PART 1: Sugar's Impact on Health and How to Conquer Addiction with Melissa Rohlfs

Dive into the world of sugar with me and holistic health expert, Melissa Rohlfs, as we uncover the truth behind sugar addiction and its impact on health. It's more than just fighting cravings; it's about understanding the societal and environmental tolls of refined sugar. We'll guide you through the deceptive food labeling practices, helping you identify hidden sugars and make healthier choices with ease.

Together, we'll explore the serious health risks linked to sugar, such as dementia and heart disease, and discuss the hidden costs of cheap, sugary treats on both your health and finances. Learn about the tricks of 'health washing' and why 'sugar-free' might not be as harmless as it seems, prompting a closer look at food labels.

We also tackle the challenge of sugar cravings, revealing the connection between dehydration and sweet indulgences, along with practical advice to combat these urges. Join us as we empower you to become your own health advocate, listening to your body and reducing sugar in your diet. Don't miss our upcoming episodes where we'll focus on sugar's effects on children and share tips for cutting sugar out safely. Take control of your health story with us.

• 00:00:15 - Introduction
• 00:13:11 - The Impact of Sugar on Health
• 00:18:20 - Impact of Sugar on Overall Health
• 00:26:02 - Understanding Sugar, Weight & Health
• 00:34:31 - Sugar Cravings and Health Awareness

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*This podcast and its contents are for informational purposes only and are not intended to replace professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult your physician or a qualified health provider for any questions concerning a medical condition or health objectives. Additionally, the advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every individual and are not guaranteed for business or personal success. Use discretion and seek professional counsel when necessary.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:06

Welcome to the Inspired with Mika Laurie podcast. Melissa, welcome to the show I am so excited to have you here today.

Speaker 2: 0:19

Thank you, mika, I'm so excited to be here.

Speaker 1: 0:21

Yeah, so we're actually doing the first part of a three-part series on sugar and we were just talking before the show. Both of us think of sugar as like a socially acceptable poison or toxin, however you want to talk about it, but I'm really really excited to deep dive into this with you today. So welcome, and before we really get into it, I want you to have an opportunity to talk about who you are, where you came from and what made you so passionate about sugar and kind of removing it from our diet.

Speaker 2: 0:55

Well, I was a sugar addicted person for the longest time. I remember being an eight-year-old little girl and just hiding pop tarts and cookies and candy and all sorts of sugary treats in my room, and that carried through college, into marriage, into motherhood, and then finally, after we had kids about 11 years ago, I had a newborn baby who wasn't sleeping. So I was exhausted and for sugar. We had a two year old who had some undiagnosed food allergies and sensory processing disorder. My husband was traveling for work and I had just gotten diagnosed with PTSD from childhood trauma. So that was kind of the breaking point where everything shifted for me.

Speaker 2: 1:33

I met with a naturopath to work on my nutrition in regards to the PTSD and really realized the impact that sugar was having on me, how I was using it, and I didn't want to set those patterns in place for my kids. I didn't want to be the mom that was defaulting to sugar and giving them sugar for everything. So that's really what prompted me to change. As a result, I went to school, became a holistic health and life coach and I now help women break free from sugar without deprivation so they can be happy, healthy and love their life, because sugar impacts everything but we don't realize it.

Speaker 1: 2:06

Man, I love that. I can really relate to you in the in that sense of PTSD. I, uh, I had a very um difficult relationship for a very long time with my, with my daughter's biological father. We're fantastic now, we have a wonderful relationship, but it was very detrimental to my health and then I also had I had to have an emergency C-section and then my daughter was rushed to the NICU and then she was diagnosed with a life-threatening heart problem and you know, and it was a very traumatic, difficult situation and so I too struggled with PTSD.

Speaker 1: 2:44

I've managed for the most part, to figure out how to manage it now, and same thing with nutrition and self-care and good quality sleep and really making sure all that stuff balanced. But you know, I relate to you in the sense of how how many of us, I think, actually have PTSD or have some type of traumatic, have PTSD or have some type of traumatic struggle or damage that we've faced from whether that's childhood issues or something traumatic we've lived through, or relationship issues, things like that and so it's easy for us to turn to food or alcohol or other addictions too to help manage that.

