What Foods Do Not Cause Insulin Secretion?
Much to the surprise of what many people believe, protein stimulates insulin's release from the pancreas just as sugar and starch do.
Insulin, if you remember, is the hormone whose main job is clearing excessive glucose from the bloodstream and packaging it in the form of fatty acids called triglycerides into your fat cells for later use. Insulin begins to be secreted by the body BEFORE we take our first bite of food. When we start daydreaming about, looking at, or smelling food, our brains release insulin during a process called Cephalic Phase Insulin Release. The body prepares itself to be fed and gets an early jump of what it thinks will be a sudden flood of glucose by releasing the stored insulin tucked away in your cell's vacuoles. The amount of insulin your body keeps stored in these storage organelles called vacuoles is determined by your previous meals' average macronutrient content. If you've made it a habit of eating sugar or complex carbs at mealtime, your body's got your number and it has stored an appropriate amount of insulin in anticipation. Once we start to eat, our bodies kick up its insulin secretion and produce even more of this hormone.
Insulin does more than control blood glucose levels. It also stimulates the body to absorb most amino acids. Amino acids, as you know, make up protein. Too much protein, just as too many carbs, will have your pancreas pumping out insulin like a gas station attendant on a rainy day. Therefore, if you consume more protein than your body needs, your pancreas is going to produce insulin, causing your body to store those protein calories as glycogen, a/k/a stored carbs, IF you have room in your liver and muscles for the stuff. If there's no room for anymore glycogen in your liver and muscles, then those protein calories ARE going into your fat cells and can increase your body's percentage of total body fat if you've made it a habit of consuming more protein than your body requires from you on a daily basis.
Dietary fat is the only macronutrient that doesn't cause insulin to be secreted. This means that when you eat foods that are entirely composed of fat, or predominantly made of the stuff, your pancreas is able to relax and kick up its proverbial feet and take a break so to speak.
The foods we eat are divided into three categories or macronutrients: protein, fat, and carbohydrates. The predominant or majority macronutrient contained in a food determines its food-category status. For example, beans contain protein, fiber, fat, and carbohydrates. If you turn over a can of kidney, black, chick peas, or white beans you will find out that beans are a carbohydrate and NOT a protein based upon the beans' predominant macronutrient content which is carbohydrates.
Steak, chicken breast, salmon, veal, bison, and ostrich are all examples of meat. Meat or animal flesh does NOT contain any carbs, only protein and fat. (Please notice that I did not include dairy. Dairy contains milk sugar which is a carbohydrate.) Avocados, butter, and plant oils (oil is another name for fat) like peanut, olive, coconut, sunflower, and sesame for example, do not cause insulin's release.
If you trying to keep your insulin release to a minimum, perhaps trying to stick to a ketogenic diet and are striving to get under 50 carbohydrates a day, this means you can put butter in your coffee or on top of your bison and still stay in ketogenesis.
In addition to avocados, butter, the appropriate amount of animal muscle (flesh), and the plant oils mentioned above, pre-diabetics, those striving to minimize insulin secretion, and ketogenic dieters can enjoy an ounce of macadamia nuts and still be okay when finger-stick time comes around because these Hawaiian nuts contain 21 grams of fat, 2 grams of protein, and only 4 grams of carbohydrates. These same folks can also have an ounce of full-fat cream cheese melting on top of their broccoli or perfectly cooked ribeye steak with its 9 grams of fat, 2 grams of protein, and measly 1 gram of carbs and still have high levels of BHB or beta-hydroxybutrate, the key parameter to determine if ketones are being produced by the body in response to fasting or extremely low-carbohydrate consumption.
Controlling ones insulin secretion is starting to catch on. Large universities and private research companies are beginning to invest millions of dollars into the subject. Cancer research studies are going on presently with human-test subjects in hopes of fighting the dreaded disease. There has been some terrific research done on longevity and low insulin secretion.
I think it might be a great idea to keep ones mind open when it comes to low-carbohydrate diets. Sometimes what was once considered common knowledge has been proven wrong. Remember, people used to believe the world was flat and that the devil caused seizures.
Thank you for your continued support. I live to write.
-Bell Gia
Nutrition and Fitness Expert
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