February 13, 2024 • 35 mins
In today's episode, Kate and Emma talk about sugar! We chat about the rise of added sugar into our food system, touching on the dangers of overconsumption of sugar when it comes to overall health. We touch on orthorexia and fearmongering about fruit, as well as how sugar impacts hormones + where artificial sweeteners rank within the sugar category.
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Emma Roepke — instagram.com/emma.roepke/
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Kate Glavan — instagram.com/kateglavan/
Emma Roepke — instagram.com/emma.roepke/
Sea Moss Girlies — instagram.com/seamossgirlies/
Sea Moss Girlies TikTok — tiktok.com/@seamossgirlies
Sea Moss Girlies App on Geneva —https://bit.ly/3N2rPUu
Head to athleticgreens.com/SEAMOSS to get a FREE 1 year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase.
Go to greenchef dot com slash 60seamoss and use code 60seamoss to get 60% off, plus 20% off your next two months. greenchef.com/60seamoss
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
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ultimate daily nutritional insurance. What is up, cmusk Eurlies, Welcome
(01:52):
back to your favorite pod. It is a Monday. The
Super Bowl was last night. We are going to have
a snowstorm here here in New York City tomorrow. Before
for M and I clicked record, we were talking about
the Super Bowl and it was a little bit of
a Sea Musk Curlies moment. I don't know if how
many Sea Musk Curlies are Super Bowl fans. I will
say that I didn't watch it, but I was on
Twitter last night as the Super Bowl was happening, and
(02:13):
apparently if you watched it on Nickelodeon, they were in
putting like SpongeBob characters within the game and like making
like funny memes like on live television, like when the
game was happening. I just presume from all the photos
I was seeing that this was delayed and people were
just like making memes of Travis Kelce. But I was
proven wrong and Nickelodeon was having a little Sea Musk
(02:33):
Curliest moment and yeah, I just I you know, I
love that memes are mainstream nowadays. But I did watch
the Super Bowl, but you know, we're both kind of
not really into it.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Yeah, it was half paid attention, So I did not
catch the SpongeBob content. On another Sea Musk Curlies related note, Poppy,
the prebiotic soda brand, They had a full blown ad
in the like they had a Super Bowl commercial and
I'm very curious, like how much money they secured to
do that, and it was I don't I don't really
(03:05):
have had much Poppy, so I can't really say if
I prefer more than Ollipop, but just their branding is
so specific, and they made it very loud and clear
who their target demographic is through their Super Bowl ad.
It's definitely just like Deep Pop rellies that set up
clothing racks and Tompkins Square Park. Like that was the
vibe I was getting. And it was like thirty seconds
(03:28):
too long, but that's besides the point. And it was
just like very interesting to see a sort of Sea
Must Relies adjacent brand kind of entering the space is
usually just like the Cool or whatever, like all the
different beer brands that are doing all the Super Bowl ads.
But I am good.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
I did not know there was.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Going to be a snowstorm this week, so I'm like
not mentally prepared for that. I've been teaching swim lessons.
I had my first official week last Saturday, and it
was like so fulfilling and rewarding. And I think just
like as you become an adult, it's important if you
have the ability to just to you know, partake in
like new activities, kind of continue to learn new stuff.
(04:07):
And this is definitely like a new skill that I'm developing,
and you know, teaching kids a survival lesson just because
it's really easy just to you know, go through the
motions and just do whatever it is that your job
requires to requires you to do. So I've been really
enjoying it. Everyone's for nice, so I'm sure I will
have plenty of stories to share in the coming weeks, months,
(04:27):
and years.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
I love that you're gonna, you know, indoctrinate so many
girlies to be sea musk gurlies through swimming and life.
But no, it's super exciting to see that this is
finally happening for you because you've been like talking about
this for a long time, and it'll be super cool as
an adult, like you said, to just have a new
thing in the routine to do. On a similar kind
of note, I'm starting up my run club again with Hoka.
(04:49):
I started it last year in twenty twenty three, and
I've been hosting monthly runs with them, and it's a
really great way for me to see the digital turned physical.
You know, I'm just scrolling on my phone like with
people dming me all day. I don't get to meet people.
I don't have coworkers, and the run club community in
New York City is just like insane. There's so many
people that run that you wouldn't expect So my first
(05:10):
run will be on Saturday, March second, and I'm excited
to get it all going again because I've just been
like hibernating honestly, Like after I ran the New York
City Marathon, just for personal mental health reasons, I was
kind of like, I need to just take care of
myself and not be as online and not share as much.
I mean, obviously still doing the bare minimum with socials,
but now I feel like I'm coming out of my hibernation.
(05:31):
I've done a lot of reflection and that shit, I've
run a lot of miles, and I'm excited to start
hosting my run clubs again. Yay.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yes, I went to one of your run clubs and
I can definitely confirm that they're fun. So girlies, if
you're in the area, definitely sign up for them. I
guess some means continued to be.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
A good outlet for me.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
I really am craving a swim meet or I just
need some sort of goal to really keep me motivated
and push a little bit harder. But as we've been
saying in the past few pods, it's kind of like
hibernation era. Like it's still winter, it's kind of okay
to like stay in and maybe not fully kill yourself
in the gym, the pool, or on the streets wherever
it is that you work out. My last note is
(06:13):
that I cut my hair. Kate and I are notoriously
known for cutting our own hair because they're so expensive
in New York. But it's quite cathartic to cut your
own hair. It feels a little naughty and rebellious, especially
if you like don't have any type of method to
the madness. My boyfriend was like asking me, like, how
did you do? And I literally was just like, I
just like pull my hair down and cut straight across.
(06:34):
He had to trim off some of the uneven bits,
but I'm sure like everyone kind of feels this way
whenever they get a haircut. You just like feel just
like light and fresh and new again. But if you're
just like needing to take out some sort of angster,
if you're just like I need to do something that's
manic and like sort of sporadic and spontaneous, chop your
hair like I highly recommend ten out of ten experience.
I've never regretted it. It's always looked good. You're not
(06:56):
going to fuck it up. I guess I'm kind of
lucky that I have curly hair so I can get
away stuff being slightly uneven. But I'm loving my fresh
short dow because I feel like when my hair gets
that like sort of awkward length where it's like not
long but like not short, I just don't feel like
I look polished or mature, or I just like don't
look like my age. So a fresh chop always feels nice.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Yeah, I did my fresh chop last Monday. I think
so I'm on the same wave length as you, and
hair will always grow back, so just do it. It
won't really matter. My last comment is kind of related
actually to the topic of this pod, which is about sugar.
But I've been addicted to sweet treats. I've been addicted
to doing new things, and so I'm going to put
the sea musk earlais onto some of my favorite sweet
(07:38):
treats of the moment. The one that I think I'm
going to make after we are done potting is vanilla
ice cream with a drizzle of olive oil from Braza,
some flaky salt, maybe some other toppings, or I just
maybe leave it at that. That's been a fun one
for me. There are these high protein donuts and their
brand that I'm like working with for the next few
months because I just like love the products so much
and they're called drum Roll. They have a vanilla flavor
(07:59):
and a chocolate flavor. I think you can get them
at like the shoppy shops. I know you can get
them on their website. I should have a link in
my bio like soon with them, so if you see
me posting about them, yes, I am being paid, but
I also really like the fucking product. And then Honey
Mama's I've been back on a Honey Mama's kick as well,
Coconut Cult when they have like fun little flavors. And
then also Cereal has just been hitting, you know, like
(08:22):
kind of like the healthy Cereal section. I suppose there's
a shit ton of brands. Remind I'm trying to think
of some of the fucking brands. Seven Sundays is one
for seven Sundays when I have in my pantry right
now off limits. I keep There's so many like brand names.