Speaker 2: 3:23

Absolutely. For me it was buffering, it was stuffing, it was not trying to feel because I didn't know how to handle all of that. It was a lot, and so I think I just use the sugar and you get to kind of numb myself out.

Speaker 1: 3:36

Absolutely yeah, and I think it becomes. It becomes kind of like a crutch. It's something that you can control. It's like, oh, I can have that soda, you know, or I can have that drink, but the rest of my life is okay, so nobody can hold that against me. But what you don't realize is that all of that kind of compounds on each other and it keeps building up in your liver and your body and the way your cells function and and you know, it can add to all kinds of other health issues which I know we'll deep dive into over the next three episodes.

Speaker 2: 4:07

So, yeah, it's. It's amazing what an impact it has and just that one change. I mean, there were so many changes that came along with my journey as well, but I think sugar was the thing that had the most impact.

Speaker 1: 4:17

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So. I know people know what quote unquote sugar is, but can you kind of give a detailed explanation of, like, what sugar actually is and, um, and maybe a little bit of an example of like it comes in different forms, maybe. What are some of those forms?

Speaker 2: 4:35

Yeah, well, there's over 200 names for sugar, yeah, um, so it's kind of deceptive, it's kind of sneaky, um, but for my purposes I think that refined white sugar is probably the worst right, like it's so processed and there's so much stuff in it, um, so if you do find yourself wanting that sweet fix I don't do deprivation, so I'm all about like, let's upgrade it, let's do something. Natural Honey, local honey is great for allergies, for your immune system. It's a you know, it's a natural sweetener Stevia, maple syrup, coconut sugar. That's low glycemic, so it's going to help your blood sugar. So those are some really great substitutes. But for the purposes of like back to our you know original point of sugar being toxic or poison, the refined white sugar is the worst I could use. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 5:24

And I will tell you also, you know original point of sugar being toxic or poison the refined white sugar is the worst I can. Yeah, and I will tell you also, you know, being kind of a really into environmental health and toxicity in in people, refined sugar isn't just toxic in our body, it's also. There are so many pesticides and herbicides that are used when growing it. It is, you know, it's destroying the Everglades in Florida. There are so many major issues outside of just the health issues it causes relating to that white refined sugar. You know, and and and it's also, you see that the what are those? The little brown packages that you see that are like, yeah, raw, yeah, same exact thing.

Speaker 2: 6:06

So you know, it's kind of that greenwashing in a sense on the sugar package, yeah, Looks pretty, it looks like it's healthy, right, and it's in the raw, so we assume it's safe yeah.

Speaker 1: 6:18

Yeah, it's horrifying. So so why do you think I mean this day and age? You know, I know you and I probably know this really really well, but sugar isn't basically literally everything at this point. I was listening to a podcast recording with somebody I really like to follow a lot and she was talking about the flavor of water and that being different, and that Dasani and some water companies are even making their waters taste sweeter so that we as Americans, because we have such a sweet tooth, are more inclined to drink those waters. So, literally, sugar isn't everything anymore. Why do you think it's added to so many foods?

Speaker 2: 6:58

Our personal belief is because the food manufacturers know it's addictive and they want you to keep buying it. Manufacturers know it's addictive and they want you to keep buying it, and what happens in our brains with that is that in order for us to get that same dopamine rush, we need to have more and more over time. So, if you think of it in terms of a business transaction, if you're giving someone something that they're becoming addicted to and they need more and more over time, they're going to consume more of it, which helps their body and mouth.

Speaker 1: 7:23

Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, I mean it's, it's horrifying. And then, and then you know, I think there's been this big push over the last, probably probably close to 30 years now, but especially over the last 20 years, when there was this big anti-fat movement. You know, it's like low fat, no fat, all of these things. And so they took out the fat from all these foods, and the fat is really the good flavor, that's what gives it that kind of oomph that makes you want to eat it. And so, you know, they took out all the fat, but all they did was replace it with sugar, and a lot of times it was high fructose, corn syrup or any type of fructose, and that's. You know, you can't get any worse than fructose.

Speaker 2: 8:04

So and it's interesting too, because our bodies need fat. So, like you and I were, you know, I grew up in that snack walls, cookie era and the Oluster chips where they did take the fat out of everything and they did replace it with sugar. And our bodies don't need sugar, they need the fat. So they took out what our bodies need and replaced it with something that we don't need. That's addictive.

