When insulin is chronically elevated, more problems arise. Fat gain and ultimately obesity are merely one symptom of this condition, known as hyperinsulinemia. I would argue that they are hardly even the most serious symptoms: as we’ll see in the coming chapters, insulin is also a potent growth-signaling hormone that helps foster both atherosclerosis and cancer. And when insulin resistance begins to develop, the train is already well down the track toward type 2 diabetes, which brings a multitude of unpleasant consequences.
