How healthy nutrition keeps your insulin levels down

Avoid industrially processed food and limit the amount of carbohydrates you eat. Instead, choose sugar-free products that are rich in natural proteins, healthy fats and fibre. This is good for the insulin concentration in your body. Sports physician Hans van Kuijk explains why.

Insulin is a hormone that plays a vital role in your body’s metabolism. Among its many tasks is ensuring that cells can absorb glucose (fuel), proteins and fats (fuels, building blocks and raw materials). 

The base concentration of insulin in the blood is very low, and it only increases when necessary. And that’s a good thing: frequent or constant high insulin concentrations in the blood can be extremely hazardous for your health. It disrupts metabolism and can lead to chronic inflammation processes in the immune system. It also serves as the foundation for all sorts of modern chronic diseases (diseases of affluence), such as type-2 diabetes.

But when does the body need to increase its insulin concentration temporarily? When food enters your body. Eating carbohydrates such as starches and sugars raises your blood sugar level, but that needs to be kept within certain limits. By directing glucose into your cells, insulin keeps the increased blood sugar under control. In the cells, glucose serves as a fuel.

When you eat, you also consume proteins and fats, which are absorbed into the blood and transported in the form of amino acids and fatty acids. They are the building blocks for all cells and raw materials for a wide range of biological processes within the cells. Insulin is also needed to allow amino acids and fatty acids to enter the cells, but only in small quantities.

It’s good to know that the amount and speed of the ‘insulin peak’ depends on the type of food you eat. For carbohydrates like sugars and starches, your body needs a lot of insulin quickly, as they cause a rapid peak in your blood sugar level. Your body needs less insulin to handle proteins, and it doesn’t need it as quickly. Fats cause even less of a peak in blood sugar and insulin levels, but the slight increase lasts quite a bit longer.

But how does it work in practice? Here are three tips to help you out!

1. Don’t eat too often, and try to limit yourself to eating a maximum of three times per day. Every time you eat, you increase your blood sugar level, and therefore your insulin concentration. That’s something you don’t want to happen too often.
2. Limit the amount of carbohydrates (sugars and starches) as much as possible. They increase your blood sugar level and your insulin concentration. Physical activity is also necessary to burn the carbohydrates. If you don’t get enough exercise, they will be converted and stored as fat, which can eventually lead to organs that do not function properly or a ‘beer belly’.
3. Make sure that your food includes enough proteins, healthy fats and fibre.