When it comes to helping blood sugar, we mainly think about limiting the intake of carbs. Eating carbs triggers insulin for most people, but that isn’t universal. A new study has found that insulin-triggering nutrients vary from person to person, and personalized nutrition strategies may help people manage their blood sugar.
The study was the first large-scale comparison of how different people produce insulin in response to eating carbs, protein and fats. The researchers found that insulin reactions are much more individualized than believed, and some people are hyper-responsive to fatty foods.
“Glucose is the well-known driver of insulin, but we were surprised to see such high variability, with some individuals showing a strong response to proteins, and others to fats, which had never been characterized before,” said senior author Dr. James Johnson, a professor of cellular and physiological sciences at the Univ. of British Columbia. “Insulin plays a major role in human health, in everything from [blood sugar concerns], where it is too low, to obesity, weight gain and even some forms of cancer, where it is too high. These findings lay the groundwork for personalized nutrition that could transform how we treat and manage a range of conditions.”
In the study, most pancreatic cells had the strongest insulin response to carbs. However, nine percent responded strongly to protein, and eight percent reacted more strongly to fat than anything else — beating out even straight sugar.
“This research challenges the long-held belief that fats have negligible effects on insulin release in everyone,” says first author Dr. Jelena Kolic, a research associate in Dr. Johnson’s lab.
She said this research could be the first step to helping people make tailored dietary guides to manage their blood sugar and meet their health goals. If you knew exactly what foods set off your body’s insulin response, you could eat a specifically honed diet to keep your blood sugar in check. The study was looking at how cells responded to macronutrients. The next step in the research is to move into clinical studies in a real-world setting.
This could be the missing information for everyone who has ever cut out carbs and not seen a difference in their numbers. For some people, a protein-rich diet could be beneficial to their blood sugar. But for others, it might cause setbacks of its own. For some folks, reducing fat could help more than limiting carbs.
If you have limited carbs and haven’t seen any changes in your blood sugar, you may want to discuss this study with your doctor. It might be worth exploring whether carbohydrates are the problem or if another macronutrient is upsetting your system. Together, you can create a plan to help you manage your blood sugar concerns.
