The Chain Effect Podcast
A Physical Therapist and a Registered Dietitian discuss health, fitness, kiddos, and fun in practical ways for real people and families.
Dr. Taylor Pope and Caroline Pope founded Chain Effect, a comprehensive wellness and fitness studio combining physical therapy, nutrition counseling, personal training, and active recovery services under one roof in Raleigh, NC in 2015. Their mission is to show people how every link strengthens the chain of health to feel better, move better, get strong, and increase health span.
Learn more about Chain Effect at www.chaineffect.us
The Chain Effect Podcast
Added Sugar, Oh How Sneaky You Are!
In this episode we shine a light on added sugar and the sneaky places it lurks, along with lesser known reasons to avoid processed sugar in our diet. We discuss our take on sugar-free sweeteners and ways to reduce added sugar for better health.
Welcome to the Chain Effect Podcast, where a physical therapist and a dietitian married with two kids juggle the struggle of running a business, raising a family, and prioritizing our own health, all while trying to have as much fun as possible.
SPEAKER_00:We are your hosts, Taylor Pope, doctor of physical therapy, and
SPEAKER_01:Caroline Pope, registered dietitian.
SPEAKER_00:Together, we own and operate a health facility, bringing together physical therapists, dieticians, personal trainers, and active recovery services to create what we call the
SPEAKER_01:Chain Effect. Well, we have officially ended kind of what I call candy season. Kind of. Since it's after Easter and candy season, I describe as, you know, they first bring out the candy before Halloween. That could be in... August, right? And then it goes all the way through all the holidays through Easter. And while we still always get that, the displays and the brightly colored desserts and stuff in the front of the grocery stores, it's not as much because there's not a holiday where there's candy involved for a while now.
SPEAKER_00:So that's good. You mean a while as in? Three months, basically. All the flashy colors. No 4th of July candy canes.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I've been talking to all my patients. They're like, oh, we're trying to get rid of the Easter candy. We just got to go ahead and hide the baskets. Because sugar takes over our life. And we're here today to talk about what is actually added sugar.
SPEAKER_00:Not just sugar, but added sugar.
SPEAKER_01:Added sugar. And what... is the deal with that. Why is it important to know about it and what should we be thinking about it?
SPEAKER_00:You used to not know about it, right? They didn't used to have to put that on labels that there was any added sugar.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, there was a law that was passed, I think by 2020, depending on how large the company was, their manufacturer. Most companies had to, nationally, had to add the added sugar component on the nutrition label where it's always just said total sugar, like carbohydrates, total sugar. And now underneath that, there's a spot that says added sugar. Not everywhere. There's still some labels where you don't see it, but most do have it.
SPEAKER_00:And company size then too. So if it's a small company, maybe they're not having to put that on there. Yeah, they don't
SPEAKER_01:have to release as many details, I think.
SPEAKER_00:Crazy. Crazy. So, all right, what is added sugar and what are the guidelines around it?
SPEAKER_01:So added sugar is anything that is not naturally occurring in a food. So when we say naturally occurring, that is a food that's born with sugar, I guess you could say. But like fruit has fructose in it, that has natural sugar in it. Milk has lactose in it, that is naturally occurring sugar. Basically, everything else
SPEAKER_00:is part of the chemical process of creating the food. It creates some sugar is in
SPEAKER_01:the food. Now, there are some what's a little confusing is there are foods naturally in nature, like honey, maple syrup, things that are sugary that are found in nature. But unless you eat those straight. Right. That's usually being added into a food that does not have naturally occurring sugar. So when they make bread and crackers and oatmeal and all these things, they might add honey, add maple syrup. That's not that's still considered an added sugar. That's not naturally occurring.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. The molasses wasn't just like in the wheat. Right.
UNKNOWN:Exactly.
SPEAKER_00:The honey wasn't wasn't in the rice or the bread.
SPEAKER_01:Right. It's not like picked with a drop of honey on it. So the thing is, there are so many sources of added sugar all around us that we don't even realize. And we'll get into more examples, but things like peanut butter, pasta sauce, salad dressings, savory crackers, crackers that don't really taste sweet or bread that doesn't even really taste sweet. It is hidden in so many things that don't even taste sweet because the food companies know we get addicted to sugar or we love sugar, we love salt, we love fat, and that's how they get us to eat more. And so it is in so many foods and it's hidden where you may not realize it. And so people are getting way more than they think, even if it's not quote unquote a candy or a sugary treat.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, I think growing up, Why eat regular whole wheat bread when I can have honey whole wheat bread?
