Research

Hormonal

Acute elevation of free fatty acids (FFA) significantly inhibits insulin-stimulated glucose uptake in peripheral tissues (muscle) in healthy humans, regardless of blood glucose levels.

If you are healthy and insulin-sensitive, eating a high-fat meal will temporarily make your body less efficient at clearing glucose from your blood. This is due to the 'Randle cycle' where fat oxidation competes with glucose usage. This effect is reversed when insulin levels are low (fasting state).

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With euglycemic hyperinsulinemia (study A), lipid infusion caused a significant inhibition of total glucose uptake (6.3±1.3 vs. 7.4±0.6 mg/min.kg, P < 0.02)... With hyperglycemic hyperinsulinemia (study B), lipid infusion also induced a marked impairment in glucose utilization (6.2±1.1 vs. 9.8±1.9 mg/min kg, P < 0.05)
Eleuterio Ferrannini et al. · Journal of Clinical Investigation · 1983

Why this rating

Controlled human clinical trials with rigorous clamping techniques.

Source

Effect of fatty acids on glucose production and utilization in man.

Eleuterio Ferrannini et al. · Journal of Clinical Investigation · 1983

DOI 10.1172/jci111133

rct · n=26Cited 1,057×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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