Speaker 1: 8:29

Yeah, absolutely, I think you know, and it's just, it continues to be hidden in so many foods, even in the foods that you know we've been sold as healthy alternatives. And, um, you know, you look at, you know it's organic and it's first thing on the list is sugar. Or it's all natural and the first thing on the list is sugar. Or you look at the ingredients and there's, you know, five different things that actually add up to being sugar.

Speaker 2: 8:52

Absolutely. It's even in ketchup. I saw an image where it showed like how much sugar is in a bottle of ketchup. It's unreal. I'm like really, they're even putting it in the condiments.

Speaker 1: 9:03

Yeah, yeah, it's horrifying, absolutely so. So, okay, so we've demonized sugar. We've demonized sugar already. I want to kind of talk about like, why is it so important for us to be aware of this? And I wanted to really deep dive into the impact that sugar is making on our body so that the listener understands that sugar is making on our body, so that the listener understands why this is important to be aware of and why it's important to consciously make decisions to approach the way we're eating and what we're eating differently. Can you first talk about like are there any safe sugars? I know you mentioned earlier, you know, coconut sugars or honey or molasses Um, I like to use dates when I cook Sometimes. There's a couple other sugars that I found that are, um, low glycemic, uh sugars as well, but are there? I mean, is any type of sugar safe in your opinion?

Speaker 2: 9:58

I think the ones you just listed Awesome. Yeah, and I think, too, we probably should differentiate as well. We can have natural sugars like fruit sugar. That's natural, that's how it's intended to be. I think that's okay as well. I don't want everybody to feel like anything with sugar or sweet is bad, because that's not the case. It's important to know what the source of the sugar is and where it came from. I think that's kind of a differentiator there.

Speaker 1: 10:27

Yeah, I totally agree. I love that you brought up the example of fruit. I think you know also often people are like, well, I'm off sugar, and then they don't eat fruit either. And the thing to understand is um, yes, there's fructose in fruit. Yes, there, you know, there's sugar in that sense, but it's also sitting alongside fiber and there's a couple of different kinds of fiber. And when your body processes the fructose alongside the fiber, not as much of the fructose is absorbed in one part, and then also your body is able to process it and move it through your body faster and so it's not nearly as damaging and detrimental to your body. And then also the fiber is really, really important for your gut microbiome and your health overall. So, yeah, I I'm glad you differentiated that, thank you. So can you talk about, like, how, how does the body use and, more importantly, process sugar? Sure?

Speaker 2: 11:28

Yeah, it's interesting because there's so many things that sugar impacts. Right, like I think we only associate sugar with weight and maybe our dental work. But it impacts our food, it impacts our hormones, it impacts our immune system. It can cause disease down the road, such as adult onset diabetes down the road, such as adult onset diabetes. And so really what sugar does is when it enters our body we secrete the hormone insulin to kind of process things, and so what that does is it can make us ride the blood sugar roller coaster if we're not having that balance, like you talked about, with the fiber and with the fat and the, I believe are the other two that kind of offset the sugar.

Speaker 1: 12:14

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 12:16

And so what happens is, if we don't monitor our sugar, we're just continually eating it, we're riding that blood sugar roller coaster, and so that causes us to hold on to weight. Because there's only really three places in your body that your, your excess sugar can go it can go to the brain, it can go to your blood cells and it goes to your muscles, and if all of those receptors are full because you've had too much sugar, that's where it comes in as the excess weight. So it's more than just the weight in the dental work, because we've kind of been with the belief. It impacts so many other functions in our body, including our livers, as you alluded to. There's just such an impact and that's kind of what the body does is. The body's designed to keep us safe and in balance, and so it's always looking for that safe place of okay, where are you in balance, where are you in check? And we can really offset it by eating too much sugar, because it impacts so many of those systems in our body.

Speaker 1: 13:10

Absolutely.

Speaker 1: 13:11

I think one of the things I had the privilege of working for the Alzheimer's Association for close to a decade and you know one of the things that a lot of the researchers there were really starting to focus on sugar and its relationship to dementia, to Alzheimer's specifically, but to several different types of dementia.

