Why fat doesn’t break down when blood sugar is super high
Simulated hyperglycemic hyperosmolar syndrome. Impaired insulin and epinephrine effects upon lipolysis in the isolated rat fat cell.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Glucose enhances fat breakdown up to 550 mosmol, then reverses and suppresses it.
Most assume sugar always suppresses fat burning—but here, moderate sugar boosts it, making the suppression at high levels even more shocking.
Practical Takeaways
If you have prediabetes or insulin resistance, monitor both blood sugar AND sodium intake—high salt may worsen metabolic flexibility.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Glucose enhances fat breakdown up to 550 mosmol, then reverses and suppresses it.
Most assume sugar always suppresses fat burning—but here, moderate sugar boosts it, making the suppression at high levels even more shocking.
Practical Takeaways
If you have prediabetes or insulin resistance, monitor both blood sugar AND sodium intake—high salt may worsen metabolic flexibility.
Publication
Journal
The Journal of clinical investigation
Year
1979
Authors
B. Turpin, W. Duckworth, S. Solomon
Related Content
Claims (7)
When there's a lot of insulin in your blood, it shuts down the body’s ability to break down fat even when epinephrine (the 'fight or flight' hormone) tries to tell it to.
When you pump a lot of sugar and salt into the environment around fat cells from rats, those cells become less responsive to the hormone epinephrine that normally tells them to break down fat—like the hormone’s signal gets weaker.
When rat fat cells are bathed in a super-sweet, salty solution, insulin doesn’t work as well to stop adrenaline from making the cells release fat — even when insulin is at normal levels.
When you pump a lot of sugar into fat cells from a rat, a little extra sugar makes the fat-burning hormone (epinephrine) work better—but too much sugar actually shuts down that fat-burning effect.
When you make the environment around fat cells from rats saltier using table salt, the cells don’t break down fat as much when they’re told to by a stress hormone—but they still break down fat at the same normal rate when left alone.