How you can use food to reduce that stubborn belly fat

Last episode might have caused some mild panic when I shared how common insulin resistance is, but don't sweat it! I've got some fantastic news for you, and it involves the three magical words we all love: food, food, and more food! Now, listen up because I'm about to dish out some tasty tidbits. We're going to chat about the troublemakers that worsen insulin resistance (yep, they're on the "avoid" list), and then we'll dive into some of the edible goodness that can actually fix it.

TIMESTAMPS
00:25 Recap of insulin resistance
01:00 Foods that cause insulin resistance
03:27 How you can use food to reduce insulin resistance
05:30 Probiotics and insulin resistance
06:36 Are you ready to accept the challenge?
08:44 Freebie recipe book

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Here's the episode link to share when you hear some muppet talking about cutting out vegetables in the name of health.

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*A weirdly specific number, yes. A study of >5000 women in NZ found that most of them weren't eating enough of the foods we know help make the best babies. For more of a shocker, a similar study in Australia showed that 0% were eating ideally (even though two-thirds of them thought they were!)

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👌🏼25 Simple Things to Curb Your Cravings with PCOS

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Oh Goodness! Nutrition is an evidence-based dietitian practice. However, given the general nature of the content presented on this podcast, it can not replace individualised medical advice. Get yo'self a professional (psst, lik...

Transcript

Fixing Insulin Resistance through Food

[00:00:00] Can insulin resistance be reversed? The short answer: yes. Welcome to the I'm Thinking of Having a Baby podcast. I'm Hannah, a fertility dietician, who with the power of food helps get your hormones in check and create your dream family faster. I'll be talking about foods to avoid to reduce insulin resistance Plus those foods get plenty of. Let's get eating!

[00:00:25] As covered in our previous episode, insulin resistance is when your body's cells become less responsive to insulin, which can lead to high blood sugar levels and other health issues in particular, infertility. It's not entirely clear what causes it, but there is some evidence that your gut microbiome could be to blame. 

[00:00:44] Basically, if you're eating a lot of processed foods, sugar, and fat, it can mess up your gut bacteria and make it easier for toxins to leak into your bloodstream. That leads to inflammation, making it harder for your body to use insulin properly. 

[00:00:58] All [00:01:00] right. Let's dive deeper into the foods that can make insulin resistance worse. Instead of pointing fingers at one specific food, although that's very tempting. I want to focus on foods that can have a negative impact on insulin resistance, avoiding just one food won't make a huge difference, but cutting back on certain food groups can definitely have the positive effect that you're aiming for. 

[00:01:21] So, what are these food groups that your body won't say thank you for. First up: processed foods, you know, the stuff that comes in boxes or through a car window in a paper bag. Think about those items with a long list of ingredients that barely resemble anything that grows in the ground or on a tree. 

[00:01:37] Mmm imagine Tim Tam tree. 

[00:01:40] These ultra-processed foods tend to be high in sugar, salt, saturated fat, and really low in fiber. It's a perfect recipe for insulin resistance to rear its ugly head. Now let's be real here. We cannot completely avoid these foods. And honestly, we don't want to either for the rest of our lives. 

[00:01:57] But we definitely can cut back on them. We can find [00:02:00] ways to enjoy snacks, meals, and beverages made with fewer ingredients. Most of which we can actually recognize and identify. 

[00:02:07] Next on the list is sugar. We talking about whether it's natural or artificial, it is the likes of maple syrup, honey agave, and coconut sugar. Even in its natural form sugar can still cause our blood sugar levels to spike. And when it comes to sweeteners like Stevia or the artificial ones, they don't affect blood sugar levels, but they do give our insulin levels a kick as our brain signals our tummies to get ready for that sweet taste. All importantly, they mess with the diversity of our gut bacteria. And guess what you got it that has a link to the development of insulin resistance. 

[00:02:41] Now let's talk about fats. Some types of fats can directly make insulin resistance worse. We're talking about saturated and trans fats found in things like butter, cream, lard shortening, and Palm oil and anything made from those. 

[00:02:56] On the other hand, there are fats that may actually help reduce insulin [00:03:00] resistance like the unsaturated fats found in olive oil, sunflower, canola and so on. Now, keep in mind that the total amount of fat we consume does matter. At the end of the day, fat is fat and it's pretty calorie-dense. It's more than double the calories than carbs and protein. 

[00:03:17] Since excess fat can worsen your insulin resistance we want to make sure that regardless of our diet and how much fat we're having and what kind of fat with not slowly getting fatter. 

[00:03:27] Despite the effect that diet has on your gut bugs, inflammation and therefore insulin resistance. The good news is that one way you can reduce your insulin resistance or avoid it entirely is to simply eat more plants. 

