Insulin and diet

A couple of days ago when I was back home at my parents' house we got to talking about family health. There seems to be a trend on my father's side of the family, where the men have:

high cholesterol
high Triglycerides
high blood pressure
huge guts (beer belly's)
vertex thinning (with dandruff)
signs of high T/DHT (high libido, body hair and confidence etc)

I've been looking around and all of these seem to point towards insulin resistance / diabetes. But the thing is we are all naturally very thin people apart from the big belly's. Arms, legs and general shoulder area are all very lean. Doesn't insulin resistance equal obesity?
Also, I've noted that my dad's gut isn't this soft blob of fat, rather it's pretty firm. This would mean visceral fat, which is even worse I think.

I've begun noticing that I feel really tired after meals. Within an hour after a meal with lots of starch I get these crazy yawning episodes and my brain power just shuts down. I usually fall asleep. This is a sign of insulin resistance right?
But again, my BMI is around 23.

I've also noticed that I can't go without food for very long. After 3-4 hours I have to eat otherwise i get wired, anxious, irritable and nauseous.

I did read something about fast and slow oxidizers and that I should focus more on protein and fat and lower carbs. Every time I try this I do feel satiated but I also have no energy, feel brain fog and I have this acidic breath all day long.

High carb diet on the other hand make me feel good for a while, then I crash, then I feel good again. I don't see how I could keep that up. I also feel fruit makes me feel better than starch (maybe it's the antioxidants)

If you have anything to say about this, please do..

Listen to your body and avoid starch for the time being.

I would advocate a lower carb - or perhaps a "controlled carb" - diet, but not prohibitively low.

What you're experiencing is not insulin resistance, but the effects of insulin itself. Without enough information to be sure, I would venture to say
that you probably have a reduced glucose tolerance. Starch is likely providing you too dense of a glucose energy source. This effect is sometimes referred to as lowered glucose tolerance, or reactive hypoglycemia, but it may not be that your blood sugar is dipping dangerously low, just lower than it ought to be. This explains both the symptoms you are feeling after a meal and also the frequent hunger.

It may be that your innate insulin response to glucose is pronounced, or that your blood sugar simply rises very quickly in response to a large glucose load. Again, I'd venture its probably the latter given how you respond better to fruits.

Try eliminating starchy foods and incorporating more fruit into the diet, preferably fruits with a ratio closer to 1:1 glucose:fructose. On the other side of the coin, I wouldn't eat freely of fructose-added foods (HFCS).

Plan some kind of activity for each day, whether that be the exercise you prefer or just some form of moderately strenuous activity. Try to get the majority of your carbohydrate within 2-3 hrs of this activity, i.e. be less afraid of carbs during that time. Eat any non-fruit carbohydrate during this time period. Get perhaps 60%-70% of your day's total carbohydrate in that 3 hour period.

For the rest of the hours of the day (not in the afforementioned "window") eat only the fruit, and aim to get 30%-40% of your day's total carbs spread out as evenly as possible during these hours. Some healthy fiber from things like carrots will help tremendously as will a supplement of Vit C and/or something like hesperidin.

The reason you are tending to crash after a short time on higher sugar diets is that the temporarily insufficient insulin production eventually increases to keep up with the increased glucose load, however, for fast oxidizers this is a red queen's race. Eventually insulin resistance will develop.

Hi AS, thanks for the response

Definitely can’t go low carb that’s for sure but it does look like I have to forget the huge starchy meals from now on.
This is where I don’t get it. Is it the amount of insulin that is released that drives down my blood glucose? Am I just really sensitive to the effects of insulin?

When I read up on insulin resistance it seems that it would fit not just me but my dad too, but then again on a day to day basis I experience what feel like reactive hypoglycemia – which seems to be the opposite of insulin resistance?  Maybe I’m sensitive to both carbs and insulin. BG goes up very fast and then down fast, but not to any alarming levels..

I had a blood glucose test done the first time I visited the doc about a year ago and it came back at 105 mg/dl. I would like to get a GTT done, but it seems they won’t even entertain that idea unless you have an extra 100 lbs on your body.  

I found this “Ketoacidosis – You don’t have to be diabetic to have this problem. By skipping meals, or fasting, you will cause the same sour, fruity mouth odor.” – this is exactly what my breath smells like later in the day if I don’t eat any fruit or starch.

I like the idea of fast/slow oxidizers and I do seem to fit the type of a fast one. FOs should get their energy from fats and protein but I know if I don’t get carbs in me, I feel irritable, cold and just slow.
Looking at the list of symptoms for Sympathetic Dominance is like looking at a list someone made to describe me on any given day.

For the longest time I thought that I was hypothyroid but now it makes more sense that I’m naturally more geared toward HyperT and that I have Adrenal issues causing me problems, some type of HPA imbalance.
I do feel cold often but the temperature fluctuates a lot. I do hate cold weather but hot weather is even worse and I tend to sweat easily. Anxiety and that tired but wired feeling rules my life.

A Peat type of diet does make my highest level feel very high, but then I come down much harder. A more balanced diet makes me feel, well, more balanced, but I feel like I’m just walking around all day waiting for bed time. No action, no motivation, no nothing.

I just can’t get along with the idea of eating, whatever, 700g of carbs every day. Especially since that type of diet seems to be the exact opposite of what I “should” follow given the trend in numbers on blood test we have going on in our family.