> Weight Loss > Glycemic Index

In last month’s Healthy Weight Loss column, I touched on the fact that many of us unwittingly create an unfavourable hormonal environment that all too often expands our 30 billion fat cells. We often accomplish this by following one fad diet after another, consuming too many of the wrong foods (such as high glycemic carbs) and skipping meals.

Fad diets simply don’t work, and it’s amazing that so many people subject themselves to these unhealthy approaches to losing excess body fat. It’s time to understand the science behind why we are failing so miserably at fat loss.

The human body is designed to do one of three things with the foods we consume: 1) burn some of the calories as immediate energy; 2) store some of the excess sugars from the diet as short term energy - referred to as glycogen - within the liver and skeletal muscles; or 3) store what is not utilized immediately in its existing fat cells.

The average human body only requires about one level teaspoon (5 grams) of blood sugar at any one time to run its millions of biochemical reactions. At the same time, our bodies only have the ability to store about one-half of a day’s worth of glycogen, which means we have quite a limited storage capacity for sugar.

According to the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, about 50 per cent of our modern day diets are composed of processed carbohydrates. These are also referred to as high-glycemic carbohydrates that break down and quickly release their sugars.

By over-consuming these unhealthy carbohydrates (not from fruits and vegetables), we generate a rapid increase in blood sugar levels, in turn causing the pancreas to pump out excess insulin, a storage hormone that not only lowers blood sugar, but also has a powerful message for your fat cells: STORE FAT!

Insulin accomplishes this by stimulating a fat-storing enzyme called lipoprotein lipase (LPL), which expands the fat cells while making sure that fat doesn’t get used as a fuel source. LPL is so good at its job that many obesity researchers refer to it as the gatekeeper of fat storage.

Since our bodies only have a limited storage capacity for carbohydrates, any that are not used immediately by the body or stored as glycogen are converted into triglycerides and stored within our fat cells. As you can see, a food does not have to contain fat to become fat in your body.

Just as we can set the tone for continual fat storage through poor dietary choices, we can also create the proper environment for continual fat loss by avoiding processed carbohydrates and consuming more servings of fruits and vegetables daily; whole, unprocessed grains; high-quality proteins (grass-fed, organic free-range chicken and beef, organic eggs, fish, and whey protein isolates); and healthy fats from fish, flax seed, hemp seed, and other nuts and seeds.

Instead of allowing your diet to control you by placing your body in a fat-storing state, learn to control your diet ¾ and thus the fate of your 30 billion fat cells.

Brad J. King, M.S., MFS, is a nutritional researcher, and author of the International best seller Fat Wars: 45 days To Transform Your Body and the new Fat Wars Action Planner. To subscribe to his free monthly newsletter, the Fat Wars Chronicle, Visit: www.fatwars.com

Source: alive #253, November 2003