SPEAKER_01:Honey wheat.
SPEAKER_00:You know, honey wheat.
SPEAKER_01:It's not honey whole wheat. It's
SPEAKER_00:honey wheat. Oh yeah. Honey nut Cheerios or, you know, why would I not have that when I, you know, why would I want the plain stuff? Yeah. And
SPEAKER_01:marketing is very tricky. You know, a lot of these things are advertised as whole grain cereal and you think, oh, it's healthy. Tons of added sugar. That'll be labeled as, you know, breakfast bars or, you know, naturally sweetened. And that might be honey or, or maple syrup or something added, but you have to look at the label. Um, so the guidelines, the current guidelines are the dietary guidelines for Americans, the 2020 to 2025 version say everyone two and up should limit their added sugar to less than 10% of their total calories. So this would be in a standard, uh, 2000 calorie diet, which a lot of people shouldn't eat that much. Some people should. Um, but that would be 200 calories of a 2000 calorie diet. That's about 12 teaspoons.
SPEAKER_00:Well, that seems like a lot.
SPEAKER_01:That's a lot. And so this is the standard national guideline, the American heart association, just as a different guideline, the American heart association, because of the effect of sugar and insulin resistance and diabetes, um, Thank you so much. That's about 16 calories because carbs have four calories per gram. So if it's four grams times four, that's 16 calories. So the calories, it's like, that's not that much. But when you're looking at how many grams of added sugar that is, that's, you know, six sugar cubes would be 24 grams of added sugar. So that if a female is getting that every day, that's... quote unquote, okay, that's the max that the American Heart Association recommends, but you're consuming that.
SPEAKER_00:If
SPEAKER_01:you think about how much you're consuming that.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, just put six of those in a baggie or just measure out all the teaspoons that they're recommending that you have every day. 12 teaspoons, that is ridiculous. And
SPEAKER_01:it sounds like a lot, I come across a lot of people that may put three to four tablespoons of sugar as a guesstimate or... in their coffee each day.
SPEAKER_00:Or just do like the one or two second pour.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And you know, one tablespoon is three teaspoons.
SPEAKER_00:Not to mention there's sugar in the, in the cream and the milk, right? Yeah. Adding that in already. I mean, and so,
SPEAKER_01:yeah. So, um, there's so many hidden sources, but there was a 2017, this is disturbing. There's a two, there's a 2017, 2018 study where the average American, they did it in age groups, but it was about the same between ages two and then up like Like adults, we're having about 17 teaspoons of added sugar a day.
SPEAKER_00:Wow.
SPEAKER_01:17 teaspoons. So if you measure that out, put it in a bag, see how much that actually is. And that's not talking about fruit or milk or these natural sugars. So that's just straight added sugar. So if you think about the total sugar, it could be a lot, lot more. And so... Those are the current guidelines. I personally think we should work on eating a lot less.
SPEAKER_00:Zero, right? If possible. We try to buy at the store most everything with zero added sugar. That doesn't mean that things aren't sweet or don't taste good, but they're just not throwing a little bit of sugar on top, right? They're not... Adding a little bit more to make it extra. And our
SPEAKER_01:poor kids, like they've always, I'm the dietician staring at all the cereal boxes and really shredded wheat, plain shredded wheat, plain cornflakes, plain, those are the only ones that don't, yeah, Cheerios have like less than one out of, less than one gram of added sugar or maybe one gram of added sugar, but that's all our kids eat because that is, it's so boring, but they're used to it and they don't really know the difference until they have it.
SPEAKER_00:Remember when we were traveling and they had some fruit loops and they went wild over these fruit loops. And then they
SPEAKER_01:were talking about them when we got home and then they kind of forget about it though. But you know, I give them all that, that boring cereal because the cereals are out of control because you got to look at the serving size too. Are they actually going to have the serving size? Maybe, maybe they don't have it all. but maybe you have double the serving size for breakfast. That's a lot of added sugar. So looking at peanut butter, you know, little switches people can make, like peanut butter a lot of times has added sugar in it. Like I said, pasta sauce, marinara sauce, that's got some natural sugar in it from the tomatoes. That would be a place like some vegetables, like fruits, have a little bit of natural sugar. But if you see in the ingredient list sugar or any form of sugar, In the ingredient list, and then if you see in that place on the label, including this many added sugars, and it says anything above zero, they've added sugar.
