Particle Size

Size matters. The short definition of this Hidden Insulin Magnifier is the smaller the size of the food we eat, the higher the insulin response.

The size of the food item doesn’t refer to the size of the piece of food or the bite you take to eat it. The more broken down the food is, or the ingredients that make up the food you eat, is what has been shown to create the unnatural hyper-insulin response in the body.

The traditional narrative describing how insulin is secreted tells us that when we eat and digest our food, it passes through our bloodstream to be delivered to our body. The pancreas then senses the glucose (sugar) in our blood and releases insulin to shuttle the glucose into our cells for energy use.

The conventional medical narrative is wrong.

We now know that specialized cells in the upper part of our digestive tract, called “K-cells,” interpret the food we eat before it is fully digested and well before it has passed into the bloodstream.

K-cells appear to interpret the food we eat by its constitution rather than the nutrients, carbs, protein, or fat it contains.

A study out of Japan showed that apples consumed whole have an “X” insulin response, and the same amount of apple made into a sauce and eaten in the same amount of time has 100% more, and the same amount of apples made into juice has a 150% increase.

These apple servings had the same amount of nutrients, calories, and sugar, yet the insulin response varied by 1 and 1.5 times.

As more foods were tested, showing the same pattern, they determined that the change in the constitution of the food created the hyper-insulin response.

The same increase in insulin secretion was found in cooked food as well. A potato will have a meager insulin response if eaten raw, yet the longer you cook it and break it down, the higher the insulin secretion is.

“The most dramatic unnatural hyper-insulin response is seen in any food made from a powder.”

Powder-based foods include any type of flour like wheat, almond, coconut, and oats, and it applies to powdered protein and amino acid supplements as well as any powdered meal replacement.

This hyper-insulin response protein powder occurs even though protein powder doesn’t raise blood sugar. Thirty grams of chicken protein has a mild insulin response, whereas 30 grams of protein powder stimulates insulin more than any other whole food tested.

I refer to these responses as unnatural hyper-insulin responses because they are much higher than the equivalent food in its natural form. Since whole natural foods have a much lower insulin response, these hyper-responses are only found occurring in food that has been processed or in a form (cooked) not found in nature. 

The hyper-insulin response from cooked food only occurs in starchy foods that must be cooked for a long time and broken down to a softer constitution to be consumed or digested.

This would include all potatoes, tubers, roots, beans, legumes, and seeds.

We see such a dramatic hyper-insulin response from cooked starches because we did not evolve eating them as part of our natural human diet. We simply need to cook food longer as a species for our body and genetics to adapt to them, and we can not eat and digest them raw.

There are many reasons why processed foods are unhealthy, but none negatively impact our health, weight, and longevity more than this hyper-insulin response from powder-based foods like bread and other baked goods and products. 

To summarize, any food products made from powder and cooked starches produce an unnatural hyper-insulin response regardless of the source or amount of fat, protein, or carb count.

“Why should I care?”

If you are counting carbs, net carbs, trying to limit carb intake, or trying to lose weight, this information is crucial.

Insulin determines if we use food for energy or store it as fat, and if insulin is high due to this hyper-secretion, then it can cause unwanted weight gain and prevent fat loss when desired.

Insulin also determines if we burn fat or not by blocking our cells from using ketones that are produced from fat burning and stopping ketosis.

This concept makes counting carbs to get into ketosis unreliable. 

If one is to count anything to burn fat and stay in ketosis, it’s to count the processed foods made from powder, no matter the carb or net carb count. Keto food products can stop ketosis and therefore are not keto.

Food for thought.

We can do better!

Dr. Don