What will age you faster than almost anything, and bring on a raft of mid-life illnesses that rob us of good health? It seems the single-most important health variable is fasting blood sugar level, and with that, our level of fasting insulin. In today’s western life-culture the skyrocketing level of obesity and metabolic syndrome is forcing all involved in the health field to reassess what constitutes good blood sugar regulation and what fasting blood sugar levels, and fasting insulin levels, ought to be for real life-long health.

The July ’13 issue of Life Extension Magazine has an important analysis of the current standards for these test levels and how they are connected to most of the so-called diseases of aging. The analysis shows that out of over 10,000 Life Extension members/readers, and these are people with a strong interest in living disease-free, who had their blood tested for fasting glucose and insulin levels, 66% had insulin levels greater than 5uIU/mL (micro International Units per milliliter). When blood sugar is below 83 mg/dL, insulin productions should be shut down completely, but in metabolic syndrome, and conditions of insulin resistance, the pancreas keeps producing it, and this is the major underlying cause of the negative outcomes associated with hypertension, chronic inflammation, artery diseases, low HDL, type II diabetes, obesity and cancer.

I want my readers to read this article and understand the importance of these numbers to the aging process. The article does a great job of linking current dietary patterns to these negative outcomes, and strategies for modifying diet to eliminate or reverse these conditions. It offers solutions that can change the course of our lives for the better. Read this important article.

We have been told for the last 5 decades that carbohydrates burn clean and are what we should eat the most of, while fats are bad and the enemy of good health. But these study results show that every time we raise our blood sugar by eating, some level of cumulative damage follows. The higher the spike, the more damage done. Therefore, the proper approach to feeding should be to eat such that blood sugar and insulin rise the least. To me this means plenty of low carb, low starch, high fiber vegetables, wild caught seafood, grass fed livestock, free range poultry and eggs, and in-season berries and fruit. If we jettison the idea of snacking entirely, drink plain water only between meals and eliminate most things with sugar and flour, we should live far healthier lives.

There is another article in the July issue that goes hand-in-hand with the first, and it features a new product that can aid in this effort to control blood sugar and insulin levels: Learn about this blood sugar control tool.

Good Living – Frank