How Insulin Affects Us

Glycemic Index

The glycemic index helps us to understand which foods are best and worst for controlling our blood glucose levels.

When blood glucose levels get too high, insulin is released into the bloodstream by the pancreas to help disperse the glucose. The insulin transports the glucose to cells needing extra energy. The cells have "insulin receptors" positioned so that insulin can bind to them, facilitating glucose entry and utilization in the cells. Once inside the cells, the glucose is burned to produce heat and adenosine triphosyphate, (ATP) a molecule that stores and releases energy as required by the cell.

When cells become less sensitive to the effects of insulin, they accept less glucose, so more glucose than usual remains in the bloodstream. Result? The pancreas over-compensates by working harder and releasing even more insulin. The combination of insulin-insensitivity and insulin over-production typically leads to one of two results:

• Either, the pancreas gets worn out and insulin production slows down to abnormally low levels. Result? We develop type 2 diabetes. (About 30 percent of cases)
• Or, the insulin-resistant patient doesn't develop diabetes (because the pancreas continues to produce sufficient insulin) but, instead, contracts hyperinsulinism (abnormally high levels of insulin in the blood), which can cause chronic obesity as well as high blood pressure, high levels of triglycerides, low HDL (good) cholesterol, heart disease, and possibly some cancers.

Low GI Foods Lead To Lower Insulin Levels

This is why experts are beginning to recognize the health advantages of following a low GI diet. Because lower GI foods are converted into glucose much more slowly, causing less insulin to be produced.

This is not the last word on this subject, by any means. Research into insulin insensitivity and the relationship between insulin levels and obesity is ongoing. However, the overconsumption of high-GI foods (and high-fat fast-food) is a major cause of concern.

The new carbohydrate-classification system known as the Glycemic Index rates the carbohydrate quality in foods according to its immediate effect on blood glucose level. Thus carbs that break down quickly into glucose during digestion, causing a rapid rise in glucose levels, have a High GI value. Those carbs that break down more slowly, are given an Intermediate or Low GI value.

glycemicindex diabetes sugar carbohydrate carbs

ANSWER TO THE CANTERBURY PUZZLE

THE CANTERBURY PUZZLES

1.--_The Reve's Puzzle._

The 8 cheeses can be removed in 33 moves, 10 cheeses in 49 moves, and 21
cheeses in 321 moves. I will give my general method of solution in the
cases of 3, 4, and 5 stools.

Write out the following table to any required length:--

Stools. Number of Cheeses.

3 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Natural Numbers.
4 1 3 6 10 15 21 28 Triangular Numbers.
5 1 4 10 20 35 56 84 Triangular Pyramids.

Number of Moves.

3 1 3 7 15 31 63 127
4 1 5 17 49 129 321 769
5 1 7 31 111 351 1023 2815

The first row contains the natural numbers. The second row is found by
adding the natural numbers together from the beginning. The numbers in
the third row are obtained by adding together the numbers in the second
row from the beginning. The fourth row contains the successive powers of
2, less 1. The next series is found by doubling in turn each number of
that series and adding the number that stands above the place where you
write the result. The last row is obtained in the same way. This table
will at once give solutions for any number of cheeses with three stools,
for triangular numbers with four stools, and for pyramidal numbers with
five stools. In these cases there is always only one method of
solution--that is, of piling the cheeses.

In the case of three stools, the first and fourth rows tell us that 4
cheeses may be removed in 15 moves, 5 in 31, 7 in 127. The second and
fifth rows show that, with four stools, 10 may be removed in 49, and 21
in 321 moves. Also, with five stools, we find from the third and sixth
rows that 20 cheeses require 111 moves, and 35 cheeses 351 moves. But we
also learn from the table the necessary method of piling. Thus, with four
stools and 10 cheeses, the previous column shows that we must make piles
of 6 and 3, which will take 17 and 7 moves respectively--that is, we
first pile the six smallest cheeses in 17 moves on one stool; then we
pile the next 3 cheeses on another stool in 7 moves; then remove the
largest cheese in 1 move; then replace the 3 in 7 moves; and finally
replace the 6 in 17: making in all the necessary 49 moves. Similarly we
are told that with five stools 35 cheeses must form piles of 20, 10, and
4, which will respectively take 111, 49, and 15 moves.

If the number of cheeses in the case of four stools is not triangular,
and in the case of five stools pyramidal, then there will be more than
one way of making the piles, and subsidiary tables will be required. This
is the case with the Reve's 8 cheeses. But I will leave the reader to
work out for himself the extension of the problem.

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