Nutrition Tips for High Cholesterol, Blood Pressure, and Insulin Resistance
The purpose of this article is to discuss the relationship between high cholesterol, blood pressure and insulin resistance, and give the reader some simple nutrition tips they can use to improve their health.
High blood pressure is one of the most common issues I see with many of my clients. The doctor says that their blood pressure is too high, and now they need to take statins or some other blood pressure medication to manage it. For many of these folks, this may be the first time they are potentially looking at being on medication long term, or just another addition to a list of medications that they are already on. It is often assumed that the person will always have high blood pressure and therefore may be on these medications for the rest of their life.
Not to say that it is never appropriate to use these medications, but many people come to me looking for another option. While it is always up to the discretion of the doctor and patient to decide what is best for them in these situations, there is no reason not to use nutrition to help combat this issue.
The key to addressing high blood pressure is understanding the root cause. Rather than being a symptom in isolation, it is often accompanied by other issues. Usually, the next issue will be high cholesterol, followed by the beginning stages of insulin resistance. This starts with hyperinsulinemia, then leads to prediabetes.
Cardiovascular disease is the number one killer in North America. For a long time, it was seen that high blood pressure, cholesterol, stroke, and heart disease were unrelated to insulin resistance. Therefore, if you had issues with cardiovascular disease, you went to see the cardiologist, and if you had insulin-related issues, you saw an endocrinologist.
Starting in the 1980s, a group of doctors from Arizona State began to see the relationship between cardiovascular disease and insulin resistance. They named this Syndrome X, which later became known as metabolic syndrome. No longer were these seen as separate issues requiring different experts, but as symptoms of a single source, needing a more holistic view to address it.
Symptoms of Syndrome X: Metabolic Syndrome
Cardiovascular/Heart Disease
High Blood Pressure (Hypertension)
Low HDL cholesterol, high LDL, and triglycerides
Insulin Resistance (Hyperinsulinemia becomes diabetes)
Obesity
Stroke
Also related: PCOS, Atherosclerosis, Elevated IGF1
How Insulin Works
The first step is understanding how these symptoms are related. Let us first begin with understanding how insulin works in the body. Rather than getting super technical, I will describe it in terms that most people can understand.
Think of insulin as the key that opens up the cell so that blood sugar can get in. Blood sugar is like fuel for the fire of our cells (our mitochondria) so that they can produce energy for our body. When we consume something with carbs, our pancreas secretes the hormone insulin. Insulin travels through the body, unlocking the cells so that the blood sugar can get into the cell to fuel it.
If our blood sugar gets too low, we experience a crash of energy as we are now lacking fuel. When it gets too high, and the blood sugar stays in the blood instead of going into the cell, it causes stress to the walls of our arteries, veins, and capillaries. That is why we need to have healthy insulin sensitivity, to ensure that the sugar doesn't stay in our bloodstream and that it goes into the cell.
How is Diabetes related?
What happens when we eat super carbohydrate-rich diets or lots of sugar? At first, our body does what it's supposed to do. It secretes a large amount of insulin so that all the sugar goes into the cell. After a while, though, the body gets used to secreting large amounts of insulin every time you eat. So even if you eat something low in carbs, you still get a big insulin dump. Too much insulin released now leads to your blood sugar dropping too low, and you get lethargic. This is when we start becoming hyperinsulinemic.
Over time, your body starts to become desensitized to all of the insulin. It is like drinking coffee for the first time. At first, a small cup gets you wired. Over time, however, you start increasing the amount of coffee you drink, and your body loses sensitivity to it. Some folks get to the point where they drink a quad shot latte just to feel normal, when before a small weak cup of coffee could keep them energized. Just like building a tolerance to caffeine or other substances, our body becomes desensitized to insulin. This is where we start going towards prediabetes, and eventually type 2 diabetes.
Cholesterol and Insulin Resistance
How does this relate to blood pressure and cholesterol? For a long time, the dietary fad was to avoid eating fat, as cholesterol was made from fat and it was assumed eating fat led to obesity. Like with most things, the current science is always 10 years ahead of what is done in practice. Today we now see the flaw in this way of thinking, and it is now popular to eat fats again. The trend is now towards avoiding bad fats like hydrogenated oils, and debating over what fats are the good ones.
