Podcast Episode #39: Quit Sugar
Introduction: Hi and welcome to Excel radio, this is your host and high performance expert Dr. Nick Zyrowski. Today we are going to be talking about the topic of sugar and how sugar affects the body in a very negative way and what you can do to avoid sugar because sugar is a big problem this time of year. We have Halloween coming up, we have holidays that are coming up every couple of weeks here, and we really need to make sure that we avoid this sugar epidemic that is just flooding our different holidays here. So today I have Ashleigh with me. How are you doing, Ashleigh?
Ashleigh: I’m doing fantastic, thanks for asking.
Dr. Z: Yeah, so we actually just got back from Greenfield Village and it was pretty cool.
Ashleigh: It was really nice. There’s tons of history of there, not only from Detroit and from Michigan, but really from all across the United States. It’s really a neat place to go with the family.
Dr. Z: Yes, so if you don’t know what Greenfield Village is, and we’re going to throw these little fun facts in here for you I guess, Greenfield Village is where Henry Ford, he made a place as a getaway. Because the hustle and bustle of modern society really due to his cars because people could travel from one place to the next real quickly. It sped life up a lot. So Greenfield Village was his escape to just go back in time and remember life as it was when he was a child. Now the other thing that he did, though, is he made this epicenter of history. He took childhood homes of…
Ashleigh: A variety of different families. Webster family, like the Webster Dictionary, their family home is there.
Dr. Z: Edison.
Ashleigh: It’s just a really incredible…
Dr. Z: The Wright Brothers. He rebuilt his own family home there the exact way he remembered it as a child. And it was just really interesting. And they also brought in a lot of different factories, like Edison’s original factory and their original laboratory. It’s just so cool. It’s a very inspirational place, especially I know a lot of business professionals and entrepreneurs listen to this podcast, so oh my gosh, it’s such an inspirational place because it has literally the life of all the people who were at the forefront of technology and changing the world.
Ashleigh: So when we were on our way home from Greenfield Village, it was all decorated for Halloween and the leaves were changing color and we were talking about the holiday coming up, which is Halloween and what we were going to do to help our kids avoid the sugar that’s just everywhere, the candy that’s everywhere, and what we personally were going to do with our lives. And we discussed talking about the topic of sugar, one that we are really passionate about because of the absolutely epidemic that’s surrounding our country right now with sugar.
Dr. Z: Right, this is the time of year where sugar is like off the charts. I mean if you are in the candy business, Halloween is what you wait for all year, right? And not only is candy loaded with sugar being given out to the kids, but it’s also floating around the offices, floating around workplaces. Just loads and loads of candy, and other sugary foods too. So a lot of candy floating around and nobody just takes one piece for instance. The kids who are going trick-or-treating, they are walking around with buckets. And even in the office place, I mean, I remember when we used to take all the candy that we got from Halloween and we would send it to your work. We sent it to your workplace and people just ate it like crazy. People aren’t just grabbing one piece, kids aren’t grabbing one piece, it really becomes this thing that is more or less an addictive habit is what we are seeing with it in the research.
Ashleigh: Absolutely. And you know, we’ve posed this question with our followers, we said, what do you think about candy and sugar, especially during this time of year? Is it okay in moderation, or is it not? And that’s one of the questions we hope to address in this podcast.
Dr. Z: Right, right, right. Is it okay in moderation? Is something that is toxic, is something that is going to drive inflammation and disease process in the body, is it okay in moderation? Well the liver has the ability to remove some of these toxins and heal. So is it okay in moderation? That’s the question we posted on Facebook, so you could jump on the discussion that’s running right now actually. But you know, when we talk about sugar, it’s pretty interesting because, like I mentioned, when somebody has candy, when somebody has a sugary food, it’s not ever just one piece or one little slice of this or slice of cake. It’s always one leads to the next. And there’s actually science behind that in why that happens. And the reason for that is because we become addicted to sugar. Sugar is considered a drug by many people and researchers because what it does is it actually affects your body in the same way that cocaine does. And it’s like, okay it’s a drug because we become addicted to it and it’s a drug because when we quit consuming sugar, we get withdrawal symptom from that. Now what we also know, and this is really fascinating, is that sugar actually lights up areas of the brain just like cocaine does. So when they were monitoring the brain and seeing what effects that sugar has on the brain, it has the same effects on the brain as cocaine does. And as a matter of fact, they estimate that sugar is eight times more addictive than cocaine.
