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#HURDLEMOMENT: Sugar 101, An Expert Answers Your Top Questions · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Our bodies are meant to take in sugar, they're meant
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: to digest it. I think it just depends. Everyone sort
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: of has to find their own happy place with from
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You know, if we're talking about like a post dinner dessert,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: you know, Okay, how much can I eat that I'm
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: not feeling super uncomfortable? How much can I eat where
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: I'm still able to sleep, because sometimes that can actually
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: impact sleep. How much can I eat that's going to
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: feel like satisfying but also not going to make me
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: feel really uncomfortable.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Hey, everyone, Emily a body here bringing you another installment
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: of Hurdle Moment from Hurdle. This week, I am calling
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: in the big guns because we are answering all of
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: your questions on sugar. That's right, the sweet stuff. Today
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: I am chatting with Alyssa RUMs. She is a New
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: York City based registered dietitian and certified Intuitive Eating counselor,
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: and we talk about what that is exactly at the
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: beginning of today's episode. Alissa and I I love our
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: conversation today because we are on the same page. Neither
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: of us think that there's ever a need to completely
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: cut things out of your diet. I have talked about
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: this on the show before, but even when I was
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: losing a significant amount of weight in college, on my
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: personal weight loss journey of sorts, I still went and
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: had a donut from Dunking Donuts every single Saturday. It
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: was something I looked forward to, something that made me happy,
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: and something that in no way, shape or form inhibited
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: my progress toward where I wanted to go. I love
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: what Alissa says in our conversation today that some things
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: they may be doing just that they may be feeding
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: us mentally and emotionally, and that can be really valuable.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: Of course, are not saying to completely ignore nutritional values
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: all of the time, but rather just understand that there's
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: a time and a place for all things.
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: If that's what you want.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: It is necessary from a medical perspective for some people
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: to keep an eye on their sugar intake. So if
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: that's the case for you, then make sure that you
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: are talking to an expert, whether it be a physician
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: or registered dietitian, about what's going on with.
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: You and your body. Now.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: Topics, Oh my god, we answer so many questions in
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: today's episode. We talk about everything from added sugar versus
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: natural sugars. We address what sugar alcohols are. We talk
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: about if it matters what time of day you're consuming sugars,
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: address the questions about whether or not smoothies or just
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: healthy branded sugar bombs.
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: We talk about diet sodas. I mean, we cover a lot.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: I do also want to mention, because questions came in
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: about this, that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: they do have insight as to quote unquote you write
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: amount of sugar to consume regularly. Of course, Alissa and
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: I address the word right in today's episode. According to
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: the CBC, the average person in the US consumes around
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: seventeen teaspoons of added sugar per day, and they recommend
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: limiting calories from added sugars to no more than twelve
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: teaspoons per day. Again, again, again, Alyssa and I talk
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: about why it's less important to focus on these numbers
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: perhaps and more important to talk about maybe why you're
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: reaching for sugary things, what feelings you have when you
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: reach for these foods, and important stop labeling foods as
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: quote unquote.
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: Bad, and we'll get into that today as well.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: As always, as you are listening, make sure to tag
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: Kurdle over on social media.
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: It's at Hurdle podcast.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: I am over at Emily a Body and I do
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: also want to plug our book club coming up next month.
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: We are reading Alexi pappus new book Gravy, and I
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: would love to have you join. The link to do
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: that is in the show notes. With that, let's get
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: to hurdling.
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: Today. I am sitting down with Alissa Ramsey.
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: She's a New York City based registered dietitian and certified
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: Intuitive Eating counselor.
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: How you doing, Alissa, I'm doing well.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: I'm excited to talk with you more today.
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: I know me too.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: First of all, I feel like I'm sure a lot
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: of people here just now certified intuitive eating counselor.
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: And are like, okay, talk to me about that. So
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: talk to me about that?
