EP 302 Transcript

– There’s an epidemic sweeping this country. Some would say it’s as addictive as hard drugs or even as deadly. I’ll be honest, that’s a pretty extreme point of view. But that doesn’t mean sugar addiction isn’t incredibly dangerous for your health. So how much sugar are we eating? Well, the average American eats 153 pounds of sugar per year, just for reference. That’s the size of a newborn giraffe. That’s a lot of sugar to be eating every year, and sugar is doing more than just making you fat. By now we all know the connection between sugar and type two diabetes, but as a cardiac surgeon and cardiologist, I know firsthand, sugar consumption can impact your heart health too. It can raise your blood pressure and screw up your cholesterol levels. In fact, believe it or not, cholesterol rises the more sugar and even fruit you eat. Yes, you’re hearing me correctly. But of course knowing the risks doesn’t make it any easier to quit eating sugar. Any smoker or alcoholic knows that. It’s in everything and it’s not just sweet things either. Salad dressings, pasta, sauce, breads, crackers. Even those healthy green juices are loaded with sugar. It’s everywhere you look. It’s no wonder people are hooked. They don’t even know they’re eating sugar. But how do you give up sugar without going crazy? Number one, you gotta know where it’s hiding. You may not see sugar on the package, but check for brown rice syrup, corn syrup, glucose, fructose, agave, even artificial sweeteners as well. And remember, prepackaged food and even restaurant food is bound to have more sugar than stuff you make at home. Here’s another trick. If you’re actually reading the label on a package, a word of warning, don’t look at the sugar on the table of contents. It’s purposely misleading based on an agreement between the FDA and food manufacturers. Word of advice, always look at total carbohydrates. Take away the fiber, that’s the sugar in the package. Number two, give fruit the boot. Personally, I avoid all fruits and I says just my patients do the same. But if that feels impossible, stick to in-season fruit that’s high in polyphenols stuff like raspberries or pomegranates or blackberries. My other word of advice, there aren’t any blueberries in February or March. Your brain, if you’re eating blueberries in February or March, doesn’t think it’s winter. It thinks it’s summer and will actually make you store fat for the upcoming winter, even though it’s winter. Now, believe me, as a sugar addict, I know how, how hard this is, don’t quit cold turkey. In fact, enjoy the occasional treat. I suggest a glass of red wine, but only about four to six ounces. Believe it or not, some of the best red wines come from high altitudes. They actually have far more of an incredible polyphenol called resveratrol. Number four, don’t drink sweet. You know what I think about soda, but soda’s not the only sweet drink out there. Skip fruit juice instead, drink water, drink sparkling water, drink unsweetened tea. Try herbal teas and have coffee with a sprinkle of cinnamon. Don’t look at quitting sugar as a restriction. Look at it as an opportunity to get creative in the kitchen, to learn to love new flavors and to take control of your health. Remember, this is the only body you’re ever going to live in. If you took care of this body like you took care of your house or your car, there’d be no question what you’d actually do. Healthiest sugar alternatives. Alright, I know sugar is bad. You know sugar is bad, but what the heck? What are you gonna do instead? Let me run through some of my favorite alternative sweeteners. Our first up is monk fruit. So monk fruit is small green gore that resembles a melon. It’s up to 200 times sweeter than table sugar. I particularly like a brand called Lakanto and quite frankly, I have no affiliation with anything I’m gonna show you here today except my own product, which we’ll talk about in a minute. You can get chocolate sweetened with monk fruit from Lakanto and others. It’s got a probably one of the closest to real sugar tastes on the market. Another one that unfortunately you can only find usually in a powder form, which is called inulin. Now inulin is the sugar in chicory and it’s also in chicory root. It’s also the sugar in yon root, which I’ll get to in a minute. Inulin is really one of the preferred prebiotics for your healthy gut microbiome. It has a slightly sweet taste, but you’re gonna need to use more teaspoon per teaspoon to get the sweet taste you want. Now, there is a product that uses stevia, that also has inulin in it, and it’s called sweetleaf. It combines stevia with inulin. The reason I like sweetleaf is Stevia in general has a very bitter taste and most people can spot that bitter taste. But combining stevia with inulin kind of stops that bitter taste. So look for sweetleaf. It also comes in drops that are flavored and you can use it for flavoring. For instance, muffins in a mug in my book. Now speaking of inulin, it’s a little hard to find, but it’s worth looking for yacon Syrup. Yacon is actually a cousin of sunflower and the roots of yacon is where yacon syrup comes from. There’s some very good studies in humans showing that yacon consumption actually fights diabetes and promotes weight loss. And that’s because yacon is rich in polysaccharides that feed good gut bacteria. But you gotta be careful. A lot of people confuse yacon syrup with agave nectar. And I’ve seen a number of people think that agave is yacon. In fact, some of my own patients bring this in and said, look, I found yacon syrup. “Is that okay?” And I go, “No, that’s agave.” And that