Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

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We all know the "safe starch" argument: safe starches such as white rice, yams, sweet potatoes, yuca/cassava, taro, and even white potatoes are okay as long as you avoid sugar/fructose and harmful starches (such as wheat). Thus, tribes that subsisted on such safe starches thrived: the Kitavans, the Irish, the New Guineans, the Southeast Asians, the Japanese, etc. These tribes did not suffer from diabetes, heart disease, autoimmunity, and other degenerative diseases.

Could we extend the same argument to insulin elevation? Elevated insulin is supposedly bad because it promotes cancer development, inflammation, diabetes, AGEs and glycation, oxidative stress, and accelerated aging. Yet I wonder if the term "elevated insulin" is precise enough.

Is the issue really elevated insulin or is it elevated insulin caused directly by sugar/fructose? Compared to someone eating a low-carb diet, someone who eats a moderate to high carb diet will have more insulin, since BG will skyrocket after a meal. To bring the BG under control, insulin will have to be deployed and, within 2 hours, the BG should return to the fasting level of 85 or so.

Of course, the insulin could be elevated in LC and ketogenic diets from protein consumption. But the overall level of circulating insulin will be much less than in a moderate to HC diet.

If that's the case, is insulin elevation necessarily bad? Or is it only bad when sugar/fructose and harmful starches are involved?

Another issue is that LC and ketogenic diets are often touted by those treating cancer and neurological diseases. By flatlining insulin, it is said, you're minimizing tumor growth and cancer development. But is that really the issue or is it really sugar, which the cancer cells supposedly feed on, that's the problem (a la Gary Taubes).

Is the problem here not being precise enough in analyzing what's behind insulin elevation? Or is insulin elevation itself (whether caused by sugar or safe starches) really the problem?

flag	asked May 31 2011 at 19:49 Namby Pamby 5,935●12●42

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if your super fit chronic elevation of insulin is tolerable because your burning what comes into the cell right away. This is why weightlifers and body builders can graze all day. Its also a great way to get fat if you are not leptin sensitive because chronic elevation of insulin allows fat storage all day long with the carbs you are not able to burn. – The Quilt May 31 2011 at 20:22

my personal experience supports quilt's comments here. – Jack Kronk May 31 2011 at 21:00

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Even I agree with the Quilt on this one. – Ambimorph May 31 2011 at 21:29

Stabby · Answer 1 · 2011-05-31 20:23:20Z UTC

Chronically elevated insulin is always a problem no matter how it arises. Like you said, high insulin in the blood stream for too long does nasty things. It doesn't matter whether it was caused by sugar or deficiencies or inflammation, it is always bad, and removing a great deal of carbohydrates from the diet can help that, although it doesn't always. You do get the case of people with such dire leptin resistance that even gluconeogenesis to fuel their brain in ketosis still elevates insulin, although most people find that less carbohydrate helps everything.

It is important to distinguish between post-prandially elevated insulin and chronically elevated insulin. In the case of good insulin sensitivity eating carbohydrate does not produce as much insulin and it doesn't stay elevated, the Kitavans can handle carbohydrate well because they eat an anti-inflammatory and nutrient-sufficient diet and have a good lifestyle. You see more circulating insulin in people with metabolic syndrome on low carb diets.

Sugar tends to feed some cancer cells, but the degree to which fructose circulates in the blood stream is questionable. It does but not in significant quantities so I don't know how much it actually "causes" cancer. My guess is not much simply by the fact that fructose can act as fuel for cancer cells.

Joey · Answer 2 · 2011-05-31 20:51:21Z UTC

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How do you know your insulin is elevated without something to monitor/measure it? Are there certain symptoms and/or feelings one can notice in their body?

answered May 31 2011 at 20:51

Joey
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	I'm pretty sure that insulin levels are not directly measured, but rather your bodies response to glucose. High fasting glucose indicates either insufficient insulin production (as is the case in type 1 diabetes) or insensitivity to the insulin that your body is producing (high insulin levels and type 2 diabetes). – FED at LiveCaveman.com May 31 2011 at 21:12
	i directly measure them on patients who need it. I also use GI testing to see what is happening at mitochondria and in TCA intermediates as my treatment progresses. There is a lot to do if you know what your looking for. But that is a talk for clinicians. Patients just need to know we can check for a lot when they hit a plateau for some reason – The Quilt Jun 1 2011 at 1:22

LowcarbJC · Answer 3 · 2011-05-31 21:32:55Z UTC

hopefully one day some clever inventor will create an insulin / leptin secretion monitor that can be used the same way home glucose meters are used. That would answer SO many questions ans change the medical world as we know it ~ lowcarbJC

Robert Conroy · Answer 4 · 2013-02-03 01:39:19Z UTC

High triglycerides are a good indication of high insulin, if high, then the insulin level should be checked. Most lab scales are 0 to 10 for a normal range. If you are over 10 then this increases risk for CAD by 4-5 times. High insulin is known to be atherogenic, directly. I say most all chronic diseases have a link to high insulin and doctors hardly ever check it. I'm a type 2 diabetic and the regular fasting glucose tests didn't catch it until I went in for pheripheral neuropathy and I had to tell them to check my glucose because they didn't have a clue as to what might be causing my neuropathy. The doctor said my blood sugars could have been at diabetic levels for over 10 years because I already had neuropathy. Doctors should really be checking insulin levels, and if high, then do an HbA1c to see how high your glucose levels have been over the past 90 days. Then you go to the doctor with super high insulin levels and they give you drugs that raise your insulin levels even more, which only makes the insulin resistance worse. Using drugs to treat a nutritional disease is a scam that only sells more drugs, which eventually kills the patient. But not to worry about diabetes business, the latest estimates are 70% of the adult American public is in pre-diabetes right now - having an HbA1c between 5.0% and 6.9%.

Is Elevated Insulin Bad (or Is It Really Sugar/Fructose That’s Bad)?

4 Answers