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: Sure, So well, this is something that I so, I've
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: been a dietitian for over twelve years now and in
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: my training never learned anything about intuitive eating or what
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: that was. But I stumbled upon it years ago. And really,
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: what intuitive eating is is it's how we were born
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: to eat. So I always, you know, go back to like, okay,
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: if you look at babies or small children you know,
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: they eat when they're hungry, they stop when they're full.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: They're not overthinking it, they're just like trusting their body signals.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: But generally those signals get disrupted and we get really
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: disconnected from our bodies as we get older, and so
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: really it's about helping people get back into their body
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: and get more connected to their body signals and just
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: to be able to eat in a way that's more
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: internally driven rather than externally driven.
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: All right, I like how that sounds.
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: And so today we are here to jam out about
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: sugar consumption. This is something that I have been personally
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: mulling over a lot lately, because, like you, I am
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: a very intuitive eater. I believe that everything, including things
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: with sugar, have a place at certain times in our diet.
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: But as of late, I have just.
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: Come to terms with the fact that I have certainly
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: been consuming a large amount of it. I'm sure you
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: hear people talk about this all the time.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, oh totally, And I think, especially kind of with
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: where we are now in the world and the year
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: we've all just had, that has been definitely a question
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: that I've been getting a lot, and that people have
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: just their home and just anxiety is high, stress is high,
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: and yeah, you know, when that happens, a lot of
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: us we do tend to turn towards towards sugar and
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: towards those like comfort foods.
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: So I think the first question that I want to
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: kick us off with is like, what could be considered
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: you know, a regular healthy if that's even the right
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: word to use here, amount of sugar to consume.
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: As a part of your regular diet.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I love that you kind of caught yourself
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: with the healthy there, because I actually do not love
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: even using like healthy versus unhealthy, not because there's something
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: inherently wrong with those words, but just kind of nowadays,
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: they've taken on this really like moral quality, like healthy
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: is good, unhealthy is bad, and it's like very black
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: and white. And I see this a lot with sugar.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: And you know, I think that when we think of eating,
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: and when we think of sugar specifically, we're thinking of, okay,
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: you know, from health. You know, there's physical health, but
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: there's also the like psychological and emotional health. And I
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: think there is this like happy medium between having you know,
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: food anxiety or like counting all the grams or really
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: trying to like watch out that you're not having too
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: much sugar. You know, that's on one end, and like
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: feeling like okay, if I like have too much, I'm
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: going to get this disease or this isn't like quote good.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: And then you know, on the other hand, just like
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: having a balance and like eating foods with sugar and
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: feeling okay about that choice and also eating other foods.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: So when you ask about, okay, what's you know, quote
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: unquote acceptable, I do not love kind of like saying
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: certain numbers or certain percents, because I think we can
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: get just way too caught up. It's like we lose
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: the forest for the trees there if we say, like okay,
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: x grams a day or x percent of total calories.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: You know, certainly like people can go look up, like
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: there are those recommendations by the government, But I think
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: really it's thinking about you know, zooming out and looking
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: at the big picture of your overall day and even
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: like more than that, like a week by week basis,
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: because there's often this thing of like okay, twenty four
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: hours and like every it's like a new day, and
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: I gotta like watch my intake and no, like that's
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: not how our bodies work. So, you know, I like
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: to look at it like, Okay, are you you know,
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: listening to your body? Are you eating a variety of foods?
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: Are you eating consistent throughout the day? I think a
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: lot of what I've seen, you know, when you mentioned
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: kind of noticing like ooh, I'm eating a lot of sugar.
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  Speaker 1: Often that's not because of like an educational thing like oh,
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: I don't know that sugar is in these products. Sometimes yes,
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  Speaker 1: but for the most part, it's usually there's something emotional
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  Speaker 1: going on. It's like a stress based eating or comfort
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: based eating, or just like gotten into this pattern of
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: not being in touch with our body and so we
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: end up, you know, doing more mindless eating. I often
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: see a lot with women too, that they don't eat
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: as much like the first half of the day. Men
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: and women they don't eat as much enough the first
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: half of the day, so then their cravings are higher
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: later and they eat more sugar. So I just think
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: it's really coming back to your body and like what
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: feels good for you in terms of that amount of
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: sugar and defining like acceptable to like what feels good
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: to you.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, prepping for our conversation today.