Ashleigh: That’s insane. When you consider that cocaine is an illegal drug in America, it’s illegal to use even for medicinal purposes and yet it’s eight times more addictive.
Dr. Z: Eight times more addictive.
Ashleigh: Sugar is eight time more addictive than cocaine, that’s just unreal. And it’s in everything.
Dr. Z: Yeah, it’s in everything. We’ll get to that too. So they’ve done several studies and what they did with some of these rats that they were using for research purposes is that after they were addicted to cocaine, they gave them an option between some more cocaine or sugar, and 40 out of the 43 rats actually were choosing the sugar. Another study where rats were given a sugar water diet, they after having that sugar water taken from them, had the same withdrawal symptoms that someone on cocaine would. As a matter of fact, they thought in some cases that they are even worse than withdrawal from cocaine. So sugar certainly affects our body in a big way. It activates those pleasure sensors in the brain and your brain says more, more, more, and it releases a feel good chemical called dopamine. And your brain just keeps wanting more and more. So now when we look at how our brain is being hijacked to just want more and more sugar, it’s just a fascinating process that we would like to think that we could control. But if you are not conscious of this, there is a good chance that you are not in control of it at all. Now the other thing that we have to consider when we talk about sugar and how it affects the body is what’s happening to the organ systems. So we know what’s happening to the brain, we are getting addicted to it, it’s releasing a pleasure hormone in the brain, it’s activating the brain the same way cocaine does, but the other thing that we have to look at is what happens to our organ systems like the liver? Okay, so when you consume sugar, your liver is really the one who has to deal with it. And so sugar can only be processed by the liver and when the liver becomes taxed, what it does, is it just has the pancreas step in and it helps it out. And the pancreas releases insulin. Insulin helps put the sugar, basically convert that sugar into fat. So if you have a weight loss problem, there is a good chance that you have a sugar problem as well. And when you have a sugar problem, this insulin level in the body is spiked all of the time. We’re starting to think insulin, diabetes, where is this all coming from, right? And so this insulin level is spiked, when insulin level is spiked, one of the things that happen is your brain, it actually shuts down your brain’s ability to hear the signal, which is another hormone called ghrelin. The ghrelin will actually not be heard by the brain and when ghrelin is not heard by the brain, then your body does not know it’s full. So insulin affects your body by also shutting down the signal that you are full. So somebody who has sugar problems, there is a good chance that they are overeating all of the time just because their body can’t hear proper signals.
Ashleigh: I feel like that’s a very common problem in America. Like our portion control, we almost don’t have portion control. So basically just to recap, what you’re saying is by eating too much sugar, your body is not able to detox and get rid of properly, it’s throwing off a cascade of hormonal issues in the body, to the point where you’re sugar is turning into fat, you don’t know that you’re full, you just keep eating and keep eating, which is driving that sugar craving even more. So it’s just a really negative feedback cycle.
Dr. Z: Yea and then when that insulin level stays high, like we mentioned, it leads to disease. So eventually with the high insulin level, diabetes will step in because the cell will not be able to hear insulin coming to knock on the door looking to keep processing and moving that sugar. And eventually that’s when diabetes steps in. But there is a lot more than just diabetes that actually related to sugar. So sugar drives the inflammatory process in the body. And when sugar is driving that process, there are so many metabolic diseases that are associated with it. We have not only diabetes, we have heart disease, we have liver problems, we have stroke, we have heart attacks, and we have cancer. And even what we’re seeing now is it is actually harming the kidneys. Which is why you see dialysis clinics popping up all over the place, because so many people are destroying their kidneys due to the way that their lifestyle is.
Ashleigh: A fun fact about cancer is its number one food source is sugar. Cancer cells love sugar. So the best way to starve your cancer cells in your body is to eliminate sugar.
Dr. Z: Yeah. When you actually go to get cancer screenings, one of the things that they will do in some cases is they will give you a big dose of sugar, because the cancer becomes much more metabolically active when you get that dose of sugar. Because it’s eaten and the cancer is eating well at that point this is why sugar is considered the smoking of the 21st century. One third of Americans have diabetes, ⅔ of Americans are overweight, and when we look at diabetes, so many kids are actually getting diabetes now. And in 1980 it was estimated that kids with Type 2 diabetes was right around zero, like there were no cases of it.
