E036: 7 Steps To Help You kick the Sugar Habit

Hi, I just wanted to take a moment to let you know that I have launched my YouTube channel and all of my podcasts are being loaded there as well. So if you're enjoying listening to the podcast, you might like to try watching them, particularly the interviews on my YouTube channel. And I would love to be able to brand my YouTube channel, but I need 100 subscribers first. So I'm going to drop the link to my YouTube channel in the show notes. And if that's something that's of interest to you, I would love it. If you could go there, click on it, and subscribe and help me get to a place where it can be branded. Thanks so much and enjoy this episode.

Imagine getting up every day full of energy is if you were in your 20s again, what would that be like? What would that be worth to you? What is your health worth to you? Think about it. Your health isn't everything. But without it, everything else is nothing. And yet too many of us are taking it for granted until something goes wrong. No one wakes up hoping to be diagnosed with a disease or chronic illness. And yet, we've never been taught how to be proactive in our health through our school system, or public health. As a registered health coach and integrative health practitioner, I believe it is time this information is made available to everyone. Combining new knowledge around your health and the ability to do my functional medicine lab tests in the comfort of your own home will allow you to optimize your health for today and all your tomorrows don't wait for your wake up call. Welcome back to The don't wait for your wake up call podcast. I'm your host, Melissa dealey. And this is part two of an episode I did two weeks ago when I first started the theme of sugar. Last time I talked about two reasons why we can become so addicted to sugar. And today I'm going to start off with a third challenge as to why sugar can be such a problem for us. And that is that sometimes it's easier to reach for sugar than deal with a problem or a challenge in your life. So we've all been there, right? emotional eating, we eat our emotions, some we're not feeling good, we're feeling down or feeling blue. And we reach for that tub of ice cream, the cookies, whatever it is. And before we know it, we've eaten the whole tub of ice cream, the whole bag of cookies. And the reality is, is at the end of doing that we actually don't feel any better physically or emotionally than we did before we started and physically we might feel worse because we might have eaten so much that we're actually now feeling like we have pain in our stomach or feeling nauseous etc. But we do it because it's become our comfort food. And so we're trying to eradicate the pain from whatever might have happened in our life and replace it with this good feeling we get from eating sugar. Except it doesn't last right? And so what if you were to instead think about the fact that these cravings in response to the emotions are a messenger to help you step into the best version of who you are, instead of squashing those emotions down inside our body to instead allow the body to process them, and to address whatever might need to be addressed with another individual. And the reality is, is that our emotions are a chemical reaction inside the body that last only 90 seconds. But so often, we squash them down. We don't want to feel them. We're taught that certain emotions are bad, you know, we're told Don't cry, suck it up all of these things. And we're taught to squash it down. But we're actually far better off to just ride the 90 seconds of discomfort breezed through it, to help you ride those 90 seconds of discomfort and let it go. And perhaps the conversation needs to be had with another individual if you're not feeling great because of something that's happened. And we know that the fastest way between two points is a straight line. The fastest way to resolving that issue is to have a conversation rather than go into this place of avoidance. But so many of us naturally go into this place of avoidance that actually has us craving sugar craving those comfort foods and when we do this We're often it's

