Insulin

Insulin is a hormone whose role in blood sugar regulation Peat considered vastly overstated, noting that studies found the insulin molecule itself was responsible for only about 8% of blood sugar disposition, with other factors like potassium in food acting as a major substitute. 2 He argued that if classical diabetes were truly defined by insulin deficiency, measuring blood insulin would be diagnostic, yet it is extremely rare for a doctor to measure insulin before diagnosing diabetes or prescribing insulin therapy. 3 Peat pointed out that mortality from diabetes actually rose after insulin's introduction, from 16.0 per 100,000 in 1920 to 26.4 per 100,000 in 1944, challenging the narrative that the drug simply saved lives. 4

Peat located the true driver of diabetic hyperglycemia not in sugar itself, but in the Randall effect, where elevated free fatty acids block the ability of cells to oxidize glucose. 1 He explained that estrogen shifts the organism toward fat oxidation, and by stimulating growth hormone—which antagonizes insulin and increases free fatty acids—it creates the very lipid-rich blood environment associated with diabetes. 1 In the stress-driven form of diabetes common in middle age, Peat described a tissue-specific paradox: the liver becomes resistant to insulin's glucose-disposing action, yet fat cells become very sensitive to insulin, turning excess sugar into stored fat while high blood sugar persists. 3 This condition, he maintained, is fundamentally a stress syndrome brought on by hormonal disruptions, where glucocorticoids inhibit sugar metabolism and mobilize fatty acids, leading to cellular calcification, rigid tissues, and mitochondrial damage. 2

The context of sugar intake dramatically alters insulin's response. Peat contrasted high-starch foods like rice or bread, which provide glucose with very little potassium and magnesium and thus create intense demands on the pancreas, with fruit juice where glucose is accompanied by minerals that help dispose of it harmlessly as a complement or substitute for insulin. 5 He also noted that a pure meal of eggs or meat is very stressful because it stimulates insulin, which then lowers blood sugar. 8 Dinkov extended this protective framing, citing studies where insulin decreased the expression of the endotoxin receptor and suppressed inflammatory mediators, exerting effects opposite to those of glucocorticoids. 9 Roddy added that insulin clears free fatty acids from the blood and helps convert T4 to T3. 9

Peat rejected the analogy of insulin as a metabolic brake and glucagon as the gas, a framing Roddy and his co-hosts described as completely off base and physiologically incorrect. 10 Instead, Peat emphasized that thyroid hormone is the crucial regulatory factor that activates the oxidative system and makes insulin unnecessary, warming the body much as exercise does and enabling glucose oxidation. 7 He observed a shift in scientific framing over decades, where high insulin was blamed for rapid aging in the late 1990s, only for later research to reframe the failure of good glucose function and insulin response as the essential problem. 6