Ever wonder if that zero-calorie sweetener is too good to be true?
Today, we're uncovering the truth behind sweeteners of all kinds, from the natural bounty of the stevia plant to lab-created concoctions, and dissecting their impact on the delicate balance of our body's homeostasis.
I'll guide you through the science of insulin's role in weight management and debunk the myth that natural always equals safe, with a closer look at high fructose corn syrup’s nefarious side.
The conversation gets even more personal as I share my own experiences with cutting down on artificial sweeteners—starting with my morning coffee—and invite you to consider the concept of aiming for 80% accuracy in health goals, leaving room for life's little indulgences.
We tackle not only the potential for artificial sweeteners like sucralose to add unwanted belly fat but also their influence on our gut flora and the insidious way they can heighten hunger.
Tune in for an enlightening session that will empower your menopausal journey, arm you with the knowledge to scrutinize food labels, and inspire you to make wiser choices for your overall well-being.
Can't get enough of the Thriving through Menopause Podcast? Listen to this episode and more on: Amazon Spotify Audible And wherever you listen to your podcasts!
Ever wonder if that zero-calorie sweetener is too good to be true?
Today, we're uncovering the truth behind sweeteners of all kinds, from the natural bounty of the stevia plant to lab-created concoctions, and dissecting their impact on the delicate balance of our body's homeostasis.
I'll guide you through the science of insulin's role in weight management and debunk the myth that natural always equals safe, with a closer look at high fructose corn syrup’s nefarious side.
The conversation gets even more personal as I share my own experiences with cutting down on artificial sweeteners—starting with my morning coffee—and invite you to consider the concept of aiming for 80% accuracy in health goals, leaving room for life's little indulgences.
We tackle not only the potential for artificial sweeteners like sucralose to add unwanted belly fat but also their influence on our gut flora and the insidious way they can heighten hunger.
Tune in for an enlightening session that will empower your menopausal journey, arm you with the knowledge to scrutinize food labels, and inspire you to make wiser choices for your overall well-being.
Can't get enough of the Thriving through Menopause Podcast? Listen to this episode and more on: Amazon Spotify Audible And wherever you listen to your podcasts!
Hello, my friends, today we will be talking about artificial sweeteners. That's a big topic. When you're trying to lose weight Many people, of course, were trying to lose weight we want to get healthy One of the things that we'll do is cut those calories and, of course, in order to reduce their caloric intake, most of the times we'll be looking for a sugar substitute. So we'll be looking for something that is sweet, because that's the nature of us human beings to eat something sweet. So we'll be looking for something that's sweet without the calories.
Speaker 2:
Welcome to the Thriving Through Menopause podcast. Dr Inaka Yembe, your host, is dedicated to helping you navigate the transformative journey Through Menopause podcast. Dr Inaka Yembe, your host, is dedicated to helping you navigate the transformative journey of menopause and perimenopause, particularly focused on achieving menopausal weight loss and reducing belly fat. As a post-menopausal physician herself who has helped thousands of women experiencing the significant life stage, she understands the unique challenges you face. Listen in as we explore a wide range of topics aimed at supporting you in your health and wellness journey. Hopefully, the practical tips and strategies offered potentially help you adopt an empowering approach towards menopausal weight loss and belly fat reduction. And now here's your host, dr Inaka Yembe host, dr Inaka Yembe.
Speaker 1:
Now, first let's look at weight loss, and I want to also say this right off the bat so that when we start talking about the sweeteners and their effects, you may understand. Weight loss does not just depend on energy consumption. As we know, there's a lot that comes into play, especially your hormones, especially that one hormone called insulin. Why is that? Insulin is that hormone that goes up when you consume sugars. It breaks down carbohydrates into glucose, and the fact that insulin may be high on its own, it has some adverse effects. I want you to remember that. The second thing is that there is a pathway. We have taste buds in our tongue. We also have them in our gastrointestinal tract. They all react to sweetness alone, whether or not the calories are there. So I just wanted to go ahead and put that little intro there, so that when we start talking about the effects of sweeteners, then you may understand further. So first let's talk about sweeteners. What are they? These are the things that have been produced by manufacturers that we can use as a sugar substitute. However, what really are they? They are sweet. They are divided into two classes, so some are natural, meaning that they come from plants that already exist, things like stevia. There is a stevia plant Now other things are not natural. Other sweetness means that they are completely manufactured. For that reason, sweeteners are classified into two types. There are natural sweeteners and artificial sweeteners. The artificial sweeteners are also divided into two different types, and you may be surprised. Some artificial sweeteners do have calories, so because of that they are called nutritious. Other artificial sweeteners have no calories, so because of that they are non-nutritious. So we have natural ones and we have artificial ones. The whole story gets a little bit confusing because let's see here my next topic to you will be what are the health concerns that we may have with these sweeteners, keeping in mind that the Food and Drug Administration has approved these sweeteners for public consumption? This is why they show up in our foods. One of the things that happens is we need to consider in what form do we typically consume sweeteners? Think about it. Mostly they are in beverages. I've seen them in the zero calorie things, the drinks, in the zero calorie powders, the drinks, or they show up in candy, so the sugar calorie candy and things like that. And now I see them showing up in pastries, of course, sugar calorie pastries, sugar calorie cookies, and on and on and on. So that's the format in which they are produced. Now, why are we concerned, seeing that we talked about artificial and we talked about natural? Talking about the artificial sweeteners, these are molecules that never existed. They are just completely formed from something. Somebody studied it and said, okay, I can manufacture something that could be sweet. So these are completely artificial.
