absolutely not recommended). Exercise also increases glucagon production.
FOODS AND FACTORS THAT DISTURB OR INHIBIT GLUCAGON
INCLUDE: a low-fat diet leading to excessive insulin secretion, a sedentary
lifestyle, and consumption of sugar and frequent meals.
LEPTINSOURCE: Fat cells
NORMAL LEVELS: Fasting, 4 and 6 ng (nanograms)/dL (deciliter)
FUNCTIONS: SatietyDo you have no control over your appetite? You may have a leptin problem.
Leptin is secreted by the fat cells, and not an endocrine gland. When leptin was
discovered in 1995, it was dubbed the “holy grail of weight loss.” Leptin
manages how much fat is stored around the organs and under the skin. When fat
cells are filled with an abundance of food, more leptin is secreted, and the leptin
enters the brain to curb your appetite. As a result, you feel full and satisfied. If
your leptin levels are too low all the time, you’re probably malnourished and
have very little body fat. Or it may be a rare genetic inability to produce leptin.
Initially, scientists believed that if you gave leptin to overweight people, it
would stimulate fat burning. Unfortunately, it had the opposite effect. When
scientists measured leptin in overweight individuals, they were in for a big
surprise. Overweight people were not leptin deficient; in fact, they produced too
much leptin. It turns out that excessive levels of leptin often go hand in hand
with high sugar and elevated insulin levels. You see, food without nutritional
value, such as refined carbohydrates, low-fat products, foods containing high-
fructose corn syrup and trans fats, and other fake foods, sends erroneous signals
to the brain. The body interprets those signals as starvation, which makes the
body burn fewer calories and store fat even in the presence of high leptin levels.
When leptin is high because of all the fake food you eat, your satiety switch
becomes broken. As a result, you gain weight, because you will be as hungry as
a wolf and will have no control over your appetite.
If you have a high leptin level, that’s not a good thing. High leptin levels
appear to be associated with high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, and
obesity. How can you fix your unbalanced leptin? Again, eat real food, include
more natural fats, and eliminate bad carbs.
FOODS THAT CAN HELP BALANCE LEPTIN INCLUDE: vegetables,