Insulin and glucagon work together to keep your blood sugar levels in check—find out how!
Timestamps
0:00 Introduction: Insulin's partner glucagon
0:23 What is insulin?
0:52 What is glucagon?
2:38 Glucagon and fat-burning
3:07 Insulin and glucagon triggers
4:44 Key takeaways
5:06 Share your success story!
In this video, we’re going to talk about insulin’s partner glucagon.
Glucagon sounds like glucose. This is because it’s involved in the regulation of glucose.
Insulin is a hormone that pushes your blood sugar down to help regulate your blood sugar levels.
Glucagon is a hormone that counters insulin by pushing your blood sugar level higher.
Both of these hormones work together to keep your blood sugar level normal and avoid hypoglycemia or hyperglycemia.
Glucagon mobilizes glycogen—which is stored sugar—to glucose in your liver. Essentially, it makes the stored sugar in your liver available for use.
Glucagon also activates gluconeogenesis, which is the process of converting fat and other non-carb nutrients into sugar.
Gluconeogenesis is essential for keeping your blood sugar levels normal when you’re not consuming sugar. This is also why you don’t need sugar while on a Healthy Keto diet.
Glucagon improves lipolysis, which helps your body burn fat by mobilizing fat for use in body tissues and the production of ketones in your liver.
Insulin is triggered by…
• High-carb foods
• Amino acids
• Frequent eating
• MSG
Glucagon is triggered by…
• Low blood sugar
• Keto
• Amino acids
• Exercise
Amino acids can trigger insulin and glucagon—depending on how much protein you consume and how many carbs. You want to keep your protein intake moderate while on Healthy Keto, so you don’t trigger too much insulin.
Dr. Eric Berg
08/31/2023
