Benjamin Bikman, PhD
Professor of Cell Biology and Physiology, Brigham Young University
Dr. Benjamin Bikman is a metabolic scientist at BYU whose research centres on the role of insulin in driving fat storage, obesity, and chronic disease. He argues that chronic hyperinsulinemia, not excess calorie intake, is the root cause of the modern metabolic crisis. His work directly underpins the insulin-first framework of the RealFoods WI Score.
Bikman's central argument is that insulin is not just a blood sugar hormone. It is the body's primary signal for whether to store fat or release it. When insulin stays elevated for years, from frequent eating and high glycemic meals, fat cells stay locked in storage mode regardless of how many calories a person eats. That is the chronic hyperinsulinemia Bikman describes in Why We Get Sick, and it reframes obesity as a hormonal condition rather than a willpower problem.
The RealFoods WI Score exists because of exactly this insight. Instead of totaling calories, it estimates how much a food or meal is likely to raise insulin, weighing fiber, protein, fat, and processing level the same way Bikman's research treats them, as levers on the hormone that decides fat storage. A food can be low in calories and still push insulin high. Bikman's work is why the WI Score treats that combination as a real risk, not a technicality.
Readers who want the full clinical case should start with Why We Get Sick, which lays out the evidence for insulin resistance as a root cause across obesity, type 2 diabetes, and related chronic disease. For a shorter, RealFoods-specific version of the same idea, the pages below apply Bikman's framework directly to everyday food choices and to the mechanics of the WI Score itself.
Bikman's academic home at BYU keeps this argument grounded in cell biology rather than trend-chasing. His research on obesity science and type 2 diabetes treats insulin resistance not as one risk factor among many, but as the mechanism that connects them. Ketone metabolism enters the picture too: when insulin falls low enough, the body can shift toward burning fat and producing ketones for fuel, which is part of why lowering insulin, not just cutting calories, changes how the body actually behaves. For anyone using RealFoods, that is the practical translation of Bikman's research: the WI Score is a day-to-day proxy for the insulin signal his lab studies in detail. Hormonal health, in Bikman's framing, is not a separate wellness category from weight management, it is the same system viewed from a different angle, which is why the WI Score treats a food's hormonal effect and its role in long-term metabolic disease risk as one continuous line rather than two unrelated scores.
Key works
Why We Get Sick (2020)
A clinical case that insulin resistance, not cholesterol or excess calories, underlies most modern chronic diseases.
Areas of expertise
- Insulin Resistance
- Metabolic Disease
- Fat Storage Mechanisms
- Hormonal Health
- Type 2 Diabetes
- Obesity Science
- Ketone Metabolism
