Snowman
Level 6 Valued Member
I've heard differing opinions about this, and I'm curious about people's thoughts. Here's the two arguments I've heard.
Good: Fat slows digestion, so eating fat with carbs means that the carbs reach your blood at a slower rate, resulting is a slower, less significant rise in blood sugar, and therefore less insulin release. Regular spikes in blood sugar/insulin seem to be related to various metabolic issues, so carbs+fat can help mitigate those.
Bad: Insulin spikes can also spike growth hormone and testosterone, so we want to spike our insulin (though perhaps not often?). Also, eating carbs and fat together means that the carbs will preferentially be used as fuel, while the fat will be stored as body fat, and body fat is bad.
My take: If we spike insulin all the time, we run the risk of becoming insulin insensitive. If we never spike insulin, we still run the risk of becoming insulin insensitive. It makes sense to me to keep my insulin in check most of the time, and only allow one or two spikes per day (to preserve insulin sensitivity and take advantage of the hormonal stuff). The fat storage issue doesn't bother me, since I doubt I'll gain weight as long as keep my average calories where they need to be. I intermittently fast, so technically my body needs to be storing fat after meals anyways, so I have something to go on the next day.
Anybody else have thoughts, or arguments one way or another that I missed?
Good: Fat slows digestion, so eating fat with carbs means that the carbs reach your blood at a slower rate, resulting is a slower, less significant rise in blood sugar, and therefore less insulin release. Regular spikes in blood sugar/insulin seem to be related to various metabolic issues, so carbs+fat can help mitigate those.
Bad: Insulin spikes can also spike growth hormone and testosterone, so we want to spike our insulin (though perhaps not often?). Also, eating carbs and fat together means that the carbs will preferentially be used as fuel, while the fat will be stored as body fat, and body fat is bad.
My take: If we spike insulin all the time, we run the risk of becoming insulin insensitive. If we never spike insulin, we still run the risk of becoming insulin insensitive. It makes sense to me to keep my insulin in check most of the time, and only allow one or two spikes per day (to preserve insulin sensitivity and take advantage of the hormonal stuff). The fat storage issue doesn't bother me, since I doubt I'll gain weight as long as keep my average calories where they need to be. I intermittently fast, so technically my body needs to be storing fat after meals anyways, so I have something to go on the next day.
Anybody else have thoughts, or arguments one way or another that I missed?