just pondering…
so if just thinking about food can create insulin…if you find yourself thinking, thinking, thinking about food while in a fasted state…wouldn’t that be the appropriate time to take in some fat to buffer that insulin?
am i understanding it correctly?
Good question! I think that this insulin release could be an important factor in any fasting, especially early attempts, since it will reduce the efficiency of the fasting in terms of insulin resistance, so it’s something that people should be aware of.
It’s also know as Cephalic Phase Insulin Release (CPIR).
Quoting some fragments from the article below with emphasis added by me.
The cephalic phase of gastric secretion occurs even before food enters the stomach, especially while it is being eaten. It results from the sight, smell, thought, or taste of food, and the greater the appetite, the more intense is the stimulation.
So this confirms that insulin is released just by thinking of food, but the “greater the appetite, the more intense is the stimulation”, so more insulin is released when hungry.
This phase of secretion normally accounts for about 20 percent of the gastric secretion associated with eating a meal.
This quotation from the link says that CPIR is typically only 20% of the amount released when eating, so this suggests to me that it’s non-trivial, but the vast majority of insulin wouldn’t be released when fasting - how much depends on whether thoughts of food are associated with whether or not hunger is present and to what degree.
In other words, if you’re really hungry when looking at food, there’s a good chance that a substantial amount of insulin will be released.
This enhanced secretory activity brought on by the thought or sight of food is a conditioned reflex.
This last fragment reinforces that fasting is a “muscle” and continued training should help reverse the conditioned reflex such that over time, you’ll feel less hunger, if any at all, when seeing or smelling food, so CPIR should be minimal.