not just the sugar, but there's also these GMO sugars now and fructose and high fructose corn syrup sweetener, for instance, that is in so many foods that we might be reaching for. And only the liver can actually process this fructose. The fructose in whole fruit is okay, it's really this man made high fructose corn syrup, that is such a problem. And it's putting so much stress on our liver. And we have a lot of people in this day and age struggling with fatty liver that can be triggered by this high fructose corn syrup, sweetener, the sugars in drinking a lot of pops, et cetera, et cetera. It is known to not only cause liver disease, but kidney disease, heart disease, it increases the risk of type two diabetes and obesity. So we need to be staying away from these GMO sugars. And there are so many of them. And I know how difficult it is. There's over 50 names for sugar, because again, the food industry wants you addicted to their food. So they want to keep adding the sweeteners etc. And as consumers get more educated, and start to recognize the names of know all the foods that end in OC Oh, those are a form of sugar, I'm not going to buy them. Now they have new names for new manmade sugars that they put in and after a while, you can't keep track of all of them. And it makes it really tough on the consumer to discover where sugars are sneaking into your diet. But we can see it happening because we've continued to see increase in obesity and heart disease and fatty liver and kidney diseases. And in people with type two diabetes, or even pre type two diabetes that aren't even aware that that's the path they're headed down. And all of this is contributing to chronic inflammation, as well as psychiatric and neuro neuro degenerative diseases. So none of it's good. The good news, though, is that in Canada, by the end of 2022, the food labeling is going to be changing. And it's going to help the consumers considerably get around this 50 plus names of sugar, because all sugars no matter what the names are, need to be listed on the ingredient label within one grouping of sugar. So right now, if you're looking at a label, many people No, don't buy the product if sugar is in one of the top three ingredients. But sugar might not be in the top three. But sugar could be the fifth thing on the ingredient list. And then there might be, you know, corn for high fructose corn syrup sweetener as the seventh thing on the list. And there might be another type of sugar as the 10th ingredient on the list. So it's, it's not getting your attention that there's a lot of sugar in the product, because all of the different names are buried through the ingredient list. But by the end of 2022. Again, this is in Canada, the label will say sugar, and then it'll be open bracket and it will list all the different types of sugars in the food, close bracket. And when we add all those different types of sugars together, guess what, in many cases, it's now definitely going to be in the top three ingredients in the food. And then consumers are going to be like, oh, sugar is one of the top three things in this, I don't need this product, you'll be able to make much better decisions around what you're buying as a result. So I'm excited for that that is coming in Canada. The other thing that I want to talk about here too, is that making food at home whether it's homemade muffins, or cakes or pastries versus storebought, the homemade is always going to be a better choice because you know exactly what's going into the food and you don't have any additional chemicals. And even if you're using white sugar or brown sugar, you know how much is going into it and it's going to be a better choice. But there are even better choices than just using white sugar brown sugar, you could be using organic maple syrup, you could be using organic honey. And another sugar replacement that I like to use is something called monk fruit. And it comes either in a powder or in a liquid. It's 300 times sweeter than sugar so you do not need very much at all. It's excellent for diabetics because it's something that they can use because it doesn't spike insulin. And so that's what I use in all of my baking I love to bake pumpkin banana coconut muffins. Even when I bake an apple pie or a pumpkin pie for Christmas or Thanksgiving, I will use that instead. The other thing that I do is I make all of my own salad dressings because so many of the store bought salad dressings have sugar in them. I'll find recipes online. And even if the recipe has sugar in it, I just won't put the sugar in. And I'll try it without the sugar. And I'll be like, Oh, that's fine, I don't need the sugar. So I just then create that recipe without sugar, and it works for me. And I do that with baking as well. If I'm trying new things, I will have the sugar, even quarter the sugar, sometimes do no sugar replace. And replace the sugar with monkfruit. If I am using any at all, I just don't use white sugar at all. And that works for me because I've reset my sugar taste buds, right. And we do have sweet tastebuds. And they do need to be honored. And I'm going to come back and talk about that at the end when I give you the seven steps to kicking the sugar habit. But I do want to also talk about the fact that there are very real links between eating too much sugar and depression and anxiety. In fact, the quickest way to feel depressed is to eat a whole bunch of sugar, have that insulin spike and that quick energy and then crash. And in a study across six countries, it shows a 38% increase in depression in those who frequently eat fast food and commercially baked goods. This is because sugar suppresses BDNF which is brain derived neuro factor which is a natural antidepressant. So we don't want that suppressed, but sugar is doing that. And stress and anxiety are also affecting our food choices. Our body wants sugars and fat. No one craves a bowl of broccoli when stressed, right who's whoever's that I'm so stressed out and reach for a bowl of broccoli or a bowl of carrots. Instead, we're going for that sugar and getting back on that roller coaster again, which just doesn't serve us. So understanding techniques that you can use in those moments of stress to lower your stress level that don't rely on food, such as breathing, going for a walk, going outside, just sitting in the sun for a moment and facing your you know, face up towards the sun, enjoying the warmth of the sun, meditation, whatever your techniques are. Everybody needs to have stress reducing techniques that allow us the body to calm that don't relate to food and aren't dependent on food.

