Still Hungry?

This sun has nothing to do with leptin,
I just like the pic!

Do you know anyone that can eat a whole pizza, chase with beer, and still be hungry for ice cream? If that person is overweight it may be because their leptin receptors are down. The more fat we have on our bodies the more leptin we are supposed to secrete. Leptin is the hormone that signals our hypothalamus that we are full and to stop eating and start burning fuel. This would make you think the more fat, the more leptin, the better! But, what really happens is similiar to diabetes. Just like insulin receptors, the leptin recepters function less efficiently when there is too much leptin. The process is very similiar to how insulin receptors do not let insulin communicate with our cells to use the sugar in our food for fuel, instead the receptors are bombarded and so they shut down. As a result an overweight person's body(hypothalamus regulates hunger and metablolism) is not telling him/her to stop eating. Like Type 2 diabetes losing weight, eating right, and exercising can reduce fat cells, therefore reduce the amount of leptin produced to a normal amount, therfore reversing leptin resistance.

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What is the Gycemic Index of a food and how does it affect us?

The glycemic index is a number between 1 and 100 used to rank carbohydrates on how much they raise blood sugar after being eaten.  If the number is over 55, the food is considered,”high glycemic.”  Foods that are quickly digested and absorbed cause more fluctuations in blood sugar and insulin levels. Low Glycemic foods cause a gradual rise in blood sugar and insulin level promoting a healthy weight by decreasing food cravings. No sudden blood sugar drop means no sudden uncontrollable need for food. Low GI diets reduce overall insulin levels and insulin resistence. This is a real plus for diabetics. Here is a link for more information about Glycemic Index.     Glycemic Index Info

So, what this means to me is that if we adjust our diet by taking out some of the simple sugars like candy, white flour, white rice, white potatoes(mainly the fried ones), and processed foods we could reduce our “glycemic index,” significantly.  And, remember alcohol(darn it!) is a sugar too.

Also what about “hidden sugars,”like dextrose, fructose, corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, sorbitol, fruit juice concentrate, mannitol ,galactose, lactose, polydextrose,  maltodextrin. There are just so darn many of them!  Rule of thumb-  if a premade or processed food has more than 3 ingredients(and one is sugar), or less than 4 grams of fiber then we should just walk on by………..


Oh yeah and how about those commercials that try make high fructose corn syrup Ok……not.

More about Hidden Sugars
For a Glycemic Index Table Click Here