is just pure sugar. Lemme give you an example. One teaspoon of agave nectar has four teaspoons of sugar. You heard me right. Four teaspoons of sugar in one teaspoon of this. On the other hand, yacon syrup has a half a teaspoon in a teaspoon of this. Totally different. Don’t confuse the two. Unfortunately I see it with my patients. Now you can also find my favorite sweetener, which is called allulose. The allulose is unique. Allulose is a true sugar. It’s a rare sugar. It was first discovered in figs. Allulose has incredible prebiotic potential. It’s actually the first sweetener that’s been approved by the FDA as a prebiotic, and that’s remarkable. There’s very good studies that adding allulose to your coffee stops the blood sugar spike. That coffee usually causes. And there’s some very interesting studies in humans and obese rats that adding allulose to their diet without changing anything else actually lowered weight. I’m so impressed with allulose that I’m really happy to announce that Gundry MD now has our own allulose sweetener. And so it’s becoming more and more easy to find. But you can find it right here at Gundry MD. There’s also a few other sweeteners that I’ve talked about in the past ’cause they were available. They the sugar alcohol sweeteners like xylitol, like malitol, like erythritol, and they’re in a lot of my recipes, but I’m changing over as we go along to recipes based on allulose. ’cause it’s just a better sweetener and it has actual health benefits. The sugar alcohols are fine except you gotta be careful with them because a number of people get gas and bloating and stomach upset and diarrhea because they can actually, if you will, over feed bacteria. So if you’ve tried those in the past and really aren’t happy, a switch over to one of these alternatives. But my new go-to is allulose. Not because I make it, I make it because I was so impressed using allulose for the last year and a half that I said, “we’ve gotta offer this to Gundry MD customer.” Alright, so that’s the top of my list. Now, what do you wanna avoid? First of all, you’ve gotta avoid all of the products that use artificial sweeteners. Things like Splenda, things like aspartame. These are really mischievous. Splenda is better known as sucralose. And unfortunately, so many ready to eat bars, so many soft drinks that say no sugar added, still use one of these artificial sweeteners, particularly sucralose as their sweetener. In fact, a Duke University study in 2007 showed that one packet of Splenda, aka sucralose actually killed off 50% of your gut bacteria. And study after study show that these artificial sweeteners actually promote weight gain partially because they’re changing your gut bacteria for a bad set of bacteria. Also, remember, any of these sweeteners your tongue has no sugar receptors, it has sweet receptors. In fact, two thirds of your tongue are sweet receptors. Why? Because way back when we needed fruit to gain weight for the winter. So we would seek out the sweetness and fruit and we would eat more and more of it. When you have a non caloric sweetener that hits the sweet receptors, your brain has no idea that a non-sugar substance could be hitting your tongue ’cause it didn’t exist. Your brain assumes you ate sugar, it actually increases your insulin to get ready for the sugar. Your insulin crashes, your blood sugar. Your brain says, Hey, wait a minute, no sugar arrived. You’ve been cheated. Go back and find some more. And one of the reasons I was pounds overweight because I was drinking eight diet cokes a day and I was constantly hungry. ’cause my brain kept telling me, you got cheated go find some more and another diet coke and another diet coke would do the same thing. Alright, what do you wanna avoid? Be careful of things that sound natural. Natural sugar is still sugar. You can put lipstick on a pig, It’s still a pig, which is on my ties. So turbinado cane sugar is cane sugar. Maple syrup, for instance, two tablespoons of maple syrup has 24 grams of sugar divide by four because there’s four grams of carbohydrate in a teaspoon of sugar. Two tablespoons of maple syrup has six teaspoons of sugar. That’s two tablespoons of sugar. Yet you see, oh, maple syrup has no sugar, it’s maple syrup, it’s nonsense, it’s still pure sugar. Already talked about how you can be duped by agave syrup and coconut sugar. This is one of the latest dupes. Unfortunately, there are actually eight grams of carbohydrate in two tablespoons and there’s eight grams of sugar. There’s two teaspoons of sugar per serving. And what you’re gonna find out is two tablespoons of coconut sugar doesn’t sweeten enough and you’re going to use more and more. So please don’t be fooled by what sounds natural. Sugar is sugar is sugar no matter what form it sounds natural in. If you’re gonna need sweetening, these are the ones to go for. And like I said, my new favorite is allulose try it, I think you’re gonna be really impressed. The four ways they lie about sugar in their food products and how to read food labels. Even if you think you’re eating a squeaky clean, healthy diet. Many food companies have found ways to sneak sugar into many supposedly healthy foods. That’s why in today’s episode I’m gonna share the four ways you are being lied to about sugar in food products and how you can properly read food labels to get the most out of your diet and improve your health. Alright, number one, first things first, to find the real amount of sugar. Don’t look at the grams of sugar on the back of the label, although this would seem like the logical place to find out the total amount of sugar. It’s absolutely