We found that with high cholesterol, the issue wasn’t eating too much fat, but that the cholesterol which was clogging up people's arteries was a response to insulin resistance. Since high sugar in the bloodstream causes damage to the tissue within the blood vessels, the body responds to that damage by patching it up. Inflamed tissues are patched up with cholesterol. It is like finding a leak in your plumbing and patching the pipe from the inside with some putty. Over time, the patches of cholesterol make the blood vessels smaller. Imagine pumping 100 gallons per minute through a fire hose, then filling the inside of that hose with putty so now that it is half the size, but still pumping out the same amount of water. This in turn increases the pressure of the hose, or blood pressure in our body. So the issue isn’t just avoiding bad fats, but correcting insulin resistance.
Nutrition Tips
When I look towards addressing high cholesterol, blood pressure, and insulin resistance, the first question I ask myself is what nutrients are needed to make insulin go into the cell. Through looking at the client's dietary history and potential nutrient deficiencies, we identify what nutrients we might need to supplement or increase in the diet. The next step is looking at the glycemic index of different foods.
The glycemic index is the amount by which certain foods will make your blood sugar spike. Certain foods like sweets and baked goods often cause a fast blood sugar spike, while others like protein-rich foods cause a slow, gradual spike in your blood sugar. The slower and more gradual the spike, the more time your body has to regulate your blood sugar. Rather than a huge insulin dump all at once leading to a crash in blood sugar not long afterwards, you now have a slow, gradual secretion of insulin, putting that blood
sugar to work as it is needed.
Low Glycemic Index Foods
By eating low glycemic index foods, we can ensure we don’t have big spikes in blood sugar and insulin. There are many lists online that show the glycemic index of certain foods. A good rule of thumb is that the more processed a food is, the higher the spike it will give you. An example here would be eating an apple versus applesauce. An apple requires more chewing, takes longer to eat typically, and since it comes into your body in larger chunks, it takes longer to digest than applesauce. Since applesauce is cooked down and absorbed into your body much quicker, it spikes your blood sugar much faster. Apple juice will spike your blood sugar the fastest, as it is pretty much pure sugary liquid entering your bloodstream and takes little time to digest.
Protein With Carbs
Since proteins take longer to digest, mixing protein with your carbs is a great way to slow down a blood sugar spike. Maybe you are craving chocolate? Try dipping that chocolate in peanut butter or eating it with some nuts instead. Maybe you love eating rice? Make sure the portion of protein is larger than the amount of rice. My philosophy isn’t to tell people to stop eating their favorite foods, but to think about how much they are eating of those foods and what they mix them with
High Protein Breakfast
This is one of my favorite tips. I know some people don’t eat breakfast, but you should let the first meal of your day be high in protein. The reason for this is that if you start your day out with a sweet or carb-rich breakfast, you are starting your day with a high blood sugar spike. This then leads to a steep crash not long afterwards. The rest of your day you are riding the rollercoaster of getting a quick burst of energy from the carbs followed by a steep crash in energy afterwards.
If you start your day with a high-protein breakfast instead, you now have gradual, sustained energy and avoid the crash altogether. This doesn't mean you have to stop eating carbs; it just means you need to increase the amount of protein with them. For example, if you normally have one egg and two pieces of toast, try doing two or three eggs with one or half a piece of toast instead.
Cardiovascular disease is the number one killer, and the increasing prevalence of insulin resistance and obesity in our culture has people looking for alternatives to our medication-based system. While medications can certainly save lives, they never correct the underlying issue, often nutritional deficiencies, poor diet, excessive stress, and lack of exercise. Until we decide to take control of our lives and seek out other alternatives, we will continue to see this progression of sickness in our society. It is not the fault of people who are struggling with these issues who are just doing what they’ve been told to do and haven’t been presented with any alternatives besides green washed supplement marketing. Going beyond the marketing fads and finding qualified practitioners who are helping people every day combat our modern chronic health issue epidemics is what we need now more than ever.
I hope readers will take this information to enrich their lives and those of their families and communities. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions, and if anyone is looking to go deeper into addressing these issues with themself, feel free to reach out to me anytime.
Take Care,
Logan Keister
Comments