Even if you eat as few as 800 calories a day, if you are sugar sensitive and those calories are from carbohydrates, you may find that you still gain weight. Until recently, insulin resistance was thought to cause obesity only in adults, because it is considered an age-related condition. A 1998 evaluation of more than 2,000 Finnish men led to the finding that insulin resistance can lead to obesity beginning in early childhood and middle age. The researchers also noted that each five percent weight increase, at age 20, over the average for that age, was associated with a nearly 200 percent greater risk of full-blown Syndrome X by middle age. But its easy to stop or reverse the progression of Syndrome X now that we understand how it works.
Blood sugar tends to increase with age, accelerating aging by cross-linking with proteins.
AGEs form at accelerated rates whenever blood-sugar levels are high. The production of AGEs, which normally increases with age, eventually leads to damaging responses within the body, such as the cross-linking of collagen. Sometimes referred to as a carmelization or browning reaction, this particular type of cross-linking involves a chemical reaction between sugar and protein molecules that inflicts serious damage to cell membranes and collagen fibers. This cross-linking leads to the stiffening of connective tissue. As cross-links increasingly reduce the flexibility and permeability of tissues and cells, cellular communications and repair processes also begin to break down.