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: I was definitely looking at some of the research and
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: numbers that you referenced. I mean, I found one study
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: that said that seventy seven percent of Americans are striving
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: for less sugar in their diets. So at least I
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: can find some solace in this idea that I'm certainly
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: not alone in that. And I mean, the thing is
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: that we'll get into next is that there is a
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: big difference between added sugar versus natural sugar.
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: So can we talk a little bit about that? Yeah? Sure, so.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: So natural sugar is kind of what it sounds like.
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: Natural sugar is foods that are sugar that naturally occurs
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: in food, whereas added sugars are those that are added
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: during the processing. So that could be you know, me
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: putting sugar in my tea this morning, like that's added sugar.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: It can also be you know, baked goods or beverages
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: or desserts that have sugar added. And then the natural
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: ones would be sugar that's found in things like fruit
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: and dairy products and certain vegetables that have naturally occurring sugars.
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: So then the next logical question would be, is one
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: better than the other just because certain sugars occur naturally,
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: does that mean that it could be better to consume
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: those ones versus that classic jar of white stuff that's
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: in the cabinet.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: So you know, from our bodies perspective, sugar is sugar,
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: Like our body breaks down all forms of carbohydrate, including sugar,
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: into glucose, you know, once it gets to our bloodstream.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: So our body does not know if you are eating
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: an apple or if you are eating, you know, a cookie. Certainly,
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: the more components that a food has outside of just sugar,
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: like protein, fat, fiber, or the more complex the carbohydrate
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: molecule is, the more work it takes to break down.
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: But you know, again, like our body treats sugar just
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: the same. Now, usually things that have you know, the
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: naturally occurring sugars, like fruits, vegetables, dairy products, they also
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: inherently have other natural nutrients in there, right, Like they
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: have protein, they have some fiber, they have some fat,
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: whereas depending on what the added sugar is added to,
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: it might not. But again, you know, we don't eat nutrients.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: We eat food. And I think that's what I always
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: come back to here is just okay, you know what
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: am I eating? Am I eating, is every single thing
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: I'm eating have something with added sugar in it every day? Okay,
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: maybe that's not the best. But if it's you know, occasionally,
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: and I'm also eating you know, other kind of more
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: whole real foods, then that's great.
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: So I think the person that would be listening to
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: this here as well, if a candy bar has sugar
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: and an apple has the same amount of sugar, then
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: maybe their question would be, doesn't matter which one that
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: I eat?
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: And yeah, And I think it also comes back to Okay,
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: what what do you what are you hungry for? Like
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: what is gonna what taste are you going for in
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: that moment? Like what do you like? And I think
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: these are things we can overlook when we're just so
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: focused in on these nutrients. But this is really where
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: it comes down to. Like I know, for me, when
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: I started really you know, getting away from like the
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: numbers game and just like this very external focus and
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: came back to my body like I used to say, like,
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: oh my gosh, I have a huge sweet tooth and
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: I just like love like I can't have sugar in
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: my house because I will just eat it all the time.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: But in reality, you know, when I actually started to
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: come back into my body and not be judging it
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: onlike good or bad, I found that a lot of
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: these things I like, a lot of these sweets or
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: candies that I thought I liked actually didn't taste that good.
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: They just tasted good because I had been keeping them
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: like off limits and like trying to not eat them.
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: So so yeah, I mean I think, yes, you know,
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: natural foods that have natural occurring sugars are going to
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: have more nutrients in them. But I just think we
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: have to be careful of this like very black and white,
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: and so I'm always looking for like this gray area
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: in the middle.
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: We've seen all the articles talking about sugar being a
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: quote unquote addictive drug, but really, I mean, what is
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: happening to the body when you are consuming sugar? Because
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: this prompts the question, is this different than actually reaching
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: for something that could be considered a drug.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Oh my gosh, I'm so glad you asked this question,
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: because I think this is something that in like mainstream
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: is just completely.
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: Not explained well.
