Blood sugar, insulin, what mechanisms behind diabetes?

As you probably know, there are different types of diabetes: type 1 and type 2.

Type 1 diabetes is a rather rare disease that begins at a young age and is caused by the destruction of pancreatic cells. This forces sick people to resort to insulin injections for life.

For type 2 diabetes it's a different story, it affects 2 million French people and corresponds to insulin resistance. It is a disease for which some patients can be treated solely through diet. This shows the strong link between this pathology and our diet.

Let's try to understand a little of the mechanism behind diabetes!

A diet that contains a lot of foods with a high glycemic index means that the blood glucose level (glycemia) will be high all the time, this is due to a repetition of glycemic peaks during food intake.

In response to this glycemic peak, it is the insulin peak which is systematically induced to reduce blood sugar.

So when this insulin peak is used too frequently, we can develop type 2 diabetes, i.e. insulin resistance.

Diabetes corresponds to the fact that insulin is no longer able to reach its maximum level and can no longer reduce blood glucose (= blood sugar), we are therefore constantly in hyperglycemia.

The risk of diabetes?

Constant hyperglycemia induces cardiovascular risks, obesity, and even high blood pressure.

How to prevent diabetes ?

A diet that induces as few glycemic peaks as possible reduces the risk of the disease developing, so we must avoid fast sugars and favor slow sugars, i.e. foods with a low glycemic index.

At Nüttree it is important to us to offer healthy snacks ; without added sugars, with the lowest glycemic index possible and very little processed.

Indeed, these are the three most important factors for reducing the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. We developed this subject in our article "How to recognize a healthy snack?"

Ultra-processed products are poorly recognized by our body because they are no longer associated with their natural matrix and our body has difficulty processing them.

Additionally, they contain additives and are often made with poor quality ingredients. This type of food has been proven to be associated with a greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

To ensure that no ultra-transformation markers are present in our products, we have our energy ball recipes analyzed by the Siga scientific team ( learn more ).

Added sugars , it seems logical that the addition of sugars, especially refined ones, drastically increases the glycemic index. We therefore do not add sugars to our products! Besides, we don't add any additives, colorings or preservatives either.

The ingredients we use mostly have a low glycemic index , which allows us to offer snacks suitable for people looking to avoid the risk of diabetes.