Latest / Empower Your Menopause / Episode 56: The Great Sugar Debate

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Episode 56: The Great Sugar Debate · Empower Your Menopause

• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, and welcome back to Empower Your Menopause, a podcast where we talk about all things hormones, health, and happiness for women over 40.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Our coach is Julian James from Fabulous Beyond 40.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: Today we're going to tackle a topic that seems to come up in most discussions with women in our community, which is sugar myths that fuel all kinds of things from mood swings to fatigue and weight plateaus.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: And why a lot of the advice that you are hearing in the mainstream out there can be seriously problematic.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: We're all about navigating menopause with science and not shame.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: So we're going to dive in and help you find better ways to manage your blood sugar balance and kick those cravings to the curb, which is a really big part of this phase of life.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: James, you want to dive in with the myths we know about grazing?
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's one of my favorites.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: Well, yeah, so I remember when I was first training as a personal trainer, well, 15, 16, 17 years ago, you know, there were some basic nutrition modules that we used to do uh as part of those those courses.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um I mean, really, they weren't worth a jot, to be honest with you, because you know, in the midst of a huge training course where you were sort of like spending more time in the gym, you got about an hour to learn about uh about nutrition.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: One of the things that everybody talked about at the time was this idea that grazing is a good thing.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: So, what do I mean by that?
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: The fact that you should eat little and often all the way through throughout throughout the day.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: So it was setting itself up as a juxtaposition to traditional ways of eating, which would be a relatively big breakfast, a more modest lunch, and a smaller supper before bed.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: And the idea was that by grazing steadily throughout the day, you would keep your blood uh blood sugars stable.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um what we now see, and what the science tells us, um not always, not for everybody, but for many people grazing is a challenge.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: And why is it a a challenge?
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: Because what it tends to do is if you're constantly eating, it means that it keeps insulin high, but it also means then that your blood sugar levels are high constantly because because your high blood sugar level levels are high, insulin is constantly high, and you become more uh uh you have more chance to become insulin resistant.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: So, what is insulin and what does it do then?
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: So, when we eat some food, the carbohydrate element of it turns into sugars that goes into our bloodstream, and insulin is kind of the hormone that tells us what we should do with those sugars.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: So, should we use them for energy or should we store them for use further on?
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: And then what traditionally would happen is that some of that sugar blood sugar would be shunted off into storage mechanism into either your your muscles or converted into fat.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_01: At some point, your blood sugar levels are going to drop, and another hormone comes into place called glucagon.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: Glucagon is exactly that, it's the one that says glucose has gone, and therefore it tells your your uh your body to move some of those sugars out of those either stored muscles or stored fat for energy use until the next time we eat again.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: And so that constant flipping between insulin raising and glucagon raising as ins as uh insulin falls is what actually helps mediate our blood sugar balance but also helps our body not become insulin resistant.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_01: So, what happens when you're constantly eating then?
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: All that's happening is your blood sugar levels are staying high, your insulin levels are staying high, you've got more propensity to actually start storing fat, and then throw in on top of all this the change that happens through menopause when estrogen starts to fall, estrogen stops, uh has a relationship with insulin, uh and and women tend to become more resistant towards insulin anyway.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: So, what then is happening?
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: Well, blood sugar levels are constantly high, so we're constantly trained to eat, we constantly eat more, we feel more hungry, we feel more fatigued, um, and it's just a general challenge, right?
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: So it can uh actually work for some people grazing, but for most people, and the thing that we see most when it comes to our clients is that as soon as they ditch grazing and they eat some structured meals, they sleep better, they feel clearer, and they have fewer, fewer cravings.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_01: So if you feel as you're doing all the right things, so you're eating good food, you're exercising properly, you're not seeing any changes, try swapping out grazing for three, two or three structured meals, and you may find that it actually has a huge change on all your symptoms, whether it be sleep, whether it be weight gain, whether it be fatigue, whether it be brain fall, but they can all be helped by actually going back to structured meals rather than just grazing throughout the day.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: One thing that we're asked about a lot is okay, everything's a calorie, is a calorie is a calorie, right?