Ashleigh: That’s why it was called Adult Onset Diabetes at that point.
Dr. Z: Right, and now actually they started to stop calling it Adult Onset Diabetes because so many kids are getting diabetes. So in 2010, so in 1980 there was 0, in 2010 it was estimated that there was 57,638 cases of diabetes in children. So we’re seeing eight year olds having heart attacks, renal dialysis needing to take place when people are in their thirties. There is so many things going on that are related to sugar. And I think it’s really important to talk about how it’s actually affected kids because for the most part people with their sugar addiction, it happened when they were kids. Their brain became addicted as a child and now as an adult they are still addicted.
Ashleigh: Well it’s just an emotional thing for kids too. I mean every fun activity for children is usually revolved around some sort of bad food. Whether it be pizza parties, ice cream socials, birthday cakes, all of these things, they are thrown as kids as a way to have fun and a good time. Event marketing for kids in grocery stores and in commercials; it’s all marketed towards the children. Why? It’s an easy target. And they know this, and it’s really unfortunate.
Dr. Z: Well it’s about priming. It’s about priming somebody for a lifetime. We’ll get in, I don’t want to get too far off topic, but we’ll talk about that a little bit because there is actually some very interesting things that have happened in politics and in governments over the years around this topic. It shows you how big industry plays such a big role in our politics.
Ashleigh: So then if even our children are getting disease and illness and are overweight and obese from this sugar epidemic, how much would you say that people are eating? Why all of a sudden are these issues showing up?
Dr. Z: With sugar it shows up in a lot of different ways. A lot of people think well, I don’t eat that much sugar, and they are thinking, I’m never sitting there scooping sugar out of the sugar bowl and putting it into my food or putting it into my drinks. They think of it that way. But what they don’t think about is all of the hidden places that sugar is hiding in these processed foods and in just everyday life. So in the early 1980’s, it was estimated that people were consuming five pounds of sugar a year. So five pounds. You think about five pounds of sugar, like wow that’s a lot. People would eat that in a year? Well it’s estimated that the average American consumes 130 pounds of sugar per year today. And so it’s quite a drastic difference. And when we look at when some of the major spikes occurred, it was estimated that it was in 1980 where the amount of sugar that people were eating actually doubled from 1980 to the year 2000. And so that’s a really big spike right there. And when you look at what is suggested, so the American Heart Association, they are saying that 6 to 9 teaspoons a day of sugar is…
Ashleigh: A healthy amount to consume.
Dr. Z: Like you are safe between 6 to 9 teaspoons. Don’t go over that. And I would even look at that and say okay, well if they said 6 to 9 teaspoons, then maybe an adult would be up towards 9 and a child would be down towards 5. Like maybe a little bit below that right? But that’s really not the case because there are so many kids that are starting their day off with sugar. So you asked, where is this sugar coming from, right?
Ashleigh: Right, I mean, what’s like a normal person consuming on a daily basis. If they’re not actually eating candy and they’re not actually eating a piece of cake or a slice of pie, how are they getting all of this sugar in their body?
Dr. Z: Right. So here is the thing is that when you consume white bread, cereal, some type of breakfast muffin, all of these things, all these below the neck are metabolically the same thing. Your body digests them as sugar. So sugars are coming from cereals.
Ashleigh: Simple carbohydrates.
Dr. Z: Yeah, all of these carbohydrates. It’s interesting because cereal is the healthy food of choice and it was going to help your heart and everything else, but it’s loaded with sugar. And so it’s not just the candy, it’s all of the carbohydrates that people are consuming. And trust me; people are consuming way too many carbohydrates on a daily basis.
Ashleigh: I mean growing up I know that that was like the breakfast of choice. Either cereal or oatmeal, a slice of toast, a bagel, with a glass of juice.
