Insulin Resistance, v.1

The facts are in and there is no argument by leading authorities that the dietary key to achieving ideal body weight and to living long is to eat your vegetables! Per calorie no other foods deliver quite the nutritional bang for the buck. And at about only 60 calories per pound you can fill up your plate several times a day without ever eating too many vegetables. Enjoy them freely and abundantly for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and even between meals!

Use fresh whole seasonal fruits to satisfy your sweet tooth, as needed to avoid sugar and artificial sweeteners! As you center eating around whole vegetables and fruits, other food choices such as grains, legumes (beans), nuts, seeds, and animal-based foods become healthful complimentary additions to meals, rather than becoming unhealthful through over-consumption.

Let's take a closer look at what adequate consumption of vegetables will do for you. Eighty percent of Americans suffer to some degree from insulin resistance, which leads to numerous health issues. Adequate vegetable intake is one of the primary factors for overcoming insulin resistance. Let's look at just a few of the problems associated with inadequate vegetable intake and insulin resistance.

1. Heart Disease: The ideal ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids is 1:1. Ratios above 4:1 lead to inflammation within the body. The ratio for 80 percent of the U.S. population falls between 20:1 and 50:1. The inflammation caused by this poor ratio is known to be the leading cause of heart disease today. Eighty percent of Americans suffer from cardiovascular disease. Insulin resistance inhibits the specific delta 6 desaturase enzyme that is required to convert plant-based omega-3s from their ALA form to the more essential EPA and DHA forms. Without these natural conversions the poor ratio of essential fats is hard to overcome. However, by overcoming insulin resistance through proper diet, the conversion of plant-based sources of omega-3 fats becomes efficient. Sources of plant-based omega-3s include almonds, cashews, macadamias, pecans, pine nuts, pistachios, Brussels sprouts, winter squash (all varieties), summer squash (all varieties), collard greens, spinach, kale, and many other leafy greens. Exceedingly high sources of plant-based omega-3s include chia seeds, flaxseeds, hemp, and walnuts. Even many fruits contribute plant-based ALA form of omega-3s. When DHA is needed, a conversion from ALA to EPA and then from EPA to DHA occurs. When EPA is needed, a single-step conversion occurs. However, these conversions are dependent upon the delta 6 desaturase enzyme being uninhibited by high insulin levels. Too much DHA becomes toxic and therefore relying primarily on animal-based DHA is not ideal; the ideal solution is to be able to convert from plant-based ALA, as needed.
2. Obesity: Chronically high insulin and blood-sugar levels lead to obesity. Imagine eating a piece of fruit or whole-grain bread and having these healthful carbohydrates turn to fat just as quickly as they are digested. And what about that healthful green smoothie that absorbs into the bloodstream even more quickly than a piece of fruit or bread? If you are insulin resistant and your blood-sugar levels remain consistently and chronically high, as occurs with 80 percent of all Americans, then much of the healthful carbohydrates you eat convert to fat instead of being used directly in the cells to create energy, or instead of being stored as glycogen in the muscles and liver, as the ideal on-demand fuel source for energy production. Adequate vegetable intake enables normal blood-sugar levels and helps to overcome insulin resistance and the unnecessary accumulation of fat.
3. Poor Eyesight: Insulin resistance and elevated blood-sugar levels lead to the gradual destruction of the optic nerve and to blindness.
4. Neuropathy: This tingling in the extremeties is also caused by insulin resistance that leads to chronically elevated blood-sugar levels and the deterioration of nerve tissue.
5. Organ Damage: Chronically high blood-sugar levels, caused by insulin resistance, lead to heart failure, kidney failure, and to the damage of other organs. 
6. Amputations: the destruction of nerves, as described above, eventually leads to amputations. 
7. Degenerative Diseases and Accelerated Aging: insulin resistance is also linked with numerous chronic, degenerative disease and to accelerated aging.

What is the role that vegetables play in overcoming insulin resistance, chronically high blood-sugar levels, and the many health issues described above, which is only a short list of related diseases? Glycemic research demonstrates that by consuming adequate intake of vegetables (raw or cooked) during each meal of the day, you slow down the absorption of the meal into your bloodstream to at least five to six hours, assuming you eat your foods whole and not blended or juiced. For example, a green smoothie is blended so finely that is absorbs in less than two hours unless you drink it very slowly over several hours. By comparison, a fruited salad made from the same ingredients used to make a smoothie digests more slowly, which does not cause spikes in blood-sugar levels. By slowing the absorption rate of any meal to five or six hours, you create a much more even and steady flow of required and healthful carbohydrates into the bloodstream. Sip your smoothies slowly and don't guzzle or gulp.