Magic Spoon is one. Anyways, they make fun, quirky flavors.
There's like a marshmallow flavor between one of those brands.
So if you're looking for a fun new sweet treat,
(08:44):
Recommend some cereal for you.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Yeah. My boyfriend and I actually eatable cereal every night
because he's been doing that for years, and once I
started staying at his place, marrows like, you know what,
I'm gonna partake in this tradition and it's just like
the best evening snack. It's like kind kind of light,
but it's like also like very satisfying. You can really
get crazy with the combinations. We've been on a chocolate cheerio,
(09:07):
and Whole Foods just has like their own like honeynut
cheerio as well as we've been doing a mix of
that and oh my god, it hits the spot.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Love that for you. Yeah, And then this topic of
the pod kind of relates to the sweet treats. So
we're gonna talk about sugar today. Now. I think we've
done episodes that have obviously touched on sugar because it's
a huge topic in health and wellness. I know, we
did a full episode on artificial sweeteners, we did one
that was about carbs, We probably talked about sugar. But
this is just answering all of kind of the questions
that I feel like come in the wellness space, like
(09:39):
is natural sugar bad for me? Like? What about all
these sweeteners? Because I think it's kind of crazy that
we live in a country where there is an obesity
epidemic at the same time that there's this like puritanical
like obsession with health and wellness to like the level
of orthorexia. Like there's two far extremes when it comes
to like sugar intake. So I think this episode, we're
trying to like meet you guys in the middle, just
(10:00):
like cut through some of the noise and the bullshit,
because it's kind of the last thing that I feel
like people should be freaking out about is like am
I eating too much honey? Like that's not that deep
of a problem we have here. Yeah, So I'm gonna
call I'm a back and we'll get into the pod
and we'll talk to you gillies in a little bit.
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Speaker 3 (14:16):
Now back to the show, right, we are back and
we are ready to talk about sugar. So the first
part of the pot I'm just going to kind of
get into why sugar has entered the American diet so
much like why it's become such a problem and such
concern in like health and wellness space because I think,
like I said in the intro to this episode, like
a lot of the kind of concerns about like sugar
in the health and wellness place kind of can come
(14:37):
from an angle of orthorexia, where like people are worried
about eating an apple because it has too much sugar
in them, But there are also like really serious health
concerns when it comes to eating too much sugar. So
overall kind of this episode is like, yes, we should
be eating less added sugar in our diet, the standard
American diet, and this rise of processed foods has definitely
created a surplus of sugar. We used to have as
(15:00):
much packaged food. We used to not have convenient like
food at our hands all the time, fast food, just
all the sugar that goes into food products like that
didn't exist fifty years ago. So it's entirely shifted the
landscape of like chronic disease. We have, chronic illness, we
have like what the healthcare system is sort of dealing with.
And there's also a lot of misinformation about sugar, and
(15:22):
that misinformation only keeps consumers like more confused when they're
going shopping and when they're eating. Studies show that about
eighty percent of shoppers come across conflicting nutritional data, which
I think Sea Musk girlies know, like there's you could
find so many different pieces of like diet information that
all conflict each other. And fifty nine percent of people
doubt the choices that they're making for their families are
(15:44):
like good for their families. So even if you hear
a commercial that's like go eat whole green cereal, or
like opt for brown rice versus white rice or something
like that, one of those statements, people don't really know
if it's valid and true, and so people still feel
really confused about if they're making quote healthy choices. In
the episode about I think artificial sweeteners or something, and
(16:05):
then I touched on this concept that I learned about
a few years ago that food labeling can hide sugar oftentimes.
So granola bar companies are oftentimes like a big culprit
of this one. They'll oftentimes split up sugar into different
types of sugar. Let's say they'll use something like ground rice, syrup, cane,
sugar and honey or something, because when you look at
(16:26):
an ingredient's label on a piece of food or something
like that, it'll be all labeled by nutritional density, So
how much of that ingredient is in the product. And
so if they were to just only have cane sugar,
then cane sugar would be the first ingredient. And most
people when they're shopping know that, like, if there's a
lot of sugar or sugar is the first ingredient, I
maybe shouldn't buy this. But since it can be split
(16:49):
down into three different types of sugar, the label is
very misleading for consumers. And then people don't assume that
a lot of these granola bars that are kind of
promoted as like health food or energy or whatever claims
they have, like these things are full of sugar, but
it's just split up into three different ingredients. And before
we had like the rise of the standard American diet
(17:10):
and like processing food, we used to just eat fruits.
We used to just eat vegetables. We didn't get any
added sugar, and whole foods like fruits and veggies don't
cause the brain to release dopamine. And so that's why
people have started to realize that this added sugar has
led to so many ill health consequences because your brain
starts to need more and more of this sugar to
get that same feeling of pleasure, which is why why
(17:32):
it can become so addicting and dangerous in the food system,
and it creates these like I gotta habit feelings, like
let's say after you finish a meal, or like after
you finish a sweet treat, because you feel like you
need more and more and more of it, you're kind
of never satisfied because added sugar just kind of corrupts
our brain chemistry so much. And so that's to say,
(17:54):
like too much sugar can be a huge threat to
our health and well being. It's one of the greatest
threats that comes to cardio as suscular disease and your
risk of developing that there's a direct link between excess
sugar consumption and obesity. And so the reason behind this
is like sugar can be hidden kind of like I
mentioned earlier, it's also very calorically dense, and it packs
a lot of extra h you know, ill health benefits
(18:16):
into these things. Like I mentioned earlier, it can kind
of create these loops where it's providing dope meineto the brain,
and then you need more and more and more of it.
And that's why people tend to overeat like donuts. And
they always say, like, yeah, you don't tend to overeat
like chicken breast because your body would be like I'm satiated.
I have nutrients, like I have protein, I have this
and that, but added sugar. Our body doesn't really know
(18:37):
what to do with it because it's not something that
we are used to process. And so seventy five percent
of Americans are eating too much sugar. And like I
said in the intro, it's just, you know, crazy to
think that. I feel like when I'm thinking about sea musk,
early shit, I never really think like, oh, maybe I
should look at how much sugar I eat in a day.
Or when I'm advertising a new wellness product, I tend
(18:58):
to not look at how many grams of sugar in
it because I often assume, like, this is a health product,
there's not going to be a lot of sugar in it.
But in reality, like a lot of us are probably
eating too much sugar if we were to like go
and measure it and track it in whatever. But the
categories that are like these sources of added sugar and
diet tend to come from soft drinks, fruit drinks, sport
(19:18):
and energy drinks, and coffee and tea. So it's a
lot of beverages that are adding like added sugar. And
when it comes to you know, the alternative or like
the functional beverage section that you see in like the
air ones and the Whole Foods, a lot of these
products that are in there are looking to kind of
curb America's soda addiction. Like that was a lot of
the reason that Ollipop was created was to like create
(19:39):
a better soda alternative for people. And so that's why
I think a lot of the brands that are in
the beverage space, though they might seem like goofy and
silly and like a functional little beverage, beverages are a
huge reason why people tend to drink too much sugar sugar.
