If you search online for ways to lower blood sugar or A1C, you’ll probably see the same advice everywhere:

“Just cut carbs.”

In the short term, lowering carbs can reduce blood sugar levels.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean carbs are the root problem.

Who This Article Is For

This article may be especially helpful if you:

• Have been told you have insulin resistance or prediabetes
• Struggle with fatigue, stubborn weight gain, or belly fat
• Experience blood sugar crashes or cravings
• Have tried low-carb or keto diets without lasting success
• Want a balanced approach to improving blood sugar and metabolism

To understand why, we need to look at how our cells actually produce energy.

Keto and Low-Carb Diets and Stress Hormones

When carbohydrates are very low, the body shifts to using fat and protein for fuel.

These are helpful backup systems designed for times when food is scarce. But they also rely more heavily on stress hormones like cortisol and glucagon.

These hormones help the body release stored energy so we can keep functioning during periods of starvation or fasting.

This is one reason extremely low-carb diets can work in the short term — but may create problems when followed long term.

What Is Insulin Resistance?

Insulin is a hormone that helps move sugar from the bloodstream into our cells.

When we eat carbohydrates, blood sugar rises slightly. The body releases insulin, which acts like a key that allows sugar to enter the cells and be used for energy.

The conventional explanation of insulin resistance is that the cells stop responding properly to insulin — like a key that no longer fits the lock.

As a result, sugar stays in the bloodstream and blood sugar levels rise.

Type 2 diabetes is considered a more severe version of this process.

But this explanation may be missing an important piece of the puzzle.

Blaming carbohydrates, specifically sugar, for insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes focuses only on symptoms not the real underlying causes.

In many cases, insulin resistance isn’t caused by eating carbohydrates.
It’s a sign that the cells are struggling to produce energy efficiently.

This is why many women struggling with fatigue, stubborn weight gain, and blood sugar issues need more than just carb restriction. They need to support how their cells produce energy.

Hormonal changes during perimenopause and menopause can make this even more important.

Although this idea is common in conventional medicine, there is little evidence that simply eating more carbohydrates causes cells to become resistant to insulin.

However, there is substantial evidence against this idea, including that high carbohydrate and sugar intakes are not associated with insulin resistance and diabetes (1, 2, 3). And, that increasing carbohydrate consumption actually increases insulin sensitivity (the opposite of insulin resistance) (4,5, 6, 7).

So what does this mean when deciding how we should eat to support our health?

Long-term low-carb diets can create problems because:

• They mask insulin resistance by keeping blood sugar low simply because fewer carbohydrates are entering the system.

• Cells rely more heavily on backup fuel systems, burning fat and protein for energy, which increases stress hormones.

• Over time, chronic stress hormones and inflammation can damage the cell’s energy-producing systems, making insulin resistance       worse.

Instead of eliminating carbohydrates, the goal should be supporting healthy energy production in the cells while keeping blood sugar balanced.

A Balanced Plate approach — including quality carbohydrates, protein, and healthy fats — helps support insulin sensitivity while providing the fuel your cells prefer for energy.

In the next post, we’ll explore what actually causes insulin resistance – and how to restore healthy metabolism