SPEAKER_00:Right. So what I hear you saying is that basically the best forms to have sugar are from fruit and dairy. And
SPEAKER_01:vegetables, because they have a little bit. Because
SPEAKER_00:they have it. Now, if I take my fruit and I... break down all the cellular walls of it by putting it in the blender, that's a problem too, right?
SPEAKER_01:That gets into something else. I mean, like in the blender, we can compound so many pieces of fruit. It just becomes a lot of sugar all at once. And so that's kind of a different topic in how much of a glycemic load you're having, how much blood, like how much your blood sugar could spike after that, because you don't have that fiber. A lot of the fiber is already broken down, which helps kind of blunt the effects of that blood sugar spike and slow down digestion absorption. So that's just a huge load of carbs at once, even though it's natural sugar. But we'll get into that in a future podcast about blood sugar levels.
SPEAKER_00:Is that why I shouldn't have tropical smoothie?
SPEAKER_01:Now, smoothie places.
SPEAKER_00:Tell me.
SPEAKER_01:I don't know. They don't always give all their ingredients.
SPEAKER_00:Caroline's about to preach right now. She's about to preach.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, tropical smoothie. Just because I hear this with my patients, I've looked at it myself. I'm pulling it up right here. They don't say the amount of added sugar, but if I'm getting any of these smoothies that are 101 grams of total sugar, 109 grams of total sugar, 91 grams of total sugar, I believe the lowest one besides the detox green smoothie which is 29 grams of sugar. The lowest one aside from that is 75 grams of total sugar for a smoothie you're drinking.
SPEAKER_00:Is that an extra large or is that just... That's
SPEAKER_01:just the normal size. These are all the typical... The regular size. Whatever, yeah, maybe 16 ounce or so, 20 ounce. I guarantee that is not all natural sugar. And so, and you see it kind of, sometimes they're putting in like the syrups and stuff. You don't know if that's fruit syrup, the squirts, like some of it's natural fruit. I'm sure some of it is natural sugar. A lot of that they're adding and don't get me started. If it's like a chocolate smoothie or chocolate peanut butter smoothie, it's like a peanut butter syrup, which has a lot of sugar. That is not good for you in so many ways. So making a smoothie at home is very different. I don't want to discredit smoothies. I think you can make them in a very healthy way. You just want to be careful of how much fruit you're adding at once and add some vegetables in and a protein and fat to kind of stabilize your blood sugar.
SPEAKER_00:And probably add some fiber back, right? I think you do a great job with our boys smoothies, putting chia seeds and flax seeds in, which add some fiber back. You know, I think with our kids, sometimes, you know, with Bennett, we're just trying to get him to eat something. Yeah, and that's a different goal. That's kind of to
SPEAKER_01:increase his calories and increase some of the carbs he is eating since he could live off air and not care. But I think also pairing it with a solid food helps with appetite control too because for some people, they drink down a smoothie. It doesn't keep them full for very long. So with the kids, I try to do that too, like pair it with something that they're actually chewing as well.
SPEAKER_00:But surely my... you know, my bolt house drinks, my naked drinks, the, the, uh, protein drinks that you see everywhere. Those have got to be healthy for you, right?
SPEAKER_01:Well, again, this is where you want to be really careful about looking at the total sugar and is it added sugar or not? Both of those. I don't know if this has changed. It depends on the type, but they're like just vegetable fruit smoothies say no added sugar on them. Now they're more milky protein ones have added sugar or the the more like chocolate vanilla ones. But from what I can tell, it says no sugar added and it's zero grams of added sugar on the labels, but they vary from 43 to 53 grams of total sugar per small bottle, the Naked and the Bold House. And again, that's all naturally occurring It's blended up, though, and that is just a lot of sugar at once, a lot of load for your blood sugar. But you do want to be careful because there's a lot of stuff, a lot of drinks, especially that does have added sugar. I mean, if you look at I'm pulling up Starbucks just because that's, you know, common drinks that people treat themselves with. A grande mocha is 35 grams of total sugar. Now, it doesn't specify the added sugar and the natural sugar. Some of that is with the milk. Some of that is coming naturally from the milk. But most of that is going to be added sugar.
