Natural Approaches to Prevent & Treat Insulin Resistance
I find June is a fun and especially busy month as summer activities gear up and school winds down with all of the end of year celebrations (I can’t believe I have another kiddo leaving elementary school!). It is especially helpful to remember my much repeated mantra of making “progress over perfection” when it comes to doing the things that you know are good for your health: nutrition, exercise, water, getting enough sleep and creating some space for yourself.
In last week’s newsletter, I talked about insulin resistance - why it is so prevalent among peri/menopausal women and a common cause of abdominal weight gain, elevated blood pressure and cholesterol, as well as increased overall inflammation. I talked about what happens physiologically and how to test for it. If you missed it, you can get caught up on it here
This week I am going to talk about the part that many people are most excited to read about: the natural approaches that are helpful to prevent and treat insulin resistance.
Part 3 next week will be about the hot topic of Ozempic and the other similar drugs in its class and the part they play in insulin regulation. I will discuss how it works, the pros and cons, and what I believe is essential to do along with it if someone makes an informed choice to take it.
I’m going to break the treatment approaches in to 3 main topics: Let’s get started with….
Nutrition - this has a HUGE impact on insulin sensitivity. That’s why it’s SO important for everyone to have the knowledge of how much they ideally want to eat to fuel their body optimally. There are a few special considerations when it comes to preventing and treating insulin resistance:
- Protein and healthy fats naturally take longer for you to digest than carbohydrates, so eating enough of them with every meal will reduce blood sugar spikes and the amount of insulin you need to get the sugars into your cells. Less insulin being needed is good for your overall health.
- Eat fewer grain based carbohydrates. Don’t be afraid of eating carbohydrates, but you want to be mindful of the type you are eating. I like using coconut flour or almond flour when baking because they are non grain based. Both of these have similar amounts of protein. Almond flour is higher in fat and coconut flour is higher in fibre, and both have much fewer net carbs (that’s total carbohydrates in a food minus its fibre) than grain based flours, making them much more blood sugar friendly.
-Get your carbs from non starchy fruits and vegetables which contain more fibre and help to slow down digestion and blood sugar release. Eat fewer (you don’t have to avoid them completely, but you don’t want these to be the foundation of what you eat regularly) starchy fruits and vegetables like white potatoes, corn, squash, beets and bananas.
-Eat less liquid animal dairy. All animal dairy has natural sugars, but milk and yogurt (especially if it’s not plain) are much higher than cheese and butter.
-Minimize refined sugars. The less added sugar you have, the better, and when you do have it, it’s better if it comes from natural sources like honey, maple syrup, coconut sugar or agave syrup. Stevia is a great option because it is a naturally derived sweetener and doesn’t affect blood sugar levels at all. Artificial sweeteners are best to avoid because even though they contain zero sugar, they trigger the same area in your brain that sugar does and can increase sweet cravings and can cause blood sugar levels to raise. I saw this first hand in someone who was drinking Gatorade Zero in the evenings, and their morning blood sugar levels improved when they switched to Zevia (if you are a pop lover, try the Zevia beverage and tell me what you think - I like the root beer flavour as a treat!). I teach carb cycling in my FASTer Way groups - that means that we eat low carb (not no carb) and extra fat 2 days a week and eat lots of carbs and less fat most of the other days. The exact percentage of carbs I suggest may change depending on the client’s stage of life and whether health issues like diabetes are present. I have seen this approach improve blood sugar levels even in my clients who are type 2 diabetics!
Exercise - engage in strength training regularly (are you tired of me talking about this yet?!?). More muscle helps with insulin sensitivity and is very important to boost your metabolism, not to mention the benefits it has on your mobility and overall quality of life. Don’t worry, you don’t need to turn into a gym rat - 30 minutes 3-4x/week is a great goal.
Supplements - these have a secondary role in terms of benefit compared to diet and strength training, but they can still be helpful. There are several options that have good evidence behind them for helping with blood sugar regulation and insulin sensitivity like cinnamon, alpha lipoic acid, inositol, berberine, chromium and bitter melon. I definitely don’t recommend taking all of these though. I consider all of a patient’s health story when deciding which supplements make the most sense. Dose is also very important - it needs to be high enough to be therapeutic.
Regardless if you have insulin resistance or not, your body will function better if you eat and exercise in a way that keeps your insulin more stable. Balanced blood sugar will help you have more energy, less inflammation, lower cholesterol and blood pressure, better hormone balance AND it will help to fuel your metabolism. Who doesn’t want that?!? Most importantly, it will improve your health so that you can enjoy doing all that you want to in this stage of your life. Would you like some support to help you feel your best leading into summer?!?
That's what I’m providing in my 5-Day Summer Slimdown!
From June 17th-21st, you will get 5 days of:
-Simple, satisfying recipes that support insulin sensitivity
-30 minute Strength building workout sessions
-Special trainings
-My daily support to keep you motivated
You will notice a difference even after only 5 days and kickstart some momentum to keep you focusing on progress over perfection over the summer! You deserve that jumpstart AND it only costs $20US!
Register now and I’ll make sure you are all set up for success: https://summerslimdown.fasterwaycoach.com/?aid=jhaessler