Understanding High Glucose, Metabolic Syndrome and the Risk for Diabetes

Many people think consuming too much sugar is the cause of high serum glucose levels, but it’s more complicated than that.

When I was a child I loved candy – candy of all types danced on my tastebuds. I had no idea how bad it was for me and neither did my mother, apparently. As I got older, I was warned that all that sugar would make me a diabetic. I often thought, what was diabetes? And if all that sugar was so bad for me, then why hadn’t I been diagnosed with diabetes yet? 

Just to be clear, I will be discussing Type 2 diabetes mellitus and not Type 1. Type 1 tends to develop during childhood and is an autoimmune disorder when the human body or a virus attacks the pancreas which disables the body’s ability to create insulin. Therefore, Type 1 diabetics are dependent on outside sources of insulin to survive. I will be discussing Type 2 diabetes which typically is an adult-onset disease. Type 2 has many related conditions that will be mentioned here.

Candy typically adds nothing good to the human diet, only extra calories and weight gain.

Does candy eating really influence the development of adult-onset diabetes? And if so, what can we do better? Although sugar is not directly responsible for a diabetes diagnosis, there are many negative health conditions that are linked to overconsuming it. What is more important is the lifestyle we live, the activities that we choose to engage in, and the quality of the food we eat. Since so many of us have chosen to stay sedentary, and have not given up our favorite foods, we have an overweight problem. And since so many of us get coaxed into purchasing lots of tasty but overly processed foods, we have a nutrient deficiency problem. 

“Americans are often times described as being overfed and undernourished.”

What is a processed food? A processed food is something that has undergone physical change including the removal of healthy parts of a food and replacing the healthy parts with unhealthy parts. One example is flour. Some time ago, humans decided that white bread and white cakes were so much more appetizing, so they decided to remove the bran and the germ from the wheat – the two components that make this food healthy. Frozen cakes, cookies and pies are another example of processed foods that hold lots of calories but not many nutrients. We could go on and on, but you get the picture.

Donuts are an example of a processed food that adds few nutrients and lots of extra calories.

Unfortunately, this type of westernized lifestyle of eating unhealthy foods, sitting a lot, and gaining extra weight has put us into a health risk category that includes the development of many ailments. So many of us are now at risk for developing metabolic syndrome, Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Metabolic syndrome is defined as having 3 or more of the following criteria – abdominal obesity (waist circumference greater than 40 inches for men and greater than 35 inches for women,) high fasting glucose 110-125 mg/dL, elevated blood pressure 130/85 mm Hg or higher, triglycerides greater than 150 mg/dL, and low levels of HDL (high density lipoprotein.) Diabetes is defined as simply having a fasting glucose level of more than 126 mg/dL. 

The saddest part of developing these diseases is that they seem to be diseases of choice. Those that have developed these conditions probably would object to this label, mostly because what society has chosen to approve of is often not what our bodies need to be healthy. What I mean, is that when we change our lifestyle, our activity level, and what we choose to eat to a more active and healthy form, we oftentimes can reverse these diseases. Yes, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease have been proven to be reversable with the right interventions for most people.

Obesity is one of the first risk factors for so many ailments and diseases such as, metabolic syndrome, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Reversing these diseases begins with weight loss.

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/10783-metabolic-syndrome

https://medicine.yale.edu/news-article/can-type-2-diabetes-be-reversed/

Diet is the foundation of human health. If you compared the diet of a wild animal like a giraffe or a white-tailed deer with an average human, you would find that one eats only plants and the other eats everything that has been considered edible. One has an infinite number of ways to get sick and the other seems to never get sick and either dies of old age or is killed by another animal. A healthy diet is crucial to having a healthy life. Most of the research that is available today tells a story of good health coming from consuming a diet that includes a combination of fruits, vegetables and whole grains as the foundation - adding smaller amounts of legumes, seeds and nuts for added protein, and other nutrients. Meat and animal sourced protein are not essential but rather optional in a healthy human diet.

Healthy animals eat healthy foods. It is that simple.

But what about eating sugar? A small amount of sugar if you are active probably won’t ruin your health. Sugar is essential when it comes to endurance athletics. Burning that sugar in the form of exercise is the key. Some of the issues with sugar revolve around the fact that when it is in candy and desserts, sugar is a source of extra calories without the nutrients. These foods are considered “empty calories” because they do nothing for us but add calories. Another aspect of sugar is that the human body was never meant to consume much of it and when we do, it is difficult to metabolize and can cause metabolic dysfunction if excessive. Too much will increase our triglycerides, can cause weight gain, can increase the risk for developing a fatty liver and create an increased risk for cardiovascular disease. Consuming lots of sugar also can increase systemic inflammation, increase the risk for hypertension and cause insulin resistance which can increase fasting blood glucose levels. Nothing good comes from consuming a lot of sugar. Some people ask me if some sweeteners are better than others. My response has always been, “no sweeteners are good for you, so limit all kinds and try to sweeten your meals with whole, real, fresh fruit if you can.” 

Fresh fruit is the best sweetener.

Diet is the first defense in preventing high glucose levels. Some people erroneously have suggested a solution to lowering serum glucose levels would be to consume a high protein, high fat diet and to avoid all carbohydrates. Unfortunately, this is a terrible idea – this type of diet avoids so many foods that contain fiber and lots of nutrients. Ironically, increasing high fiber whole grains is beneficial to human health and encourages weight loss – the opposite of what some people have assumed. Yes, they are still carbohydrates, but whole grains are metabolized very differently and are an essential part of a healthy diet. White and refined carbohydrates like bread are not much better than sugar – whole grains are so much better. Some examples of healthy whole grains include – whole wheat, brown rice, whole grain pasta, quinoa, legumes, farro and oats. Fruits and vegetables have never been shown to cause disease in any human except for someone who has an intolerance or an allergy. For most healthy people these foods are not just beneficial, they are crucial.

A condition often called pre-diabetes is insulin resistance. When you develop insulin resistance, this is a red flag or wakeup call that you are headed in the wrong direction with your health and a U-turn is in order. Insulin resistance is something that happens when our bodies no longer respond to a high glucose load and instead of clearing the sugar from the blood to maintain a level that is acceptable, the insulin no longer works well to pick up the excess glucose and store it for later use. Too much sugar floating in our blood for an extensive amount of time can create damage to small blood vessels. The biggest problem with insulin resistance is that it can turn into diabetes or metabolic syndrome. 

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/21510-diabetic-feet

https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/01.cir.0000091257.27563.32

What else can help alleviate insulin resistance? Exercise and the goal of reaching an ideal weight are both extremely helpful ways to overcome metabolic disease related to insulin resistance. Daily exercise expends the quick energy reserves in the human body and opens them up for more storage. Simply walking for an hour-a-day can do wonders for both weight control and glucose control. The great thing about exercise combined with eating a balanced, well-planned diet is that the combination, usually results in weight loss. Weight loss alone can help alleviate insulin resistance. Humans have a choice in the way some diseases can develop. We can sit back and be victims of our lifestyle of choice or we can take the bull by the horns and be an active participant in our health and the trajectory of our future health. The choice is ours and ours alone.