SPEAKER_00:Seems like you could subtract what you would expect for the milk for that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I mean, one cup of milk is about 12 grams of sugar. So if you look at a milk carton, depending if it's whole, skim, 2%, if you're in the grocery store and you're looking at a gallon of milk and you look at the ingredient, the nutrition label, it's going to say, you know, eight fluid ounces, 12 grams of total sugar, zero grams of added sugar. unless you get something like Fairlife or something that's ultra-processed, and they actually filter out some of the naturally occurring sugar, and it's lactose-free. So that's about half the amount of naturally occurring carbohydrates in that sugar. Moral
SPEAKER_00:of the story is the Starbucks drink you're having is the little extra pop that you get by drinking that isn't just the higher levels of caffeine. you're getting a pretty big load of added sugar. Yeah, I
SPEAKER_01:mean, the frappuccinos are a whole other story. But if it's just a regular latte with just milk and espresso, that's naturally, you know, that's natural sugar.
SPEAKER_00:So is sugar really addictive? And why do people have such a hard time with it? I
SPEAKER_01:mean, you hear that a lot, right? People have such, it seems like we as a society are addicted to sugar. And there aren't really studies conclusive about sugar. an actual sugar addiction, but there are studies about what it does to your brain and how the pathways are similar to drugs. Like if you have cocaine and you're getting that hit, you know, from the cocaine and you want more and more and more and more, sugar does that same thing. And there's, I was listening to a webinar that had some studies about Rats and brain scans and what their dopamine levels were doing when they ingested sugar.
SPEAKER_00:Dopamine is the happy release, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And so a lot of people eat for pleasure. That's that hedonic eating. Is that how you say it?
SPEAKER_00:Hedonic. Yeah. Eating for pleasure. Yeah, hedonistic.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, you may not be actually hungry, but you just smell something or you see something and your eyes go, ooh, that looks really good. And you're eating for pleasure. And so there's that kind of eating, and then you're eating when you're actually hungry or to fill a physiological need. And so when you're eating out of true hunger, your body should get a negative reaction. feedback loop, right? Like you should get negative reinforcement as you eat because you're getting fuller and your brain is saying, okay, I'm getting more satisfied. I'm getting full. I don't need as much food. When you have something like sugar or if you're just eating for pleasure and you're not actually hungry and something that gives you such high dopamine levels, you're getting positive reinforcement because the dopamine levels they found in this rat study are continued to be high every single time. They had the food no matter if they kept having it all day. Every day, the dopamine level would still be just as high or almost as high, so it's not like a diminishing effect.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, wow. So what you're saying is the release of dopamine each time they had sugar... was the same no matter how much they had. Exactly. Oh, wow.
SPEAKER_01:So they were getting the sugar a ton at a time, and there's chow, and the control group was regular chow, and then the other group was high-sugar chow, and the rats that were getting that were having the same release of dopamine in their brain. And so it showed that there are overlaps in the brain pathways activated by those palatable foods, highly processed foods. So this was happening... they studied it mostly in sugar, high sugar foods, but I think they've said it also in high fat, high sodium foods, um, pizza ice cream, which would be a combination of like fat and sugar. Um, these really rich processed foods that we do feel like we get addicted to sometimes.
SPEAKER_00:Right. And so the end result is just overeating those foods.
SPEAKER_01:Exactly. Because you still, you're getting that dopamine hit every single time. And I have patients that struggle with this too. Like, well, I just need a little, it gives me that dopamine hit and it's hard to cut those habits out sometimes.
SPEAKER_00:Is that why once I pop, I can't stop?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, gosh.
SPEAKER_00:Those Pringles. I mean, those Pringles are so good. Like sour cream and onion Pringles. If I have one, I'm eating the whole can.
SPEAKER_01:Well, and part of that is they dissolve in your mouth, right? So they're not... We can eat the whole can of any of those processed foods and candy and stuff that melts in your mouth because it is dissolving literally as those enzymes are starting to break down the food on your tongue and in your mouth. And so it's just so easy. It doesn't fill us up. So part of it's that too. But so sugar is hard to... to get rid of. And we're not preaching get rid of sugar in general, but we do, most people I would say do need to cut back just because it is so prevalent. If you can reduce it in little things throughout your day that you don't even really notice it's in, that's a great way for your brain and your taste buds to not get as much of that sweet all the time. So that's what you crave and you're getting that dopamine hit.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and I think one of the things that I always hear you talk about too is the little secret places that sugar winds up and you think you're doing something healthy by having a yogurt. And then all of a sudden you look at the label and it's got 15 grams of added sugar.