Speaker 1:
Immediately, you think this is not natural, of course, and when you consume it, your body says, oh, stop, I've got to do something to counterbalance whatever that is. That is the risk of consuming an artificial sweetener. It offsets your body's attempt at homeostasis. Your body always wants to come to some kind of balance. That's what happens with your body. So when you consume an artificial sweetener, that's the very first thing that happens. It throws off your body's homeostasis. What does that mean? That natural sweeteners are better than artificial sweetener? That's the very first thing that happens. It throws off your body's hemostasis. Well, does that mean that natural sweeteners are better than artificial sweeteners? Yes and no. This is why the topic is so controversial. Okay, natural sweeteners mean that they are here in plant form and then somebody smart person can take that and extract it. It still comes from something natural that already exists on mother earth, but does that mean that they are all safe, though, because they're natural?
Speaker 1:
Let's think of the big bad one high fructose corn syrup. When you hear about high fructose corn syrup, this is when you pack up your goods and run, so I always encourage you. One of the things that you want to do routinely is to read your labels. Not only read the amount of calories, the nutrition facts. Just come down and look at the ingredients, and that's where you'll find some of these things. High fructose corn syrup is harmful. It's too much fructose. Not that it has a high glycemic index, but it's got a huge task on your liver. This is why we see so many patients in clinic now come with a fatty liver. Anything that's high in fructose has tasked your liver too much, and it can cause your liver to start having problems. That said, of course, natural fruits the fruits sweetener in fruits is fructose, and that's great, but the amount of sugar in fruits is just so small compared to the amount of sweetness, say, in a high fructose corn syrup. That's why you want to run away from that one. Now, natural, natural sweetener that I see a lot, though in the healthy world we're using this a little bit too much is the agave syrup. Of course it's natural, and that's another one, though you want to be careful with. It just puts a huge, huge, huge task there on your system, and I'll tell you why here in a few minutes.
Speaker 1:
All right, so the health concerns with these artificial sweeteners are so many, given the fact that they have no calories and the fact that some of them are natural. But their studies now show that they have a few health concerns. One of them is cancer. Second one of course you've got a child, or pregnant women. I'm just going to put that out there. Do not give them sweeteners. So if your child, you want your child to get healthy, no, no, no. The answer is not taking away sugar and replacing with sweetener. The answer is feeding your child food, healthy food, food food, not junk food food. But how does it work? Apart from the fact that they are highly, highly processed? That's what makes them dangerous. One thing.
Speaker 1:
The second thing is that they stimulate that chemical pathway that talks between your stomach and your brain. So when you eat something that's sweet, whether or not it has calories, you're stimulating that same pathway. Now we're not talking about calories. We're talking now about hormones Triggers it and your brain says, hi, this is nice for me. And all of a sudden you have all these cravings afterward. In fact, there are many studies I've read a meta-analysis, which is the best kind of study that was done on so many people that showed that the people, the obese people, who consumed sweeteners hours after the fact they were coming back and having these cravings, binge eating and wanting to eat a little bit more sweets. And that's one of the mechanisms where sweeteners can cause you to gain weight, build up belly fat, things like that. So that's one thing that happens. The second thing is that the same chemical pathway when you consume a sweetener especially when it is too too too sweet tasting on your tongue it may still stimulate insulin. So you hear you took sugar away. You took sugar away and you're consuming too many things through the day that are sweetened with sweetener. You're stimulating your insulin response.
Speaker 1:
Insulin. Insulin continues to go high. Insulin does two things for you. We're not talking about calories, we're talking about the effects of that hormone. Insulin goes up. It is a fat storage hormone. That's one thing. And you get too many high levels of insulin all the time. You can develop what is called insulin resistance. All is not lost. You can reverse all these things with proper nutrition and proper health habits. So when you become insulin resistant, here's where things may get a little bit dangerous and we need to get serious about it.