Speaker 1: 13:33

And you know there's even kind of in the functional nutrition world a conversation about dementia being, or Alzheimer's being, type three diabetes. There's a real solid link now that they're starting to see between our insulin levels or insulin resistance and, um, our, our cognitive function. And so I think there's there's a lot of things that people aren't necessarily connecting the links, you know. I think heart disease is another example of that you know we think about. You know there's this big uproar about saturated fat and I actually think that you know saturated fat is very healthy for you. I mean there's kind of limits there, but it can be really helpful, it's really important for your brain function and what they're really starting to find again is that insulin resistance, that overload of sugar, is being directly correlated to heart disease.

Speaker 2: 14:33

I just ran across that there was a study, I think in 2015, by Mayo, that they showed that link and I was like, oh my gosh.

Speaker 1: 14:41

Yeah, yeah. And and the sad part is that you know there's I won't name any specific organizations, but there's some large organizations out there that are touting, you know, health foods when those foods in your body are just turned directly into sugar and process the same way. And so I think, in general, the public is being really misled about you know what is quote unquote healthy where you know I I use the word greenwashing earlier, but it's it's health washing, I think.

Speaker 2: 15:14

In that sense, it totally is, and I think that's especially around. What I've seen a lot and you get is in the weight loss space. There's a huge emphasis on losing the weight, but we're not focusing on the end goal of health, and so we're eating products that have a bunch of sugar and junk that our bodies don't need in an attempt to lose weight, and we're sacrificing our health, health.

Speaker 1: 15:35

Yeah, yeah, oh, I totally agree. And then you know you think about it too in the sense of you know the the cost of food. We think, you know food here in the United States is reasonably cheap, honestly, if you look comparatively to other parts of the world. But what we've come to see is the food is cheap because they're putting cheap products into it. You know they're putting cheap sugar into it, they're putting cheap corn. You know high fructose corn syrup, and you know you can pay up front and get those quality foods or you can pay on the backside with your health and your medical insurance and your medical bills and all those kinds of things too and your life.

Speaker 2: 16:15

I mean, let's be honest, how is your quality of life impacted by what you eat? It's huge, and I think that was. My biggest revelation was oh my gosh. When I don't eat sugar and when I eat cold foods and when I nourish my body and give it what it needs, I'm happier, I'm healthier, life is better over here.

Speaker 1: 16:31

I don't want to go back over there. You have less depression and anxiety too. Like you feel better, yeah.

Speaker 2: 16:37

Yes, and less anger. I mean, I was a really angry mom because of my blood sugar. I'm sure it was all over and I was irritable and I was short and I was yelling and I was not who I wanted to be and I didn't know that food could have had that much of an impact.

Speaker 1: 16:51

Yeah, I wonder a lot about, you know, hyperactivity in kids, and not in the sense that sugar is causing the hyperactivity. What I wonder more is is is it the blood sugar waves and kids get really angry and they get excuse me, they get um. You know they don't have the control skills yet, they don't have those coping skills and so riding that wave all the time is that triggering. You know the, the flux and you know spikes and hyperactivity versus the anger and the yelling and the temper tantrums when they're crashing. I mean I I really wonder what the what the relationship is there for our kids?

Speaker 2: 17:32

Absolutely. I've seen it in my own son. He is me to a T and so whenever he like gets frustrated or he kind of explodes, I have to think back and I'm like, okay, when did you last eat? What did you have? Is your blood sugar low? And usually it is.

Speaker 1: 17:45

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So what is your biggest concern as it relates to sugar as a health practitioner? Just one Give a couple, whatever. Your top three or 15 or whatever.

Speaker 2: 18:01

I'll be here all day, I think, nika, I hear so many people say I eat healthy, I don't eat a lot of sugar. And they are, they really are, and they don't realize it. Lot of sugar, and there's, they are, they really are, and they don't realize it. So the deception is incredibly frustrating to me. Um, that really gets my go into. I think we don't realize the impact that it has on overall health. We think of it again in terms of weight and dental work, but we don't think about the immune system, we don't think about the endocrine system, we don't think about our liver, we don't think about our like, how this affects every part of our life and we're. We think we're doing the right thing by eating healthy and eating well, but we're not understanding how sugar shows up and what that looks like on labels, and so we're being deceived.

