A Subject of Intensive Study

    Don't think the mainstream medical profession hasn't noticed the correlation between insulin
resistance and disease. In the past fifteen years-and this is a trend that only keeps building-medical
journals have published studies of the powerful association between obesity-usually
accompanied by hyperinsulinism-and the probability of heart disease or stroke. All around the
world the studies pour in. For example, using data from several epidemiological studies, Dr. B.
Balkau found links between high glucose levels and mortality in thousands of men whose
medical histories had been followed for two decades. Uniformly, high blood-glucose levels and
insulin resistance signified markedly higher risk of death from cardiovascular causes.
    American research points in the same direction. The Bogalusa Heart Study followed four
thousand children and young adults." Even in childhood, a high insulin level corresponded to
higher triglyceride levels and higher VLDL cholesterol-a particularly damaging form of "bad"
LDL cholesterol. Not surprisingly, these associations were even more marked in the overweight.
We'll go over this ground in greater detail in Chapter 27 when I discuss heart health. For now,
just remember a bad diet produces results that are not merely cosmetically unattractive; it flies
the black flag of some of the very worst health catastrophes.
    Ah, but you came to this book for weight loss. All right, let's make crystal clear the connection
between high insulin levels and excess weight.

This Is Why You Can't Lose Weight

    I am about to recount a horror story that might be headlined: Innocent Human Is Turned
Upon By Own Hormones! But we did it to ourselves, you know. Remember, no culture in
world history has ever consumed even a fraction of the sugar we twenty-first-century Westerners
do.
    Perhaps you've been overweight for a long time. Once there was a stage in the progress of
your metabolic disease when you could lose weight pretty easily, if you sharply cut your caloric
intake. You'd gain the pounds back, but at least at the price of hunger, you could shed them
again. Then, although your weight continued to yo-yo up and down, you began to notice that the
yo-yo went up easily, but getting it to fall down again was harder and harder.
    Now maybe you're past even that stage, and you simply cannot drop pounds. If you are,
insulin has really closed the trap. The pancreas, faced with your abuse of simple and refined
carbohydrates, has become so efficient at secreting insulin that just a touch of blood sugar will
release a flood. In response to high insulin levels, your body has become intent on storing fat by
the process I've explained. Group A responders (see pages 34-35) will recognize the role that
excess insulin plays in preventing weight loss by giving you an ongoing sensation of hunger that
can be satisfied only by constant overeating.
Now that you've reached this understanding of the metabolic basis of being overweight,
imagine going into your doctor's office after diligently eating a low-fat diet that was quite
possibly high in sugar and carbs. And imagine being told, "Well, if you just had a little more willpower..." Sad, isn't it? Willpower is not the issue. To lose weight, you're going to need the
controlled carbohydrate nutritional approach offered by this book. You will also need the two
other legs of the Atkins triad: regular exercise and nutritional supplementation.
    I know I've produced a really heart-sinking analysis of how and why fat accumulates on your
body. So, what do you do now? You adjust the insulin spigot. And so far as weight loss goes, the
answer lies in two entwined concepts: burning fat and controlling carbohydrates, which we will
explore in the upcoming chapters.