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: So surely if I'm used to drinking what we in the UK call full fat coke, and our American listeners might not call it full fat coke because it's actually a misnomer given it's full of sugar.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: But um, you know, if a glass of coke has got 100-150 calories in it, surely if I go down to a diet coke that's got an artificial sweetener in it, it's only got one calorie in it, that is gonna help me in this never-ending chase for calorie restriction.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: Julie, I know you've got a lot to say about artificial sweeteners.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: So oh, yes, I do.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I do.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: Once one well, one thing I will say about sugar, when you're reading um the ingredients list on your whatever food you're buying, um, there are 257 different names for sugar, by the way.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's ubiquitous.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: So it's diff, it's no wonder that we feel sort of addicted, or I don't want to say addicted really, but we feel so compelled to eat it all the time because it's hidden in ways we don't even realize.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: And then we get into the artificial sweetener trap.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I'm making it with sugar-free this, I'm making it with sugar-free that.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: So it must be free to eat, I say in air quotes, right?
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: Because it doesn't have any calories.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things I can tell you about artificial sweeteners, aspartame has been shown as a neurotoxin.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's now called nutrisweet.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: They keep changing the name to make it sound a little bit healthier, but it's one of the most complained about foods by permitted or food additives permitted by the FDA because of the so many negative effects that it has on people.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: And because it doesn't have the caloric, the caloric content that regular sugar does, a lot of times people end up eating more of the things that are sugar-free, again, feeling like it's free food.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: The truth is the research shows all kinds of compelling evidence that artificial sweeteners are linked to all kinds of uh physical symptoms like headaches and brain fog and muscle aches, um, ocular eye problems, and they also are linked to weight gain.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a reason behind that, and that's because that sweet taste, we have sweet receptors on our tongue, um, that triggers the release of insulin into our body.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: And when the sugar doesn't come, insulin doesn't have a job to do.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: So it's looking for something to do, right?
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: The sugar never arrives, so we have a natural satiety mechanism that usually kicks in when we have enough sugar, and that doesn't kick in.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: So our body starts looking for more.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: So we tend to eat more food, we tend to eat more sweet things because it that that sweet craving just goes into this vicious cycle of craving something sweet, putting the sweetener, which is many times sweeter than sugar, into our body and not having the insulin doesn't get to do its job.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so we're looking for more sugar to put in to let insulin do what it needs to do.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: The other thing that's been shown in the studies is that when we use certain sweeteners, especially when we combine them with starchy carbohydrates, especially when they're highly processed starchy carbohydrates, it can reduce insulin sensitivity in healthy people, but it spikes insulin in those who are obese or are dealing with obesity.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: So it also looks at, I'll just read this there's a meta-analysis, more than one that has linked long-term sweetener used to altered glucose homeostasis, which means your blood sugar levels just can't reach normal levels.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: It changes the artificial sweetener.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: This is a big one for me, they change the microbiome in your gut.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: And what happens then is that affects your brain function, it affects your immune system function, it affects your ability to absorb nutrients from other foods.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: You have less satiety, again, because you're not getting those mechanisms triggered when you have these artificial sweeteners.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: And the same goes for fake fats, by the way.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um and really the the um what I want to say, the risk of type 2 diabetes or metabolic syndrome actually increases when you use these sweeteners all the time.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: So we have more cravings, you know, we can't get that same sweet taste, um, the same sweetness satiety mechanism kicking in.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: And even the WHO recommends caution with artificial sweeteners.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: They've been linked to um, some of them have been uh recognized as potential carcinogens.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: So if that's not enough stuff about artificial sweeteners to dissuade you, I'd for for our clients, I would rather see you eat something that has sugar in it, like proper sugar, um, not caramel sauce or uh high fructose corn syrup or anything, but proper cane sugar, so that your body gets that satiety mechanism, you can eat less of it than to actually get hooked into these um artificial sweeteners.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you have something like that once in a while, fine.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's not gonna, it's not gonna just all of a sudden create problems for you.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: But the tendency is that people go overboard or have lots of these things rather than just having a little bit of something once in a while.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why that's why I'm so passionate about that particular topic.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it?
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: Because you know, our bodies are hired hardwired through thousands of years of evolution to crave sugary things, you know.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: During uh cavemen women's times, we would berries would be plentiful in summer, we would associate them with good times, with rewards.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: That reward mechanism is still there.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: So by having an artificial sweetener, you're still actually playing towards those inherent reward mechanisms that we that we have.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_01: And I'd say the other thing that I find interesting about artificial sweeteners is that they're usually associated with those huge flasks of soft drink that we get from a fast food place, right?