Speaker 1: 18:47

I a hundred percent agree with that, absolutely. I think you know there's there's a lot of confusion in the sense of you know we talked about refined sugars kind of being the big culprit there, but I think also understanding that the way simple carbohydrates are processed in our body are basically the same thing, and so I think there's confusion. You know you mentioned why eat really healthy, but then you know these people will eat you know four things of pasta throughout the week and then they eat their you know cereal in the morning or whatever you know, and it really it adds up so quickly.

Speaker 2: 19:23

It does, and the body, I think, is so sophisticated, but it processes regardless. So I don't know. You know the impact of yes, it. The complex carbohydrates are better for you and your body can manage and process those better, but it's still having to process. You know what I mean Like, and I think too along that line is what's really interesting is when I switched from the simple carbs to the complex carbs, I was fuller, I was satiated, I wasn't hungry all the time, because the energy was being burnt in an effective way, instead of just running through me and being moody and all over the place.

Speaker 1: 20:02

Yeah, I think when your cravings change drastically, when you start to make those differences too because you don't have the same waves, you don't have the same dopamine spikes but the other thing that really starts to happen is your taste buds change and I think you know everyone's always terrified, like I don't want to give up sugar because nothing's going to taste good. But we've been so trained to just desire that sweet taste and, yes, part of that is built into our, our kind of genetic makeup in the sense of, you know, eons of human history. But it's also like the manufacturers are designing these foods to make us crave them, and sugar is a big tool that they use 100% yeah.

Speaker 1: 20:50

So can you? Can you elaborate a little bit about? On food labels we see sugar-free or reduced sugar. Can you talk about, like, what that means and maybe some and I'm giving you a thing here some, some red flags we may want to look out for here?

Speaker 2: 21:06

My biggest thing is do not take it at face value. You have got to flip it over and I think again we've been trained to look at the number of calories and fat grams and carbs. I say mix that, go right to the ingredients and see what is in what you're putting in your body. And if you recognize the ingredients if they are familiar, the better. If they're not, then you want to stay away. Because sugar, again, it has over 200 names. So anything that has like a syrup is a sugar and it can even show up healthy like a brown rice syrup or a tapioca syrup.

Speaker 2: 21:40

High fructose corn syrup obviously is one, but just know like in the on the label there, in the order of which they're put into their product. So the first ingredient is what's the most potent, whereas at the bottom it has less of that. So you obviously want to have a lot of. You don't want to have syrup or sugar in the title. Really, that's probably the best way to do it and that's again why I love Whole Foods, because you know like when you eat an orange, like you are eating an orange, that is a natural sugar. You don't need to figure out what's in it.

Speaker 1: 22:13

Right, yeah, I think that is. I mean, if there's anything that comes away from this conversation, that is the simplest answer, like if you want to do this and still have tasty, delicious food and reduce the amount of sugar, just eat whole foods. Like just don't buy all the processed stuff that comes in the boxes. I mean that's a really simple, easy swap. If you can't wrap your head around counting the grams versus the serving sizes and then reading all the ingredients, just don't buy it. Like that is the best answer.

Speaker 2: 22:45

And what's crazy? To your earlier point, our taste buds can change and so you might even find there are things that taste sweet that you would have missed before. Like when I started my journey, carrots all of a sudden were really sweet and I'm like who knew a vegetable could be sweet?

Speaker 1: 22:58

Yeah, they're super sweet, yeah, they're delicious, yeah, and I think you, you find that taste in a lot of other things. I know, if I get, I get, um, you know, kind of that sweet tooth craving, I'll do the same thing. I buy the little cutie oranges or I'll cut up a couple of slices of apple and you know three or four slices and I'm good, like this is more sugar than I need, just from the little apple kind of thing. And so, yeah, it is um understanding it takes a little bit of time, but your body adjusts pretty fast, pretty quickly, 100%, and even spices.

Speaker 2: 23:32

I mean cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, turmeric. Those are some great ones too. If you find like the apple isn't enough, sprinkle some cinnamon on it.

Speaker 1: 23:41

Yeah, I, I love that. You say the cinnamon. I had a. I had a boss years ago, one of my favorite people on the planet, and he, um, he drank just giant glasses of black coffee. I was like how do you like that is repulsive, how do you do it? And he would sprinkle a ton of cinnamon in it and I was like this is crazy, like I don't get it. Now I get it. I'm like that was his, the cinnamon was his sweetness, like that's how he added. He kind of mitigated that dark coffee taste with the cinnamon.

