our bones impact insulin sensitivity
In 2007, groundbreaking research shocked the scientific community by revealing that our skeleton, via the vitamin K2–dependent protein osteocalcin, has a significant impact on our body's production and sensitivity to insulin. With that radical discovery, our perception of the skeleton makes a quantum leap from it being an inert scaffolding to it being a dynamic endocrine gland. Writing in the prestigious journal Cell, researchers explained that osteocalcin, produced within our bones, has the capacity to improve the body's glucose tolerance. And that makes vitamin K2 critical for preventing an illness of epidemic proportions: insulin-resistant diabetes.
Lee NK, Sowa H, Hinoi E, et al. Endocrine regulation of energy metabolism by the skeleton. Cell 2007, 130(3): 456–69.)
chromium & vanadyl
A powerful intervention to controlling your blood sugar is to take 400 to 1,000 mcg of chromium picolinate daily with 25 to 100 mg of vanadyl sulfate, ideally at the same time you eat carbohydrates. These minerals lower the blood sugar spike that occurs after meals, even if you have healthy blood sugar levels. In diabetic animals, vanadyl sulfate lowers blood glucose, cholesterol, and triglyceride levels.10 And chromium reduces glucose levels and insulin resistance to help prevent type 2 diabetes. These supplements are quite affordable, but evidence suggests taking higher doses than the government recommends.
Patrick Poucheret et al., “Vanadium and Diabetes,” Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry 188, no. 1–2 (November 1998): 73–80, https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006820522587.
Henry C. Lukaski, “Lessons from Micronutrient Studies in Patients with Glucose Intolerance and Diabetes Mellitus: Chromium and Vanadium,” U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, November 8, 2000, https://ods.od.nih.gov/pubs/conferences/lukaski_abstract.html.)
high-glycemic post workout meals
Glycemic load is a term that describes the effect of food on blood sugar. The higher the glycemic load, the more it spikes your blood sugar and insulin. There has been a growing public awareness to the glycemic factor and how it affects our health. Nevertheless, this has been one of the most misunderstood issues, particularly in the area of sport nutrition. One of the most common fallacies is that high-glycemic protein meals promote muscle gain. Commercial protein products are often packed with a high sugar content, claiming to deliberately spike insulin and thereby promote muscle gain. It has been speculated that since insulin is an anabolic hormone, it will promote protein deposit in the muscle when overspiked. That’s the idea … but that’s not what happens in real life.
In real life, high-glycemic protein meals are countereffective to your muscle. There are two reasons why:
First, exercise causes temporary disruption in glucose utilization in your muscle. That’s due to muscle microtrauma (the wear and tear of the muscle tissue). Hence, right after exercise, your muscle can’t tolerate high-glycemic meals.
Second, high-glycemic meals impair your insulin, disrupt your muscle mTOR, and shatter your muscle protein synthesis. mTOR is the biological mechanism that builds your muscle, and it can’t be fully activated when your insulin is insensitive
Chronic intake of high-glycemic meals has been shown to cause hyperinsulinemia, a condition in which insulin is chronically overspiked. Hyperinsulinemia has been linked to uncontrollable fat gain as well as irreversible damage to insulin receptors and devastation of the muscular system.