Brigid Titgemeier explains how insulin resistance and inflammation feed each other, raising risk for type 2 diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer's, and cancer. Glucose spikes trigger inflammatory cytokines. She offers specific fixes: cut overnight oats from a full bowl to a quarter-cup, add chia seeds and protein powder to lower blood sugar spikes.
Insulin resistance increases our risk of inflammation, and inflammation then can make us more insulin resistant and make that a vicious cycle. And then it can also increase our risk of type 2 diabetes, of heart disease, of Alzheimer's disease, and cancer. When it comes to the fact that your fasting insulin and A1C are trending upward, that means that you're going to have more glucose spikes throughout the day. And every time that your glucose is spiking, you're releasing inflammatory cytokines. Inflammatory cytokines is that activation of inflammation. And Dr. Tim Spector, who I interviewed in March, That this is exactly what they see in their research. And it's not to scare you, it's just to help you understand the control that you have when you're eating a blood sugar balanced diet. When you switch from having a bowl of overnight oats that are going to have 60 grams of carbs and not enough protein, it's going to increase your blood sugar spike, which will trigger inflammation. And switching that to having maybe a 4th of a cup of overnight oats with chia seeds and some protein powder can make a huge difference in changing your hemoglobin A1C and fasting glucose levels.
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