Sweet Cravings Part 2

In this second part of our revisited podcast on sugar, we discuss what kinds of sugars are out there and what they do to our bodies and how our bodies process them. Wondering which sweeteners are dangerous and which are not? We explain. Transcription of the Nourish Noshes Podcast Sweet Cravings Part 2 Edited for clarity. Debbie Here's part two of our podcasts that we recorded six years ago. And we're reintroducing it to you because it's still so relevant. Wendy Yeah. And we'd love to understand where people are in this journey, what you gathered from part one. And as you listen to part two we'd love to hear some feedback. Debbie All right, here we are talking about why we love sugar. This is part two of our sugar series. Wendy And we're going to start off by talking about some of the most natural kinds of sugars. Debbie Right, we're also going to touch on artificial sweeteners and sugar alcohols. But let's start with the good stuff. Honey Wendy Let's start with the good stuff, honey, it's one of the most beautiful sugars. Debbie Right that golden honey. yum, yum, yum, honey, Wendy Right. And when we eat the honey, just remember the bees work so hard for it so it's important, we just need to have a little bit more appreciation for the honey and whenever you can, go for local honey. Make it raw and know that some of the most processed honeys out there don't have 100% honey in it. So please buy local - buy from your friends who are harvesting honey who care for their bees. Right? So we need to know about honey is that it does have a high fructose content. So it might cause trouble for some people with fructose malabsorption problems. Debbie FODMAPS. Wendy Yeah, so fructose in honey is accompanied though by an equal amount of glucose. So it can be easy for some people to digest. So just, you know, test your system. We're always trying to understand what's best for us. So just if honey works for one person, it doesn't have to work for everybody. Debbie But I think it is the best natural sweetener out there. Absolutely. Absolutely. Maple Sugar Wendy So honey is number one. Number two is maple syrup. I remember my grandfather tapping his big maple trees and had a huge farm 145 acre farm and that was one of the best treats going to his house is to have their homemade maple syrup. Debbie We do that at our house. Now we have a couple of maple trees in our yard and we tap it and we have a couple jars of maple syrup. Wendy Oh, that's fabulous. Yeah. All right. So it's relatively low and fructose. And so it's a good option for people who have some trouble with fructose. It also contains some manganese, potassium, some iron and calcium. Debbie Necessary minerals for us. Wendy So maple syrup syrup is number two. The next one is molasses. And it's essentially table sugar but with nutrients. It's not as processed. And it's that nice, dark, rich, original color. And it also has minerals iron, calcium, and magnesium. And that's what is stripped from actual table sugar. That's what humans are refining. Debbie Same plant, the cane, sugar cane, but more nutritious. Coconut Sugar Wendy And then we've got the coconut sugar. It's relatively new to the market. And that's what you and I both use in baking. Debbie Yeah, really good one-to-one ratio replacement to regular sugar. Wendy Yeah, I like that. It's not as processed. And it also contains a higher amount of magnesium, nitrogen and vitamin C than other sweeteners. I haven't tried the coconut nectar yet. Agave Nectar Debbie No, I haven't either. But I'd love to research that one and see how that is. So another all natural sugar that's out there that's well known these days is agave nectar. And it's really well known because it's super low on the glycemic index. And it got out there as an all natural sugar. Wendy It was a darling child. I know I introduced it to my clients. Sorry about that everybody! Debbie Yep, cookbooks came out for that using agave nectar as the next best thing, and it was still very popular. Wendy Yeah, it really is. Debbie But we want to put a warning on that, because it's really not good. And the reason is because it is far higher in fructose than high fructose corn syrup. And as we said before, there's a lot of people who have trouble with fructose. It is super, super sweet. People don't digest it well. But aside from that, we also don't digest in our digestive system, we actually process it in our liver. And that's not a natural place for sugars to be digested. It doesn't raise our glycemic index because our insulin doesn't go up. And our insulin doesn't go up because it doesn't recognize it as a real sugar. And we want our insulin to go up. You know, that's normal, because it also suppresses some other hormones that tell us, you're not hungry anymore, you're done. And if we don't have