Welcome to the Ask a Nutritionist podcast, brought to you by Nutritional Weight and Wellness.

We are thrilled to have you join us today as we discuss the connection between what you eat and how you feel,

and share practical real-life solutions for healthier living through balanced nutrition.

Now let's get started.

Good morning, and welcome to Dishing Up Nutrition's new midweek

segment called Ask a Nutritionist. My name is Leah Kleinschrode. I'm a registered and licensed

dietitian at Nutritional Weight and Wellness. On today's show, I will be answering one

nutrition question we've received from our Dishing Up Nutrition listeners.

This listener wrote, how does one know if they are insulin resistant or not?

Wonderful question.

I love this question because it is so applicable to almost everybody who is probably listening or watching or is even just walking around in the

United States because insulin resistance affects the vast majority of the United States population,

whether people know it or not.

Before we dive into signs or symptoms of insulin resistance, I want to just take a moment and step back and talk about

what insulin resistance is and compare that to how a normal metabolism is supposed to work.

So if we think about when we eat foods that contain carbohydrates, these carbohydrates are broken down into small bits of sugar in the

digestive tract, so mainly glucose. This glucose is absorbed into the bloodstream and it travels to all

the various cells in the body. Glucose is one of the big energy currencies of the body.

When our body senses that there's glucose in the bloodstream and when this glucose is

rising, the body sends a signal to our pancreas to release a hormone called insulin.

So maybe some of these terms are familiar to you like glucose. our pancreas to release a hormone called insulin.

So maybe some of these terms are familiar to you, like glucose, insulin, so hopefully some of this

...