Once upon a time, a princess decided to start eating healthy.

For breakfast, she had oatmeal with fruit. At work, she drank coffee with lactose-free milk. She didn’t eat anything with her coffee – desserts are “unhealthy,” after all.

But an hour later, she had some gluten- and sugar-free cookies. An hour after that – some nuts with raisins. Hunger was already intense, but she had to wait until lunch when everyone else was eating too.

Finally – lunch! She didn’t take potatoes as a side (they contain starch!). The princess had grilled chicken with green salad – but was still hungry.

Luckily, she had brought fruit and wholegrain crispbread to get her through the afternoon. For dinner, she had fish with steamed broccoli. And a glass of kefir before bed.

She didn’t enjoy this kind of menu – her stomach was constantly empty. But she endured it – for the sake of a beautiful body!

One week passed, then two… but the weight didn’t go down. Why?!

What the princess didn’t know was that the cookies, nuts and crispbread gave her around 1000 extra kilocalories. The morning oatmeal with fruit caused blood sugar spikes early in the day, triggering cravings that lasted for hours. And EVERY bite she took stimulated insulin production. Every single one!

The oatmeal – insulin. The milk in coffee – again. A nut – once more.

Our body would ideally only release insulin 2–6 times per day, but the princess’s body had to do it 15–20 times.

When insulin is produced too often (from eating too much or too frequently), the body’s cells begin to resist it. This is called insulin resistance.

And if this way of eating continues day after day for years… it can lead to type 2 diabetes.

And so this fairy tale ends… not so happily.

Have you ever tried this kind of “healthy eating”? Unfortunately, I have – many times. Fortunately, I’ll never do it again.