Are you a fat burner or a sugar burner? The answer to this question has a profound effect on how long you will live, and on how healthy you will be. Our body can burn two types of fuel for energy: fat and sugar. Fat is our most efficient energy source, and under healthy conditions we get most of our energy from fat. Sugar, on the other hand, is the body’s turbo charger: the fuel that we use when we need a sudden burst of energy. Your body is not designed to burn sugar as its primary fuel.
Our health and life span depends largely upon the proportion of fat versus sugar that we burn over our lifetime. The more fat we burn, the healthier we are. The more sugar we burn as fuel, the more disease-ridden and shorter our life will be. Several hormones, insulin / leptin / cortisol / glucagon / resistin / testosterone / epinephrine and norepinephrine, influence the amount of fat and sugar that we burn for fuel. Insulin, produced in the pancreas, is an anabolic hormone which stores fuel in fatty and other tissue for later use. Leptin is derived only from fat cells and works with the hypothalamus to regulate hunger for more or less food or water. Cortisol is the main chronic STRESS hormone produced in the adrenal cortex. It is both anabolic (build up tissue) and catabolic (break down tissue) in that it can store a great deal of fat in the upper part of the body but it can also be destructive when levels are too high and cause the break down of healthy bones, joints and muscles. Cortisol causes the body to burn more sugar rather than fat. Cortisol works directly with T3, active thyroid hormone, to regulate vitality, mood, muscle mass, body temperature, sleep, etc.. Glucagon, produced in the pancreas, balances with insulin levels to help raise blood sugar when glucose blood levels fall too low. Again, its effect is opposite that of insulin which lowers blood sugar levels. Glucagon causes the liver to convert stored glycogen (complex sugar) into glucose which is released into the blood. Resistin resists the effects of insulin. Resistin, like leptin, is a fat derived hormone that is still being researched and studied by scientists. Although it has a bad reputation there is nothing BAD or WRONG with resistin. It is often associated with rising LDL levels. Testosterone builds up tissue like muscle and is indicated as a culprit in many types of tumors and growths such as PCOS, fibrocystic breasts, uterine fibroids, endometriosis, endometrial cancer, uterine polyps, etc… Testosterone is an anabolic steroid hormone produced in the testes / ovaries and adrenal glands. Testosterone levels rise with excess sleep and short bursts of stressful exercise such as weight lifting. Testosterone levels also rise when a person is starving or severely under nourished. Epinephrine and norepinephrine are also called adrenalin and noradrenalin and they are made in the adrenal glands as well as other tissue throughout the body. This is the main fight or flight hormone and is uses sugar and vitamin C and Vitamin P and rutin and tyrosine and tyrosinase and Phenylalanine and Niacin as its main fuel source for production. Because its main fuel source is sugar, it causes blood sugar levels to rise very, very rapidly.
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