Ask Mark Q&A #6: Natural vs. Artificial Sugars, Caffeine, Preparing For Pregnancy, And More

Coming up on this episode of the Doctor's Pharmacy.

So if you see high fructose corn syrup, put it back. If you see hydrogenated fats, put it back. I mean, that's two things you do in your life that you never do.

That again, you will dramatically change your life.

Hey everyone, it's Dr. Hyman here. Now, so many of my patients ask me how I manage to work multiple jobs, travel frequently, well not so much anymore, and spend time with my family and still focus on my health. I know it can seem hard to.

Eat well when you've got a lot.

Going on, but the trick is to never let yourself get into a food emergency and to stay stocked up with the right things to support your goals. So, when I keep nourishing snacks and the right supplements to optimize my health at home and at my office, I know I'm helping myself make good choices in the future. Recently, I discovered Paleo Valley Beef Sticks. I keep these beef sticks at home and at the office so I know that whenever I'm in a food emergency, I have a healthy and delicious option to keep me on track. It's no secret that I have high standards when it comes to what I put in my body, and Paleo Valley Beef Sticks checks all the boxes. They're gluten-free, grain-free, dairy-free, soy-free, and non-GMO. Plus, they use 100% grass-fed and grass-finished beef, which not only adds to the flavorful taste, but it also means they're free of any harmful antibiotics, or hormones that you'll find in most meat. With grass-fed beef, you'll get more nutrients than you would with beef fed with grains, things like higher levels of omega-3 fats that help reduce inflammation, and more B vitamins and other antioxidants to support your body's converting food into energy, and also more of the fat-soluble vitamins that are beneficial for a healthy heart. Plus, instead of being processed with chemicals and other questionable ingredients like similar snacks, These beef sticks are naturally fermented, so you get gut friendly probiotics with every bite. How cool is that? Right now, Paleo Valley is offering my listeners 15% off your entire first order. Just go to paleovalley.com/hymen to check out all their clean Paleo products and take advantage of this deal. That's paleovalley.com/hymen. I definitely recommend stocking up on the grass-fed beef sticks to keep in your house, in your car, and in your office. It's one of my favorite tricks to staying healthy while on the go. All right, now let's get back to this week's episode of the Doctor's Pharmacy.

Hey everybody, it's Dr. Mark Hyman. How y'all doing today? We're doing a live Q&A show that I'm doing for my community.

We're calling it Ask Mark.

And it's where I take questions from my text community and invite those folks to join me live and ask their questions. And if you want to ask a question in the future, you can just text me at 413-225-8995.

That's.

413-225-8955 with the hashtag AskMark. And my team's going to pick your question hopefully for your future Q&A with Mark Hyman. That's me. Lastly, I can't give you any medical advice, but I'm going to give you a big picture about how I would deal with various health issues or health questions. And I'm super excited to be joining you with doing this today because we all need to know more about how to keep healthy, especially during COVID All right. Hey. Hi.

Welcome to be here. So thank you so much.

Of course. Thanks, Autumn. How are you? Good.

How are you?

Good. What's your question?

Okay. So I just wanted to know the difference in how our bodies process the different forms of sugar. So I was just really thinking about more natural sugars from fruit and even like honey compared to more artificial sugars and carbs?

Okay, great. All right, great question. So this is, you know, this is an area I know a fair bit about, written like, I don't know, half a dozen books on the subject. You know, sugars is, I would say, you know, most sugar should be thought of as the same thing, right? It's, it's, it's, there are differences, but, you know, sugar is sugar, sugar for the most part. with some, some differences that I'm going to go through with you. And, and that if you're thinking about consuming sweets or sugar, understand that this is a drug that you should use it as you use any drug in the right way. Like, if you drink alcohol, have a glass of wine. Don't have two bottles of wine. Right. If you have tequila, have a shot, maybe two, not a bottle of tequila in this country. We are, we are consuming massive amounts of sugar and starch, right? 152 pounds of sugar per person per year, 133 pounds of flour, which is actually worse for your metabolism than table sugar, right? When you think about it. So, I'm gonna have a bagel. You might as well have a bowl of sugar. It's the same thing in your body when you eat it. There's no, this whole idea of complex carbs and simple carbs is an outdated idea that is completely irrelevant right now.

Right?