So if people have alternatives to drink something with less
sugar and maybe have an added health benefit, I take
that as a plus. Now, when it comes to sugar
(20:01):
recommendations from the government, men should consume no more than
nine teaspoons a day of added sugar and for women
they'll numbers even lower. It's about six teaspoons per day
of added sugar, and a twelve ounce can of soda
actually contains eight tea spoons or thirty eight grams of
added sugar, So one can of soda would be more
than what your daily recommended value of this is, which
(20:23):
is why it can be so hard to like fall
under that recommendation when there's so much sugar across, like
let's say all the foods you eat in one day.
But to get towards like more of these myths about sugar,
I want to talk about fruit sugar because I don't
know where this fucking myth started. If any of you
guys have like specific sources, like, please send it my way.
I don't know where the diet myth started that eating
(20:45):
fruit is bad for you and eating fruit is too
much sugar. I think it probably started with like the
carnivore freaks, like the liver king guy whatever, where if
you eat too much sugar, it's just your body's gonna
process it and whatever. But sugar in fruit is not
a real health concern for most people. Sugar and fruit
are different things. Fruit has different nutrients in the body.
(21:08):
It's not just eating like a tablespoon of cane sugar.
And also fruit is very high in fiber, so your
body processes like sugar versus fruit very differently. When it
comes to how sugars are processed in the body, yes,
they're all going to be processed a little bit differently,
But when it comes to fruit, the sugars are not
absorbed as quickly as they are with just eating like
(21:29):
a bag of candy or something like that. Your body
spends a lot more time digesting an apple because it
has this high fiber content, So the natural sugar absorbs
much more slowly and doesn't lead to these like crazy
like bad health effects. And also to answer like, yes,
there are quote healthier sugar options, so I feel like
you hear in the wellness world like eat honey, eat
(21:51):
black strap molasses, like stay away from cane sugar or
white sugar, But things like honey do have extra benefits.
Like you know, if you eat honey and you buy
a low honey, that's going to provide a lot of
benefits to your immune system because that honey is being
pollinated by the bees that live in your area. Also,
blackstrat molasses is a really good source of iron. So
when we're just looking at these like sweeteners, we'll say,
(22:13):
as you know, sugar in the body, like, they do
have additional health benefits. And so that's why I feel
like it's not good to like villainize something like a
honey or a blackstraat molasses. But yes, your body still
does process them like a sugar, So I understand that
angle as well. But the good news about all of
this is that your body adapts to what you do.
It is really difficult to cut out sugar. Like I
(22:35):
know when I went vegan when I was in high school,
that was probably the biggest shift I went off of
like the standard American diet because I was eating like
processed snacks like probably twice throughout the day. I was
eating like a bowl of ice cream before bed, which
are not bad things, but looking back on it, that
was a lot of added sugar. And when I went vegan,
that was my first time of like eating more than
(22:55):
one vegetable in a day and eating a wide variety
of vegetables. And so I think a lot of my
food throughout the day was with more nutrient dense food
than it was previously, and I think at first it
was really hard for my body to feel satisfied with
those foods because it was so reliant on sugar sort
of getting me through the day. Your body does become
(23:16):
like quote addicted to sugar, but you slowly over time
can undo that once you start to add in different
foods to your diet, Like your body will start to
crave eating an apple versus eating I don't know, like
twinkies or something like that. And experts know that eating
sugar stimulates like pathways in the brain that you know,
relate to dopamine, like I mentioned earlier, and so these
(23:37):
are associated with things like pleasure and reward. But it's
still sort of debated if sugar can be as addictive
as drugs. Some people will say that sugar, we are
so addicted to sugar in this country, it is a drug.
Other people will say, like, this does not interact as
harshly as drugs do. So I'm kind of curious. I think,
I don't know if this would happen in the help
them on a space or and like the food world.
(23:58):
But if you start to see more regulation about sugar
in the food world, and you know, does it actually
lead to the same effects of like drugs, are we
addicted to it? Like if we had more clinical studies
on how sugar, you know, interacts all the systems in
the body, I feel like that would be the only
way that maybe like legislators would feel compelled to do
anything about sugar. But overall, I think the best way
(24:20):
you can avoid eating too much sugar is just to
get better at, you know, reading labels, and if you're
eating oranges and apples, like you don't need to freak
out about that sugar.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
It's also crazy too, because there's almost like I think,
I want to say one hundred different ways to label sugar.
Like Kate mentioned earlier that like brands will utilize different
ingredients so that it's not just showing us sugar as
the first ingredient.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
But that just requires like so.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
Much additional research on the consumer because it's like you
probably don't You probably know that like there's sugar, there's
brown sugar, there's like honey, and like that's about it.
But just knowing that there's like so many different names,
it can be like really overwhelming to educate yourself. I
think like the conversation about like the health risks of
sugar are obviously and one thing that I don't think
people pay close enough attention to, which we're going to
(25:04):
get into in a moment, is like sugar and hormones
and how those two relate. I think as more and
more research has come out about like females and like
hormones and just I guess more medical practitioners and experts
that are actually females in the space start to have
more voices, we're finally able to get more information on
how these two are so closely connected, because typically I
(25:25):
think the conversation is more related around like weight gain
and you know, like diabetes, et cetera. But getting into
kind of how sugar and hormones are related and how
sugar can influence your hormones. It all has to do
with insulin and blood glucose. I'm sure a lot of
you have heard about insulin resistance and just like how
that whole process works just through you know, all the
(25:47):
podcasts and information that's out there. But for people who
maybe need a little refresher. Whenever we consume sugar, and
by the way, sugar is a form of a carbohydrate,
so this is like how your body is going to
process us any type of carb there's a hormone called
insulin that gets released, and its primary role in this
entire process is to really move the sugar out of
(26:09):
the bloodstream and into the cells to utilize this energy.
But the issue here is that like when we begin
to overreach sugar, we start to develop insulin resistance, mainly
because our cells just become like too lazy and basically
become like resistant to the insulin. And then we therefore
start to develop high glucose levels. And you constantly see
these like high spikes and high and low dips. I'm
sure if anyone follows like lucose Goddess or has seen
(26:31):
like any of the CGM monitors. I know, like a
lot of creators and tiktoks have shown themselves like drinking
a diet coke versus like a regular coke and showing
the different spikes. And I don't want to alarm anyone
and be like, if you're constantly eating carbs, like this
is what you're going to face, Like so many different
carbs are going to have a different glycemic index load,
which is basically you know how quickly food will all
(26:52):
trig your blood sugar and like how high that the
blood sugar will rise so like just because you're eating
like potatoes does not mean like you're going to like
aud to medically developed in sulim resistance if you're like
eating potatoes every day, and our body does need like
a good balance intake of sugars, which again are carbs
but also fats and protein, and so when our body
(27:12):
is not balanced, we can start to develop like different
hormonal issues if we're you know, relying too much on
sugars versus like fats and proteins, and like our body
should be able to shift between like fat and sugar metabolism,
but again, the body likes to just respond to whatever
maybe it's most used to. So it's kind of like
a muscle. Like if you're not having your body work on,
(27:34):
you know, metabolizing and like utilizing fats mainly as energy,
it's going to get lazy and not utilize that and
only want to utilize sugar as you know, main source
of energy. But kind of how you know sugar can
develop into other different how it can lead to different
hormonal balances is really again like I said, through in
slim resistance, and just like this imbalance with cortisol, progesterone,
(27:56):
and estrogen can also you know become imbalanced if we
are consuming too much sugar and do have like insul resistance,
and this could lead to potential development of PCUS or
other intense PMF symptoms. And I'm sure like we're all
very aware of like what we eat. So if you
realize it, like, oh, I am kind of developing like
very odd symptoms and you like have noticed that, like, oh, yeah,
(28:16):
it's because I've been eating a lot more sugar, that
can likely be something for you to look at and
have a conversation with with your medical practitioner. But also
to like just access sugar intake as a whole can
lead to more fat cells, and fat cells do secreate
more estrogen, and so when we become estrogen dominant, this
become like the really the brute cause of things such
(28:37):
as acne, irregular cycles, and infertility as well. So like
it can get very serious if you like don't address
it earlier in your life. But assuming most the musculities
like have some sort of like wellness routine and like
you know pay attention to like what they're eating, you know,
in a healthy way. And if you're like working out
(28:57):
and like have muscle, your body's going to be able
to like metabolize the sugar versus someone who does not.
