The Top 5 Ways to Improve Insulin Sensitivity
When we have spent years, decades, a lifetime of being metabolically deranged our number one goal should be to improve insulin sensitivity because when we do that all other things improve.
Here are some of my best tips for improving insulin sensitivity:
Keep carbs low. Anyone that doesn’t realize or understand by now that excessive carbohydrates damage us metabolically either isn’t paying attention or is willfully ignorant. I know that sounds harsh, but there really is no excuse for not understanding this in this day and age. Carbs are not the devil, but carbs in excess are and unfortunately the majority of the population eats carbohydrates in excess. The first step to improving your insulin sensitivity is keeping those carbs low.
Eliminate certain types of carbs. The two most damaging types of carbs are sugar and grains. They are both toxic and inflammatory. They are found mostly in processed carbs which no human should be consuminug. They are doing us no favors.
Eliminate or at least drastically reduce consumption of seed oils. Make a commitment to never ever use them in the home setting. Keep your eating out at restaurants to a minimum. It’s going to be nearly impossible to avoid seed oils at restaurants so if you limit how many times you go out to eat you’re better off. It’s not realistic to never eat out, people still want to live their lives and when we’re traveling we sometimes have no other options, but the less exposure we have the better.
Exercise. Specifically resistance training/weight lifting. The more muscle we have the more metabolically advantageous it is. More muscle means we burn more energy at rest.
Don’t snack. The more eating events we have each day the more we cause insulin response. If we focus on eating two well formulated meals that are nutrient dense and satisfying there should be no need to snack in between. If you find yourself wanting to snack evaluate what your meals are and if your meals are sufficient then consider that your desire to snack might be more behavioral/emotional.
There are other ways to improve insulin sensitivity, but these are the things that are going to make the biggest impact in a short amount of time.