Use Insulin wiselyLife on Earth started simple. For nearly 2 billion years, tiny single-celled organisms dominated. Then, a lucky accident changed everything. One cell swallowed another, and the swallowed cell became mitochondria, the powerhouse of complex cells. This chance event led to all complex life, including plants, animals, and us. This microscopic accident is the greatest fluke of all time.Metabolism is how our bodies take things from the outside and turn them into part of us. It has two main parts: burning and growth. If you’re burning, you’re turning that food into energy. If you’re growing, you’re turning that food into bone, muscle, brain, kidney, liver, and virtually every other organ.Burning happens inside the mitochondria. Every cell in our body contains one or more mitochondria. For example, the brain has the most mitochondria because it needs the most energy, as neurotransmission is an energy-intensive process. Mitochondria control burning. But what controls growth? Insulin.Insulin is a hormone made by our pancreas. It’s released from special cells called beta cells when you eat, especially if your blood sugar rises. Insulin’s main job is to drive growth. It helps muscles, organs, and the growth of fat tissue.About 93% of Americans have metabolic dysfunction, meaning their mitochondria aren’t working properly. Why is that? The key indicator of mitochondrial dysfunction is fasting insulin. High fasting insulin levels mean the mitochondria aren’t burning energy from what we eat; instead, the energy is stored as fat because of the high insulin.Our yearly blood tests usually focus on fasting glucose and HbA1c levels. However, these can stay low for years while high insulin levels are already causing metabolic dysfunction. In the excellent book Good Energy, author Casey Means explains why using less insulin is better than using more to maintain the same fasting glucose levels.Person A has a fasting glucose of 85 mg/dL and an insulin level of 2 mIU/L. Person B has the same fasting glucose of 85 mg/dL and an insulin level of 30 mIU/L. Person B’s body is having to churn out significantly more insulin to keep fasting glucose at 85 mg/dL, representing that person B is extremely insulin resistant.A glucose spike happens because of the food you eat. Air pollution won’t cause it, but the type of food you choose will affect how much your glucose levels spike. There are two reasons for this: the kind of glucose in the food and the amount of fiber it contains. Glucose comes in two forms. One is called amylopectin, found in bread, rice, pasta, and potatoes. The other is amylose, found in beans, lentils, and other legumes. These two forms are not the same.CharacteristicAmyloseAmylopectinSourceBeans, lentils, legumesBread, rice, pasta, potatoesStructureStraight chain of glucose moleculesBranched structure structure of glucose moleculesGlucose responseSlower and lower glucose responseFaster and larger spikeEffect on insulinHelps keep insulin level lowerIncrease risk of insulin spikes.Amylose helps keep insulin levels lower, while amylopectin can cause insulin to rise. This is measured by the glycemic index (GI), which shows how much your blood sugar spikes after eating 50 grams of carbohydrates from a food. For example, bread causes a bigger spike than beans because bread has a high GI of 75, and beans have a low GI of 28.Carrots and white rice have a similar glycemic index between 72 to 75. Does that mean carrots cause the same blood glucose spike as rice? The answer is no. Remember, the glycemic index measures how much your blood sugar spikes if you eat 50 grams of carbohydrates.To get 50 grams of carbs from carrots, you’d need to eat 700 grams of them (1.5 pounds). You can’t eat that much carrot unless you’re Bugs Bunny! So, while carrots have a high glycemic index, they actually have a low glycemic load. The key difference lies in the glycemic load, which takes into account not just the glycemic index but also the portion size.Carrots have plenty of fiber, which slows down glucose absorption and reduces the overall impact on blood sugar. Even though both carrots and white rice have similar glycemic indexes, the fiber in carrots acts as a barrier, forming a gel in your intestines and preventing glucose from quickly entering your bloodstream.FoodGlycemic Index (GI)Glycemic Load (GL)NotesWhite Bread7510High GI with amylopectin leads to rapid glucose spike and insulin rise.White Rice7321High GI and GL, large spike in blood sugar due to amylopectin and low fiber.Carrots726High GI but low GL due to high fiber, glucose spike is much smaller.Lentils305Low GI and GL due to amylose and high fiber content, great for blood sugar control.This means the glucose spike from carrots is much smaller than from white rice, making carrots a better choice for managing blood sugar. In general, focusing on low glycemic load foods (GL of 10 or less) helps support better blood sugar control.Insulin is both beneficial and harmful. It’s good because it removes