To lose fat, lower cholesterol, and reduce your risk of heart disease and metabolic syndrome all you need to do is reduce your insulin levels.

So, I am purchasing a glucometer today so I can play around with it. I will be checking my blood glucose response to typical foods I eat and that will give me an indication of whether the food in question will have a high insulin response, and in turn, a tendency for fat storage and increasing VLDL cholesterol.

Dr. Davis at Heart Scan Blog wrote this informative piece the other day and got me excited.

We know that foods that trigger insulin lead to fat storage. Putting a stop to this process allows you to mobilize fat and lose weight. If you're starting out from scratch, rapid and dramatic weight loss can be experienced, as much as one pound per day.

So how can you stop triggering insulin?

The easiest way is to eliminate, or at least minimize, carbohydrates. My favorite method to restrict carbohydrates is to eliminate wheat and minimize exposure to other carbohydrates, such as oats, cornstarch, and sugars. All these foods, wheat products worst of all, cause blood sugar and insulin to skyrocket.

Another way is to check your blood sugar one hour after completing a meal and keep your after-eating, or "postprandial," blood sugar 100 mg/dl or less. Let's say you are going to eat stone ground oatmeal, for example. Blood sugar prior to eating is, say, 90 mg/dl. One hour after oatmeal it's 168 mg/dl--you know that this is going to trigger insulin and make you fat. Oatmeal should therefore be eliminated.

Keeping blood sugar to 100 mg/dl or less after eating teaches you how to avoid provocation of insulin. A shrinking tummy will follow.

I do not eat wheat, grains, rice, or carbs, except for occasional berries or a piece of fruit, but I'd still like to see what my response is to such things as eggs whites and other foods are. The cost of the device and test strips is irrelevant, it is an investment in my and my children's' health.

I'll keep you posted of my findings. In the meantime, consider one for yourself. You just may find that something you are eating is sabotaging your efforts.