Kurt's Fitness Tips

Insulin is a peptide hormone that is secreted by the pancreas.  Insulins main role in our bodies metabolism is to uptake glucose from the blood and store it as glycogen in the liver and muscles.  With this basic premise in mind there is a way for us to learn how to make insulin work with us, or understand how it can work against us with our dietary habits.

It is very important when undertaking a fat loss diet that insulin be managed very carefully.  This is one of the reasons that I’m a huge advocate of low-carbohydrate dieting.  The presence of insulin in the blood stream immediately stops fat loss in it’s tracks!!!  When insulin is present in the blood your body will no longer use fat as fuel.  So now you can see why it is especially important to keep insulin levels to a minimum while dieting for fat loss.  The best way to do this is to consume a low-carbohydrate diet.  Carbohydrates cause insulin secretion, not protein and fats.  There are certan quickly absorbing proteins that can cause insulin secretion to some degree, such as whey protein.  But nothing comparable to simple sugars, or even complex carbohydrates.  And since we keep our dietary fat intake higher during times of low-carbohydrate dieting, digestion of whey protein is greatly reduced by consuming dietary fats along with our whey protein shake.

So in a time of dieting insulin is definately our enemy.  For people trying to put on muscle mass insulin is quite possibly one of our best friends though!  Since insulin is a very powerful hormone that shuttles nutrients to muscle cells, insulin is one of the most, if not the most, anabolic hormone in the body.  Fat usage as an energy source is not a concern for a person trying to add muscle mass.  Therefore we can use insulin to our advantage during times of weight gain.  That being said there are key times that we want to raise insulin, but most of the day it’s still important to keep insulin levels to a minimum so we don’t store too much fat during this time period.  The only times we want to spike insulin levels during a time of weight gain are before a workout, during a workout, and the most important time is after a workout.  There are many reasons for this, and it will get surely get out of the scope of this article, but the main reason is to increase muscle recovery through activation of protein synthasis, quickly restoring lost glycogen stores,  and blunting the release of cortisol.

So as you can see depeding on what a persons goals are there are mechanisms that we can use to our advantage in one situation, but we may want to totally avoid during another situation, depending on what we are trying to acheive at that given time.  We can’t just clasify insulin as the enemy, because if your a person trying to gain weight it’s actually your ally.

Most of us know by now that we need to get a balance of Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids in our diets.  A good way to do this is by using healthy oils to flavor or cook our foods.  What some people don’t know is that there is a “smoke point” of all cooking oils.  When you heat an oil to or beyond it’s smoke point you end up denaturing the healthy fats that are contained in the oil.

We’ll start with Olive Oil. In order to keep the healthy Omega 3 fats intact you need to make sure you purchase the right kind of Olive Oil.  There are many to choose from, and it can be a daunting task.  Always make sure you get cold-pressed Olive Oil.  If it is cold-pressed it will state it somewhere on the bottle.  The next thing you want to be sure of is that it comes in a dark bottle.  The darker the better.  Olive Oil is fairly sensitive to light and heat, so this is a must.  Also make sure you store it in a cool dark place.  When it comes to cooking Olive Oil is not your best choice.  The true “smoke point” of Olive Oil is still being debated, but we do know that it too low for cooking.  There is no point in cooking in an oil that is going to lose it’s healthy benefits.  Olive Oil is best used for flavor.  Salads are a great choice for Olive Oil.

Now if you are wanting to pan fry chicken or some other healthy dish your best bet would be Macadamia Nut Oil.  It has a much higher “smoke point” than Olive Oil, and you will still be able to reap all the healthy benefits while cooking with it.  Mac Nut Oil is also good to use as a supplement for Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids.  It’s not just good for cooking!  Mac Nut Oil almost has a perfect ratio of 1:1 Omega 3 to 6.  This is ideal for those of us who are health concious.

The only downside is that Mac Nut Oil can be a bit trickier to find.  The internet would probably be the best place to start.  People started buying up tons of Mac Nut Oil as the many benefits have become more known.  For quite some time there was a shortage, but it is slowly becoming more available.