Speaker 1:
Insulin resistance can cause type 2 diabetes. What that means is that you have so much insulin your body doesn't even feel it. You're not able to process your own sugar anymore. Blood sugar is high, you can become diabetic, you can become hypertensive and then you can develop heart attacks. The same mechanism blockages in the heart that causes heart attacks is the same mechanism that causes strokes. So now you are at risk of developing strokes, heart attack, and if you are someone who has a generation behind you children, grandchildren and things keep in mind that if you develop any one of these metabolic problems at a younger age is pretty significant. Now you have left a legacy for your child. So when they ask you, do you have a parent, a first degree relative, who developed a heart attack or a stroke less than the age of 50, that's you. Now your child is at higher risk. Okay, so we want to really be paying attention to these things.
Speaker 1:
Artificial sweeteners can do that for you cause insulin resistance. The next thing that they can cause is a change in your stomach. All right, people, how do artificial sweeteners affect our waistline? Number one, remember? We just talked about it it can cause insulin resistance and fat buildup. The second thing that happens is that it can change your gut microbiome, meaning that the little microbes that live in your gut, they need to be healthy. Why? In order to maintain homeostasis, to bring your body back to balance, to make you to be able to absorb your food, to make you to feel well. Have you ever sat here with your bowel bloated full of gas? That's just arguing with itself and you're claiming to feel good? No, artificial sweeteners can do that In fact, all sweeteners because they can disrupt that balance of your gut flora, causing buildup of gas, bloating, abdominal discomfort, cramping and just total digestive upset. You want to be thinking about that? There's also increased evidence that artificial sweeteners can trigger migraines. So if you're someone you know everybody, just study yourself. If you say, put artificial sweeteners in your coffee, your tea and then you get a headache, you may want to consider that that may be caused by artificial sweeteners, because the studies have shown now that they can trigger migraines. Let's see here Now, moving on even further, they can cause dementia.
Speaker 1:
They really can, and that's no joke. I said that laughing no joke If you just think about the mechanism. Some people develop dementia because they have too many mini strokes through time and all of a sudden can't remember anything. Can't remember anything, can't do anything, don't know who the children are, and things like that. Some of these are as a result of mini strokes and because artificial sweeteners can cause you to develop hypertension, diabetes, heart attacks, mini strokes, you can end up developing dementia from overconsumption of artificial sweeteners throughout many, many years and, like I said, dementia, also memory loss. These are things that have been studied and proven. All right, let's see here. Let's see here. Now. Those are the health concerns that really are pertinent, even though there are some more. Now let's talk about belly fat, which is where we are in this month. Listen, now I'll go through a simple list of the worst sweeteners and some that may be a little bit better for you, and I'll tell you what you can do to completely get off sweeteners overall. That's one thing that I'm personally trying to do.
Speaker 1:
For those of you who don't know me, I have shared my story a lot here. I was born at 10 pounds, grew up into an obese person, and as an obese adult and as a physician training and coaching patients on weight loss, even though I was about almost 300 pounds myself I tried everything, everything, and one of the things that I have been stuck with through the years is sweetness, and so because of that, even though I was able to lose, it took me about two and a half years to lose my first 70 pounds and then another two or three years to lose the last 50. I mean, my journey was so long and painful, but even with that, I find myself, even though I'm 125 pounds smaller after a 12-year struggle and I'm still keeping the weight off, I just realized that I am stuck with the artificial sweeteners and I'm trying to get them out of my life, and so one of the things I do routinely with you is share with you things that I'm doing, that I'm struggling with in my real, current life. That's why I coach online. In my private Facebook page, I have a monthly bootcamp. Subscribe to it. If you have not missed April month, wait for May. The link will soon be up. Subscribe to it because I share my daily journey. I have been successful in losing weight and keeping it up, but we are honing down on artificial sweeteners and I'm trying to get them out of my life with you. So join me in this process, hopefully.
Speaker 1:
But how does it affect belly fat? Actually, the research now shows that sucralose, especially, is one of those that stimulates a chemical in your body called glut4. It's there and that's the one actually that causes your body to store fat and, by default, belly fat also. That's one thing. Secondly, you remember the disruption of that gut flora. Belly bloating increases your abdominal gas. Okay, that's another one. And then the third one is that artificial sweeteners actually make you hungrier, not actually while you're consuming them, but hours later on. That one has been proven in a study using many, many people.