So if you like do go on, like you know,
a weekend vender where you're like maybe having a few
more sweet treats, or even around the holidays where maybe
there's more sweets like around you, Like you're gonna be fine.
Your body's going to be like smart, and it's gonna
be able to like actually utilize that for proper energy
versus letting it just like sit in your bloodstream. But
(29:20):
like knowing that it can be very easy to become
orthorexic in this area, and like life's too short to
like not eat cake. I think it's important to maybe
focus not necessarily on eliminating sugar, but focusing on how
you can keep that clycemic index or insulin response low.
There's so many tips on the internet, but I think
like the ones that are talking about the most and
probably have the most research behind them, is like not
(29:42):
consuming sugar on an empty stomach, like you know, maybe
not having a pastry first in the morning with coffee
and if you are like trying to pair that with
some fiber or some fat, and that kind of gets
sent to my next point of like again pairing a
fat or protein to slow down the absorption and also
just the digestive process metabolism of sugar. And then there's
(30:02):
an interesting research of having vinegar before eating sugar that
can help reduce an insulin spike, and just like moving
around afterwards, whether that's just like cleaning the kitchen or
going on like a short five ten minute walk just
to basically get the blood flowing and having your body
just like automatically start to use up for energy. And
then lastly, the last section is going to be about
artificial sweeteners. We did an episode about this years ago,
(30:25):
and it's like funny because I like vividly remember where
I was sitting in my old apartment when we recorded
this episode. But artificial sweeteners are really everywhere these days,
and it's mainly just because people know it's low calories,
and like that's what people are like really really focused on.
As you know, people have become more and more aware
(30:46):
of just like general nutrition and like chloric intake, but
artificial sweeteners like high level these are just like chemicals
that are added to many like food and beverages to
make them taste sweet, but provide virtually zero calories.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
This is why you see them in a.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Lot of like diet foods, so just like haylo top
and other foods of that nature. People often refer to
them as like intense sweeteners because they provide a taste that, yes,
is similar to table sugar, but is up to several
thousand times sweeter. And for me, I know, whenever I
do eat something that has like artificial artificial sugar in it,
I can like almost just like immediately get some sort
(31:19):
of like headache. Like I remember when we were drinking
zbia all the time. It would just be like this
like huge rush just because it was like so overwhelmingly
sweet versus like something that maybe was like naturally sweetened.
But like the molecules of our artificial sweeteners are just
different enough, ever so slightly to basically not have our
bodies break them down as calories. And that's how they
(31:40):
essentially don't have any calories versus like a tablespoon of sugar.
And they're considered non nutritive because they offer no additional
benefits of vitamins or minerals. So, like Kate said, yes,
honey is technically like a sweetener or a sugar. There's
like also black start molasses, or even when you eat fruit,
like yes, that has sugar, but they're also providing other
vitamins and minerals that's make them healthy, Whereas like artificial
(32:02):
sweeteners that are really providing no benefit for you other
than that they just like taste sweet and kind of
like sort of satisfy that craving, but they also don't
really because there's no sense of fullness since there's no
calories associated with artificial sweeteners. So you're really when you're
eating these foods, you're kind of retraining your taste buds
to crave and require more sweetness because your body isn't
(32:24):
actually feeling full afterwards. And some artificial sweeners, there's some
emerging research coming out that is kind of showing that
when you do consume it, you're kind of triggering the
receptors on your tongue and it can lead to a
rise and like blood googost levels or insulin because your
body is like noticing, oh, there's something sweet coming in,
but then there's no actual calories to your body is
(32:45):
like we don't know what to do. A few other
critiques of artificial sweeteners is that it can potentially alter
your got microbiome in the long term aggravate ibs, and
you know, there's some other concerns about urtficial sweeners, maybe
about them like causing cancer or et cetera, et cetera.
There's only six that are approved by the FDA, so like, yeah,
they're generally safe. I don't suggest like automatically switching to
(33:09):
like Splendor Monk Fruit what other other ones are out
on the market, just because again there's really no health
benefit for them, and they can potentially do some harm
in the long run, but also too, like I think
like a lot of people almost start to develop like
binge eating binge eating like patterns with artificial sweeners. So
(33:31):
it's like, well, I know this has no sugar, I'm
gonna eat the full type of pylotp versus like actually
eating something that's like indulgent and satisized their craving.
Speaker 3 (33:38):
So that's just some food for thought.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
I think they can definitely be helpful in some situations,
but if you're relying on it just because you know,
you have a sweet tooth and you like want something
to satisfy the craving, but you're like scared to eat
the real things, so you're afraid you're gonna go overboard.
That's like where you know you might want to start
like having conversations and really untankling those those thoughts and
rules that you have.
Speaker 3 (33:57):
Yeah, I think it's so hard to know. And I
think the only way you're gonna know which sugars and
artificial sweeteners interact well with you and which ones don't
is just by eating them, like Emma said, Stevia and us,
you know, like Zvia Bender phase of drinking so many
of those. I had a lot of chin neck during
that time, and I definitely felt like I craved sugar
is a lot more because I wasn't giving myself that
(34:18):
natural sugar. So just like play around with it because
it works for some people like this artificial sweeteners do.
They don't work for other people. But yeah, you know,
I'm gonna still make my sweet treat tonight, whatever it
shall be. Yeah, do you have any other exciting Monday plans, Doug,
I'm gonna.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Have some vitual dates with some nut butter and also too.
One thing I want to note too, is that like
there's something bad about having a sweet tooth, Like I
think people feel guilty about that when they like crave
sweets more than like savory foods, because I think some
people just assume like savory foods are automatically healthier. But
like it's normal to crave sugar, it's like normal to
like want to have indulgent treats. So like you're not
a bad person if you like do have that, And
(34:55):
it's just like kind of developing healthy habits and figuring out,
you know what that's the best amount for you to
consume throughout the week, you know, Kate and I kind
of about eighty twenty rules, So eighty percent of the
time eating your majual dates in dark chocolate or whatever
cottage cheese mush bowls you want to have, and then
twenty percent of the time, you know, having in the
real fun stuff.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
Yeah, you can do both. The Sea Mess Relies will
always do both so well. But that's this week's pod.
As always, feel free to send us your topics you
want us to do for any future pod episodes. Send
the pod to your friends that like the memes that
don't know that we have a podcast that's always fun.