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: And there is this you know assumption of like, oh,
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: sugar is addictive and reality no, like sugar or in
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: any food really they're not addictive. And so I think
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: when people describe feeling addictive to to sugar, what they're
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: usually describing is a mix of intense cravings or a
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: feeling of being out of control around it, or frequently
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: like overeating it or binging it. And that experience is
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: very real. Like that experience of like being out of
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: control or feeling like, oh my god, I can't stop,
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: that's a very real experience. And so the language of
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: addiction can fit with that feeling. But that does not
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: mean that sugar addiction is real, even if it feels real.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: And when we look at the research, there's actually no
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: evidence to show that sugar, and again any food has
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: a pharmacological effect on brain the way drugs do. And
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: there is this like, well, but doesn't sugar light up
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: the same brain pathways as drugs argument that I sometimes hear,
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: and well, yes that is true, but you know what
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: else like lights up like drugs, those same pathways. Music,
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: looking at smiling faces, finding something funny, falling in love,
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: like all of these pleasurable things light up those pathways.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: And so just because sugar also lights up that pathway
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: does not mean that it has this like biological addictive
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: drive that you know, other addictive drugs do.
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: Talk to me about the feeling that someone might say
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: that they get when they have so I mean basically
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: you're talking about the feeling that some people would say
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: like oh my god, I am detoxing from sugar.
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: I feel awful, right.
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, So you know this is I often like
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: think of this as a pendulum. So on one hand,
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: we have this like, oh my gosh, I've been like
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: eating so much sugar. I've been like you know, binging
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: or just like going off the rails some people say,
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: and it's like, well, I got a detox. And then
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: what happens is, if we picture a pendulum, we swing
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: all the way to the other side of like okay,
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: I'm doing X day is no sugar. I'm doing this
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: program no sugar, and yeah, usually that can last for
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: a little bit, but it's a pendulum. The pendulum always
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: swings back and again that's the body's biological drive. Your
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: body is like no, no, no, like you're restricting. I
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: got to make sure you stay alive, and so you
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: just keep swinging back and forth. And you know this
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: is really you know, when people say like, oh my gosh,
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: I've just been eating so much sugar. My question is
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: generally first, are you keeping off limits? Also are you
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: eating enough? And like what else is going on in
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: your life right now that is you know, causing this
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: to happen, because really, for most people, these cravings are
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: precisely because they're trying to not eat it.
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: Or I feel like it's because they're trying not to
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: deal with other things, not at all speaking from you know,
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: personal experience. The next thing I want to ask you
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: about then is to talk about the tie between perhaps
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: eating and consuming sugar and inflammation in the body.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Sure, so you know with all of this, yeah,
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: you know, there is research that does show like a
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: correlation between high amounts of added sugar over time and
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: certain diseases and inflammation in the body. You know, I
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: think again, we need to look at this in like
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: the overall bigger picture of health and what else are
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: you doing and what else are you eating, because there's
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: a lot of things that cause inflammation in the body
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: outside of just food. But yeah, you know, sugar and
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: a lot of sugar over long periods of time can
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: potentially cause inflammation, and there is research to show increase
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: risk of certain diseases over time. But I think we
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: have to remember there's lots of things that show that,
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: so like pollution, stress, you know, smoking, like all of
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: these other things also go into like health and the
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: inflammation our body.
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: I love this question that came in.
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: What's her opinion on frozen fruit used in smoothies? Are
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: smoothies and I quote basically just giant cups of sugar?
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: Question mark?
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, I'm so not surprised that this question
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: came in because I get this question all the time,
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: and it depends again, it depends, It depends on what
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: is in the smoothie. You know, fruit can totally be
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: part of a smoothie. I mean I have tried smoothies
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: without fruit, and I personally just they're not enjoyable for
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: me to eat. But I think it goes into okay,
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: how much and then what else is in there? So
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: you know, and sorry, I also forgot to add, what
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: are you using the smoothie for? Is this like a
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: workout recovery smoothie? In that case, you actually probably want
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: more fruits. You actually want you know, more carbohydrates to
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: simulate glycogen synthesis, to simulate protein uptake in your muscles,
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: or is it something where it's like a snack and
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: you're trying to get through the afternoon. Then okay, we
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: still do want some fruit, but we don't want that
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: sugar crash with too much. So it's combining the fruit
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: with protein, with fat, with some fiber in there. So
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: you know, a good rule of thumb is, you know,
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: anywhere again from like one to two cups of fruit
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: per smoothie, and then also adding some other things in there,
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: whether it's you know, yogurt or nut butters or nuts
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: or a handful of greens, just things that are going
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: to add some more of that protein and fat and fiber.
