What is Insulin Resistance?

Understanding insulin resistance is essential for taking control of your health and improving your metabolic well-being. In this blog post, we’ll break down the basics of insulin resistance through a four-part video series narrated by Insulin IQ cofounder Jack Hadley. Each video dives into a specific aspect of this critical topic, helping you understand the causes, impacts, and actionable solutions for reversing insulin resistance.

Part 1: Why is Insulin So Important?

In this introductory clip, Jack Hadley takes you on a journey to understand the critical role of insulin in the body, why it is essential for good health, and how insulin resistance develops.

Insulin isn’t just a medication for people with diabetes—it’s a vital hormone produced by your pancreas that helps your cells use glucose (sugar from food) for energy. Jack explains how insulin acts like a key, unlocking the energy your cells need to function. This process keeps your blood sugar balanced and stores excess glucose as fat for future energy use. Without insulin, our bodies couldn’t function properly.

But what happens when your cells stop responding to insulin? That’s when insulin resistance begins—a condition where your body requires more and more insulin to deliver energy to cells. Over time, this leads to hyperinsulinemia, a state of chronically high insulin levels in the blood. Jack draws a powerful analogy, likening this to alcohol tolerance: the more exposure your body has, the more resistant it becomes, requiring higher amounts to achieve the same effect.

Insulin resistance doesn’t just sound alarming; it’s the foundation of many chronic diseases, including type 2 diabetes. Jack highlights how this condition disrupts metabolic health, diminishes quality of life, and contributes to severe illnesses over time. Understanding insulin resistance is the first step toward preventing and managing its harmful consequences.

Part 2: What Causes Insulin Resistance?

In part two, we dive into the root cause of insulin resistance and uncover how the foods and drinks we consume directly impact our metabolic health.

Jack begins with a recap of the basics: insulin resistance occurs when your insulin levels are chronically high, and your cells no longer respond effectively to insulin. But what triggers this state? The answer is simple yet profound—too much insulin in the bloodstream, primarily caused by the overconsumption of certain foods and drinks.

Did you know your body is designed to handle only about one teaspoon of sugar in your entire bloodstream at any given time? Jack illustrates how sugary beverages like soda and carb-heavy foods like muffins and pizza overwhelm this delicate balance. Consuming these foods causes massive blood sugar spikes, forcing the pancreas to release large amounts of insulin to bring sugar levels down. This repeated cycle—meal after meal, day after day—has significant consequences.

Jack breaks down four key outcomes of excess insulin over time:

1. Weight gain becomes unavoidable.
2. Constant hunger intensifies.
3. Fat release from cells is inhibited, trapping energy in storage mode.
4. Insulin resistance develops, setting the stage for chronic disease.

Part 3: How Were We Misled About Fat?

Jack uncovers the history of mainstream nutritional advice and explains how decades of flawed science and misleading guidance have contributed to the global epidemics of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and chronic disease.

Jack begins by addressing a common question: Why don’t we hear more about the benefits of a low-carb lifestyle from our doctors or in mainstream recommendations? The answer lies in a 60-year history of nutritional misinformation. Following President Eisenhower’s 1955 heart attack, research by Ancel Keys linked dietary fat to heart disease. This research, though flawed, became the foundation of U.S. nutritional guidelines. By the 1980s, the anti-fat message was so deeply entrenched that it overpowered emerging evidence showing that reducing fat while increasing carbohydrates did not reduce heart disease.

Jack walks viewers through how the food industry capitalized on this message, flooding grocery stores with “low-fat” and “fat-free” products. However, these foods replaced fat with carbohydrates and sugar, creating a perfect storm for metabolic dysfunction. From granola marketed as “heart-healthy” to non-fat yogurts and reduced-fat snacks, the narrative led consumers astray while obesity and diabetes rates soared.

Part 4: Food: The Culprit and the Cure

In this last part, Jack explores the empowering truth that the very foods contributing to insulin resistance can also be the solution. This isn’t about deprivation or fads—it’s about understanding how dietary choices directly impact your insulin levels and metabolic health.

Jack begins with a relatable breakfast example: a muffin and orange juice—a typical high-carb meal—versus a low-carb alternative like an omelet with bacon, cheese, and avocado. He explains how high-carb foods spike blood sugar, requiring large amounts of insulin to bring levels down. In contrast, low-carb meals stabilize blood sugar and require much less insulin, helping to prevent and reverse insulin resistance.

The benefits of adopting a low-carb approach go beyond blood sugar control. Jack outlines four key advantages:

1. Weight loss becomes easier.
2. Constant hunger fades away.
3. Energy levels increase.
4. Your body becomes “fat-adapted,” learning to efficiently burn stored fat for energy instead of relying on carbs.

The video concludes with one simple question to guide your eating habits: “How will eating this affect my insulin?” By keeping insulin levels low, you can reclaim your health, reverse insulin resistance, and enjoy a vibrant, energetic life.

We hope this four-part video has been helpful. Share what you’ve learned with a friend, loved one, coworker or neighbor!