Speaker 1:
So, that said, let's try to kind of unbox these sweeteners one by one. I have a short list here. It is not all the sweeteners, one by one. I have a short list here. It is not all the sweeteners, it's just a short list to give you an idea. So ballpark it and see where you are. I'll go from the worst sweeteners to the ones that may be a little bit better for you, the better option. That said, better judgment is always best. There's never one size that fits everyone. So you just think about how your body reacts.
Speaker 1:
The first ones aspartame, sucralose, saccharine, sugar agave syrup, high fructose corn syrup. Those ones are elevate them to the level of the worst for me. They are too sweet. Most of them are artificial. Bad for you. They cause all the problems that we've talked about there. So run away from those ones. Those are my worst. Now the ones that come to the next level, that are not the worst. Worst for me, at the you know kind of middle level. Here those include date sugar. I see this, I see this so much in all in many health products Date syrup. Coconut sugar is sugar. Date sugar is also sugar, honey and maple syrup. All right, those ones are not as bad as the worst. Why they're not as sweet. They're not overly stimulating.
Speaker 1:
That pathway that's telling you something sweet is here. It's not making you have too many many cravings. It's not disrupting your gut flora too too much. All right, the other ones that are somewhat acceptable and I'll tell you the artificial ones first, and those are the ones I typically try to stay away from now, even though they're not as bad as the others, seeing that they are not as sweet, slightly less sugar. So these are all the sugar alcohols. Erythritol is the first. One has no calories, it is artificial. Then there's mannitol, subitol, xylitol and maltitol. Xylitol and maltitol, though, are artificial sweeteners that have calories. Those are the nutritious ones. They have about 60 to 65% as many calories as sugar, as opposed to erythritol that has no calories. But those ones are artificial. All right, now here are my good ones that I think are more natural, a few less calories here. But, that said, I am in the process of trying to get off all sweeteners overall.
Speaker 1:
The ones that are natural not as bad stevia, monk, fruit, chicory root those are natural. However, they're super, super sweet. In fact, they are about 200 to 300 times sweeter than sugar, even though they are natural and even though they have no calories. But it's the sweetness, though that could get you into a bind because it's so sweet. So if you take a teaspoon of, say, stevia, though it is natural, and put that in your tea or in your coffee, that sweetness what happens? It stimulates the taste buds in your tongue, stimulates the taste buds in your stomach. Yes, we do have taste buds there. All of a sudden, your brain is fired up and it's saying whoa, this is nice for me. Now you are fired. That pathway says, woohoo, I need to be eating, something good is coming to me. Now you are fired, that pathway says, woohoo, I need to be eating, something good is coming to me. So you want to be careful with the amount of even the natural sweeteners that you are consuming. Overall, all right, there's never any one size fits all.
Speaker 1:
What I'm personally trying to do in order to come off the artificial sweeteners, I'll say the first thing, number one nothing can be a hundred percent perfect. I never look for perfection. In my health and wellness journey, I used to try to do that. Start doing something, expect myself to be 100% compliant, make one mistake, make two mistakes, I'm done. Walk away and say, okay, I can't do this, and go back to my old ways. What I ask my patients and my online clients is 80% accurate. Why? Because you're not Jesus Christ. Perfection does not exist. That said, you can attempt to come up artificial sweeteners, knowing that you can do it slowly, and even when you've done it, you may once or twice go back to. You know what that's life, and that's fine. So this is what I'm doing to come off artificial sweeteners.
Speaker 1:
The first thing where I put my artificial sweetener the most is my coffee. I already mastered that because I did intermittent fasting and I had to keep consuming coffee. Because I'm a coffee addict that's just me I've got to continue consuming coffee. One of the things I did with my coffee though it was so creepy In the beginning I tried to drink it black and whoa, I was creeped out. It was too strong. So one of the things I did was lighten it up and drink smaller amounts, not the whole big cup, until I got used to drinking coffee with nothing black coffee. But that said, when I'm fasting, I'll drink black coffee.
Speaker 1:
When I'm not fasting, I do have a tendency to put the half and half and some stevia into it. What I'm going to eventually do, which is what I'm trying to do now is is just cut back, because I would put don't judge me when I say this, don't judge me. I will put five packets of stevia into one cup of coffee and I've already told myself going from five to zero. When I will feel like drinking coffee, that's sweet, it's going to be unrealistic for me. When I will feel like drinking coffee, that's sweet, it's going to be unrealistic for me. For me personally, I cannot go cold turkey and expect to stay there. So what I'll do is cut back. Instead of five sachets, I'll put four and see how that goes, tough it out and then, when I think I'm comfortable with that, cut back some.