that message, we're going to keep eating and we're going to keep eating sweet things. And that's what puts the weight on. So it's not only the weight but it also damages our liver, among other things. Wendy Exactly. Yeah. So warning on the all natural agave nectar. Debbie Right. And besides all that, it is highly, highly processed yet it's not nearly what it looks like when it comes out of the plant. Artificial Sugar Wendy So the next thing we wanted to talk about is artificial sweeteners. And their main selling point is that they have no calories. We're very demanding society, right? We want to have all these sweet things with no calories. But that really messes with our hormones. Debbie Even by name they are artificial sweeteners. Anything with the word artificial - that's one word we say to our clients not to have. We don't tell you not to eat anything necessarily, but please stay away from the artificial stuff. Wendy Yeah, definitely. And with artificial sweeteners, it does give us a spike in insulin. Debbie It does. Wendy So it does recognize it as sugar, but it's a huge spike because some are 600 times sweeter than table sugar or some are 7000 times sweeter than sweeter. Debbie That's crazy. Wendy Yeah, it's crazy. And the side effects are even crazier. Debbie Our taste buds aren't used to that kind of sweetness. It's not a natural sweetness. Wendy So an apple doesn't taste like an apple anymore after we've had a bunch of artificial sweeteners. So ugh. They're so denatured we become denatured. Debbie That's right. And that's why a lot of kids are not eating really healthy, good stuff, because it has no taste to them. They are used to be super flavors, especially sweetness. So we need to train our taste buds back to natural sweetness. Wendy So we need to be really careful about the ingredients list, right on the packages and anything that says diet or low fat even. Read the labels of anything in a package really. Debbie Right. And we know the brand names, we know Splenda, we know Equal, we know Sweet N Low and so we know to stay away from those but sometimes they're not labeled as the brand name like sucralose is one of those, which is what Splenda is. And sucralose is actually processed by using chlorine, which is a neurotoxin. That's very great, right? It's a carcinogen. So nobody would, you know, willfully eat something that was processed with chlorine, but you are if you're having Splenda or sucralose and just another thing too, is aspartame has had a lot of press out there as not being healthy. And we need to reiterate that I think it's been investigated as causes of brain tumors, mental retardation, birth defects, epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, and the list goes on and on. And there's other things associated with it too, like ADHD, migraines… Wendy Migraines, skin disorders and personality disorders as well. I had one client who came to me and said, take anything anything you want except diet coke. And I'm like, Oh my gosh, that's the only thing I ever want to say is no to have anything that is artificial sugar. And so she finally came around and said, Okay, I'm going to try and she had been having headaches. At lunch every single day for years and years with their diet coke, she took it away. And three days later, her headache stopped, she had more energy. It was an amazing transition. Debbie Aspartame is so bad that the US Air Force pilots were even banned to not have any, because of all the dangers, but the FDA has banned it. Sugar Alcohols Wendy Now that's confusing after all this research and all these scientific studies. It's very, it's very upsetting. So the next set of sugar, we want to talk about are sugar alcohols, and they're becoming much more popular these days, too. So let's uncover the good and the bad about these guys. So we've got xylitol, sorbitol manatal, erythritol are some of the more common ones, anything that ends with an ‘tol’ at the end to be able to recognize it. And these are much lower in the glycemic index than sugar, but it can be difficult for the body to digest. I know for me, I get a lot of gas and need to be by the bathroom when I have any kind of sugar alcohols, even when I pop gum in my mouth. But like the xylitol can be good for reducing the amount of bacteria the nasty bacteria in our mouth can help prevent cavities. Debbie Yeah, so a lot of dentists are actually promoting xylitol. And if you don't have an issue with that with digestive disorders then they are okay for you. I don't have a problem. Wendy In moderation, right. Debbie Yeah, so they are concentrated. And they do come from natural sources. They are naturally occurring in fruits. So it's not that they are artificial, it's just they are eaten in amounts that aren’t natural. Wendy Which is what we do, right with all sugar,...