Top Highlights

• All carbohydrates are broken down during digestion into sugars. Glucose is the simplest sugar and the only one that your body can use for energy. Every one of your body's cells needs glucose to function.
• The hormone insulin is the important regulator of your blood glucose levels. Insulin is a hormone just like estrogen, testosterone, thyroid, or cortisone and is secreted into your bloodstream by the pancreas gland. After you eat, digest, and absorb carbohydrate foods, your blood glucose (blood sugar) level normally rises. The pancreas responds by r...
• The more overweight you are, the more resistant to insulin you tend to become. This happens because extra adipose tissue (fat) causes a hormone reaction (a rise in body cortisol) that closes the cells' doors to incoming glucose.
• despite humans' "modernization" as an evolved species, only five gene changes have been identified since primal humans.
• Ideally, insulin should gently roll up and down all day long in low hills without having any dramatically high spikes, as in Figure 2.3, on the next page. This low-insulin pattern promotes fat loss. Lower insulin levels also contribute to improving blood pressure, blood lipids, and other medical problems connected to insulin resistance.