What’s the best diet for insulin resistance?

The complex way our bodies process food and keep us functioning is something many of us don’t have to think about that in-depth – until we do.

Finding out your body is insulin resistant can result in questions ranging from ‘How are insulin, blood sugar and diet related?’ to ‘What, exactly, should I do?’

For answers, we spoke to Beverly Rodgers, a senior clinical dietitian at MD Anderson League City. Ahead, she shares an overview of insulin resistance and tips for using diet and exercise to manage this condition.

What it means to be insulin-resistant

To understand insulin resistance, we need to unpack how a hormone called insulin works.

It can help to think of insulin as a truck and glucose, or sugar, as its cargo. When you eat foods that have carbohydrates or sugars, insulin moves the glucose from those foods from your blood into your cells. Then, that glucose is used to fuel your body.

But for someone who is insulin resistant, it is harder for insulin to transport glucose into the cells – kind of like if the truck had a flat tire. To fight this, the pancreas creates even more insulin. But adding more insulin doesn’t always help get more glucose into the cells, kind of like how sending more trucks with flat tires out on the roads wouldn’t be super helpful for moving cargo.

Over time, your liver can respond to this extra insulin by making more glucose, much like a shipping coordinator who wants to fill all those empty trucks with cargo. This additional glucose changes the glucose balance in the body even more. Your body can turn the extra glucose into fat, which can cause weight gain and obesity.

“It becomes a cycle,” Rodgers says.

Insulin resistance can lead to metabolic syndrome. This condition is marked by health problems including obesity, high blood sugar, high blood pressure, high triglycerides and abnormal cholesterol levels.

Signs of insulin resistance

Insulin resistance can lead to high blood sugar and high blood insulin levels. These can cause symptoms such as:

• Sleepiness
• Increased hunger
• Increased thirst
• Frequent urination

Who is at risk for insulin resistance?

Factors like genetics and body weight can put you at a higher risk for insulin resistance. So, does weight cause insulin resistance or does insulin resistance cause weight gain?

“It probably is a little bit of both,” Rodgers says, sharing two possible theories.

One is that when people are overweight or obese, their fat cells are larger. This makes it harder for insulin to find a receptor site when it brings glucose into cells.

Another has to do with that cycle we mentioned earlier. High insulin levels increase appetite and put the body in a pro-inflammatory state, which can lead to weight gain. And weight can drive insulin resistance.

"It's kind of this slippery slope,” she says.

If your doctor suspects your body is insulin resistant, they may order a blood test to check your blood glucose and blood insulin levels. They may also check your hemoglobin A1C to look at how well your body is metabolizing glucose.

Type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance can be connected. If you have Type 2 diabetes, your doctor will speak to you about ways to manage it, such as lifestyle changes and medication.

“Not everyone who has diabetes has insulin resistance, but most people who have insulin resistance have some form of diabetes,” she says.

Weight loss can help with insulin resistance

A healthy body weight can help you decrease your risk for insulin resistance, as well as chronic diseases and even cancer, Rodgers says.

When a doctor or dietitian recommends losing weight, it can feel overwhelming, frustrating and even sometimes downright impossible. But even losing a little weight can have a huge impact on your overall health.

“The majority of the time, if you're overweight or obese, starting with losing 10% of your body weight makes a huge difference,” she says.

4 tips for eating well with insulin resistance

Rodgers’ dietary advice for someone with insulin resistance is the same advice she gives for many different health concerns.

“When you're talking about what type of diet would be good for insulin resistance, it’s basically just a healthy diet. It's the same for diabetes. It's the same for heart disease. It's the same for decreasing your cancer risk,” she says.

Here are her tips for eating well with insulin resistance.

Choose whole foods

A healthy diet is high in whole foods and low in processed foods.

While eating a healthy diet doesn’t mean following a specific diet, several popular diets focus on eating more whole foods and less processed food.

These include a:

• Plant-based diet
• Mediterranean diet
• DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet

Eat a variety of food groups

A healthy diet is also a balanced diet. This means eating from multiple food groups to ensure your body gets a variety of nutrients. Your diet should include lots of fruits and vegetables, and some protein, fat and carbohydrates.

At mealtime, this might look like filling two-thirds of your plate with whole grains, vegetables, fruits, beans, nuts and seeds. The remaining one-third can be lean animal protein or plant-based protein.

Limit processed foods

Processed foods have been changed from their natural state in some way. Processed foods fall on a spectrum. Some are simply cleaned and packaged. Others are stripped of vitamins, minerals and fiber and filled with sugar and added fats.

Take an apple, for example. An apple is a minimally processed food, while apple juice and shelf-stable apple pie are ultra-processed.

These ultra-processed foods aren’t good choices for those with insulin resistance.

Determine how many calories your body needs

Knowing how many calories your body needs allows you to make informed nutritional decisions rather than simply guesses. Dietitians can help you determine a daily calorie recommendation. Online tools that use factors like your age, height, weight and activity levels can also be helpful starting points for determining how many calories to eat each day.

How exercise helps with insulin resistance

Physical activity can also help people who have insulin resistance. That’s because, during exercise, your muscle cells can take in sugar without the help of insulin, Rodgers explains.

MD Anderson follows the American Institute for Cancer Research’s recommendation of getting at least 150 minutes of exercise each week.

“Exercise is the only other thing that you can do,” she says. “Diet and exercise, whole foods, making sure that you're doing some cardiovascular exercise and trying to increase your lean muscle mass as much as possible."

Request an appointment at MD Anderson online or call 1-877-632-6789.