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: And you did mention something here that I do think
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: is important to touch on timing and when you are
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: consuming this sugar. Is there any difference if you are
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: consuming this sugar amount per se in the morning after
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: a workout, versus is considering it for that coveted time
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: of day dessert.
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: Well, I think you know, for people who are working out,
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: you need sugar, you need carbohydrate for that you know, recovery.
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: So you know your muscles at that point are primed
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: to uptake more of that sugar. So that's where kind
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: of like higher amounts are actually going to be helpful
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: other times of day. Like again, our bodies, unless you
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: have diabetes or unless you have a problem with your insulin,
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: Like our bodies are meant to take in sugar, they're
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: meant to digest it. I think it just depends. Everyone
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: sort of has to find their own happy place with
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: from you know, if we're talking about like a post
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: dinner dessert, you know, Okay, how much can I eat
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: that I'm not feeling super uncomfortable. How much can I
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: eat where I'm still able to sleep, because sometimes that
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: can actually impact sleep. How much can I eat that's
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: going to feel like satisfying but also not going to
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: make me feel really uncomfortable.
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: Someone asks sugar alcohol good or bad?
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: Well, so sugar alcohol, I personally am not a big fan,
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: but let me so I'll first tell you what a
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: sugar alcohol is. So, sugar alcohol is basically a chemically
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: made molecule that our bodies cannot absorb. So they're like
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: a zero calorie molecule that tastes very very sweet. So
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: a lot of packaged products will use sugar alcohols in
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: order to make the bar or cookie or whatever it
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: is to make it sweet, but without having it look
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: like there's a lot of added sugar on the label
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: because they actually, well some products do put sugar alcohols
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: on the label. I don't believe. It's still not regulated,
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: like they don't have to, And so you're getting something
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: that's super sweet, but you're not actually getting the sugar. Now,
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: some people are like, well that sounds great. Why is
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: that a bad thing? So two things. One is that
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: sugar alcohols are really any kind of sugar substitute or
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: what we call like non nutritive sweeteners, because your body
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: can't absorb them, so it's not giving you any nutritent nutrients.
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: So taste sweet, but your body's not getting any carbohydrates.
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: This can actually cause a lot of people find that
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: they have rebound sugar cravings later in the day because
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: their body's like, okay, cool, I'm getting carbohydrates. I'm getting
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: some sugar, but then their body's actually not getting that.
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: There's the taste, but there's not like biologically, it's not
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: getting that to digest. So a lot of people find
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: that these things, the sugar substitutes, can cause rebound cravings
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: later in the day. The other thing specific to sugar
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: alcohols is that these can really cause for a lot
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: of people a lot of GI effects, so like floating, nausea, diarrhea,
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: because again, like our body can't digest them, so a
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: lot of people will find that those are the symptoms
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: they're getting. And I also find that when people are
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: eating foods with sugar alcohols there, they tend to be
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: eating more because they're not super satisfying because you're not
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: getting that that sugar and you're not getting that that
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: taste or that carbohydrate, so they tend to eat more,
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: which then can cause more GI issues. So yeah, I'm
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: just really not a big fan of those for multiple reasons.
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: You kind of danced around something that may have to
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: do with diet soda talking about diet soda.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I think diet soda like in and
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: of itself, is fine, Like if you like it and
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: you like the taste of it, like great. Like I
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: occasionally will have a diet coke. This goes back to
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: I used to have diet coke all the time when
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: I was dieting and restricting, and now that I've stopped,
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: I very rarely crave it. Like every so often I
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: will crave it. But once I kind of was more
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: eating things that I enjoyed, my need to have that
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: really decreased. So in and of itself, you know, diet
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: soda is fine, but again, you might find that if
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: you are not having other foods that you enjoy and
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: find satisfying during the day, then you might find that
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: you're going to have that kind of like rebound craving
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: later in the day.
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: And then I'm kind of assuming and you can definitely
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: tell me if I'm wrong, that it might be ideal
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: to spread out your sugar consumption instead of just eating
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: it in like crazy large doses sporadically or am I
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: completely off my rocker again?