Dr. Z: Right, exactly. And let’s break that down a little bit. Because a bowl of cereal, let’s say, it’s estimated that a bowl of cereal has about 3 teaspoons of sugar added to it. And then you get that glass of orange juice. And a glass of orange juice is on average about 5 ½ teaspoons of sugar per glass. Now if you just look at that alone, breakfast already surpassed the daily allowance set in place by the American Heart Association. But let’s go a little bit further, so let’s say you have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch. And it’s estimated that there is 8 ½ teaspoons of sugar in that peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Now you’re also having a nice glass of soda. You are always having, I know a lot of people, and a long time ago this used to be me before I knew better, and they are going to grab their soda around lunch time. They are going to go to the vending machine and grab their soda, so the soda has about 9 ½ teaspoons of sugar in it. So if you look at the sugar from breakfast, that sugar from lunch, you’re consuming way over recommended daily allowance. And then it’s estimated that the average American is right around 40 teaspoons a day. And so once again…
Ashleigh: It’s easily done if you consider that was your breakfast and lunch and for dinner you’re having some sort of pizza or spaghetti which is all simple sugars, and you grab a cookie for dessert, I mean that’s easily 40 teaspoons. And in your mind you may think, yeah I did have a soda and a cookie. That’s all the sugar I really ate, but that’s not the case. Your body is really processing about the 40 teaspoons. It’s insane.
Dr. Z: Right. And just to recap on that, so the American Heart Association says 6 to 9 teaspoons, so we have to really be aware of this and remember that sugar doesn’t just come from sugary candy and drinks, it comes from all of your white breads. And it’s not that there is sugar in the white bread, it’s that these carbohydrates actually will break down in the body as sugar.
Ashleigh: What about the fruit juice. I remember growing up and drink orange juice or nice apple juice for breakfast. This has the vitamin C and it’s going to be healthy. So how about we debunk that myth a little bit.
Dr. Z: Right, exactly. When it comes to fruit juice, when you separate the fruit from the fiber, or the juice from the fiber, there is no difference in it really than drinking a coke. It’s a massive, massive sugar surge. Our bodies are designed to have that fruit juice while it’s with the fruit. While it’s with the fiber, not to be just consumed. Like nobody eats 8 oranges, however you may easily drink a glass of orange juice that contains juice and sugar from 8 oranges. So the juice in the fruit is naturally put there kind of in a way that nobody is going to eat 8 oranges, nobody is going to eat 10 apples.
Ashleigh: So even though it is from a natural source, it’s not natural to eat 8 oranges, so therefore it’s not natural to drink juice from 8 oranges. Our body just cannot process it.
Dr. Z: Exactly, like I said, it’s really no different than drinking a coke. And you figure, how many kids have rotten teeth from drinking fruit juice. How many kids have immune systems that aren’t working well because they are drinking juice?
Ashleigh: They aren’t able to focus in school because they have these sugar spikes in the morning and they are coming down midday, and then they eat their lunch and they are back on a sugar high. I mean, how can you expect your kid to sit still and concentrate in school with this sort of diet? And it’s with well-meaning parents. All these people are doing the best that they can with their kids; however, we’re out of touch with what a normal diet looks like.
Dr. Z: Right, and this isn’t just kids are doing this, but obviously adults do this every day too. So this isn’t just a kid thing. So let’s be clear about that. So when we’re thinking about these different foods too, like I said before, you can’t just think about the cookies and desserts. It’s estimated 80% of food items have added sugar. So that’s not just they break down the sugar or that they contain natural sugar, they have added sugar. And sugar hides in so many different places. You can go to the store and get a can of tomato sauce, it will have added sugar. Many of those little salt packets that you get at restaurants will have sugar in them. They will have dextrose typically. And so you really have to be aware of this and not only do you have to be aware that more things have added sugar that you have to watch out for, but there’s a lot of different names that sugar hides under. Sugar just isn’t under the name of sugar. I actually have a list here and we’ll put this in the show notes because I can’t possibly go through them right now. It would take like ten minutes. But sugar comes in, and I mean, I’d say, what do you think, maybe about 20, 30 different names that sugar comes in. And when you are looking at packages and you see all these names that you don’t even understand, you are going to have to use this little guide that we’ll put in the show notes and it will help you be able to read packages and labels better. But one of the most popular one is high fructose corn syrup. You see that quite a bit. Not only is that a sugar, that’s considered a very, very, poor source and more of a toxic source of sugar.
Ashleigh: It’s been demonized in the national media quite frequently, but it’s certainly the most popular. One of the things that I think is interesting when I start comparing different types of foods with added sugar, for instances, you may take like a Butterfinger, and that’s a candy bar, and you think that’s definitely not good for you, it probably has tons of sugar, but on the contrast you grab something like a Yoplait Yogurt and you’re like, that’s healthy because it’s a yogurt, it’s got probiotics, it’s going to be healthy for me, right? Well which one do you think has more sugar?