Speaker 2: 24:11

So it was funny which is interesting because cinnamon is also good for the adrenals and coffee. If you drink too much it can be bad on the adrenals, so I wonder.

Speaker 1: 24:21

Yeah, I mean I'm not saying it's the greatest option, but it you know he wasn't eating the sugar, so that's right.

Speaker 2: 24:29

So, yeah, I want to sprinkle some cinnamon on my coffee tomorrow. So that's right though. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 24:35

Now I want to sprinkle some cinnamon on my coffee tomorrow, so can you talk a little bit about, you know? Going back to the sugar-free or reduced sugar, I get asked a lot about artificial sweeteners like Truvia um sweet and low um aspartame, all of these kinds of artificial sweeteners and and for me, coming from the toxicity side of things, I'm like please run the other direction, like whatever you do, avoid these. What are, what is your?

Speaker 2: 24:59

thought or opinion on them, it's the same. Run like the wind. I mean, there have been studies that have shown those are linked to disease. And just because it doesn't have any calories or any fat or sugar, you don't know what it is and you don't know the impact it has on your body. So run, run, run, run.

Speaker 1: 25:16

Yeah, I mean I think anymore there's. There's becoming pretty clear evidence that some of them are really linked to cancer issues. I know they've been able to directly link it in mice and rat studies, and so I think there's there's pretty clear evidence that there's also a correlation with humans as well.

Speaker 2: 25:36

Absolutely.

Speaker 1: 25:36

Yeah, and I don't know about you, but I'm going to do what I can to avoid that and not put stuff into my body that's likely to cause cancer or other heart issues, or I mean health issues that we may not know about yet.

Speaker 2: 25:51

Absolutely, and I feel like we have so much toxicity in our world as it is that we can't really control. So I'm all about control what you can control, and that is one thing you can.

Speaker 1: 26:00

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So before we wrap up this episode, I want to talk a little bit about um. You know, we we touched on it earlier, but I want to talk about the relationship between weight gain, or weight loss, and sugar, because I think that is usually the most common. I think diabetes is probably the other thing. That's really. You know, people focus on sugar and simple carbohydrates when they're, when they're um, either pre-diabetic or struggling with diabetes, and then weight gain is the other big one, and so maybe, if we can address kind of both areas just a little bit before we wrap up today, do you have a preference on which one you'd want to touch on first?

Speaker 1: 26:43

No let's go with the diabetes, I think. I think really understanding um the relationship between sugar and um pre-diabetic versus diabetic and what that looks like in our body. Uh, for me, coming from the functional nutrition world, I don't really see a difference between pre-diabetic and diabetic. Once you're at, you know, 5.5 or so for an A1C, to me you're diabetic Like that. That is the point of you got to change immediately or you're already causing serious damage in your body. What's your thought on on pre-diabetes versus diabetes?

Speaker 2: 27:23

You know it's interesting that we're having this conversation because, as you were talking, I was pre-diabetic when I met with that naturopath. I was pre-diabetic and I'm not any longer and I believe it is because I changed my nutrition. I have another family member, who I will not name, who had the same diagnosis as being pre-diabetic, did not change their diet, is now doing insulin. So it's interesting what the lifestyle and the food can actually do in terms of that. But yeah, diet is definitely correlated to it. You can't dismiss that and especially if you have a family history of it. What is that saying that genetics loads the gun and lifestyle pulls the trigger? Like if you're already predisposed to that, why would you not do something about it?

Speaker 1: 28:10

Yeah, a hundred percent. I think you know. I think it's important to understand that. Um, you know the way things show up. So all of us have a predisposition for something. However our genetics were were set up from our ancestors. Whatever we were exposed to when we were in utero, whatever we've been exposed to in our childhood or early development, has set up our genes to react a certain way. What that like, how that lays out, is different for everybody, and so you know, for, for, um, you know, between you and I, maybe a whole bunch of sugar and you causes uh prediabetes and me it causes cancer or heart disease, like we don't, we. You know, between you and I, maybe a whole bunch of sugar and you causes uh prediabetes and me it causes cancer or heart disease, like we don't. We don't know how that's going to play out, but understanding that it's going to trigger something in some of us somehow, um, and, and I will tell you the other thing with being prediabetic, I too was prediabetic, I, I did a blood test.

