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1. Is wheat good for you?
2. The 5 Metabolic Markers You CAN’T Ignore
3. Take Control of Your Health by Understanding How to Build and Keep Healthy

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Is Wheat Good for You?

Wheat is one of the biggest sources of calories in the human diet. But is it good for you? Should you avoid gluten? What about all those carbs? And is there a difference between modern wheat and ancient grains in terms of nutrition and health?

Most wheat is refined and sold in highly processed foods. And it’s no surprise that in that form, it’s probably not doing your health any favors.

But what about whole wheat? Is it good for you? Get the whole story here. Is wheat good for you?

The 5 Metabolic Markers You CAN’T Ignore by Dr. Martin

When you hear the words “metabolic health,” you might think of weight gain or how fast you burn calories.

Sure, those things are part of it.

But metabolic health is about a lot more than just that. Imagine your metabolic health is like a super strong armoured truck. Inside this truck, you’ve got everything important — your organs and systems. Think about your immune system, heart, lungs, brain, muscles, liver, and even your skin and hormones.

Your metabolic health is responsible for EVERY chemical process in your body. So when you think about it, Metabolic health is health.

But here’s the thing — recent studies show that less than 7% of people are in good metabolic health, that means a whopping 93% aren’t. If your metabolic health isn’t up to par you can’t truly be healthy.

There are 5 pivotal metabolic health blood tests that give insights into how your body is functioning on a deeper level.

Here’s a summary of the 5 tests:

1. Triglycerides:

Think of triglycerides as delivery trucks, transporting energy (glucose) in your blood. High levels of triglycerides indicate an excess of energy (glucose), suggesting that your body is in overdrive, trying to store away glucose, hinting at insulin resistance.

2. HDL (High-Density Lipoprotein):

HDL acts as a recycler in your body, crucial for removing cholesterol from your blood.

Low levels of HDL can be a sign of metabolic imbalance, often accompanying high insulin levels.

3. Triglyceride to HDL Ratio:

This ratio is a significant marker of metabolic health, with higher ratios indicating an increased risk of heart disease. When it comes to the relationship between triglycerides and HD a 1997 Harvard study found:

People with the highest Triglycerides (TG) and lowest HDL were 16 times more likely to die of heart disease than those with the lowest TG and highest HDL.

So, the study shows high TG and low HDL are pretty bad and can increase your risk of dying.
But, if you have low TG and high HDL, your risk of dying from heart disease goes down. That means aiming for low TG and high HDL is a smart move.

A different study took a close look at the connection between the TG/HDL ratio and fatty liver. They found that almost 60% of folks with the highest TG/HDL ratio were dealing with fatty liver.

What's super interesting is that this link to fatty liver was clear even in people who are HEALTHY.

You might feel fine, but if your TG/HDL ratio is high, you could have fatty liver. A newer study, just out in September 2022, got really specific about how the TG/HDL ratio relates to fatty liver. They discovered that any ratio over 1.64 is a red flag for fatty liver.

And a ratio over 2.48? That's a warning sign for metabolic syndrome. So, this study suggests if your ratio is above 1.5, it's time to rethink what you eat because you’re trending in the wrong direction.

4. A1C (Hemoglobin A1C):

To understand the importance of the A1C test then we must talk about INSULIN RESISTANCE. Most people know insulin is a food hormone meaning it’s released when you eat. Insulin moves glucose out of your blood and into storage. What happens if you constantly need insulin to help clean glucose out of your blood? At first…not much.

I had a TV remote that used to drive me crazy. At first it worked with zero problems. Press the power button hand the TV is turned on. Then, I noticed I’d have to push the button a few times to get the TV to turn on. Soon after I had to push the button harder and more often to simply turn on the TV Pushing the power button harder allowed more carbon in the rubber to get closer to the contacts in the circuit board allowing it to work.

Something that used to require a simple push now needed a lot more effort to do the same job. That’s similar to what happens to your cells and insulin. When things are working fine you need a little insulin to trigger a cellular response to remove glucose from your blood.

But if you constantly need more insulin eventually, your cells STOP listening.

When that happens — you make more insulin! If you continue to spike your blood sugar then eventually, you need even MORE insulin to get the job done. And that’s a big problem.

High circulating insulin is the #1 cause of most chronic diseases heart disease, diabetes, many cancers, Alzheimer’s, Dementia, autoimmune disorders. This is why I talk about high insulin all the time.

As I mentioned Insulin is a food hormone. But — it’s also a GROWTH HORMONE.

Insulin makes things grow. Fat cells…Prostate…Skin tags…cancer cells…It can all grow with too much circulating insulin.

A1C is a blood test that measures your average blood sugar levels over the past three months.

If your A1C is high then your blood sugar has been higher than it should have been over the last three months. This means you’ve needed more insulin to help clear the glucose from your blood.

5. Uric Acid:

Uric acid is a natural byproduct in your body. Everyone has it but you need to be able to filter it out of your body. If you can’t get rid of it then you get symptoms. If you’ve ever had gout, you know how PAINFUL it is but gout is only ONE of the symptoms of too much uric acid.

Most people with too much uric acid DON’T GET GOUT.

Here’s the truth about uric acid:

High uric acid is a SYMPTOM of metabolic syndrome. Understanding these tests and what they signify about your metabolic health is critical.