Dr. Z: Between a Butterfinger and a Yoplait yogurt?
Ashleigh: Yeah, which one do you think is healthier for you?
Dr. Z: You can’t ask me that, I know this game.
Ashleigh: Well just to give you the answer then, if you’re not sure, Butterfinger has 28 grams of sugar, but a Yoplait yogurt has 27 grams of sugar. So just one gram of sugar less than a Butterfinger. So a lot of people are grabbing a Yoplait yogurt as a healthy snack or a healthy breakfast option, but it has just as much sugar as a candy bar.
Dr. Z: Right, the little cereal bars that people are grabbing in the morning. And a lot of people are grabbing this stuff, taking it to work and they are high fiving people because they are having a low fat yogurt that’s so good for them.
Ashleigh: Or a granola bar that has 13 to 16 grams of sugar. I mean even Kind bars, you know, Kind bars are a healthier granola bar, but those still have upwards to 11 to 12 grams of sugar pure bar. And I mean that’s already one bar surpassing your daily allowance of sugar for the day.
Dr. Z: Yeah, and this is serious. Like this is really serious. So if you are having weight control or weight loss issues, this is very serious and it really hits home for a lot of people. You have to understand that losing weight isn’t all about counting calories, and also because not all calories are created equal, but also you have to pay attention to these foods that are loaded with different sugar. Like it would make sense that you would grab this, and I know we joke about it, but it’s a very serious issue, that if you are going to grab this yogurt because you think it’s a healthier option, there is a good chance that this is loaded with sugar and you are actually going to gain weight off of this. And all these diet programs out there that don’t really teach people how to eat, but they teach them to count calories. Please know that all calories are not created equal. A can of coke may have the same amount of calories as a bag of almonds, so people are drinking the can of coke because it makes them happier, however, the almonds can be utilized to build muscle and connective tissue and actually do something positive for the body, where the can of coke is considered empty calories. That has nowhere to go. That has no use to the body except for being stored as fat. So please understand that there is a big difference there in how your body utilizes those calories and in the sugar content in those calories, it’s very different too. A can of coke is just going to spike your insulin and it’s just going to get shuttled right into fat storage. And almonds, it’s not going to do that. It’s going to be absorbed over a couple hour periods. The fibers in there are going to take a little longer for the body to digest, breakdown. And so there is health benefit to that. And so as I said, this is a very serious and touchy subject for a lot of people. So it’s important to know that this actually exists.
Ashleigh: Absolutely.
Dr. Z: And when we look at why this is such a touchy subject for so many people and so many people are losing control of the way that they’re eating and they are just struggling with their weight and struggling with their overall health. And they maybe even in a health crisis because they are facing some condition, you have to really look back to that topic we talked about in the beginning about how our brains are being ambushed. Like this sugar lights up these pleasure centers in our brains, we want more. We walk into every grocery store, we walk into every gas station or party store.
Ashleigh: Every family and friends dinner, every social event usually revolves around unhealthy foods.
Dr. Z: Right, so all of these things are constantly ambushing our brain and our brain tells our body, hey we want that, because it makes us feel good. And you had asked earlier about why are these things on the market, why is this stuff marketed to kids, or why are all these pop machines in the workplaces?
Ashleigh: All this sugar and processed foods.
Dr. Z: And it’s really because when I mentioned before that from 1980 to 2000, the amount of sugar intake doubled for most people, and there is a reason for that. And the reason for it is because there was this big huge rush to take fat out of food because there was this study that came out that linked fat with heart problems and all these different diseases and a lot of it was really falsified information that we know isn’t true today. But anyway, when they took all the fat out of the dairy products and the different foods, what happens is they taste terrible. And nobody liked them. It was like eating cardboard all the time. So what they did is they started putting in sugar. They started adding sugar and adding sugar in order to just get things to taste good. So everybody says yes it doesn’t have fat in it, but they didn’t pay attention to sugar. And they didn’t pay attention to all the different forms of sugar that were popping up. So that’s when that started happening. We had the group The American Family Physicians, they partnered with Coca-Cola for goodness sake. There was like an outcry by people going like you’re family physicians and you’re partnering with Coca-Cola. Many of the physicians left the group. Soft Drink companies, they’ve donated to many major universities, they’ve backed a lot of the studies that are saying soda doesn’t do anything to you and candy doesn’t do anything to you.
