Why Do We Crave Junk Food? Pt 3 Insulin Resistance

So, part one, the obvious reasons for cravings, two, more science around leptin and now we are into part three where we will continue to look at the reasons for cravings foods particularly carbohydrates and now we come across insulin resistance.

Insulin resistance can effect a lot of people but nearly everyone with metabolic syndrome will be insulin resistant. It occurs when the cells that normally take out the sugar from the blood become resistant to the effects of insulin meaning that it will now take a lot more insulin in order to let insulin do it’s thing that it was designed to do and keep those blood sugar levels low. Therefore consequently people with insulin resistance will have normal blood sugar levels but high elevated insulin levels.

People with insulin resistance will easily gain weight and most of the time will find it hard to deal with the carbohydrate cravings that they are suffering from. If they eat a meal which is absent of carbs then they may not feel like that meal has satisfied their cravings. When they do have carbohydrates, they may find it very hard to stop eating them, a vicious chain reaction to start leading to binge eating sessions. Other factors that could occur would be varied and often high LDL (bad) cholesterol and triglyceride levels and low HDL (good) cholesterol levels; this can lead to heart disease and hypoglycaemia which will cause fatigue, shakiness and anxiety if eating isn’t done frequently enough.

Insulin resistance does have a treatment in the form usually consisting of high protein low carbohydrate diet plans. Plans that have had simple carbohydrates subtracted from them such as  processed foods, cakes, muffins, sweets, pies as this will have a bad effect on blood sugar levels which protein and fat’s wont... in fact protein and fats will help to stabilise blood sugar levels. Also nutrients can be utilised in order to fight against insulin resistance, things such as magnesium,  chromium, vanadium and vitamin E will allow you to help manage any insulin resistance you may have and that lovely thing called exercise can help lower your blood sugar levels even further.

 'Stuffed Chicken Breast' by Mia3mom

So if you are one of those people that ‘can’t lose weight’ (there reason isn’t such a thing ;)) then it may be worthwhile looking into insulin resistance and leptin resistance in order to see if these are stopping you from reaching your goals and having the relevant diet and training plans tailored.

As always if you would like any tailored training plans, specific to needs or diet requirements, fat loss, muscle gain, dairy free, gluten free and anything else give me a shout and we will be able to work something out specific to yourselves.