I made a meme last week about like health and
wellness podcasts, and someone commented, like, what are your favorite
wellness podcasts, and I was like ours, So I hope
(35:38):
that person is listening to the pod today, but lovely
for us to record another episode. I'll talk to you
girlies next week and see you then
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(01:12):
you need.
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ultimate daily nutritional insurance. What is up, cmusk Eurlies, Welcome
(01:52):
back to your favorite pod. It is a Monday. The
Super Bowl was last night. We are going to have
a snowstorm here here in New York City tomorrow. Before
for M and I clicked record, we were talking about
the Super Bowl and it was a little bit of
a Sea Musk Curlies moment. I don't know if how
many Sea Musk Curlies are Super Bowl fans. I will
say that I didn't watch it, but I was on
Twitter last night as the Super Bowl was happening, and
(02:13):
apparently if you watched it on Nickelodeon, they were in
putting like SpongeBob characters within the game and like making
like funny memes like on live television, like when the
game was happening. I just presume from all the photos
I was seeing that this was delayed and people were
just like making memes of Travis Kelce. But I was
proven wrong and Nickelodeon was having a little Sea Musk
(02:33):
Curliest moment and yeah, I just I you know, I
love that memes are mainstream nowadays. But I did watch
the Super Bowl, but you know, we're both kind of
not really into it.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Yeah, it was half paid attention, So I did not
catch the SpongeBob content. On another Sea Musk Curlies related note, Poppy,
the prebiotic soda brand, They had a full blown ad
in the like they had a Super Bowl commercial and
I'm very curious, like how much money they secured to
do that, and it was I don't I don't really
(03:05):
have had much Poppy, so I can't really say if
I prefer more than Ollipop, but just their branding is
so specific, and they made it very loud and clear
who their target demographic is through their Super Bowl ad.
It's definitely just like Deep Pop rellies that set up
clothing racks and Tompkins Square Park. Like that was the
vibe I was getting. And it was like thirty seconds
(03:28):
too long, but that's besides the point. And it was
just like very interesting to see a sort of Sea
Must Relies adjacent brand kind of entering the space is
usually just like the Cool or whatever, like all the
different beer brands that are doing all the Super Bowl ads.
But I am good.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
I did not know there was.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Going to be a snowstorm this week, so I'm like
not mentally prepared for that. I've been teaching swim lessons.
I had my first official week last Saturday, and it
was like so fulfilling and rewarding. And I think just
like as you become an adult, it's important if you
have the ability to just to you know, partake in
like new activities, kind of continue to learn new stuff.
(04:07):
And this is definitely like a new skill that I'm developing,
and you know, teaching kids a survival lesson just because
it's really easy just to you know, go through the
motions and just do whatever it is that your job
requires to requires you to do. So I've been really
enjoying it. Everyone's for nice, so I'm sure I will
have plenty of stories to share in the coming weeks, months,
(04:27):
and years.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
I love that you're gonna, you know, indoctrinate so many
girlies to be sea musk gurlies through swimming and life.
But no, it's super exciting to see that this is
finally happening for you because you've been like talking about
this for a long time, and it'll be super cool as
an adult, like you said, to just have a new
thing in the routine to do. On a similar kind
of note, I'm starting up my run club again with Hoka.
(04:49):
I started it last year in twenty twenty three, and
I've been hosting monthly runs with them, and it's a
really great way for me to see the digital turned physical.
You know, I'm just scrolling on my phone like with
people dming me all day. I don't get to meet people.
I don't have coworkers, and the run club community in
New York City is just like insane. There's so many
people that run that you wouldn't expect So my first
(05:10):
run will be on Saturday, March second, and I'm excited
to get it all going again because I've just been
like hibernating honestly, Like after I ran the New York
City Marathon, just for personal mental health reasons, I was
kind of like, I need to just take care of
myself and not be as online and not share as much.
I mean, obviously still doing the bare minimum with socials,
but now I feel like I'm coming out of my hibernation.
(05:31):
I've done a lot of reflection and that shit, I've
run a lot of miles, and I'm excited to start
hosting my run clubs again. Yay.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yes, I went to one of your run clubs and
I can definitely confirm that they're fun. So girlies, if
you're in the area, definitely sign up for them. I
guess some means continued to be.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
A good outlet for me.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
I really am craving a swim meet or I just
need some sort of goal to really keep me motivated
and push a little bit harder. But as we've been
saying in the past few pods, it's kind of like
hibernation era. Like it's still winter, it's kind of okay
to like stay in and maybe not fully kill yourself
in the gym, the pool, or on the streets wherever
it is that you work out. My last note is
(06:13):
that I cut my hair. Kate and I are notoriously
known for cutting our own hair because they're so expensive
in New York. But it's quite cathartic to cut your
own hair. It feels a little naughty and rebellious, especially
if you like don't have any type of method to
the madness. My boyfriend was like asking me, like, how
did you do? And I literally was just like, I
just like pull my hair down and cut straight across.
(06:34):
He had to trim off some of the uneven bits,
but I'm sure like everyone kind of feels this way
whenever they get a haircut. You just like feel just
like light and fresh and new again. But if you're
just like needing to take out some sort of angster,
if you're just like I need to do something that's
manic and like sort of sporadic and spontaneous, chop your
hair like I highly recommend ten out of ten experience.
I've never regretted it. It's always looked good. You're not
(06:56):
going to fuck it up. I guess I'm kind of
lucky that I have curly hair so I can get
away stuff being slightly uneven. But I'm loving my fresh
short dow because I feel like when my hair gets
that like sort of awkward length where it's like not
long but like not short, I just don't feel like
I look polished or mature, or I just like don't
look like my age. So a fresh chop always feels nice.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Yeah, I did my fresh chop last Monday. I think
so I'm on the same wave length as you, and
hair will always grow back, so just do it. It
won't really matter. My last comment is kind of related
actually to the topic of this pod, which is about sugar.
But I've been addicted to sweet treats. I've been addicted
to doing new things, and so I'm going to put
the sea musk earlais onto some of my favorite sweet
(07:38):
treats of the moment. The one that I think I'm
going to make after we are done potting is vanilla
ice cream with a drizzle of olive oil from Braza,
some flaky salt, maybe some other toppings, or I just
maybe leave it at that. That's been a fun one
for me. There are these high protein donuts and their
brand that I'm like working with for the next few
months because I just like love the products so much
and they're called drum Roll. They have a vanilla flavor
(07:59):
and a chocolate flavor. I think you can get them
at like the shoppy shops. I know you can get
them on their website. I should have a link in
my bio like soon with them, so if you see
me posting about them, yes, I am being paid, but
I also really like the fucking product. And then Honey
Mama's I've been back on a Honey Mama's kick as well,
Coconut Cult when they have like fun little flavors. And
then also Cereal has just been hitting, you know, like
(08:22):
kind of like the healthy Cereal section. I suppose there's
a shit ton of brands. Remind I'm trying to think
of some of the fucking brands. Seven Sundays is one
for seven Sundays when I have in my pantry right
now off limits. I keep There's so many like brand names.
Magic Spoon is one. Anyways, they make fun, quirky flavors.
There's like a marshmallow flavor between one of those brands.