So this is a lot of information. Maybe some aha is for you. Maybe you're like Yep, that's me eating that bowl of ice cream, or eating a whole threw a whole bag of cookies. It's great to have this knowledge because now you know, right? And then you know that you can do something about it. So here's seven solutions to kicking the sugar habit. So first of all, check your bevvies What are you drinking? In the last episode two episodes ago, I talked about orange juice starting your day with orange juice and how much sugar is in that I talked about Pepsi? How much sugar is in that? There's all those energy drinks as well. gatorades etc. loaded with sugar. But what about your coffee that you're starting your day with is that from a coffee shop, that's a latte that's also loaded with sugar is sugar Are you drinking all of your days needs of sugar first thing in the morning, not realizing it. So check your beverages and cut back on those beverages. replace them with herbal teas start removing the sugar and just letting your tastebuds adjust. replace them with water with the juice of half a lemon or half a line to start your day. And to drink that throughout the day. Instead of reaching for these caffeinated sugary drinks, too, we want to satisfy our sweet tooth, we do have sweet taste buds in our mouth, and we do have to satisfy them. But right now with so much sugar in the world that we have today, they've actually become desensitized to all of this sugar. And when we start to slowly remove the sugar from our diet, we can re sensitize them, so that when you're eating something that's naturally sweet, it tastes like the sweetest thing on the earth. And then when you eat something that is ultra processed, highly, highly sweet. You put that in your mouth and you're like, Ooh, this is way too much. That's where we want to get you to because you don't need that is loaded with crap. The the sweetness of our natural fruits, our berries, raspberries, strawberries, pineapple. I remember when I first took this on it was several years ago now probably four or five years ago. I reset my taste buds and when I was eating pineapple, it tasted like this sweetest thing on the planet and it was absolutely delicious. But it's not just your fruits that are naturally sweet. They're sweet that Cheese, like carrots and sweet potato, etc. And then there's spices like cinnamon and nutmeg and cloves that can satiate your sweet taste buds, so we can't forget about them, we just need to re sensitize them. So they're not so dependent on this highly processed sugar that we get in our world today. The third thing to help you kick the sugar habit is sleep, the body gets energy from food and from sleep. And when we don't sleep enough, and we wake up tired, our brain is asking us for energy. And that's very often when we start reaching for quick energy. Give me energy now, right? And that's, that's coffee, and that's sugar. But if we get enough sleep, and we can wake up, rejuvenated and revitalized, the brain isn't begging us for extra energy. And this happens throughout the day, too. It's not just first thing in the day, mid morning, you're feeling tired, your brain asked for energy, what are you reaching for mid afternoon, you're feeling tired? What are you reaching for to get you through the rest of your day? Very often, it's a quick fix high sugary treat of some sort. You also want to check your protein, are you getting enough protein, because again, the protein in our food is giving us energy.

This is a fine line, if you're eating too much protein, it can actually trigger the brain to have us want more sugar, because remember I said in the episode, two episodes ago, if we're having too much red meat, it can put us into that state of contracted tension. And then the body wants us in balance. And so it sends us a craving for sugar to bring us back towards expansive bliss, hopefully, so we land in the middle in balance. So if we're having too much protein, the body can make us want more sugar. But if we're not getting enough protein, then we don't have enough energy. And again, we're getting signals that we need energy. And we're often going for quick fixes. So check your protein, are you getting enough? Are you getting or not getting enough? You want to sniff out your low fat and fat free foods. So I also talked about this in the previous episode, that when the food industry took the fat out of the food under the mistaken idea that if we ate fat, we'd be fat. It tasted awful. And so the food industry added sugar back in. But the reality is, we don't need all that sugar. And we don't want to be buying low fat or fat free food. The body needs fat, it needs good quality fat, our brain is made up of fat and water. It wants fat too. But it needs to be good quality fats, like avocados and using olive oils and salad dressings coconut oils, avocado oil, macadamia nut oils, using butter. Using whole milk rather than skim milk, getting yogurt that isn't low fat, no fat, and this can be hard to do. Because I know in the grocery stores, there's still so much low fat, no fat around. And if you've been programmed for a very long period of time that you need to be eating low fat, no fat foods, it's also very hard to reach for something that's higher in fat at the store. Because it doesn't make sense to your brain. You're like what why are you doing that? And I know again, several years ago, that was my experience because for years when I was in the corporate world, I was drinking skim milk because I thought low fat was the way to go. And when I really came to understand this and understand the science, and started to buy whole milk instead, when I would reach for it, my brain would be like, what are you doing? And I'd have to do a check in with myself and be like, yes, I'm making the right decision in choosing whole milk, or choosing a good quality yogurt that has you know, 10% fat in it, because it doesn't have the sugar, the amount of sugar in it that the no fat has in it. So understanding this is important and it can take a little bit of effort to change the habits. But again, when you know better, you do better. And it's really important to sniff out our low fat and fat free foods and stop buying them stop eating them because they are not serving you. It's interesting because it's only in the English speaking world where the word fat for the fat on our body. And fat for the fat in our food is the same word. And guess what? It's only in the English speaking world where we've had this problem since the late 80s with our levels of obesity and heart disease and type two diabetes worsening as a result of creating this entire segment of low fat, no fat foods. It sounds logical. If you don't want to be fat, don't eat fat, but the body is so much more complicated than a simple sentence like that. The way our digestive system works and absorbs food, we really do need the, you know, good quality fat in our diet, and so we can't cut it all out.