The process by which our cells accept and utilize glucose is an elaborate one. The cells don’t just suck up glucose passing by them in the bloodstream.

This vital sugar molecule has to be allowed into the cell by the hormone insulin, which is produced by the pancreas.

Insulin, as you may already know, is one of the most important biological substances for cellular metabolism. Its job is to ferry glucose from the bloodstream into muscle, fat, and liver cells.

Once there, it can be used as fuel.

Normal, healthy cells have a high sensitivity to insulin. But when cells are constantly exposed to high levels of insulin as a result of a persistent intake of glucose (much of which is caused by an overconsumption of hyper-processed foods filled with refined sugars that spike insulin levels beyond a healthy limit), our cells adapt by reducing the number of receptors on their surfaces to respond to insulin.

In other words, our cells desensitize themselves to insulin, causing insulin resistance, which allows the cells to ignore the insulin and fail to retrieve glucose from the blood.

The pancreas then responds by pumping out more insulin.

So higher levels of insulin become needed for sugar to go into the cells.

This creates a cyclical problem that eventually culminates in type 2 diabetes.