Speaker 1:
It may take me months and months and months. Before I started drinking black coffee, it took me months and months and months. Everything for me takes months and months and months. Patience and consistency is key. Now, if you're someone like me, I do have a thing though for the Coke Zero. That's it. I said don't judge me, I'm just telling you exactly how it is. I do have a thing for it how it is. I do have a thing for it 4-Cog-Zero.
Speaker 1:
And I find that if you take fruit and you chop it up and make it a fruit infusion, it may have a little sweetness from the fruit, it may have a little flavoring. So this is what I put in my fruit infusion and it works for me. Try different things. These fruit infusions you can use them to substitute the drinks or the tendency to go for the sodas, and even the diet sodas will be the same thing, okay. So I usually use ginger, I use lemon and mint and cucumbers. That's one that's so delicious. Another one that I use is just orange, chop it up, put it in water and mint. It seems like when I put mint in there it is so, so, so delicious. Very important, all right.
Speaker 1:
Another thing that I do when it comes to things like oatmeal or food that I tend to sweeten, then this is where I reap the benefit of things like chopped fruits, so things like the berries, the strawberries, or even the frozen one. You can take fresh strawberries, chop them up, throw them on your oatmeal and get the sweetness that is that natural fructose from the fruit. You can even use apples, just anything, to sweeten your food. All right, I hope that information is helpful to you. Food All right, I hope that information is helpful to you.
Speaker 1:
Now, all this said, the sweeteners have been shown to help some people in weight loss. For example, if you were that person who was drinking, say, two bottles or two liters of Coke or regular Coke, what I will tell you is to transition to a diet Coke first. We're being real. You can't tell somebody who drinks two liters of Coke every single day. And I say this from my experience, from working with people who are over 500 pounds and people who are between the age of seven and 74 in my private weight loss clinic here. Physically, it's not unrealistic to tell someone who drinks 2 liters of Coke every single day and expect them to immediately start drinking water, water, water every single day, forever and ever, amen. They may do it for a month or two, but all of a sudden something kicks in here. You lose control and you go back and drink two bottles and then you can't stop with the coke.
Speaker 1:
At that point, what I tell you to do is study your body, always. Change things gradually, because your body is a homeostatic being. Your body always comes to balance. Whatever you're doing, whether you're obese or not, your body has its own internal balance and it's always trying to stay there. So once you change things by cutting down calories or doing all these other things you throw off your body's natural balance and then it tries to reset itself somewhere. That's why we get confused. That's why weight loss is so complicated. That's why it's so struggles, the big struggle. That's why me personally, dr Yembe, I'm still struggling with myself for 12 years and it will be lifelong.
Speaker 1:
So if you have a bad habit like that, what I'll tell you to do is cut back, change it into something that's diet. You're not consuming as many calories, but you're still on something diet. Do that, maybe for a few weeks, let your body come back to balance so that everything is just not thrown off and crazy, and after that, shrink the size of the diet drink that you're drinking into maybe a bottle, and consume water through the day, and after that maybe after a month or two or three, depending on you you may say okay, so now it's Sunday and I want to have my one diet coke. There's no big harm in doing something once a week or even every other week, as opposed to doing it every single day. Okay, so that's how you try to win off the artificial sweeteners. Do it slowly, be kind to yourself, expect some pit stops along the way, expect yourself to make mistakes and forgive yourself when you make mistakes and move on. It's so important.
Speaker 1:
The next thing I'll say is that I've already given this big lecture about sweeteners and things. If it is working for you, because there's a small population of people who stay on artificial sweeteners, especially the natural ones, and they're just fine. So when you come into my weight loss clinic, I'm seeing you every single week and you're losing weight, losing weight. I don't change anything because when you change things that are working, maybe things don't work at that point. If it's working for you and your abdominal circumference is less than 35 inches and you've seen your physician, they say you are in optimal health, you're working out, you're eating healthy and you're using, let's say, I don't know, one sachet of stevia once or twice a day and you're fine, in optimal health. Continue If it's working, continue. That said, thank you, thank you for watching. I do wish you all the best in your health and wellness journey and I will see you in the next video. Thank you, have a blessed day, bye.
Speaker 2:
Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Thriving Through Menopause. We hope you found valuable insights and practical advice to support your journey. If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to subscribe to the podcast, share it and review. Your feedback is greatly appreciated. Remember, menopause doesn't have to be a challenge. It can be an opportunity for growth, renewal and self-care. Connect with us on social media, where we share additional resources, tips and advice to help you along your path. Once again, thanks for listening in and we hope you'll join us again on the next episode of Thriving Through Menopause. Until then,