Ashleigh: That’s not the cause of obesity and things like that.
Dr. Z: Right, they are saying that this is completely okay. There is no solid evidence. And so people are wising up by the way when it comes to these studies because not only do we have this in big industry like soda companies and candy companies, we also have this in the pharmaceutical industry. So you know, people are wising up and are starting to realize that industry backed studies are in most cases flawed greatly. Obviously if you’re the owner of the company, you’re like, let’s do a study.
Ashleigh: They skew the results in their favor. They have a financial interest in the results of the study. So they are going to have the study look favorable on their industry.
Dr. Z: Right, exactly. And industries are strong, so President Bush, when he was in office, the World Health Organization, they came out with this big document that they were going to release and it basically said, hey sugar is an issue and we need to cut back, it’s leading to a ton of disease. And the Bush Administration, they shut it down. They said, like you can’t release that, it is way too hard on our industry. Our industry, so we need to revise it. That’s what ended up happening. As a matter of fact, the story goes that the Bush Administration withheld $400 million from the World Health Organization and threatened them saying they weren’t going to get it if they published that document. So it goes deep into politics when you look at why there is so much sugar in the market. And one of the things too is Michelle Obama for instance. Do you remember when she put that big initiative out for kids? When President Obama got into office, she did this big initiative and I really think she had some really good intentions, however her big initiative to clean up the food that kids were getting in school and clean up the way that marketing was happening, like it turned into a junk food initiative. And so what happens is, she basically took on all these companies, Coca-Cola and all these, I mean Coca-Cola comes to mind, I’m not trying to pick on them, there’s plenty of people who are making garbage food, so she took these big companies on and when she took them on, they were first obviously all up in arms and then they just decided to work with her. But they made changes that were like smoke and mirror changes where they committed to taking so many trillion of calories off of the market by a certain date. But when you actually broke it down with all the different food products that they had, it ended up being like 5 calories a day that they committed to taking off the market. Like 5 calories per person. And then what happened was she got so much push back as well from these companies that not only did these companies originally get high-fived and told they were doing a good job for their initiative, I mean they got tons of marketing out of it because of their initiative and they really didn’t do anything. And so you saw Michelle Obama actually kind of step away from the food side of things and she just kind of started talking about let’s get these kids exercising and moving. She totally forgot about the food side of things and just started talking about exercise. And I really feel that she just couldn’t take them on.
Ashleigh: She was up against so many giants. There was so much money against her at that point. And a lot of things happened. The way that they were labeling changed just to kind of move numbers around to make it look better, but they were just changing serving sizes and making the calories go down.
Dr. Z: Exactly, it was smoke and mirrors.
Ashleigh: They weren’t actually changing the products. Don’t be fooled by slick marketing is really the underlying thing here. Make sure you check the bottom of the show notes for that list of sugars so you can identify them in your foods.
Dr. Z: So her campaign, it started out good but it really went downhill and turned into what now… There was actually an article I read the other day and it was all about how Michelle Obama’s health campaign turned into a junk food campaign basically. And it was just, she started strong, but industry won on that one. But one of the things that I wanted to talk about is really how we can add some value to people and talk about some alternatives for candy, for sweets, and to avoid them in the workplace. How they can also help their kids out a little bit. And maybe give their kids better options. And even talk about what we did.
Ashleigh: So up until this point it’s been all doom and gloom and this is everything that’s going on behind the scenes and everything that’s on the shelves…
Dr. Z: I think I’m going to be the grim reaper for Halloween because I just kind of ruin everybody’s Halloween I think.
Ashleigh: Okay, so if you do have a blood sugar issue already, like most Americans do, what’s like the first thing that they can start doing?
Dr. Z: Okay, in the way of supplementation, there’s a really great product that they’ve done some really cool studies on it where they found while you were taking this product that your blood sugar was actually able to stay at a more steady level. So there was less spikes and falls and it was just kind of maintained. Even when you ate a sugary meal, it helped maintain a steady blood sugar level. Now that product is called Cinnulin, so you can look up that in the New Vision Health Center Store. It’s Cinnulin. Now not only is that really good for people who have diabetes, right, because it’s going to help balance their blood sugar, people who are prediabetic, it’s going to help balance their blood sugar as well. People who have poor diets, it’s going to help balance your blood sugar. You’re going to have a party in the office and you want to help balance your blood sugar because you know there is going to be some not so great choices and you know that you are going to participate in that, well this help balance your blood sugar out. So this is one thing you can do.
