Interesting Judee ... Thanks for sharing  

 

-------Original Message-------

 

From: Judee

Date: 3/6/2009 6:34:29 PM

To: [log in to unmask]

Subject: It's the balance of fats.....

 

Insulin resistance is thought to be an important contributing factor to the
modern diseases of civilization such as metabolic syndrome, blood lipid
disorders, hypertension, obesity and type II diabetes.1 Although genetics
play a role in insulin resistance, the observation that obesity and diabetes
are increasing at alarming rates worldwide suggests that there are vital
environmental factors that also need to be considered.2

 

 

Although carbohydrates play an integral role in insulin resistance by
elevating glucose levels, there is also strong evidence that the amount and
quality of free fatty acids consumed contributes to insulin sensitivity.3 It
has been shown in rats that under certain circumstances, free fatty acids
are required for glucose-stimulated insulin resistance. Essentially, when
rats are infused with a high level of glucose, in the absence of fatty acids
 the insulin response is non-existent.4 In contrast, when this occurs in the
presence of high levels of free fatty acids, glucose-stimulated insulin
resistance is extremely elevated. It was shown in these studies on rats that
the amount of saturation of the fatty acid was also correlated with insulin
secretion.5 The more saturated the fat, the higher the insulin burst. Thus,
in rats, it seems that free fatty acids are vit al to produce
glucose-stimulated insulin resistance, and, of these, saturated fats have
the

  most detrimental effects.

 

 

Whether this occurs in humans was investigated by Vessby et al. (2001), who
established that the amount and quality of fat in the diet could also be
important for the development of insulin resistance in our species. A group
of 162 healthy subjects were given an isocaloric diet high in either
saturated or monounsaturated fat for three months. As in rats, insulin
resistance depended on the amount of fatty acids consumed and the saturation
of those fatty acids. When the amount of energy gained from fat was greater
than 37%, it was found that insulin sensitivity was impaired in both the
saturated fat group (-7.8%) and the monounsaturated fat group (-3.3%).
However, when the amount of energy coming from fat was less than 37%, a
significant difference was found with saturated fat still decreasing insulin
sensitivity (-12.5%) and monounsaturated fat increasing it (+8.8%). Within
the context of this study, it would seem that insulin resistance can be
improved

  on a diet c onsisting of less than 37% of energy from fat, with this fat
coming predominantly from monounsaturated fatty acids.

 

 

 

 

'Government is like a baby: An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one
end and no sense of responsibility at the other.'

- Ronald Reagan