So if you're looking for a fun new sweet treat,
(08:44):
Recommend some cereal for you.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Yeah. My boyfriend and I actually eatable cereal every night
because he's been doing that for years, and once I
started staying at his place, marrows like, you know what,
I'm gonna partake in this tradition and it's just like
the best evening snack. It's like kind kind of light,
but it's like also like very satisfying. You can really
get crazy with the combinations. We've been on a chocolate cheerio,
(09:07):
and Whole Foods just has like their own like honeynut
cheerio as well as we've been doing a mix of
that and oh my god, it hits the spot.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Love that for you. Yeah, And then this topic of
the pod kind of relates to the sweet treats. So
we're gonna talk about sugar today. Now. I think we've
done episodes that have obviously touched on sugar because it's
a huge topic in health and wellness. I know, we
did a full episode on artificial sweeteners, we did one
that was about carbs, We probably talked about sugar. But
this is just answering all of kind of the questions
that I feel like come in the wellness space, like
(09:39):
is natural sugar bad for me? Like? What about all
these sweeteners? Because I think it's kind of crazy that
we live in a country where there is an obesity
epidemic at the same time that there's this like puritanical
like obsession with health and wellness to like the level
of orthorexia. Like there's two far extremes when it comes
to like sugar intake. So I think this episode, we're
trying to like meet you guys in the middle, just
(10:00):
like cut through some of the noise and the bullshit,
because it's kind of the last thing that I feel
like people should be freaking out about is like am
I eating too much honey? Like that's not that deep
of a problem we have here. Yeah, So I'm gonna
call I'm a back and we'll get into the pod
and we'll talk to you gillies in a little bit.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
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(10:40):
and messaging so you can connect with candidates faster. Leveraging
over one hundred and forty million qualifications and preferences every day,
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more than three point five million businesses worldwide. They use
Indeed to hire great talent fast, and listeners of this
(11:02):
show will get a seventy five dollars sponsored job credit
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slash blue wire. Just go to indeed dot com slash
blue wire right now and support our show by saying
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(11:22):
to hire you need Indeed.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
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Now back to the show, right, we are back and
we are ready to talk about sugar. So the first
part of the pot I'm just going to kind of
get into why sugar has entered the American diet so
much like why it's become such a problem and such
concern in like health and wellness space because I think,
like I said in the intro to this episode, like
a lot of the kind of concerns about like sugar
in the health and wellness place kind of can come
(14:37):
from an angle of orthorexia, where like people are worried
about eating an apple because it has too much sugar
in them, But there are also like really serious health
concerns when it comes to eating too much sugar. So
overall kind of this episode is like, yes, we should
be eating less added sugar in our diet, the standard
American diet, and this rise of processed foods has definitely
created a surplus of sugar. We used to have as
(15:00):
much packaged food. We used to not have convenient like
food at our hands all the time, fast food, just
all the sugar that goes into food products like that
didn't exist fifty years ago. So it's entirely shifted the
landscape of like chronic disease. We have, chronic illness, we
have like what the healthcare system is sort of dealing with.
And there's also a lot of misinformation about sugar, and
(15:22):
that misinformation only keeps consumers like more confused when they're
going shopping and when they're eating. Studies show that about
eighty percent of shoppers come across conflicting nutritional data, which
I think Sea Musk girlies know, like there's you could
find so many different pieces of like diet information that
all conflict each other. And fifty nine percent of people
doubt the choices that they're making for their families are
(15:44):
like good for their families. So even if you hear
a commercial that's like go eat whole green cereal, or
like opt for brown rice versus white rice or something
like that, one of those statements, people don't really know
if it's valid and true, and so people still feel
really confused about if they're making quote healthy choices. In
the episode about I think artificial sweeteners or something, and
(16:05):
then I touched on this concept that I learned about
a few years ago that food labeling can hide sugar oftentimes.
So granola bar companies are oftentimes like a big culprit
of this one. They'll oftentimes split up sugar into different
types of sugar. Let's say they'll use something like ground rice, syrup, cane,
sugar and honey or something, because when you look at
(16:26):
an ingredient's label on a piece of food or something
like that, it'll be all labeled by nutritional density, So
how much of that ingredient is in the product. And
so if they were to just only have cane sugar,
then cane sugar would be the first ingredient. And most
people when they're shopping know that, like, if there's a
lot of sugar or sugar is the first ingredient, I
maybe shouldn't buy this. But since it can be split
(16:49):
down into three different types of sugar, the label is
very misleading for consumers. And then people don't assume that
a lot of these granola bars that are kind of
promoted as like health food or energy or whatever claims
they have, like these things are full of sugar, but
it's just split up into three different ingredients. And before
we had like the rise of the standard American diet
(17:10):
and like processing food, we used to just eat fruits.
We used to just eat vegetables. We didn't get any
added sugar, and whole foods like fruits and veggies don't
cause the brain to release dopamine. And so that's why
people have started to realize that this added sugar has
led to so many ill health consequences because your brain
starts to need more and more of this sugar to
get that same feeling of pleasure, which is why why
(17:32):
it can become so addicting and dangerous in the food system,
and it creates these like I gotta habit feelings, like
let's say after you finish a meal, or like after
you finish a sweet treat, because you feel like you
need more and more and more of it, you're kind
of never satisfied because added sugar just kind of corrupts
our brain chemistry so much. And so that's to say,
(17:54):
like too much sugar can be a huge threat to
our health and well being. It's one of the greatest
threats that comes to cardio as suscular disease and your
risk of developing that there's a direct link between excess
sugar consumption and obesity. And so the reason behind this
is like sugar can be hidden kind of like I
mentioned earlier, it's also very calorically dense, and it packs
a lot of extra h you know, ill health benefits
(18:16):
into these things. Like I mentioned earlier, it can kind
of create these loops where it's providing dope meineto the brain,
and then you need more and more and more of it.
And that's why people tend to overeat like donuts. And
they always say, like, yeah, you don't tend to overeat
like chicken breast because your body would be like I'm satiated.
I have nutrients, like I have protein, I have this
and that, but added sugar. Our body doesn't really know
(18:37):
what to do with it because it's not something that
we are used to process. And so seventy five percent
of Americans are eating too much sugar. And like I
said in the intro, it's just, you know, crazy to
think that. I feel like when I'm thinking about sea musk,
early shit, I never really think like, oh, maybe I
should look at how much sugar I eat in a day.
Or when I'm advertising a new wellness product, I tend
(18:58):
to not look at how many grams of sugar in
it because I often assume, like, this is a health product,
there's not going to be a lot of sugar in it.
But in reality, like a lot of us are probably
eating too much sugar if we were to like go
and measure it and track it in whatever. But the
categories that are like these sources of added sugar and
diet tend to come from soft drinks, fruit drinks, sport
(19:18):
and energy drinks, and coffee and tea. So it's a
lot of beverages that are adding like added sugar. And
when it comes to you know, the alternative or like
the functional beverage section that you see in like the
air ones and the Whole Foods, a lot of these
products that are in there are looking to kind of
curb America's soda addiction. Like that was a lot of
the reason that Ollipop was created was to like create
(19:39):
a better soda alternative for people. And so that's why
I think a lot of the brands that are in
the beverage space, though they might seem like goofy and
silly and like a functional little beverage, beverages are a
huge reason why people tend to drink too much sugar sugar.
