Dr. Boz [Annette Bosworth, MD] - The Secret to Lowering Stubborn Blood Sugar

Introduction

Despite three decades later and an advanced degree in nursing, she was a hundred pounds overweight, struggling with high blood pressure, and had no idea why it was so hard for her to lose weight. Michelle's first diet started in high school: a strict calorie deficit diet where she skipped breakfast, had a salad for lunch, and then did enough aerobic exercise for the math to work. She needed less calories in than she was eating. The beautiful marketing of low-fat labels misled her like everybody else, telling folks they were heart healthy. From juicing to counting points, she would lose some weight only to gain it all back and then some.

Life-long dieting

Michelle was gifted the book Keto Continuum and took a deeper dive into metabolic health. She started checking her sugars, expecting them to be what they'd always been: normal. The harsh truth kept blinking back at her. Every time she checked her sugars, she knew that a healthy person's sugar was at least under 100, and the best numbers were under 80. But even after 12 hours of not eating, her blood sugars were hovering around 100. Determined to be right, she kept checking and checking and checking as the numbers stayed the same.

The harsh truth was that she was insulin resistant. Her blood sugars were not going to sink until that problem was fixed, despite every one of her blood checks from the doctor being normal. It was only after she started checking her sugars at home that she was able to face this awful truth: she had undiagnosed insulin resistance. She didn't wait for her doctor to start fixing this. She ordered the workbook Keto Continuum and started following those steps. She lost 30 pounds in the next four months.

Beginning food list

So what did she eat, and how did she change her food to reverse the insulin resistance? Let's review the rules of what I recommend when someone is struggling with insulin resistance. Yes, the ketogenic diet is going to help, but specifically if your sugars aren't dropping below 100, this is what your fridge needs to start with.

Number one: eggs. You cannot go wrong by adding eggs to the ketogenic diet. The biggest pushback I have when recommending eggs is from those who might have an egg allergy. I remind them that, especially if you're insulin resistant, the yolk is what you're after, and most of the time an egg allergy is to the egg whites. You're going to find plenty of ways to get the protein higher in a ketogenic diet with the egg. Lean towards the egg yolk, using most of that if you're insulin resistant.

Number two is fatty meat. That means bacon, sausage, pepperoni, and a marbled steak. All of those meats are high in fat, and what that does to an insulin resistant patient is talk to your satiety center. It suppresses your hunger, and this is a key factor for those who are insulin resistant.

Types of Meat

Number three is butter. Not only is this great to cook your eggs with and maybe fry up some of that meat with, but it's also an excellent addition to your coffee. Butter adds short chain fatty acids to the diet, which increases your overall ketones. So especially at the beginning, and if you're insulin resistant, this is a double thumbs up.

Butter

Next we have canned fish. If you've followed me long enough, you know that I love adding sardines to the menu, but you can also add salmon or other canned fish. If you don't like the texture of fish, consider adding some olive oil. Not only does that improve the texture, but it adds fat to the diet, which is really critical for those with insulin resistance, especially at the early stages of the ketogenic diet.

Canned meat

Next is some hard cheese. A perfect example of this is Parmesan. Not only is this one of my favorite cheeses because it doesn't go bad very fast, but it also has a great flavor and a high fat content, again critical for those with insulin resistance.

Kinds of cheese

The next two items I like to mix together: heavy whipping cream with a supplement of ketones in a can, as well as the powdered MCT C8/C10. This combination is not only great on the palate, but especially for patients with insulin resistance who struggle. You want to increase the circulating ketones in their body, and it can be very difficult to do this when you have insulin resistance. Using these supplements for this audience has turned out to be a lifesaver, keeping them on the diet long enough to get those results. Without the supplement, eventually people give up.

Cream and supplements

You can hardly brag about the ketogenic diet without adding some high fatty nuts. My favorite ones are pine nuts and macadamia nuts, so put those on the list, but notice they're at the bottom.

Types of nuts

The final recommendation is that for insulin resistant patients, there's obviously no sugar on the list, but there are also no sugar substitutes. The only exception to that is when I'm adding ketones to their circulation. These sugar substitutes, especially in an insulin resistant patient, tend to raise their blood sugars, and the less of that you do, the faster you will heal from this problem.

No sugar

That's the list. If you have insulin resistance and you're trying to do the ketogenic diet, it can be a little rough. The key to success is staying the course. I've helped lots of people reverse their insulin resistance. If you're trying to do that, check out this food guide, which will get you the good, better, and best foods to help you. If you're looking for the playlist for beginners, click here.