completely wrong. The correct way to look is to look at the total carbohydrates and then subtract the fiber to find out the real sugar content. Now fun if you take that number and divide it by four because there’s four grams of carbohydrate in one teaspoon of sugar, you can actually figure out how many teaspoons of sugar you are eating in that serving of the product. So let me give you some fun examples. So here’s a plain bagel. Healthy, right? I look at the label and it says, total sugar’s, four grams. Okay, let’s do the math, divide by four that’s one teaspoon of sugar and a bagel, eh? Not bad. In fact, they admit that they added a teaspoon of sugar to each bagel, but not so fast. If we look at total carbohydrate, it’s 48 grams of carbohydrate. And if we look at fiber, it’s two grams of fiber. So believe it or not, in this healthy bagel with only one teaspoon of supposed sugar, there’s 46 grams of carbohydrate. Divide that by four. Believe it or not, there’s over 11 teaspoons of sugar hidden in this healthy bagel. Let’s take another example. Now here’s something really healthy. It looks like it’s made from brown rice. Oops, Quin. Oops, flax seeds. Well, okay, that’s okay. Sesame seeds, that’s okay. That sounds really healthy. So we look and says, serving size is 12 crackers. We look at sugars, total sugars, zero, man, that’s what I want to eat. Oops, total carbohydrate, 20 grams, dietary fiber, three grams. So that’s 17 grams of carbohydrates per serving. 12 crackers divide by four. That’s four teaspoons of sugar per serving. Four teaspoons in that healthy product. Now this one’s a no brainer. Anyone who actually thinks that cereal is good for you and is a health food, please think again. But let’s make sure, let’s read the label. Okay. So believe it or not, in this entire box there are seven servings of cereal and the serving is just over a cup of cereal. Now, if any of you have kids or have eaten cereal in the past, no one actually eats just a cup of cereal. But let’s play the math anyhow. Okay, so it says here, total sugars per serving is 12 grams. 12 grams. Wait a minute, that’s three teaspoons that they’ll admit to. And it, they’ll admit to the fact that they added three teaspoons of sugar per serving, but not so fast. There’s 34 grams of carbohydrates, two grams of fiber, so there’s 32 grams of sugar per serving, divide by four, there’s eight teaspoons of sugar that you are feeding your kid every morning. Not to mention if you put a cup of milk on it, you’re actually going to add another three teaspoons of sugar. That folks is more than a candy bar. You’re feeding your kids candy bars. Let’s do one more just for fun, huh? You to when I was a runner, I used to devour these. It’s an energy bar, energy, it says right there. Okay, total sugars, 17 grams, including 15 grams of added sugar. So that four teaspoons of sugar that they admit to putting in there, but not so fast. Carbohydrates is 40 grams minus five grams of fiber. So there’s 35 grams of sugar. Let’s divide by four and so there’s basically almost nine grams of sugar in this energy bar. Second, aside from calculating numbers, you think that they’re gonna tell you where the sugar is. But remember, if you look at the ingredients, they’ll hide sugar in many ways. Words like glucose, words like fructose, words like sucrose. Sucrose is table sugar. How about agave nectar, malt or maple syrup, molasses, honey, high fructose corn syrup, they’re all words for sugar. Now, food companies also lie to you about sugar content by putting large amounts in food where you least expect it. So that’s why don’t look at the sugar on the label. I can’t tell you how many of my diabetics make this mistake whenever they’re buying a product because you’ve been told that that’s where to look for the sugar you’ve been told that’s where to look because the sugar is hiding elsewhere. It’s actually one of the first tricks a magician does. Look over here, don’t look over here at what I’m doing. As I mentioned before, beware of portion sizes, the portion size in so many of these package foods, particularly in plastic bags or cellophane bags, you’re gonna eat far more than that portion size. I was at Costco this weekend looking at kombucha that’s available for sale. And the portion size of one single jar is actually a half of that bottle. No one’s going to eat a half of that bottle. They’re gonna drink the whole thing. There were actually 29 grams of sugar proportion, which means there was a 58 grams of sugar in that bottle divide by four. It’s far more than a soft drink. And yet you think, well, I’m only gonna have half and no, you’re gonna have the whole thing. Finally, what are you gonna do instead? Have yourself something healthy. For instance, a chocolate bar made with sorghum. This thing I made to taste very much like a Nestle’s Crunch or a Hershey’s Crackle bar. The great thing about it is there’s no lectins. And take a look at the label. There’s 17 grams of carbohydrates, but there’s eight grams of dietary fiber and eight of those carbohydrates are sugar alcohols, which you don’t digest. So there’s one gram of sugar in this bar, and all the rest are fiber that feeds your gut bacteria. And the great thing is there’s only 140 calories here, taste great, less filling, not bad for you, full of polyphenols, feed your gut bugs. There are options available. Thanks for watching, but don’t go anywhere. The next episode of the Dr. Gundry podcast is waiting for you now. One of the things that we learned very early is we could prevent a lot of heartburn and GERD by having our patients sleep on their side, their left side.