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_01: And if we're getting them from a fast food place, and this is not fat shaming uh anyone or shaming any of the fast food places either, as you said before, you know, having one occasionally is fine.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_01: But if you're gonna pair that 500ml, 700mm, one litre sort of like huge glass of diet coke with a double quarter pounder and an extra large fries and a milkshake as well, you know, you're actually just once again playing into a potential recipe for disaster when it comes to both your blood sugar levels and the the repercussions further down from that, which are insulin sensitivity, uh metabolic issues, weight gain, obesity, etc.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: So let's talk about what people can do, because this is a hard habit to break, right?
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: I know that when I was a kid, I was pretty much my mum and dad had a pub, they were busy all the time, but I was soothed with a bottle of coke if something something went wrong.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: So that's how you know if I fell down and scraped my knee or something like that, I'd go in crying, oh just get yourself a bottle of coke from behind the bar.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_01: So I toddle around and get myself a bottle of coke, and I associated so so my mental challenge with sugars when I went through my own weight loss journey would were really, really hard because we are so hardwired to desire them, and particularly if we start psychologically then linking them to other things as well.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: So we talked before about the idea of not grazing and maybe going for two or or or three meals.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: What else works, Julie?
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: Why don't you start talking us through that?
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think the bit the biggest thing that we've seen with our clients and what we know from the science is that um having more protein at each of your meals, especially at breakfast, can reduce your cravings for sugar dramatically.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: And again, this is a constant message, the um common message that we hear from our clients.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: I've experienced it personally, I know you have as well.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: So when you add more protein to your breakfast, your um and all of your other meals, your energy levels tend to stabilize.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you don't get hungry until your next meal when you're getting ample amounts of protein and and fiber.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: So having things like eggs for breakfast or Greek yogurt or some other kind of lean protein.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: I know when I was um training for figure skating in my youth, I used to have a hamburger and a bowl of chicken soup for breakfast.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody thought I was nuts, but I was able to make it through some pretty intense training sessions without feeling like I was going to fall down before lunch.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: And even now, you know, I find that if I don't have enough protein at breakfast, I have those cravings.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: I want to be grazing mid-morning, I feel hungry.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: And the other thing I'll say about that is that hunger isn't an emergency.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: We tend to think that, oh my gosh, I have to put something in my body as soon as I feel hungry.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: But that's not true.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: Our bodies can go a long time without food.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: So we don't necessarily can acknowledge the hunger pangs, we can maybe have some extra water, um, just keep our bodies going.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: But that is a it's a good thing to learn how to feel hungry because it's something we tend to not allow ourselves to do.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: Get hungry between meals.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: But protein, I think, is probably one of the biggest.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: I again, all of our clients who have added more protein and are getting adequate levels have found their sugar cravings have all but disappeared.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we can pop our perimenopause smoothie, a link to that in the um in the show notes as well, which is a really good way of getting protein in quickly and easily, particularly for people who can't find uh tend not to be able to find the time to have a breakfast before they leave the home, so they may be wanting to eat on the hoof.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_01: So that can that can work there as well.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_01: I suppose the other one is time restricted eating or fasting, and I I'm really hesitant to call it fasting, really.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: You know, those when I think of fasting, I think of taking either full days off eating or taking being quite extreme, so like a four-hour eating period and then 20 hours where you don't eat.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: I I I I'm not convinced that the science is showing those kind of things actually work for women in the menopause transition.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_01: What does seem to work and what we see in both science and in um and with our with our clients is the idea of time limited limited eating.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: And we're not talking here about sort of like six hours uh of eating or four hours of eating.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: We're actually looking more at a 12-12 routine.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: So that would be 12 hours of eating and 12 hours of not eating, and that tends to work really, really well.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um it can really help, particularly if you've been having challenges with with your insulin response and your your blood sugar balance.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um and at the end of the day, it's not that extreme, really, is it?