SPEAKER_01:That's why with our food recalls, I'm like... In a dietician session, dieticians are like, and what brand is that? And what size is that? And what flavor is that? Because the yogurts, there's so many. And you could say, oh, yeah, it was a healthy one. It was just one that was strawberry, like naturally flavored. It has strawberry chunks in it. Activia. Exactly. The probiotic yogurt. It's like marketed to be the holy grail of yogurts. And okay, all yogurt is going to have probiotics in it. first off, and Greek yogurts especially. It
SPEAKER_00:was Chobani.
SPEAKER_01:Chobani. Chobani. Or Chobani. Get it right. But these yogurts, there's some that use sweeteners and things like that to cut down on the sugar. There's plain yogurt, which would be the best thing, I think, that you could flavor yourself with whole fruit and real fruit. But then there's these flavored yogurts that can be up to 18 to 20 grams of added sugar. I've seen that. And they will say added sugar. So that's a great place to look if you're a yogurt eater. You like different flavors. Compare the brands. Compare the flavors. Some are really like desserts. So you might as well have ice cream if you're eating some of these that are as high as 20 grams or 18 grams of added sugar. And same thing with the little cottage cheese duos that have the side of– fruit to top with. Some of those don't have any added sugars and it really is fruit on the side. Some it's more like jelly or it's just, you know, a lot of added sugar in the fruit and you're dumping that
SPEAKER_00:in. And they got to preserve it somehow. You know, it has that preservative somehow if it's sitting in that can, you know. Yeah. And it's more
SPEAKER_01:expensive, right? Using all whole food, a whole fruit. So that's one thing. And then they know that we love sugar. So we're going to want to eat something more when it has sugar.
SPEAKER_00:Well, tell me about the sweeteners that it's not added sugar, but it is sweetened. Because we try to look for the yogurts that don't have added sugar, but they're still sweet. Is that a problem? What's going on with that?
SPEAKER_01:So... There are artificial sweeteners and then there's non-nutritive sweeteners, which is more like natural sweeteners. You could consider stevia, monk fruit. Those are actually from plants. And then the artificial sweeteners are the ones that have been around a long time. Saccharin was the first one that was made in like 1876 or something, 1879. That was the first artificial sweetener produced. There's sucralose, Splenda. is the trade name for that, aspartame, ACE-K, which is like the asulfame potassium. That's in yogurts as well to sweeten it. And so all of those have a different place. So there's mixed reviews, there's inconclusive studies on their effects. They have a place in weight loss, I think, for those who are doing a lot of sugar in their diet or in their drinks specifically. When they've done studies of... people with obesity who are drinking a lot of soda, sweet tea, and then they put them on diet sodas. Of course, that's going to help their weight loss. That's going to be something that can assist in their weight loss. But like anything that is not a whole food or process, to me, I always err on the side of very limited. You should use artificial sweeteners, very limited. Some haven't been around as long enough to... possibly have studies though, on, on what they can cause as far as like health issues. So
SPEAKER_00:you've gotten on me before for buying the boys drinks that they have no added sugar, but they are sweet. And I think, you know, besides the fact that, okay, what is sweetening it from a chemical standpoint? Like what are we actually giving them? You said that, you know, they're their palate and their taste buds for sweet things is affected by having, you know, these sweet drinks and then that's going to lead them to desire more sugary and sweet things. Yeah, you know,
SPEAKER_01:exactly. So one effect of artificial sweeteners that has been studied, um, and it's argued in the research, I think a little bit, but gut health can be impacted by these artificial sweeteners. And we know how much our gut microbiome is, and that good bacteria plays a role in our immune health, our brain health, um, inflammation in general and digestive issues,
SPEAKER_00:but also your fullness cues, right? Isn't a lot of, yeah, I mean the hormones like gut brain connection back and
SPEAKER_01:forth and our serotonin levels and all that. So it's, that's kind of, you know, not conclusive. I mean the, um, all these artificial sweeteners are still generally regarded as safe to use. But the other effect I see just in practice, and then that's been studied a little bit and known is the sweetness levels, exactly what you were saying. So if you have a drink that's artificially sweetened with let's say Splenda, yeah, you're not adding sugar to your diet with that drink, but These are hundreds times sweeter than table sugar, which is sucrose, if we compare all these to sucrose. So some of the amounts, like Splenda is 600 times sweeter than sucrose.
