"Answers began coming with the very first publications out of Yalow and Berson’s laboratory and were swiftly confirmed. As it turns out, virtually all hormones work to mobilise fatty acids from fat cells so that they can then be used for fuel. The one dominant exception to this fuel-mobilisation signalling is insulin, which partitions how we use the fuels we consume: in particular, it directs fat cells to store fat, while facilitating the uptake and oxidation of glucose (blood sugar) by muscle and organ cells. In other words, when insulin is secreted – primarily in response to the carbohydrates in our diet – it directs our cells to burn carbohydrate as fuel and store fat. And so, the one biological factor necessary to mobilise fat from storage and have it used for fuel, as Yalow and Berson suggested in 1965, is ‘the negative stimulus of insulin deficiency’. Put simply, when insulin levels in circulation are elevated, we store fat and use glucose for fuel; as insulin levels drop, fat is mobilized and we burn it instead."
"Yalow and Berson themselves described insulin as a ‘lipogenic’, or fat-forming hormone. This lipogenic signal must be turned off, or at least muted significantly, for the fat cells to release their stored fat and for the body to metabolise it for energy. While obesity researchers like to say that the sine qua non of a weight reduction diet is calorie-restriction, this alternative, biologically-based hypothesis would say that the sine qua non is lowering insulin. The more we consume carbohydrates, though, and particularly sugar, the higher insulin our levels will be."
"Answers began coming with the very first publications out of Yalow and Berson’s laboratory and were swiftly confirmed. As it turns out, virtually all hormones work to mobilise fatty acids from fat cells so that they can then be used for fuel. The one dominant exception to this fuel-mobilisation signalling is insulin, which partitions how we use the fuels we consume: in particular, it directs fat cells to store fat, while facilitating the uptake and oxidation of glucose (blood sugar) by muscle and organ cells. In other words, when insulin is secreted – primarily in response to the carbohydrates in our diet – it directs our cells to burn carbohydrate as fuel and store fat. And so, the one biological factor necessary to mobilise fat from storage and have it used for fuel, as Yalow and Berson suggested in 1965, is ‘the negative stimulus of insulin deficiency’. Put simply, when insulin levels in circulation are elevated, we store fat and use glucose for fuel; as insulin levels drop, fat is mobilized and we burn it instead."
"Yalow and Berson themselves described insulin as a ‘lipogenic’, or fat-forming hormone. This lipogenic signal must be turned off, or at least muted significantly, for the fat cells to release their stored fat and for the body to metabolise it for energy. While obesity researchers like to say that the sine qua non of a weight reduction diet is calorie-restriction, this alternative, biologically-based hypothesis would say that the sine qua non is lowering insulin. The more we consume carbohydrates, though, and particularly sugar, the higher insulin our levels will be."