Let’s chat about the common relationship between a low-fat diet and the increased production of insulin as it relates to cardiovascular health.
As I sit here at Starbucks near my studio (Fitness Forward Studio) and write about the effects of sugar on our cardiovascular or heart health- I continue to observe people dump sugar into their coffee, order scones or muffins as their daily breakfast or have a coffee drink filled with sugar. Honestly, I don’t think people are aware of how much sugar they consume in a day. Sugar is in everything… including low-fat and non-fat foods.
Start by reading a label of the food you are eating- especially if it says “low-fat” or “non-fat”. The carbohydrate part of the label and the sugars are probably higher to make the food taste better as they have to remove the filling and tasty fat out of the product to make it low-fat. Then in order to make the food non-fat or low-fat, the ingredient list is probably filled with foods you can’t pronounce and food your great-grandmother never has heard of or used in their kitchen.
We have evolved into a non-stop busy society run on sugar as our main fuel source. The media, government and medical system has scared us away from fat for the past sixty years from the fear of eating fat (especially saturated fat) will lead to elevated cholesterol and then increase our risk for cornorary heart disease.
What does cause heart disease? What factors increase our risk? 
Traditionally, our doctors have always measured our total cholesterol to see our risk for heart disease and gave us the breakdown or ratio of HDL (“good lipoproteins”) to the LDL (“bad lipoproteins”) as the biomarker for coronary heart disease (CHD). Well now they have discovered that their is not “good” and “bad’ cholesterol but rather other inflammatory biomarkers that create more risk for CHD than cholesterol. Cholesterol has gotten a bad rap over the years because of this threat to causing CHD and the image of HDL and LDL as good or bad labels. We should be looking at the inflammatory markers but dig deeper to discover what causes inflammation in our bodies in the first place!
As an Nutritional Therapy Practitioner (NTP), we always work on the foundations first to improve all health systems to make sure we are in balance as our body has it’s own innate intelligence to keep us alive and kicking. If we are out of balance- we need to correct our foundations as digestion, blood sugar regulation, essential fatty acids, minerals and hydration levels. As nutritional therapists, we are playing the role of an investigator- dig deep to find the root cause and the “WHY” something is happening- then put the pieces of the puzzle together.
Regarding the health of our heart we, as an NTP, always want to focus first on “The health of the heart reflects the health of the body, Always address The Foundations first”. Heart disease is a disease from eating processed foods. A diet filled with properly prepared whole nutrient dense foods is essential for a healthy heart. Our “Standard American Diet” (S.A.D.) is filled with processed manufactured dead foods void of healthy essential fats (essential to the health of our heart and brain), vitamins and minerals necessary for healthy heart function. Inflammation is a major cause of heart disease.
Inflammation in the body is a result of poor digestion and not getting the essential nutrients from our food- as well as many other factors as stress and sleep (See The WHOLESTIC Method Manual for more info- on Amazon). Too much sugar can cause an excess of insulin to lower the blood sugar levels but then drop too much to cause hypoglycemia. When we have low-blood sugar we are activating the adrenal glands to produce cortisol to help raise the glucose levels back up to homeostasis but at the same time setting the body up for “emergency” mode- stimulating the “fight of flight” nervous system (Sympathetic Nervous System). This can lead to insulin resistance which leads to high insulin levels in the bloodstream as the cells are resisting the entrance on the insulin receptor cites. The high insulin levels now block the anti-inflammatory production created by the “PG1” pathway- the prostaglandins.
Everything in the body is connected and it works as a team to stay in balance. Inflammation… related to blood sugar levels being too high and they are high because we are eating too much non-fat and low-fat sugar filled processed foods in our society leading to insulin resistance which leads to lack of anti-inflammatory production which leads to increases inflammatory markers that can lead to increased risk of coronary heart disease!
Wow is that complicated but amazing at the same time? Our body is intelligent and works hard to keep us alive and surviving daily life- so we should honor it and treat it with respect by eating nourishing foods …unless you don’t wish to the alternative!
The WHOLESTIC Method Coach,
Debbie Potts
More resources:
- http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2017/02/18/insulin-resistance-causes-heart-disease.aspx
- https://nutritionandmetabolism.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12986-015-0001-x
- http://download.springer.com/static/pdf/420/art%253A10.1186%252Fs12986-015-0001-x.pdf?originUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fnutritionandmetabolism.biomedcentral.com%2Farticle%2F10.1186%2Fs12986-015-0001-x&token2=exp=1487956037~acl=%2Fstatic%2Fpdf%2F420%2Fart%25253A10.1186%25252Fs12986-015-0001-x.pdf*~hmac=1afae96edeaa00e737b7134da3e86adf6d78bb3e0f4a59c1222d2d852f9e1082