SPEAKER_00:So the same amount, like teaspoon of sugar versus teaspoon of Splenda. And
SPEAKER_01:sucrose is... we call table sugar. And that is a disaccharide made up of glucose and fructose. And it's found naturally in some plants like sugar cane or sugar beet. And that's actually crushed up. It's the main part of white sugar. But it's crushed up to produce that raw sugar. So sugar in the raw is like that brown kind of uneven sugar that you can get. The healthy sugar. Yeah. So people are like, oh, that's healthier than refined regular table sugar. I mean, it's less processed. It's still sugar. It's still added sugar. But then it's sent off to factories to refinish that pure, clean, white, sweet powder that's all uniform size. So we're comparing the sweetness of these artificial sweeteners or non-nutritive sweeteners to sucrose. And it is amazing how much some of them, how much sweeter some of them are. So Splenda is 600 times sweeter. Aspartame is 200 times sweeter. Ace K or Ace Sulfame Potassium is 200 times sweeter. And even monk fruit, which is from a vine that comes off. They get that from an extracted like berry from a vine in Southeast Asia. That is still 100 to 250 times sweeter. And stevia. which is more natural as well, comes from a plant, is 200 to 400 times sweeter than table sugar. So if you think about the consequences of that, I just don't like that because it is getting our taste buds used to something sweeter than natural. way sweeter than fruit. So fruit, if you have fruit, that's not going to satisfy you as much if you're used to all these super, super, super sweet sources of drinks and foods you're eating. And so to your brain, it may not be as satisfied. So if you're adding in all these artificial sweeteners or non-nutritive sweeteners that are lower calorie, no sugar technically, But your taste buds are getting adjusted to this super sweet stuff. So that's my take on one of the main reasons why I recommend really limiting any of these sweeteners.
SPEAKER_00:Right. And then you go for like sports drinks and exercise. And I think a lot of people think, well, if I'm exercising, then I can have some, you know, Gatorade has a ton of added sugar. And they think, oh, if I'm doing exercise, then I'm just going to burn it off immediately. And you and I have talked a lot about that as far as the kids, like they should not be having that. They have enough stores of, you know, blood sugar that in their muscles and stuff that they can burn off. They don't need to add in some to get energy.
SPEAKER_01:Well, we should just use whole foods too. Yeah. right? Like give them a snack of an apple. They like apples. I mean, and yeah, when we see this, you know, even in, in, um, friends and things, it's like, you know, not worried. Oh, it's a, it's a Gatorade. They're going to run it off. Well, think about what it's given them to apart from just the sugar. I mean, it's food dyes, it's artificial ingredients, it's food dyes, it's, um, The added sugar, though, that's not having the fiber from the apple or the fruit that you could be giving them as a snack, too. And it also gets them used to having a special beverage, something you could call it special but different than water or a drink they should have more of.
SPEAKER_00:Right, right. And I think some of the misconception is that while if you're doing a high-endurance activity where you're exercising for hours and hours... yes, maybe it's beneficial to replace some of those electrolytes or replace some of your sugar with some of these added sports drinks. But for most people who are doing an hour workout...
SPEAKER_01:Recreational activity,
SPEAKER_00:yeah. They don't need it, right? Definitely not. And it's going to get in the way of any sort of weight loss goals or... Yeah, I
SPEAKER_01:mean, if you are doing an event that's two, three hours long or training, you may need to ensure a fuel or have some electrolyte replacement or some carbs or some gels or whatever in between, in the middle of your workout. But for the basic person working out, just water is totally fine. And again, get your electrolytes from... And you could also think about if you really wanted an electrolyte replacement or maybe your sodium is typically low or you're a big sweater, you could use coconut water as a natural source. It does have some naturally occurring sugar in it, not as much as Gatorade or something else, but it has some really great electrolytes in it and some natural sugar. So if you need a little bit of a push there, Gatorade has... 12 ounces of Gatorade has 21 grams of added sugar. Wow. And then the big bottles that typically people will get.
