Spiking your insulin is unavoidable in the grand scheme of things. There’s no food or drink you can have that won’t spike your insulin, even if it’s to a healthy degree.
The latter is obviously what you want (spiking insulin as little as possible) but with the standard western diet, we’re doing the opposite of that every day.
We do it like we have a blindfold on. We can’t even see it.
Let’s talk about it.
How To Spike Your Insulin To The Moon:
1. Start your day eating a bunch of bread
I used to eat bread for breakfast, and other foods as well. It didn’t matter what type of bread I ate though. I’ve come to realize the hype of “brown bread” isn’t enough of a health boost for it to matter.
You can have:
- Brown bread.
- White bread.
- Tiger bread.
- French bread.
- Italian bread.
Or any form of bread that people eat with white flour, etc. All of them will spike your insulin to the moon because of the starch, the carbs, and even the small amounts of sugar on top.
A few slices are all it takes, if not less. And a sandwich or two in the morning with veg and meat might sound healthy, but you lose the benefits of those because of the bread, its inhibitors, and the insulin spikes.
2. End your day miserably with dessert
I’m not talking about people who can manage to eat a couple of strawberries with cream or people who will eat ONE slice of a cheesecake and leave it at that.
Realistically the majority of us will open up that cheesecake and eat it all, or at least half of it (before justifying more).
By ending your day like this with dessert, ya know, because “you deserve it” you ruin any hard work you did earlier as far as eating the right foods or drinking the right liquids.
An average cheesecake pack has a lot more than 10 teaspoons of sugar (40g), and that chocolate sauce, syrup, honey, whipping cream, and other add-ons only make it 10X worse over time.
3. Pasta for dinner on a daily basis
I speak from experience. Pasta is cheap, costs nothing, and you can buy a bunch from most supermarkets. But that’s the issue.
It might be cheap and versatile, but for all the BS they preach about it having good fibre and protein, it’s insignificant when compared to its carb content.
There’s no sense in having tiny amounts of protein or fibre (2g per 100g, etc) if the carbs are 20 times that amount in the same serving.
In a situation like that the fibre can’t do anything to slow down the blood sugar spike, so the benefits are worthless (even if you add fat to the meal).
4. Tons of rice every day
Everyone preaches about Japan as the place where they eat lots of rice so carbs can’t be bad in the slightest. But a few things are missing from that point.
First, Japan has small portions of rice compared to the western world, the latter who eats more rice in a serving than a Japanese probably does within 1 week or a couple of days.
Their rate of disease is lower but that can be associated with their portions, but the related problem is still there.
Plus it spikes your insulin which is the point, similar to Pasta since it’s devoid of nutrients compared to its carb count (rice from supermarkets and so on).
5. Mixing fat with tons of sugar, and carbohydrates
It’s true that fat is a buffer when consuming carbs or even protein (which spikes insulin to a lesser degree). But something else happens when you mix them.
An example would be an Oreo Milkshake, or any comparable milkshake with cream, milk, sugars, fats, and other ingredients that make the product what it is.
When your body has to consume fat and sugar in high doses (desserts, milkshakes, etc) it goes into overdrive.
It confuses the body in a way since both are energy sources, and this as a result raises your blood sugar even more than it would without the fat.
This makes sense. It’s no wonder fat is demonized when it comes to those types of products, though in reality, it’s the combination of sugars and carbs that makes it detrimental (for insulin and health).
6. Too much fruit
Fruit is complicated. There are obvious benefits, many of which have been studied, but depending on the fruit if you have too much it can do more than just spike your insulin like mad.
The body can’t process fructose the way it can glucose, or regular sugar in simple terms. So if you have let’s say, 5 Kiwis in one day because you have cravings for sugar, that’s damaging over time to the liver.
Same for Oranges, bananas, and even blueberries in excess. And it’s no doubt true for fruits like mango which are extra sweet.
If you don’t have a sweet tooth or you prefer fruit like Rasberry which is more bitter, you’re in luck. It’s too easy to indulge otherwise.
7. Too many peas, carrots, and sweetcorn
The thing with peas and sweetcorn is they taste better than ANY vegetable out there. Carrots are OK too, but nothing like peas or sweetcorn.
Combine all 3 with your meals, while eating a lot of them for dinner is a guaranteed recipe for insulin spiking.
All 3, especially peas and sweetcorn, are high in sugar as well as carbohydrates (per serving). And they’re small enough that it’s easy to devour a lot of it.
More so if you buy them frozen or in bags from the supermarket.
They’re healthy otherwise, but it’s easy to eat a lot of it if you don’t have portion control. Which is more difficult with foods that are smaller in size.
8. Too much gluten
Doesn’t matter whether it’s vegans, vegetarians, paleo, carnivores, or other groups who attach themselves to labels. Because all of them agree that gluten is no good.
Even a study citing diabetes and how a gluten-free diet can help prevent it agrees.
They also agree it’s no good for insulin aside from the fact gluten foods are loaded with carbs, which is a separate factor.
QUOTE:
“Gluten peptides enter the pancreas where they affect the morphology and might induce beta-cell stress by enhancing glucose- and palmitate-stimulated insulin secretion.”
Source: National Library Of Medicine – Diabetes Possible Prevention
Conclusion
I have more than enough experience with these foods and know exactly how much it takes to make me break out and flare up (a result of insulin spikes which are connected to skin issues).
Be your own guinea pig as I always say. And you’ll find out for yourself either by how it makes you feel, your energy dropping, your skin breaking out, drowsiness, or other related symptoms.