glucose from the bloodstream. High blood glucose can damage the thin layer of cells that line the inside of your blood vessels. This damage can lead to hardening of the arteries and contribute to high blood pressure.Glucose must be cleared from the blood. Normal blood glucose is about 80 mg per deciliter. In a typical 6-liter blood volume, that’s roughly 5 grams of glucose, or one teaspoon, when fasting. Drinking orange juice introduces nine times this amount, which insulin must clear to prevent damage.While insulin protects against glucose related harm, it can also cause serious issues. It stimulates growth in the heart’s arteries, the walls of blood vessels, and certain body tissues. This growth increases the risk of cancer, blood clots, and tissue damage. Growth is important for children but becomes problematic for adults. Reducing this growth signal is crucial as we age, but insulin works against that. In short, insulin is a growth factor.If we avoid foods that cause blood glucose spikes and improve insulin sensitivity, our blood sugar levels won’t stay high for too long, allowing us to use less insulin. It’s like hitting two birds with one stone. But how do we do that? What foods should we eat? Will exercise help? Does sleep and stress affect insulin levels? What else should we do to stay healthy?It’s a treasure trove of health insights!I found answers to all these questions in a 1.5-hour video by Robert Lustig. He explains everything in simple terms. I was so impressed, I watched and read the transcript 5 times within 48 hours! The video gave me the same joy and insight as reading Charlie Munger’s Psychology of Misjudgement and Elementary Worldly Wisdom.I even formatted the transcript for easier reading. Do yourself a favor—watch the video, read the transcript, and share it with your family and friends. You can watch the video from here and read the transcript from here. It’s a treasure trove of health insights!I highly recommend Good Energy. It’s one of the best books I’ve read on healthy eating and living. In fact, it might even surpass my all-time favorite, The Obesity Code. Good Energy is easy to understand, doesn’t take sides between vegan or meat-based diets, and offers actionable insights for all types of eaters. It provides a holistic approach to a healthy life, covering everything including food, exercise, sleep, stress, and more. Plus, it addresses some challenges specific to women.If you’re short on time, don’t worry. Simply read Part 3, The Good Energy Plan, which is only about 50 pages. In these pages, you’ll find an actionable plan that covers what to avoid, what to eat, how to approach exercise, and everything you need to implement a healthy lifestyle in just four weeks.Just startMost of us know the right thing to do, but we don’t do it because of old, bad habits. So how do we develop good habits and break the bad ones? Habit stacking is one technique—where you link a new habit to an existing one. For example, do push-ups after brushing your teeth in the morning.I’ve written over 300 posts in the last 10 years, and even now, the blank page still intimidates me. Take this post, for instance—the mere thought of starting made my brain cringe. How did I get past that? I opened a blank document, titled it “Test,” and started typing. The moment I begin, something takes over, and I can’t sleep until it’s finished. Just start and let the momentum take you over the finish line.Use ChatGPT as your research assistantAnother challenge we face in eating healthy is figuring out what recipes to make every day. If we have to think too hard about what to cook, we tend to fall back on old habits of eating unhealthy foods. That’s where the power of ChatGPT comes in. My productivity has skyrocketed. I gave it the information from Good Energy about what to eat and asked it to create a breakfast plan that’s high in protein and healthy fats, packed with fiber, antioxidants, and whole carbs.Continuous Glucose Monitor is your personal health trackerWe don’t need to blindly trust the output from ChatGPT. Wear a Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) and see for yourself how your blood glucose spikes and plateaus after eating the above foods. CGM is truly a godsend. Imagine driving your car for 500 miles with your eyes closed, only opening them for 5 seconds—inevitably, you’d crash.That’s exactly what we’re doing when we rely on a fasting glucose test or HbA1c once a year. When you measure something, you’re more likely to act on the information you gather. Wearing a CGM made me hyper aware of everything I put into my mouth. You’ll know exactly the foods that will prevent glucose spikes and make you stay metabolically healthy.Resources to read and listen toGood Energy by Casey MeansThe Ultimate Guide to Glucose, Insulin Resistance & Metabolic Health by Dr. Robert LustigMy Youtube collections on HealthWhat I Learned from The South Asian Health Solution and wearing a Continuous Glucose MonitorThe Obesity Code by Jason Fung