The overconsumption of dietary fat causes the build-up of a thin layer of fat around insulin and blood sugar molecules, which inhibits insulin from being able to connect easily to the insulin receptor sites on the blood-sugar molecules and to the insulin receptor sites on the vessel walls themselves. If the fat inhibits insulin from connecting to the blood-sugar molecules and further inhibits insulin's ability to transport the sugar out of the bloodstream through the vessel wall, then a build-up of sugar in the bloodstream occurs that becomes chronic. It remains so until the cause of insulin resistance (too much dietary fat and too much body fat) is overcome.

Tragically, too much dietary fat from both animal- and plant-based sources sets the stage for you to not be able to make use of the most important form of omega-3s, which is the plant-based form that can convert on-demand to EPA or DHA, or can remain ALA, as needed. Science has often incorrectly assumed that the DHA form of omega-3 in animal-based foods is most important for us; however, this is untrue, as discovered by leading heart researcher, Caldwell Esselstyn Jr. Rather, a predominantly plant-based diet that uses overt fats sparingly or not at all is the most healthful choice. Overt fats includes nuts, seeds, avocados, olives, oils, and animal fat. Without adding overt fats to a plant-based diet, you will naturally maintain nine to 12 percent dietary fat intake at all times. A diet that maintain fat levels of 10 to 15 percent does not inhibit insulin from being able to maintain safe blood-sugar levels and the insulin resistance goes away and does not inhibit the proper conversion of plant-based fats. Without insulin resistance, you can even drink your smoothie more rapidly without spiking blood-sugar levels. Thus the perfect diet to provide all essential fats required for living a long and productive life is a predominantly plant-based diet that does not overuse overt fats.

Dr. Esselstyn, who has effectively arrested and reversed heart disease in 100% of those who have followed his dietary protocol, has persuasively demonstrated that by minimizing the intake of overt fats, such as oils, nuts, seeds, avocados, olives, and all animal-based sources of fat, you can still maintain adequate levels of essential fats. If you do add overt fats, it should be done so sparingly or you will cause insulin resistance within you, like 80 percent of today's population. Moreover, by overcoming insulin resistance, the pancreas is not over worked and the delta 6 desaturase enzyme remains uninhibited to catalyze the conversion of plant-based omega-3, as needed.

The research that demonstrated an inadequate conversion of plant-based omega-3s has been demonstrated through peer review to be biased toward animal-based omega-3s and does not take into account what occurs in the absence of insulin resistance. This is a huge issue that all vegans should carefully consider. Being vegan doesn't guarantee you will overcome insulin resistance. You must consider the role of eating your food whole versus blended and juiced, and the proper role of dietary fat.
By consuming sufficient vegetables, you help to satisfy your appetite naturally without feeling the need for overt fats. If you do not believe this, then watch the Evening Vegetable Dish video and then make a large vegetable dish after the pattern shown in the video and eat it until you are full. Then consider how it makes you feel. Each of the vegetables in the dish contain plant-based omega-3s. Remember, that if you eat a balanced diet of vegetables, fruits, grains, and legumes, and minimize the use of overt fats, and if you will achieve your ideal body weight, you will convert plant-based omega-3s to meet your needs for essential fats. Adding a tablespoon or two of chia seeds to one of our healthful dressings will boost your omega-3 intake even further. Try it, you'll love it!

It is very easy to enjoy a 1:1 ratio of essential fats in your diet, and to enjoy their many benefits as you learn to enable vegetables more fully. Begin by eliminating all vegetable oils from your diet and by consuming vegetables abundantly for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. As you do just this one thing, the consumption of fruit, grains, legumes, animal-based foods, and all sources of overt fats will be most easily enjoyed to compliment your diet of vegetables, rather than to overwhelm it.

Science has demonstrated their are several ways to overcome insulin resistance; to better understand your options, review the good, better, and best recommendations found on page 67 of Original Fast Foods.
As you try the evening vegetable dish, as shown in the video, don't forget to top the dish with all the leafy greens you can fit into the pan. They will shrink down to look like nothing, yet they are loaded with minerals, vitamins, protein, essential fats, and high antioxidant properties. If you follow the "best" recommendations and become a "raw vegan" be sure to load up on vegetables as you seek to achieve homeostasis; otherwise, you will not be immune to high-blood sugar levels, even if you consume whole fruits. As you achieve adequate balance, you can increase fruit intake proportionately.

In the next volume of our Green Grocery Boy series we will share some other exciting and motivating aspects of high vegetable intake within your diet. Until then enjoy your whole vegetables freely and abundantly for breakfast, lunch, and dinner--either raw or cooked!

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