Not so Sweet
There is a lot of discussion in the media regarding toxic chemicals in our food; however, one of the biggest culprits that causes significant harm to our body is a natural ingredient that can be found in almost every packaged food or drink. That ingredient is sugar and can be labeled under many different terms: cane sugar, fructose, dextrose, stevia… this can make it hard to spot in many packaged items. It is easy to go through our day unknowingly consuming foods containing various amounts and types of sugars, especially when they are touted as “healthy”, but in fact these foods are adversely affecting our health by increasing our blood glucose and causing a dysregulation of insulin.
Our body’s are wired for feast or famine, not the plentiful world that we live in where we can get berries year round or tropical fruit in all climates. Our body is definitely not designed for all of the foods that are packaged and processed. When we eat a meal, our body amazingly breaks it down into vitamins and minerals, fats and amino acids, and then uses these to fuel the operations of each cell in our body! When we eat too much of something, our body doesn’t just get rid of the excess, it stores it because there may be a time where food is scarce and we will need these extra calories to survive. In our modern world, much of our excess calories are coming from carbohydrates, and therefore contain various forms of chemicals, sugars, and flours that increase our blood sugar (glucose).
Did you know there are no essential carbohydrates?
The current FDA recommendation for daily consumption of carbohydrates is 275 grams (g)/day, roughly 45 to 65% of our daily calories, with a recommendation of 25g or less coming from sugar. Our body needs essential fats and essential amino acids (found in protein sources) as building blocks for molecules to maximize cellular function, but there are no essential carbohydrates, and our body is wisely capable of producing the glucose that it needs. Therefore when we eat too much of foods that elevate our blood glucose, our body believes that we need it because we ate it and so our body stores it. We don’t have a sugar or glucose storage, so the body converts the excess glucose to fat and it can be stored in various places as excess fat in and around our organs, in our muscles, and in other vital tissues. Even the super-sized strawberries are not providing us with more nutrition, only more calories from carbohydrates; which, if go unused within a few hours, get stored as fat.
Sugar can be used as a preservative, but the truth is that more and more sweeteners are being added to our food for no other reason than the brain’s susceptibility of easily becoming addicted to the pleasure of sweet tasting foods. An interesting study in rats found that they preferred the sweetness of saccharin and sucrose over cocaine (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17668074/) The connection between food addiction and highly sweetened food by various sugars and chemicals is well documented in scientific literature; and the majority of food companies trying to sell various products are capitalizing on the brain’s sweet tooth. For this reason there is sugar in everything from bacon to potato chips.
It is critical for our health that we understand that sugar and sweeteners are detrimental to our body by slowing cellular function and allowing excess fat storage. We need to be informed consumers when shopping and buying food for our families. The following are three first steps to reducing the amount of sugar and sweetened food you consume:
Know how to evaluate a product:
Ingredient List - There is only one place that gives you truthful and accurate information on a package and that is the Ingredient List. Manufacturers are able to get around providing accurate information for the carbohydrates due to holes in the FDA guidelines. For example, “Zero Sugar” does not mean “0g” of sugar, it only means that the sweeteners used were artificial or the sugars weighed less than 0.5g and therefore they do not have to add it to the nutrition label. Only by looking at the ingredients, can you confirm what is actually in the product. I have picked up and put back many “vitamin waters” by checking the ingredients and the 2nd ingredient is cane sugar or stevia, monk fruit, sucrose, aspartame. Some products list 3-5 sweeteners and therefore could possibly have 1.5-2.5g of unaccounted for carbs in them because each of those ingredients are <0.5g and therefore do not have to be added to the nutrient label.
Identifying ingredients that can affect our blood sugar can be difficult; they can appear as less familiar names such as malts, nectars, anything ending in “ose”, syrups, corn syrup, and juices. (Drop Acid, David Perlmutter, MD)
Serving size - Understanding how many servings are in the container is important for calculating how much sugar you are choosing to eat. Manufacturers can manipulate the carbohydrates by having a serving size that provides less than 0.5g of an ingredient. For example, the size or package suggests a product is single serving, but there are 2 servings in the package, or the serving size is 1T but in reality, you are most likely to eat 3-5T.
Reduce consumption of sweeteners and sugar substitutes:
Remember the rats? Our brains are hypersensitized to sweetness and therefore by eating foods with these sweeteners we are stimulating our brain to crave and become addicted to sweet tasting foods. Stevia is much sweeter than sugar, even though it does not adversely increase our blood sugar like cane sugar, it still causes a desire to eat sweet tasting foods, therefore we are more likely to over eat sweet tasting foods throughout the day. Other artificial sweeteners such as sucralose and aspartame have been linked to several different cancers and should be avoided.
Reformulate Breakfast
It is true that breakfast (or the first meal) is the most important meal of the day! Unfortunately, it is also the meal that adds the most sugar and the least amount of protein because we have been persuaded by many manufacturing companies to believe that their products provide a good start to the day. We have also been encouraged by the American Heart Association to think that oatmeal and cereals are a good source of fiber and not just a big bowl of sugar. Sadly, due to overprocessing and hybridization of grains, grains are not a good source of fiber and therefore most likely cause a spike in blood sugar. This is also true for the gluten free grains such as cassava flour and tapioca flour.
Check out this article from Levels.com https://open.spotify.com/episode/6SXLql0rNif3OscFGd2Eel
The best formula for breakfast includes at least ⅓ of your daily protein. Protein needs depend upon body weight and activity. You can check this resource: (https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/how-much-protein-do-you-need-every-day-201506188096) Most of my patients are not getting enough protein because we have not been taught to make it a priority; I recommend starting with trying to get 30 grams of protein a day and then working up to your body’s needs. So, consider ditching the oatmeal or cereal for chia pudding or 2 eggs as a few suggestions for a great start to your day.
It is understandable that even these steps may seem overwhelming, but take a deep breath and consider one small step a day toward reducing sugar intake. Another step forward is taking a 15-20 minute walk after a meal that may be higher in carbohydrates as then we are using the glucose we ate as fuel instead of allowing it to be stored as fat.
Regulating our blood sugar is an essential part of health and disease prevention and unfortunately it has become challenging in today’s over-farmed and over processed world. Just remember that our body will respond to even the smallest of steps in the direction of positive change. Whether you take a walk after dinner or revamp your breakfast, your body will be grateful!
Resources:
Lenoir et al. Intense Sweetness Surpasses Cocaine Reward. 2007
Perlmutter, Dave. Drop Acid. 2022. Pg 178-180.