So if people have alternatives to drink something with less
sugar and maybe have an added health benefit, I take
that as a plus. Now, when it comes to sugar
(20:01):
recommendations from the government, men should consume no more than
nine teaspoons a day of added sugar and for women
they'll numbers even lower. It's about six teaspoons per day
of added sugar, and a twelve ounce can of soda
actually contains eight tea spoons or thirty eight grams of
added sugar, So one can of soda would be more
than what your daily recommended value of this is, which
(20:23):
is why it can be so hard to like fall
under that recommendation when there's so much sugar across, like
let's say all the foods you eat in one day.
But to get towards like more of these myths about sugar,
I want to talk about fruit sugar because I don't
know where this fucking myth started. If any of you
guys have like specific sources, like, please send it my way.
I don't know where the diet myth started that eating
(20:45):
fruit is bad for you and eating fruit is too
much sugar. I think it probably started with like the
carnivore freaks, like the liver king guy whatever, where if
you eat too much sugar, it's just your body's gonna
process it and whatever. But sugar in fruit is not
a real health concern for most people. Sugar and fruit
are different things. Fruit has different nutrients in the body.
(21:08):
It's not just eating like a tablespoon of cane sugar.
And also fruit is very high in fiber, so your
body processes like sugar versus fruit very differently. When it
comes to how sugars are processed in the body, yes,
they're all going to be processed a little bit differently,
But when it comes to fruit, the sugars are not
absorbed as quickly as they are with just eating like
(21:29):
a bag of candy or something like that. Your body
spends a lot more time digesting an apple because it
has this high fiber content, So the natural sugar absorbs
much more slowly and doesn't lead to these like crazy
like bad health effects. And also to answer like, yes,
there are quote healthier sugar options, so I feel like
you hear in the wellness world like eat honey, eat
(21:51):
black strap molasses, like stay away from cane sugar or
white sugar, But things like honey do have extra benefits.
Like you know, if you eat honey and you buy
a low honey, that's going to provide a lot of
benefits to your immune system because that honey is being
pollinated by the bees that live in your area. Also,
blackstrat molasses is a really good source of iron. So
when we're just looking at these like sweeteners, we'll say,
(22:13):
as you know, sugar in the body, like, they do
have additional health benefits. And so that's why I feel
like it's not good to like villainize something like a
honey or a blackstraat molasses. But yes, your body still
does process them like a sugar, So I understand that
angle as well. But the good news about all of
this is that your body adapts to what you do.
It is really difficult to cut out sugar. Like I
(22:35):
know when I went vegan when I was in high school,
that was probably the biggest shift I went off of
like the standard American diet because I was eating like
processed snacks like probably twice throughout the day. I was
eating like a bowl of ice cream before bed, which
are not bad things, but looking back on it, that
was a lot of added sugar. And when I went vegan,
that was my first time of like eating more than
(22:55):
one vegetable in a day and eating a wide variety
of vegetables. And so I think a lot of my
food throughout the day was with more nutrient dense food
than it was previously, and I think at first it
was really hard for my body to feel satisfied with
those foods because it was so reliant on sugar sort
of getting me through the day. Your body does become
(23:16):
like quote addicted to sugar, but you slowly over time
can undo that once you start to add in different
foods to your diet, Like your body will start to
crave eating an apple versus eating I don't know, like
twinkies or something like that. And experts know that eating
sugar stimulates like pathways in the brain that you know,
relate to dopamine, like I mentioned earlier, and so these
(23:37):
are associated with things like pleasure and reward. But it's
still sort of debated if sugar can be as addictive
as drugs. Some people will say that sugar, we are
so addicted to sugar in this country, it is a drug.
Other people will say, like, this does not interact as
harshly as drugs do. So I'm kind of curious. I think,
I don't know if this would happen in the help
them on a space or and like the food world.
(23:58):
But if you start to see more regulation about sugar
in the food world, and you know, does it actually
lead to the same effects of like drugs, are we
addicted to it? Like if we had more clinical studies
on how sugar, you know, interacts all the systems in
the body, I feel like that would be the only
way that maybe like legislators would feel compelled to do
anything about sugar. But overall, I think the best way
(24:20):
you can avoid eating too much sugar is just to
get better at, you know, reading labels, and if you're
eating oranges and apples, like you don't need to freak
out about that sugar.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
It's also crazy too, because there's almost like I think,
I want to say one hundred different ways to label sugar.
Like Kate mentioned earlier that like brands will utilize different
ingredients so that it's not just showing us sugar as
the first ingredient.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
But that just requires like so.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
Much additional research on the consumer because it's like you
probably don't You probably know that like there's sugar, there's
brown sugar, there's like honey, and like that's about it.
But just knowing that there's like so many different names,
it can be like really overwhelming to educate yourself. I
think like the conversation about like the health risks of
sugar are obviously and one thing that I don't think
people pay close enough attention to, which we're going to
(25:04):
get into in a moment, is like sugar and hormones
and how those two relate. I think as more and
more research has come out about like females and like
hormones and just I guess more medical practitioners and experts
that are actually females in the space start to have
more voices, we're finally able to get more information on
how these two are so closely connected, because typically I
(25:25):
think the conversation is more related around like weight gain
and you know, like diabetes, et cetera. But getting into
kind of how sugar and hormones are related and how
sugar can influence your hormones. It all has to do
with insulin and blood glucose. I'm sure a lot of
you have heard about insulin resistance and just like how
that whole process works just through you know, all the
(25:47):
podcasts and information that's out there. But for people who
maybe need a little refresher. Whenever we consume sugar, and
by the way, sugar is a form of a carbohydrate,
so this is like how your body is going to
process us any type of carb there's a hormone called
insulin that gets released, and its primary role in this
entire process is to really move the sugar out of
(26:09):
the bloodstream and into the cells to utilize this energy.
But the issue here is that like when we begin
to overreach sugar, we start to develop insulin resistance, mainly
because our cells just become like too lazy and basically
become like resistant to the insulin. And then we therefore
start to develop high glucose levels. And you constantly see
these like high spikes and high and low dips. I'm
sure if anyone follows like lucose Goddess or has seen
(26:31):
like any of the CGM monitors. I know, like a
lot of creators and tiktoks have shown themselves like drinking
a diet coke versus like a regular coke and showing
the different spikes. And I don't want to alarm anyone
and be like, if you're constantly eating carbs, like this
is what you're going to face, Like so many different
carbs are going to have a different glycemic index load,
which is basically you know how quickly food will all
(26:52):
trig your blood sugar and like how high that the
blood sugar will rise so like just because you're eating
like potatoes does not mean like you're going to like
aud to medically developed in sulim resistance if you're like
eating potatoes every day, and our body does need like
a good balance intake of sugars, which again are carbs
but also fats and protein, and so when our body
(27:12):
is not balanced, we can start to develop like different
hormonal issues if we're you know, relying too much on
sugars versus like fats and proteins, and like our body
should be able to shift between like fat and sugar metabolism,
but again, the body likes to just respond to whatever
maybe it's most used to. So it's kind of like
a muscle. Like if you're not having your body work on,
(27:34):
you know, metabolizing and like utilizing fats mainly as energy,
it's going to get lazy and not utilize that and
only want to utilize sugar as you know, main source
of energy. But kind of how you know sugar can
develop into other different how it can lead to different
hormonal balances is really again like I said, through in
slim resistance, and just like this imbalance with cortisol, progesterone,
(27:56):
and estrogen can also you know become imbalanced if we
are consuming too much sugar and do have like insul resistance,
and this could lead to potential development of PCUS or
other intense PMF symptoms. And I'm sure like we're all
very aware of like what we eat. So if you
realize it, like, oh, I am kind of developing like
very odd symptoms and you like have noticed that, like, oh, yeah,
(28:16):
it's because I've been eating a lot more sugar, that
can likely be something for you to look at and
have a conversation with with your medical practitioner. But also
to like just access sugar intake as a whole can
lead to more fat cells, and fat cells do secreate
more estrogen, and so when we become estrogen dominant, this
become like the really the brute cause of things such
(28:37):
as acne, irregular cycles, and infertility as well. So like
it can get very serious if you like don't address
it earlier in your life. But assuming most the musculities
like have some sort of like wellness routine and like
you know pay attention to like what they're eating, you know,
in a healthy way. And if you're like working out
(28:57):
and like have muscle, your body's going to be able
to like metabolize the sugar versus someone who does not.