Ashleigh: Alright, so what’s another way to avoid sugar altogether? We’re talking about Halloween here right, so what are some options you can have to avoid sugar?
Dr. Z: I always tell people it’s about taking lateral moves. So many people try to become healthy and to avoid sugar and they just want to go cold turkey and take away all of the things that they love. Well that often ends up being a big failure. It’s just a big campaign of failure when it comes to health in your life. So you have to make sure that you’re doing some lateral moves. So instead of just taking everything out, like getting some better options. So for instance, if you like chocolate, there is Lily’s Sweets and they have incredible chocolate that’s sweetened with Stevia. Stevia is a natural sweetener, it tastes sweet, it doesn’t affect your blood sugar, and your body doesn’t respond to it like it does with sugar. And so that’s really great. It’s called lily’s sweets and they have all kinds of different chocolates.
Ashleigh: Yeah, everything from chocolate bars to chocolate chips for cookies. So if you want to pop some of those into your trail mix to take to work or whatever, they are really great.
Dr. Z: Right, if you know there is terrible candy going around in the office, bring a couple of things so you don’t feel left out. Bring a couple things of your own.
Ashleigh: One thing our family loves, we love the Xylitol suckers, when our kids want a snack or a treat, that’s one thing that we give them. And then they don’t feel like they are being left out when their friends are having suckers. Or when the store hands them out a sucker out of the kindness of their heart, they are giving them a Dum Dum sucker, but we don’t want our kids to have that, so we carry these with us instead.
Dr. Z: So like I said, lateral movements. Don’t just say I’m going to sit there and watch everybody else eat sweet treats in the office and don’t think your kids are going to sit there and watch everybody eat sweet treats and not have any either. It is part of something that kids and adults enjoy at the time. So make some lateral movements. Get some candies. If you go to a lot of health food stores, there’s way more options that you’ll see. You can get mints, you can get gum, you can get chocolate, you can get suckers, you can get all these things that don’t have sugar in them.
Ashleigh: Be sure to avoid the fake sugars like aspartame, sucralose, those sorts of things that are linked to a variety of diseases as well. Things that you want to look for are stevia, xylitol, etc.
Dr. Z: Yeah, those other ones are called neurotoxins. They are terrible and that’s, for instance, a lot of diet sodas have Aspartame in them. Aspartame is linked to all types of neurological diseases. I mean for instance it’s so bad, like so many people are drinking these sodas and eating their candies, but I know that Delta doesn’t even allow their pilots to fly, and it’s like strict rules that they are not allowed to drink soda with aspartame because it messes with their brain and neurologically so much that they don’t want their pilots to have that in their systems.
Ashleigh: If it’s not good for pilots, it’s probably not good for you. Alright. So that’s some healthier candy options, but on a day to day basis, what sort of diet should they follow? Is it paleo, Paleocene? What is a basic guideline that people should be following?
Dr. Z: Right, the big thing is if you are just looking for me to name a diet, I’m going to tell you it’s the Heal Yourself Diet, which is in our Heal Yourself Cookbook, but if you’re just looking for some tips, you have to have a very, I’m not going to say a no sugar diet, but you should have a very low sugar diet. You should have a very low carbohydrate diet. You should have, think of meat of vegetables when you are thinking about a good, healthy, daily meal. Getting a good amount of protein, a good amount of healthy fats and then keeping sugar content low.
Ashleigh: Low glycemic fruits. We love berries, green apples, grapefruits, those sorts of things. Lemons, limes, good fats, he was talking about there. Load up on those and then clean protein from grass fed sources. So that’s a great way to revolve your diet and your meal choices throughout the day.
Dr. Z: Okay, so like I said, this is a serious thing. I mean I know that I joke that I’m the Grim Reaper; however, this is a very serious thing. The amount of sugar that people consume leads to serious diseases that causes a lot of issues. So take it seriously and especially if you’re suffering weight loss, inability to lose weight, I should say. Take it seriously. And so we probably just gave you enough information here to get you going and to get you started. If you have any questions, you can go ahead and shoot us an email, look in the show notes because we are going to put some of the things that we referenced in there such as the list of alternative names that sugar falls under. And we look forward to seeing you next time.
Ashleigh: Take care, bye.