Dietary fat and blood sugar are important factors that affect your health and risk of disease, especially when you have diabetes. Dietary fat is a source of energy, providing your body with 9 calories per gram. Blood sugar is an indication of how well your body is able to metabolize glucose into energy. Consult your doctor about the health implications of dietary fat and blood sugar.
Dietary Fat
Fat is vital for health and functioning of your cells and tissues. Fat enables absorption of vitamins A, D, E and K and provides energy after your body's carbohydrate stores are used up. There are two types of dietary fats. Healthy fats, such as monounsaturated fatty acids and polyunsaturated fatty acids, can improve your blood cholesterol and cardiovascular health. Unhealthy fats, such as saturated fatty acids and trans fatty acids, can elevate your blood cholesterol and increase risk of cardiovascular disease.
Blood Sugar
After you eat carbohydrates, your body digests and absorbs sugar into your blood. Under normal health conditions your body secretes insulin, a hormone that carries sugar from your blood into your cells, into your blood. However, when you have diabetes, your body may be unable to produce sufficient amounts of insulin or your cells may be resistant to insulin. As a result, your blood sugar levels remain high and may cause cardiovascular complications and weight gain. Eating low-glycemic foods, products that contain sugar that your body slowly absorbs, enables you to prevent blood sugar spikes.
Weight Gain
Weight gain occurs when you consume more calories from food than you expend through physical activity. Eating excess dietary fat can increase your weight, especially if you do not increase your physical activity. Excess blood sugar can also increase weight gain because sugar that is not metabolized into energy can stimulate the body to turn sugar into fat to be stored in fat cells. Research by scientists at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense and published in "Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology" in August 2005 reports that high blood concentrations of glucose induces the body to synthesize fat in pancreatic beta cells and increase accumulation of fats in the blood.
Cardiovascular Disease
Increased blood levels of saturated fat and glucose can each cause inflammation of endothelial cells that line the interior of your arteries. Saturated fat reduces anti-inflammatory effects of HDL cholesterol, the good cholesterol, and impairs arterial endothelial function, according to research by scientists at The Heart Research Institute in Sydney, Australia and published in the "Journal of the American College of Cardiology" in August 2006. Research by scientists at the University of Padova in Italy and published in "Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice" in December 2008 reports there is a strong interaction between high blood sugar, fat cell proteins and the endothelium and that repeated exposure to high levels of blood sugar following meals can cause development of atherosclerosis, even in people with normal fasting blood glucose levels.
References
- University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics; Calories: How Many Do You Need?; 2003
- MedlinePlus; Fat; 2010
- Harvard School of Public Health; Fats and Cholesterol: Out With the Bad, in With the Good; 2010
- National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse; Diabetes; 2010
- University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics Center for Integrative Medicine; Glycemic Index; 2010
- "Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology"; Glucose-Induced Lipogenesis in Pancreatic Beta-Cells is Dependent on Srebp-1; Maria Sandberg, et al.; Aug 30 2005