[00:03:40] Didn't see that one coming from a dietician. Did yah. 

[00:03:43] Why plants well, plants contain fiber. In fact, only plants contain fiber. Your gut bacteria adore them. So eating foods like whole grains, veggies, fruits, nuts, and seeds and legumes. Basically, you're writing a love letter to your gut bugs, showing them how [00:04:00] much you care. When your gut bacteria eat this fiber, they produce something called short chain, fatty acids. You don't have to remember that. 

[00:04:07] They strengthen your cell barriers and reduce inflammation. That helps your gut heal. And makes it easier for your body to use insulin. So just by showing a little TLC to your gut bugs, they in turn, shower you with gifts of short-chain fatty acids. Which make you a healthier, happier, more fertile you. 

[00:04:28] On the other hand, if you're eating a lot of processed foods and artificial sweeteners in your beverages, it's been shown to make your gut bacteria less diverse. Which leads to more problems. Okay. So get this, those trendy short-term diets can actually mess with your gut bacteria. Like if you're doing one of those diets where you only eat animal products, or you're eating a ton of protein, but barely any fiber because you've cut out grains, most fruit, beans. It can totally throw things off. Basically those diets can [00:05:00] cause an increase in Bacteroides, and a decrease in Firmicutes two types of bacteria species which is not great news for your colon health in the long run. 

[00:05:08] So while those diets might help with weight loss in the short term, they're definitely not the best option for your overall well-being, especially in the long term. So trying to focus on eating whole plant-based foods as much as possible is definitely the way to go. Before we get into how you can actually do that let's just chat a tiny bit about probiotics. Do they help with insulin resistance? 

[00:05:30] We've got some interesting findings to share about probiotics and their effect on insulin resistance. There's been a bunch of research that's been done. However, most of it is in animals. Of the 27 recent studies done on animals it does show that certain probiotics, lactobacillus, bifidobacterium, Clostridium, and Akkermansia can really help with insulin resistance. They can reduce it. 

[00:05:54] They also improved other markers of well-being, like reducing blood cholesterol, inflammation, [00:06:00] and improving the diversity of gut bacteria. Remember though, these are animal studies. And the seven human studies that there are, the results were a lot more mixed. Five of those studies showed benefits and two showed absolutely no effect at all. 

[00:06:15] What does this mean? We don't have a guarantee that probiotics is easy as they add a take will fix insulin resistance in humans. However, animal studies do give us hope for further research. It's likely that we'll need to combine probiotics with other things like a healthy lifestyle to really see added benefits. 

[00:06:36] Probiotics are unlikely to cause harm, but there's also limited proof that they make a difference. What's the best thing to do? Change up your food. So, how can you do that? Like, Actually do that. Well, let's do a quick check-in. And based on your results, I've got a couple of challenges for you. The first thing, how many handfuls of vegetables are you eating? Every day, [00:07:00] including the weekends. Now, when I say vegetables, I'm meaning every colorful veg you can think of. Not counting potato, kumara and corn. If some days you're eating three handfuls and other days you're eating one, go with the lowest number. 

[00:07:17] Now if you are eating less than five handfuls a day make that your goal. That's your first challenge. Here are some ways you can inch towards having your five handfuls a day. Focus on your weekend. Is it letting you down? Can you include veggies with your brunch or a vegetarian meal if you eat out? 

[00:07:37] Can you challenge yourself each meal to add just one extra vege? Rattle your brain and think, okay. What's something else I can throw in here? Tossing a handful of green leaves onto your plate before you serve up the main dish can help. Cause then you sort of hide the village and it doesn't just become like a mouthful of spinach leaves. 

[00:07:56] Choose a veggie instead of a fruit as a snack is another one. [00:08:00] 

[00:08:00] All right. So if you are nailing the five handfuls a day, well done. Here's the second thing. How many different types of plants are you eating each week? If you count up every plant that you have across the day. Is it close to 30 because that's what we're aiming for. 

[00:08:18] For example, this morning, I had oats with apple cinnamon and LSA, which has linseed, sunflower and almond. That's six different plant foods without really trying. Don't worry about the quantity here. We're focusing on variety. And variety matters because those gut bugs were nurturing while there are lots of different types of them. And they love variety. It is the spice of life after all. 

[00:08:44] As always, if you want more inspo for increasing the quantity and quality of plants in your life, so you can reap all of the benefits. Go ahead and download the recipe booklet I created just for this episode. With plenty of things for you to try. The link is in the show notes. [00:09:00] 

[00:09:00] Thanks for listening to today's episode. If you have any questions or comments, shoot us an email or a DM on Instagram. And make sure to tune in next time, we will be talking about how leotards and lycra can beat insulin resistance. I can't wait!