FOOD & SUPPS
HORMONE OPTIMISATION:
THE ROLE OF INSULIN &
CARBOHYDRATES
AS MUCH AS THIS MAY BE
a mental break…Particularly for
competitive athletes, this can have
a suppressive effect on our immune
function, lower testosterone, and
lower insulin sensitivity this is not
to say we cannot enjoy ourselves.
So how do we bring our hormones
back on line and what has actually
occurred during a time of over
indulgence.
Insulin is an anabolic hormone that
helps us store energy in muscle, the
liver, or fat cells. The term nutrient
partitioning really describes the
action of where we store this
energy. What, when and how we eat
has a great influence on this and so
does our genetics. As bodybuilders,
we want to drive as much of our
nutrient energy into our muscles
and liver to be stored effectively for
use later when we are training hard
in the gym.
For optimum nutrient partitioning
we want to be as sensitive to insulin
as possible. The sensitivity means
we produce less insulin from the
pancreas, and that insulin is in
effect more potent. Less is needed
to do the same job so not over
working the pancreas. This results
in energy being more readily stored
as glycogen in our liver & muscles
not our fat cells or giving us high
blood sugar levels.
54
FLEX | FEBRUARY 2018
BY
JOHN
BUCKLAND
Bsc HONS
SPORT
SCIENCE,
PHYSIOLOGY &
NUTRITION
JEFFREYRASMUSSEN,
THE LIKELIHOOD OF US OVER INDULGING WITH
STRESS AND GENERAL LIFE IS QUITE HIGH, AND
HAVING A BREAK OR RELAXING OUR EATING
HABITS IS PSYCHOLOGICALLY BENEFICIAL,
WATCHING EVERYTHING WE PUT IN OUR
DIGESTIVE SYSTEM CAN BE DEMANDING.
Damaging Insulin Sensitivity
Sugary foods damage our insulin
sensitivity, these are the highly
glycaemic foods that spike our
blood sugar level and cause us to
produce huge amounts of insulin.
Our cells quickly become insensitive
or blind to insulin so we produce
more, this also causes storage of
nutrient energy in our fat cells. The
more we do this, the more we
condition our bodies become to
store energy in fat, when these
cells are full we make new fat cells
which is an enzymatic pathway for
converting dietary carbohydrate
into fat, or de novo lipogenesis*
and as a side note, the capacity to
convert fats into carbohydrates
does not exist.
As you can now see the more
sugary the food and the larger the
quantity the more likely we are to
store fat and ruin our nutrient