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: You know, having your first meal at 7am in the morning and your last one at 7pm at night seems to be the kind of thing that most of us would be pretty comfortable with.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_01: It tends to the challenges tend to come when the eating period is much longer.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: So sort of like having your first meal at 7 in the morning and then your last one at 10 o'clock at night, then that can be the challenge.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_01: So I think it's it's not good for everyone, it doesn't work for everyone.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_01: I would suggest it's something to probably work on and and just see if it works for you.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: So try it out and see if eating from 12 till 12, uh sorry, eating a 12-12 routine, so 7 a.m.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_01: to 7 p.m.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_01: or maybe a 10-hour eating window, say 9am to 7 p.m.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: or 7am to 5 p.m., those kind of things could work.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure what your thoughts are on time restricted eating.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I I think it's I think if we do something that seems to be more common sense, like the 1212, it can work really well because we it's good to stop eating about three hours before bed because it gives your body time to digest what you've eaten.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because otherwise during sleep, when your body should be repairing and restoring and rebuilding, it's spending all of its time and energy on digestion, which is a very energy-heavy activity for your body.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: So you're giving yourself the best conditions to not only digest your food well, but also to sleep better, which helps with cravings and energy and all and all of those other things.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: So it really is a win-win.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I know I certainly personally find that if I eat after seven at night, I do not sleep as well.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I tend to toss and turn more.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um then movement timing seems to be another thing that works as well, doesn't it?
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_01: After a meal, going out and uh maybe having some some just some light activity, so maybe a walk or a gentle joke or something along those lines, a flexibility session, they tend to help blunt blood sugar spikes after after a meal, which um which can also help.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: And then the other thing um tying in sort of like some kind of good fat with your carbohydrates in in some way as well can also help avoid blood sugar spikes.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, let's say for instance you have an apple or a peach or something like that as your snack, having a couple of almonds with it so you're getting that protein and good fats with it as well can help reduce the blood sugar spike from from something like that.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, for sure, for sure.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I I love the idea of light activity after eating.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: And think about how many cultures do that.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's just it's part of it's part of what they do.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: I know in Italy, uh, especially after the big Sunday meal, um, they might take a nap, but going out for a long walk or playing with the kids or getting some kind of activity is is just what they do.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's just what happens here.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: So and in India, especially, I know that's a uh common thing.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: So um it it helps it helps a lot.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: Plus, it's a good stress reliever when you take that sort of calming activity.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah, nothing intense.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody wants to get stomach cramps.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: So we've got a couple of great ideas for people there.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_01: Protein being the main one, um adding protein in all your meals, palm-sized uh portion of protein, really, really good.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: Uh you could also look to moving away from from grazing and to either two or three regularly spaced meals throughout throughout the day.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um what else did we talk about?
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_01: We talked about time potentially time restricted eating, sticking from 12 from 7 to 7, maybe or 8 to 8.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: Trying to leave three hours between your last meal and eating to give yourself time to sorry, between your last meal and sleeping to give your time yourself time to to digest.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_01: So if you would like help exploring any of those, if you're challenged by craving fatigue, stubborn weight, skin, mood issues, all those things that come with the menopause transition, why don't you book in for one of our menopause impact assessment calls?
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_01: It's a 40-minute five-minute call, one-to-one, with either myself or Julie, and we'll take you through a validated questionnaire, which gives you a score and some areas where you might be most challenged and where you could benefit the most from our help.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_01: We'll then take you through your goals.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_01: Where do you want to get to in six months or a year's time?
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_01: So then with a start and an end point, we can work on that bit that's in the middle.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: That is actually where stuff gets done.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_01: To do that, we'll talk to you about what you've actually got in place.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody's doing something, even however small it is, that might work for them.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_01: And then we'll look at where you're actually challenged and we'll give you some tips there to move forward.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_01: So you'll walk away from it with a customized plan to help you restore some balance.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_01: The URL to sign up is impact.fiblessbeyond40.com, and we'll put that in the show notes too.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_01: Julie.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I think the bottom line in all of this is sugar doesn't have to be your enemy.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, understanding your body, how it responds to it, can really be the turning point.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: So putting one small step into place today or booking in for a menopause impact assessment can help you immensely.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: So next week we have a very exciting uh episode coming up with a special guest expert.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we're going to be talking about why doing all the right things maybe doesn't shift the scale, but what actually might help.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I'm going to just leave it there.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: So we hope to see you back next week.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining us today.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: We've been coaches, James and Julie of Fabulous Beyond 40, and we are here reminding you to stay strong and stay fabulous.