Speaker 1: 29:05

This is a couple of years ago now, um, quite a while ago now, but I, you know, I was um late twenties, I had had my daughter. I ate fairly healthy, like I thought you know I'm doing air quotes around fairly healthy. I thought I ate pretty healthy, I was fit, I mean I was young and the epitome of health. I didn't have any of that extra weight or anything. I did have some stress from kind of the trauma and PTSD, but aside from that, I, you know, I did my own health test because my physician never even thought to test me because I looked and presented healthy and I wasn't having any major health issues. So I did my own blood sugar test because I was curious. My A1C came back at like 7.3 or something like that. I mean, that is full-blown diabetes on the charts, you know.

Speaker 1: 29:57

And then I was mortified and so I went to my physician and I said you need to test me. Like I think I have diabetes. And she tested me and I came back at 5.5 and she didn't do anything. She was like, oh, you're fine, like you know, you don't have to worry until you get till seven. And I was like this is still, like I'm in my twenties, like this is not okay, you know. So tell me how to not get to a seven, right, right, yeah, there was no conversation about how not to get to because I was normal weight, I was physically active, I ate decently well and, um, you know, and I was young and so there was no conversation about it, and so I think it's really important to understand that there are a lot of people that are healthy, that look healthy, that still have major medical metabolical issues going on in their body 100%.

Speaker 2: 30:49

And I think, too, it's so interesting because, with sugar, there are so many people who come to me. They're like, oh my gosh, I'm addicted to sugar and from how they present, you wouldn't know. I mean, like you said, they're the picture of health. They're active, they're, you know, eating while they're doing all these things. But I think another thing that kind of irks me is that I think our society, we need to portray a different picture of health, because how we appear on the outside doesn't represent anything on the inside.

Speaker 1: 31:17

At all. I think that is so key is we tend to alienate people that are on the heavier side and we blame them for being that way, and then we praise all these people that are skinny and fit into the clothes, while thinking that they're the gold standard of health, when reality, I think it's like 75% of Americans have some type of medical metabolical issue going on in their body. That is horrifying, and that means a whole bunch of skinny people are sick as well.

Speaker 2: 31:52

Absolutely. Just because you're thin doesn't mean you're healthy.

Speaker 1: 31:55

Yeah, exactly so important to to really identify, and so I think it it it adds into taking control of your own health and really deciding to make those decisions to become educated about what is going on inside of your body. And and really deciding to make those decisions to become educated about what is going on inside of your body and not being dependent solely on your physician that you see for 15 minutes once a year, if you even go, you know, and on that note, they don't have the whole picture.

Speaker 2: 32:20

I mean they don't have the impact of your emotional health and your mental health, because those impact your physical health as well. The body stores trauma. I mean there are studies, there are books. The body keeps score. So if you have trauma, your body's going to hold onto it until you work through it and release it. But that's not addressed.

Speaker 1: 32:39

Yeah, yeah, and I think that's a really important thing to bring up around, especially like A1C and insulin resistance, is understanding how big of a role trauma and stress play into how your insulin is released, how your body is processing and detoxing everything. You know, I know that I went from that. Yeah, I think it was 7.3 or something like that for my A1C. I had never been more stressed out in my life than I was at that time, and so when I worked through that trauma and worked through that stress, that's when I was able to get it at least down. But then I had to change my diet and my lifestyle approach to drop it further 100% yeah, and I think too, because your story is similar to mine.

Speaker 2: 33:24

Once the stress and the trauma had been addressed, I was able to fully focus and really work through the nutritional piece, and then I was able to see how this was impacting this. But I had no idea before.

Speaker 1: 33:35

Yeah, absolutely so. The other thing I want to talk about was the relationship between sugar and weight gain or weight kind of like the obesity issue that we see so often in the country. Can you give me just kind of the 10,000 foot view of your thoughts on this relationship and maybe a couple of tips or ideas of what people can do to start addressing this issue if they're struggling with it?