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: I think it depends, like yes, from a like feeling
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: good feeling, you know, not getting those energy like swings.
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: Like when you eat a very large amount of sugar.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: What happens is that your blood sugar rises pretty quickly,
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: and assuming your pancreas is working, insulin comes out and
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: lowers that blood sugar. All good, but when you have
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: a lot of sugar all at once, there actually becomes
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: what we call rebound hypoglycemia effect, where your blood sugar
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: can dip a little bit lower below normal, which signals
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: your body to be like, oh, got to eat more.
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: So this is often why if you have let's say,
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: like a meal that's mostly carbohydrate or yeah, you're just like, oh,
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: I don't have time for lunch, and just like eat
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: a bunch of you know, things high in sugar, you'll
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: get like an energy initial energy bump, but then usually
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: you end up like hungry again in an hour or two.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: So that cannot feel great, especially when you're like, you know,
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: I know for me, when I'm like trying to get
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: through a workday, I'm like, no, I cannot be having
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: those energy swings. I got to have my energy consistent.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: I have to be feeling good. But again, like having
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: like eating a lot of sugar every once in a
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: while like not a huge deal in the scheme of things.
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: And I think when people allow themselves to when they're
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: eating enough during the day, when they're eating foods that
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: they enjoy that craving and that like desire to eat
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: large amounts, it's just not going to happen as often.
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: Something else that's really interesting and something that was brought
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: to my attention was the concept of sugar in.
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: And I know we're not diet people.
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: But in popular diets like Keto and Hoole thirty, whereas
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: in Whole thirty, for example, you can have fruit with
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: sugar that's okay, but you can't have honey.
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: I don't get it. I don't get all.
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: And I think, again, this just speaks to the dieting
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: industry and the diet culture, like it's always like sugar
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: and carbohydrates in the last you know, five to ten
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: years have been the like nutrient of choice to demonize.
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: You know, before that it was fat. You know, before that,
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: it was like whole food like liquid diets were popular
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: in the eighties.
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: So I think it's just yeah, I mean that's a
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: great question. It's like wait, why, like why am I
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: cutting this out? And honestly, there's not any good, like
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: scientific reason why. It's just that, you know, the this
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: is what these diets are kind of capitalizing on is
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: people's fears of sugar and like feeling this need of
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: like okay, I gotta like do something for my body.
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: The other thing I will say with Whole thirty is
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: that you know, I know, their rhetoric is around like
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: well you'll you'll decrease your cravings when you it out
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: over the month, and you know, going back to what
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: I said before about all the data and the science
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: we know about cravings and restriction and a food addiction
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: and sugar addiction specifically, Actually what happens is that while
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: it might work in the short term for most people,
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: there is that rebound effect afterwards. Like I cannot tell you,
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: like every single person I work with has been on
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: whole thirty at least once, usually more, which again that
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: should tell you something like if you have to do
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: something more than one time, like wait a second, this
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: isn't actually working. And it's so fascinating because all of them,
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: or almost all of them will share with me like,
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: oh yeah, like even if they did get through the
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: thirty days, there's always this like rebound effect afterwards. And
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: it's also fascinating because I feel like a large percentage
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: it's often like the same kinds of food that people
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: crave after they get off of it, and it's the
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: things that they haven't been allowed to have. So so yeah,
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: I think, yeah, it doesn't make sense because it's not
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: really supposed to make sense.
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: It's not really supposed to make sense. Oh my goodness,
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: so much insight here the last question, and I know
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: the answer to this one.
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: A small treat daily dessert. Totally okay, right, that's an
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: easy one.
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Melissa, Thank you so much for your knowledge
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: for giving us the lowdown on all things sugar.
• 28:21
  Speaker 3: How do the hurdlers keep up with you on the regular?
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: Give me the details.
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: So they can check out my website, which is alyssaerumsy
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: dot com. I'm also very active on Instagram at Alyssa
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: Rumseyrd and I have a new book out called Unapologetic
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: Eating Amazing.
• 28:36
  Speaker 3: We will be sure to check it out.
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: I'm over at Emily a Body and at Hurdle Podcast
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: Another Hurdle Conquered.
• 28:43
  Speaker 3: Catch you guys next time.