Diet and Metabolic Health
While exercise, sleep, and stress all play a key role in our metabolic health, diet may be the biggest lever. The foods we eat affect the body in several ways, from the peaks and valleys of glucose to the function of our cells.
Carbohydrates have a direct impact on blood sugar as they are converted to glucose in the body. Eating high-carb foods (breads, pastas, highly processed sugars) can lead to blood sugar spikes and elevated insulin levels, which can be harmful over the long term. A single spike from a meal is not something to worry about (although you may still feel its effects on your mood or energy), but minimizing added sugar, processed grains, and other high-carbohydrate foods is key to a sustained metabolically healthy diet.
How we consume a food can also impact its metabolic response: for example, if we pair a carbohydrate-rich apple with a handful of almonds, the added fat, protein, and fiber can help blunt the glucose response from the fructose in the apple. The order in which we eat also matters – having fat or protein before carbs can help curb the blood sugar impact. Consuming vinegar or cinnamon or taking a berberine supplement with a meal may also lower the glucose response.
But glucose isn’t everything. Micronutrients, such as vitamins, minerals, trace metals, and antioxidants, are also important. These essential dietary elements keep your body running optimally at the cellular level. Micronutrients are crucial links in chain reactions involving proteins, enzymes, and hormones that regulate every part of your body’s metabolism. If one of the links is weak or missing, the entire system can malfunction.
So what should you eat? First and foremost, opt for quality sources of nutrition and avoid foods that disrupt metabolic function. Here are some basic actionable steps to keep in mind:
Choose whole or minimally processed foods
Avoid added sugars, in any form
Minimize refined grains (white flour, white rice, white bread)
Avoid processed seed oils (vegetable oil, soybean oil, canola oil, etc.)
Favor high-quality, nutrient-dense foods (think: organic, grass-fed)
Learn to understand food labels: natural sweeteners like Stevia and monk fruit are preferable to artificial ones like sucrose.
Finally, it’s important to remember that diet and metabolic health are highly individual. Your glucose reactions will be different than someone else’s. So while we don’t endorse a one-size-fits-all diet, we can identify nutrient-dense foods that lead to stable glucose in most people. They are a great place to start building your metabolically friendly diet and will help you get on the road to becoming metabolically flexible and becoming a fat-burning machine.