So if you like do go on, like you know,
a weekend vender where you're like maybe having a few
more sweet treats, or even around the holidays where maybe
there's more sweets like around you, Like you're gonna be fine.
Your body's going to be like smart, and it's gonna
be able to like actually utilize that for proper energy
versus letting it just like sit in your bloodstream. But
(29:20):
like knowing that it can be very easy to become
orthorexic in this area, and like life's too short to
like not eat cake. I think it's important to maybe
focus not necessarily on eliminating sugar, but focusing on how
you can keep that clycemic index or insulin response low.
There's so many tips on the internet, but I think
like the ones that are talking about the most and
probably have the most research behind them, is like not
(29:42):
consuming sugar on an empty stomach, like you know, maybe
not having a pastry first in the morning with coffee
and if you are like trying to pair that with
some fiber or some fat, and that kind of gets
sent to my next point of like again pairing a
fat or protein to slow down the absorption and also
just the digestive process metabolism of sugar. And then there's
(30:02):
an interesting research of having vinegar before eating sugar that
can help reduce an insulin spike, and just like moving
around afterwards, whether that's just like cleaning the kitchen or
going on like a short five ten minute walk just
to basically get the blood flowing and having your body
just like automatically start to use up for energy. And
then lastly, the last section is going to be about
artificial sweeteners. We did an episode about this years ago,
(30:25):
and it's like funny because I like vividly remember where
I was sitting in my old apartment when we recorded
this episode. But artificial sweeteners are really everywhere these days,
and it's mainly just because people know it's low calories,
and like that's what people are like really really focused on.
As you know, people have become more and more aware
(30:46):
of just like general nutrition and like chloric intake, but
artificial sweeteners like high level these are just like chemicals
that are added to many like food and beverages to
make them taste sweet, but provide virtually zero calories.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
This is why you see them in a.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Lot of like diet foods, so just like haylo top
and other foods of that nature. People often refer to
them as like intense sweeteners because they provide a taste that, yes,
is similar to table sugar, but is up to several
thousand times sweeter. And for me, I know, whenever I
do eat something that has like artificial artificial sugar in it,
I can like almost just like immediately get some sort
(31:19):
of like headache. Like I remember when we were drinking
zbia all the time. It would just be like this
like huge rush just because it was like so overwhelmingly
sweet versus like something that maybe was like naturally sweetened.
But like the molecules of our artificial sweeteners are just
different enough, ever so slightly to basically not have our
bodies break them down as calories. And that's how they
(31:40):
essentially don't have any calories versus like a tablespoon of sugar.
And they're considered non nutritive because they offer no additional
benefits of vitamins or minerals. So, like Kate said, yes,
honey is technically like a sweetener or a sugar. There's
like also black start molasses, or even when you eat fruit,
like yes, that has sugar, but they're also providing other
vitamins and minerals that's make them healthy, Whereas like artificial
(32:02):
sweeteners that are really providing no benefit for you other
than that they just like taste sweet and kind of
like sort of satisfy that craving, but they also don't
really because there's no sense of fullness since there's no
calories associated with artificial sweeteners. So you're really when you're
eating these foods, you're kind of retraining your taste buds
to crave and require more sweetness because your body isn't
(32:24):
actually feeling full afterwards. And some artificial sweeners, there's some
emerging research coming out that is kind of showing that
when you do consume it, you're kind of triggering the
receptors on your tongue and it can lead to a
rise and like blood googost levels or insulin because your
body is like noticing, oh, there's something sweet coming in,
but then there's no actual calories to your body is
(32:45):
like we don't know what to do. A few other
critiques of artificial sweeteners is that it can potentially alter
your got microbiome in the long term aggravate ibs, and
you know, there's some other concerns about urtficial sweeners, maybe
about them like causing cancer or et cetera, et cetera.
There's only six that are approved by the FDA, so like, yeah,
they're generally safe. I don't suggest like automatically switching to
(33:09):
like Splendor Monk Fruit what other other ones are out
on the market, just because again there's really no health
benefit for them, and they can potentially do some harm
in the long run, but also too, like I think
like a lot of people almost start to develop like
binge eating binge eating like patterns with artificial sweeners. So
(33:31):
it's like, well, I know this has no sugar, I'm
gonna eat the full type of pylotp versus like actually
eating something that's like indulgent and satisized their craving.
Speaker 3 (33:38):
So that's just some food for thought.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
I think they can definitely be helpful in some situations,
but if you're relying on it just because you know,
you have a sweet tooth and you like want something
to satisfy the craving, but you're like scared to eat
the real things, so you're afraid you're gonna go overboard.
That's like where you know you might want to start
like having conversations and really untankling those those thoughts and
rules that you have.
Speaker 3 (33:57):
Yeah, I think it's so hard to know. And I
think the only way you're gonna know which sugars and
artificial sweeteners interact well with you and which ones don't
is just by eating them, like Emma said, Stevia and us,
you know, like Zvia Bender phase of drinking so many
of those. I had a lot of chin neck during
that time, and I definitely felt like I craved sugar
is a lot more because I wasn't giving myself that
(34:18):
natural sugar. So just like play around with it because
it works for some people like this artificial sweeteners do.
They don't work for other people. But yeah, you know,
I'm gonna still make my sweet treat tonight, whatever it
shall be. Yeah, do you have any other exciting Monday plans, Doug,
I'm gonna.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Have some vitual dates with some nut butter and also too.
One thing I want to note too, is that like
there's something bad about having a sweet tooth, Like I
think people feel guilty about that when they like crave
sweets more than like savory foods, because I think some
people just assume like savory foods are automatically healthier. But
like it's normal to crave sugar, it's like normal to
like want to have indulgent treats. So like you're not
a bad person if you like do have that, And
(34:55):
it's just like kind of developing healthy habits and figuring out,
you know what that's the best amount for you to
consume throughout the week, you know, Kate and I kind
of about eighty twenty rules, So eighty percent of the
time eating your majual dates in dark chocolate or whatever
cottage cheese mush bowls you want to have, and then
twenty percent of the time, you know, having in the
real fun stuff.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
Yeah, you can do both. The Sea Mess Relies will
always do both so well. But that's this week's pod.
As always, feel free to send us your topics you
want us to do for any future pod episodes. Send
the pod to your friends that like the memes that
don't know that we have a podcast that's always fun.
I made a meme last week about like health and
wellness podcasts, and someone commented, like, what are your favorite
wellness podcasts, and I was like ours, So I hope
(35:38):
that person is listening to the pod today, but lovely
for us to record another episode. I'll talk to you
girlies next week and see you then
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