No, not those hormones that we were all taught to fear in high school. The hormones that are directly related to your food and your gut! (and by association, your immune system)
I'll try to keep this to a bare minimum because I know that not a lot of you care about this part. But I promise, it's necessary to understand some of this before I move onto the bigger things (like gluten, legumes, and dairy).
First off: Why is this important? Well, the Whole30 (and paleo in general) has four goals, the second of which being "food you eat should produce a healthy hormonal response" (psychological response was last blog entry). We're going to talk about four in particular:
- Insulin
- Leptin
- Glucagon
- Cortisol
Insulin is a hormone secreted in response to the ingestion of energy, normally carbs. It is basically a "master hormone." Its job is to store macronutrients (protein, fat, carbs). When we eat carbs, they are broken down into simple sugars and leads to a rise in blood sugar. Insulin works to remove glucose out of the bloodstream and move it into storage.
So what can go wrong? When there is too much sugar, the sugar becomes your main source of energy and stored fat doesn't get burned. When your liver and muscle stores are full, the liver converts that extra sugar into saturated fat called "palmitic acid" which can bind and form triglycerides. These two actions together cause increased body fat and increased triglycerides. No bueno!
Leptin is there to help tell your brain how much body fat is stored and regulates energy intake and expenditure. It's trying to maintain "energy balance." Remember, for the majority of our history, humans have had to strive for food. This hormone helped let our bodies know how much fat to hold on to and how much energy we could use to survive.
What can go wrong? When you have excess sugar/glucose and triglycerides in the bloodstream, it impairs your brain's ability to "hear" leptin saying I HAVE ENOUGH FAT, JESUS, I SWEAR I DO. In nicer terms, "leptin resistance" (similar to the idea of insulin resistance).
Keeping up? Good! We're halfway through
Glucagon is the hormone that allows you to access energy you've previously stored. It triggers glycogen in the liver back into glucose and puts it back in the bloodstream for use as energy. Its primary job is to keep blood sugar from getting too low.
What can go wrong? Glucagon can only tell the cells to release the energy if there's not a lot of circulating insulin (when insulin is elevated, it is storing nutrients as fast as possible; energy is more often stored than accessed). So if your body has become insulin resistant, glucagon can't help stabilize blood sugar and access fat for energy. Which means the fat is stored etc blah blah same cycle, different hormone!
AND FINALLY
Cortisol is the stress hormone. How many of you are familiar? Quite a few, I bet. It's secreted from the adrenal glands to help the body recover from acute "fight or flight" syndrome (shout to psych friends again!). Cortisol has a circadian rhythm that works alongside the day/night cycle. It fires up energy early in the morning to kick off your day and slowly die down throughout the day, preparing you for sleep.
What can go wrong? When your body is stressed all the time, your body is releasing cortisol all the time. Elevated cortisol impairs glucose uptake from the bloodstream and enhances glycogen breakdown in the liver, which leads to high blood sugar. It also inhibits insulin secretion from your pancreas! Which also leads to insulin resistance.
Are we starting to see a cycle?
All of your food choices and lifestyle choices tie into your hormones, which tie into your body! I tried to keep this as simple as possible and stick to the bare minimum, so if you have any questions I suggest you read the book! (which I have a FREE COPY OF, you weenies!)
I truly believe that knowing *why* these things are harmful to your body helps you avoid them. When I was just "eating clean" I could walk by a treat (like a Reese's Egg oh my GOD I have been dying) I'd think to myself, Oh it's just one little treat! I deserve it! But now that I understand what it's doing to my body and my gut, my thinking goes more like, Oh my body would not enjoy that at all.... it deserves better than that! Seriously. It becomes much easier.
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