Fat-Burner or Sugar-Burner
Are you a fat burner or sugar burner? The answer to this question has a profound effect on how long you will live, and on how healthy you will be. Our body can burn two types of fuel for energy: fat and sugar. Fat is our most efficient energy source, and under healthy conditions we get most of our energy from fat. Sugar, on the other hand, is the body’s turbo charger: the fuel that we use when we need a sudden burst of energy. Your body is not designed to burn sugar as its primary fuel.
Our health and life span depends largely upon the proportion of fat versus sugar that we burn over our lifetime. The more fat we burn, the healthier we are. The more sugar we burn as fuel, the more disease-ridden and shorter our life will be. Two hormones, insulin and leptin, influence the amount of fat and sugar that we burn for fuel.
Insulin
Insulin evolved to help store nutrients for times of need. It sends sugar into cells where it can be burned for energy, it sends magnesium and other nutrients into cells to be stored for future use, and it keeps fat in storage and blocks it from being burned for energy. Insulin evolved in a time when humans had very different life conditions. Our early ancestors survived on whatever food they could find, and they did not typically have food that raised their blood sugar. They often had to go for days or weeks without much food.
Our diet today is completely different than the diet of our early ancestors. Food is plentiful, and starch and sugar are the norm, not the exception. For example, the average person in the United States consumes 175 pounds of sugar per year, and most people consume a high amount of starch. Modern diets lead to higher levels of blood sugar than primitive diets, and this causes an increased release of insulin.
One of the best single markers for how long a person or animal will live is their insulin level. Low insulin levels correlate with a long healthy life. High levels of insulin are a problem for two reasons. A high level of insulin is toxic to cells, and when insulin is high, the cells stop listening to insulin. They become resistant to insulin and insulin can’t do its job. Insulin resistance promotes a wide variety of diseases. Read Manage Your Blood Sugar for more information.
Leptin
Leptin is a newly discovered hormone that turns off appetite and helps your body burn fat. When you eat starch and sugar, leptin is released to tell your brain that you have had enough to eat. When scientists first discovered leptin they thought they would be able to use leptin as a medication to burn fat and reduce appetite. They soon discovered that most people in our society, especially people who are overweight and sick, have high levels of leptin! People with high levels of leptin have developed leptin resistance. Their cells no longer listen to leptin and leptin can’t do its job. In order to do their jobs effectively, insulin and leptin must be present in low amounts. Low levels of leptin and insulin correlate with health and longevity, and high levels correlate with disease and early death.
Even though fat is our body’s best fuel, our bodies burn sugar first if it is present in high amounts. High levels of sugar are damaging to the body and the body wants to get it out of the way. It burns what it can, stores what it can in the limited sugar storage depot called glycogen, and then converts the rest to saturated fat. When our cells develop a habit of burning sugar instead of fat, it sets the stage for a number of health problems.
If our body is in the habit of burning sugar instead of fat, it is more difficult to keep blood sugar levels in the optimal range. Your body relies on stress hormones to raise the blood sugar when it drops between meals. This is taxing for the adrenal glands. Read Manage Your Blood Sugar and Manage Your Stress for more information. Furthermore, when you are in sugar burning mode and blood sugar drops, your body pulls protein out of bone and muscle, turns it into sugar, and burns it for fuel. Over time people whose cells rely on sugar as the primary energy source lose muscle mass and develop osteoporosis. They get flabby and frail.
Fat-Burner or Sugar-Burner
Two major factors push the body into an unhealthy sugar-burning mode of energy production: 1) stress and 2) eating foods that are burned as sugar. Many factors, some obvious and some hidden, create a stress response. Read the article Manage Your Stress for more information about hidden forms of stress. Usually diet is the biggest factor. Sugar and starch push your energy metabolism in the direction of sugar-burning, as does protein that is in excess of your daily needs. Healthy omega-3 fatty acids push your energy metabolism in the direction of burning fat, and unhealthy oils block your ability to burn fat.
Once you change your diet, it usually takes about 3 weeks to make the switch so that the cells in your body develop the habit of burning fat instead of sugar. The levels of insulin and leptin decrease and your cells start paying attention to these energy-regulating hormones. In order to make that transition, you need to eat food that is high in good fat, virtually no sugar or starchy carbohydrates, and only a moderate amount of protein. After you have made the switch you can often add back some sugar and starch, but only a modest amount of the healthiest kind. This is a good diet to follow for the rest of your life, and eating this way can improve both the quality and length of your life. Exercise and nutritional supplements are also helpful but they cannot make up for an unhealthy diet.
Read the following articles for more information.
· Body Composition: As we age, we lose lean muscle mass and we gain fat. This is true whether we are thin or fat. A healthy diet helps us gain muscle mass and loose fat.
· Healthy Fat: Fats can be your best friend or your worst enemy. The quality of the fats you eat is hugely important for your health.
· Healthy Protein: We need some protein, but not too much. High-protein diets are not healthy. They actually cause your body to burn sugar instead of fat.
· Healthy Carbohydrates: Starch and sugar are non-fiber carbohydrates. They both raise your blood sugar and are stressful for your health. Fibrous carbohydrates in non-starchy vegetables on the other hand, are important for your health.
· Basics of Healthy Eating: Simple guidelines for a healthy diet.
· Biochemical Individuality: Nutritional supplements help your body make the transition from sugar-burning to fat-burning. One size does not fit all. Each person needs a different type of support.
· Healthy Exercise: Exercise can be a friend or foe. It can help the transition from sugar-burning to fat-burning or it can keep you stuck in sugar-burning.
You can find recipes that follow these guidelines in “The Rosedale Diet” by Ron Rosedale M.D., “The South Beach Diet” by Arthur Argatston, and in “Total Health Cookbook and Program” by Dr. Joseph Mercola.
