Sugar, Leptin and Overweight: The Vicious Love Triangle.

Leptin was found in 1994. It rose a huge excitement in the over weighted people community worldwide. Finally there was a hormone that explains why we feel hungry or full. Leptin is produced in the fat cells, and it tells the brain weather there is a lack in energy or just enough. Each individual has a Leptin threshold. When the Leptin is below it, the brain will get the signal of lack of energy and them you will become hungry.

If the Leptin is above this threshold, then it signals the brain that there is enough energy in the cell, and no hunger mode is needed. That Leptin “Border” is different from person to person. Scientists believe that this level is given us by our genes. That is why some call Leptin our hunger hormone or the starvation hormone.

That was amazing news to overweighed people. Scientists have found the hormone that makes us hungry or not, and we all know that hormones can be given artificially. So why not using Leptin as Food supplement pill that will make us feel full, so we will eat less and lose weight?!

The reason is that Leptin digestible and it will not enter the bloodstream. You just cannot take it as in a pill form. If you just swallow Leptin it would be like eating any other protein such as beef or chicken, and your stomach will just break it up so it will not absorb it. So all these Leptin supplements you see sold online or on television have misleading name. They do not contain actual Leptin but other ingredients that claim to help improving the leptin performance, or increase the feeling of fullness. Ingredients like soluble fibers that are known for a long time now, and are well known that they can make people feel full.

Researchers found that in obese people there are still high levels of Leptin. That was a surprise to scientists that predicted that in obese people we will find low levels of Leptin since when your level of Leptin is low, you are hungry. And when it is high, you should feel full. Scientists found that the problem in fat or obese people is not the level of Leptin. It is just that the brain will not get the signal. This phenomenon called Leptin resistance. It is when your body tries telling to your brain that it’s full, but the brain just will not get the signal. Your body is full but your brain is starving and that what obesity is!

Ok so you might get it by now. Leptin is responsible for telling my brain when I am hungry or not, but if I am resistant that means I’m fat. So how do I get less resistant or not resistant at all?

Instead of taking all these notorious supplements that never proved to be helpful, one advice is to reduce the resistance to insulin. Insulin is a hormone that controls blood sugar level. And reduce the high levels of triglycerides (a blood lipid). You see, the leptin resistance and insulin resistance are attached to each other. The insulin resistance creates the Leptin resistance. So all you have to do is to get your insulin level down. 

But how is it possible to get your insulin level down?

The best way to get your insulin level down is simply not to get it up. Our foods are soaked with sugar in this country, and sugar makes it to go up! If we keep our insulin level down, it will help with our insulin resistance and will help dramatically with losing weight.

Keeping the levels of triglyceride down also helps in the losing weight process. High level of triglyceride interrupts the journey of Leptin through the blood circulation to the brain. When you are resistant to insulin you also have high triglyceride level, and it seems that it interfere with the leptin’s signaling to the brain. The best way to make this signaling work properly is to get your triglyceride down as well.

 

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