You need insulin to live - literally - but not too much because it causes damage. Insulin is produced by your pancreas to deliver energy in the form of sugar and fat to your cells. Eating carbohydrates has the greatest impact on your pancreas. The more high glycemic carbohydrates you eat the more insulin the pancreas produces and too much insulin causes health problems.

Insulin is the hormone that causes the body to store fat. When your blood sugar levels rise, the insulin produced by your pancreas causes the excess sugar into fat which are then stored in your fat cells and you gain weight.

If you keep your insulin levels low then your body does not have excess sugar to convert to fat. Instead it uses the stored fat as energy and you lose weight.

Dangers of Insuline

Too much insulin, as we have said, causes weight gain and this leads to an increase in LDL cholesterol, the bad cholesterol increasing the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

• High insulin levels cause the artery walls to grow thicker, leading to more LDL cholesterol, blocked arteries, high blood pressure and heart disease.
• High insulin levels cause the kidneys to function improperly, holding on to salt, retaining water and again increasing the blood pressure.
• Too much insulin also causes inflammation. Increasingly the medical profession is considering inflammation as a causal factor in many diseases ranging from asthma to alzheimers an even some cancers.
• High levels of insulin are implicated in magnesium deficiency. Magnesium deficiency is one of the causes of high blood pressure.
• When a woman's ovaries are exposed to too much insulin then she may develop polycistic ovary syndrome which causes hair loss acne and infertility. It also puts woman at risk for heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
• When insulin levels are high then the levels of the stress hormones, adrenaline and cortisol are also high. Cortisol causes weight gain around your mid section, breaks down muscle so that your metabolism slows down. Cortisol also uses up the brain chemicals called neurotransmitters leaving you more likely to be depressed, suffer from insomnia and feelings of anxiety.

The inevitable conclusion is that a low glycemic diet is not only good for us but is absolutely necessary. We need carbohydrates for the fibre and the nutrients they contain, but we need to control our stress and eat in such a way that our insulin levels remain steady and balanced.