SPEAKER_00:You're not drinking 12 ounces.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, that's two and a half of those servings. So that's 48 grams of sugar. And
SPEAKER_00:a lot of people stop at the gas station. because it's hot outside and get a Gatorade. It's like, oh, I'm sweating. Let me get a Gatorade. Like they're driving like, oh, I'm sweating. So I must be, you know, I must need to replace my electrolytes. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:But I mean, if you think about that, if you did drink, it's middle of summer here, it gets hot. Maybe you're outside or maybe you're working out and you drink 48 grams of added sugar in a drink. That's double what a female should have in a day for added sugar. And you're not including any food sources. Mm-hmm. that you could be getting. So again, it's sweet. You've got the glycemic load. It's a lot of sugar at once. Um, it gets to, it gets used to drinking other drinks besides water and foods to give you those vitamins and minerals. And overall, I just encourage,
SPEAKER_00:and then like normal sweet things aren't as sweet, right? When you like up your taste bud level, um, And all of a sudden, like you're having more, more and more sugars, kind of like salt, right? The more you have of it, the less kind of desensitizes you. Exactly. Exactly. So what is the best solution? You know, should we use low calorie sweeteners when we want something sweet or just never eat processed foods?
SPEAKER_01:I think again, instead of the all or nothing approach that usually doesn't work for a lot of people, especially they have a lot of Dr. Anneke Vandenbroek It's all bad. What are little things you can do to reduce the added sugar? So I always say, okay, go in your pantry, go in your fridge, read all the labels on things that you may not even think have added sugar and swap, make swaps. What are some substitutes? So if your peanut butter, you catch that has sugar in it, find one that's natural, that's just peanuts. And those swaps can make a big difference in your health and how much added sugar you're having. And so when you do want a dessert or something where you know So it is going to be a source of sugar. Enjoy that
SPEAKER_00:because you know you're not
SPEAKER_01:having it all the time and your brain is not always getting that dopamine hit from things that aren't even really as satisfying for you as a dessert. That's the big picture. If you attract on an app or something, that would be a great thing to look at. A lot of times we just focus on those three macronutrients, carbs, fats, protein. A lot of them will have sugar and fiber. And it may not say added sugar, but keep track of your total sugar every day. And then you can go down and say, okay, was this, oh, this was fruit. That was natural. This was milk. That was natural. The rest of this is added sugar. I'm having way over the recommended goal for me. And I would just say, keep reducing it as you can slowly. And beverages are the biggest culprit of added sugar. So if you can stick with no calorie products, beverages, water, coffee, things like that, tea without sweetener or sugar in it as much as you can. And if you want a little bit of non-nutritive sweetener here and there, fine. I wouldn't do it super regularly.
SPEAKER_00:Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01:Sugar alcohols are something else that people will add and they are a lower glycemic index sweetener. Like erythritol is a big one and I think that has a glycemic index of one and table sugar is 65 to put it in comparison.
SPEAKER_00:So it doesn't raise your blood sugar as much.
SPEAKER_01:Exactly. Yeah. And so that's why it's kind of popular and it's super low calorie and sugar alcohols are a way to have the sweetness, the chemical structure is similar to that of sugar and it's It is a carbohydrate, but they still have some calories, but it is lower than sugar. But those are added to gums. That's like what sugar-free gum has, toothpaste, things like that. But sugar alcohols can be in a lot of protein bars and lower sugar foods. The downside of those is that because they have limited absorption, because you're not absorbing or they're not Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. three grams mannitol or erythritol or sorbitol or any of those. It doesn't always say it, or you see that in the ingredient list. But sometimes on protein bars especially or protein powders, it shows you how many grams are in of the sugar alcohols. If you have any GI effects from foods, sometimes that's why. But those are a decent way to have that sweetness, but it's not overly sweet like these other sugar substitutes.
SPEAKER_00:So interesting, so helpful. And it's so everywhere.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it's everywhere. We like sweet. We like that flavor. So if you can get it naturally as much as possible and, again, do whole foods as much as possible, that's the best way.
SPEAKER_00:Right. I think something that you just have helped me with so much is just putting the fruit on the counter. making it in your eyesight when you want a snack, maybe have some carrots to start off with, maybe have a piece of fruit to start off with. And the, just not only is the sugar going to be less processed, but it's also so much less, so many less calories. It is.
SPEAKER_01:You can have a lot without, and it's all about that choice. It's once you get to that choice, if you can figure out what's going to make it more accessible, because a lot of times we don't want to have an apple or an orange or something if we're having a sweet craving, but when you're eating it, it really does satisfy that sweet craving.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Well, we love to be sugar detectives in the grocery store. So if you have something that you find to be super sneaky added sugar, shoot us an email, taylor at chain effect or caroline at chain effect dot us. Yeah, we'd
SPEAKER_01:love to see it and expose it. But it's always great to learn. Thanks so much for listening. We hope this was insightful and we will see you next
SPEAKER_00:time. Catch you later.