Speaker 2: 34:02

Yeah, absolutely so. I think the thing to note is that when your body is producing insulin and it can't bring your blood sugar back down, it can't produce what's called glucogen, and glucogen is the hormone that takes fat out of storage to be burned. So if you're trying to weight and you're eating too much sugar, you're basically sabotaging yourself because your body can't release the weight because the glucogen yeah. So that's kind of the high power to be with that. As far as what to do, I think dehydration can show up as sugar craving. So I would ask yourself are you hydrated? Are you drinking enough water during the day?

Speaker 1: 34:41

Yeah, I think that it's a simple tip. That's one thing I always tell people I work with is, if you're craving sugar, like literally, just drink a glass of water, give yourself a couple minutes and see how you feel it likely will fix the issue. If not, then you know, maybe try eating a piece of fruit or something from there, but it's usually is just simply dehydration.

Speaker 2: 35:04

Absolutely. Or it could be a craving of something else that's missing in your life that you're not even aware of. So the other thing I love to encourage people to do is get curious Ask what do I really need right now? Am I lacking connection? Am I lacking being heard? Am I lacking something in my life that's making me crave this sweet thing? To kind of numb that feeling Absolutely so.

Speaker 1: 35:29

I want to make sure the listeners know that, again, this is a three-part series, so we're going to wrap up this show today. I do want to ask you one last thing before we wrap up today. But we're doing another show here shortly on sugar and its relationship to children, our children, what we can do to support them and make sure that we're setting them up for their future. And then also we're going to do a whole other show, kind of deep diving, and how to actually reduce sugar, how to do it safely. Do we need to get rid of it altogether? So we're going to deep dive into that. So I'm really excited to connect with you and do all these, these shows with you and share this information with the listeners Well thank you for having me.

Speaker 2: 36:09

I think it's super important and it needs to be talked about more often, honestly.

Speaker 1: 36:13

Absolutely so. Before we wrap up this episode, I just want to ask is there anything else specifically that you would like to add um that we haven't addressed already today in the relationship to sugar in our health?

Speaker 2: 36:28

already today in the relationship to sugar and our health. Gosh, I feel like we've covered quite a bit, so I can't think of anything that I would add. I guess I will say you are your own best health expert and you know your body best, so tune in and listen to it, because nobody knows your body better than you.

Speaker 1: 36:43

Oh man, that is so true. I think I was talking to somebody I can't remember where it was the other day, but I think that's a big thing that we don't do. We kind of have been trained to just bulldoze through life and we were never taught to actually slow down and listen to our bodies. And our bodies will tell us when there's issues, when there's things that we need to be aware of. I'll give one example that has nothing to do with sugar whatsoever, but you know, I'm a big proponent for removing a lot of chemical toxins from our body and one of those things is fragrances.

Speaker 1: 37:21

And so I you know I was talking to somebody about walking by like Bath and Body Works, like I used to love bath and body works, I doused myself in those lotions and perfumes and I had all the candles. And now, now that I've understood what it is and I've removed that from my life, that sort of gives me a migraine, like just walking by it, like the smell of those chemicals is so brutal for me, and I think that's you know, you start to listen, like that's your body saying this is a big red flag, like pay attention to this. And so I think you know, if we start to pay attention to that in other aspects you know, in relationship to sugar and the way we're eating those kinds of things, it's it'll point us in the right direction 100%.

Speaker 2: 38:05

And it's funny you mentioned that because I told you I was just at my kid's school for their awards before we did this recording and there was a man in front of me and he was slathering all this cologne and I'm like I can't breathe it was so bad.

Speaker 1: 38:19

Yeah, that's so funny because the same conversation I had with the person about Bath Body Works I said the same thing. I was like it's men's cologne, like that is the thing that triggers me more than anything else. Is that the smell like the strong men's cologne? I don't know what's in it anymore, but I just I can't handle it and it can. It can be really bad for your hormones and endocrine system, and so many issues come from that too.

Speaker 2: 38:45

So we'll have to do a whole, not other show about that. The only air freshener things. Those get on my last term, but anyway yeah.

Speaker 1: 38:51

Yeah, we digress Well, melissa, thank you so much for coming on this show. I am so grateful for the opportunity to connect with you and I'm really, really looking forward to our next two conversations. So thank you for today.

Speaker 2: 39:04

Of course, thank you. I'm excited and I'm also looking forward to the next two.