The Good Gut: Taking Control of Your Weight, Your Mood, and Your Long-term Health

by Justin Sonnenburg

It is the simple sugars used for sweetening and the easily digested starches that have given carbohydrates a bad name. These “bad” simple carbohydrates cause blood sugar to spike soon after consumption. The body responds to high blood sugar by releasing insulin, allowing cells in the liver, muscles, and fat to absorb the circulating sugar. Insulin also prevents the body from using fat as energy until all the sugar has been either used up or stored away in the form of glycogen. If blood sugar levels are constantly elevated, say from a diet high in simple carbohydrates, insulin-responsive cells become resistant to insulin. These cells become desensitized to the constant high levels of insulin and begin to ignore it—a common step in the progression of type 2 diabetes. The outcome of this desensitization is dangerously high blood glucose levels that can result in heart disease, stroke, and kidney failure.