energy. But often when our diets filled with high amounts of sugar, as well as high amounts of grains. Or even if we’ve cut out sugars but we still have grains in the diet can be contributing to an insulin resistance picture.
This is the connection between consuming grains, such as breads, pasta, pastries, which turns to sugar rapidly in the body and this can contribute to insulin resistance.