Simple carbs, a sugar, complex carbs is bread. But actually the bread is worse than the sugar. It really is about the glycemic load of the food. So with that said, you know, think of all sugar as a recreational drug. Use it in moderation, use it sparingly, use it intentionally, but don't have it in everything from your cereal to your salad dressing, to your pizza sauce. You know, it's just, it's in everything. Now with that said, let's sort of break it down. You've got sugar, table sugar, maple syrup, honey, you've got all kinds of other sweeteners, coconut sugar, you've got sort of natural sweeteners that are non-caloric like monk fruit, stevia, you've got the sugar alcohols, all the erythritol, maltitol, you know, sorbitol, all these sugar alcohols, and you've got all the artificial sweeteners, things like, you know, aspartame and sucralose, Splenda, Nutrasweet and all these things. So you've got all these different sweeteners. And the reason is we're all addicted to sugar. We all love sugar. We're programmed to love sugar. I love sugar. Everybody loves sugar. But it's designed to hijack your brain chemistry and the amount we're having is just so much compared to what we used to have. So let's just break it down a little bit. So I think in terms of, you know, when you're having sugar, you should just have like sugar, right? You want table sugar, fine. You want have brown sugar, whatever. you know, coconut sugar probably is a little better, less low glycemic load. That's probably the best, mostly what I use. If I want to see some honey, maple syrup, again, recreationally in small doses, I would stick with those and stay away from the rest with one exception or maybe two. So monk fruit sweeteners are actually pretty good and they're low calorie and they don't really seem to cause a big issue with metabolism or Cravings. But I think, you know, moderation is the key. Stevia, if it's whole food Stevia plant, not an extract that's really made by Coke or Pepsi called Truvia or PureVia. These are chemical projects that are extracting components that may be them the beneficial components of Stevia and removing them. So you really don't want that. So don't get fooled by all these Stevia spin-offs. Sugar alcohols, just I would avoid completely. they cause a lot of digestive issues. So, you know, our previous, Jenna, you know, guest had a conversation about your well bowel, and I didn't mention to her, but sugar alcohols can cause a lot of problems. So she may be chewing on gum all day that's got sorbitol. It's causing her to a bowel. It could be that simple. Right. Then let's sort of get to your question about these other artificial sweeteners like aspartame or these are terrible. And we know that, that they are correlated with increased obesity, diabetes, and they also damage your microbiome. They're a thousand times to their regular sugar, they hijack your brain chemistry. They keep you coming back for more. They're just bad. If you have that on your tongue and you eat a blueberry, it'll taste like cardboard. If you don't have any sweeteners for a week, you eat a blueberry, tastes like candy. So it's really, really hijacking your, your taste buds. Lastly, let's talk about fructose. High fructose corn syrup I haven't mentioned yet. And I've written a blog called the five ways high fructose corn syrup will kill you. I'm gonna read that. But it's, it's, you know, high fructose corn syrup essentially is a a product made from corn in the lab where they separate the glucose from the fructose because sugar is sucrose, which is glucose and fructose together. And fructose is a fruit sweetener. Now, fructose when you're eating it in a fruit is fine because you've got fiber, vitamin, minerals and so forth. If you're eating a ton of fruit, it might not be, but if you're diabetic, it might not be. But for most people, it's fine. if you take the juice out of the fruit, that's just like having, you know, candy and maybe worse for you even than having sugar, regular sugar, because free fructose is really bad for you. Free fructose causes fatty liver, damages your gut, it causes leaky gut, which makes you more inflamed everywhere and destroys your intestinal lining, which is not good. It increases the risk of diabetes, the risk of obesity, the risk of getting a fatty liver, and it's really clearly associated with that. Now, fructose within fruit doesn't necessarily do that, but if it's free fructose in high fructose corn syrup, because normally glucose and fructose are bound together in regular table sugar, they're stuck together with a bond. But in, in like high fructose corn syrup, they're separate and there's more fructose than there is glucose. And there may be it says 55 or 75 up to 75% fructose. And that's why we're seeing this pandemic of diabetes and obesity and fatty liver affects 90 million people. So I would just never , have anything with high fructose corn syrup one, because it's not good for you. Two, because it, it, for sure the product is poor quality product. It's the lowest cheapest form of sugar and it's a sign of an industrial science project. So if you see high fructose corn syrup, put it back. If you see hydrogenated fats, put it back. I mean, that's two things you do in your life that you never do that again. You will dramatically change your life. Cause all the crap has that stuff in it. Um, so, so the fructose is a real problem and I, I think people have to be really careful with this high fructose corn. and syrup and with free fructose and people like, I'm gonna have agave, which is great, but it's just free fructose. So you really have to be careful with all these kind of alternatives that people are pushing because they all have potential downsides. They just think of them more or less the same. So what I would say, bottom line, if you want to sugar, have a little maple syrup, little honey, a little bit of maybe coconut sugar, and, and then, of course, monk fruit sweetener is.

Great and whole plant Stevia. Okay, awesome. Thank you so much for all of that.

Sure. Okay, thanks Autumn. Great to talk to you.

You too. Bye.

And we have Elizabeth. Hi Elizabeth, how are you? I'm good.

How are you doing?

Good.

I'm from Chicago. And my question to you is on caffeine. So how good or bad is caffeine for you? And is there a limit that you should stay within. I know caffeine varies if you go to Starbucks or Dunkin' Donuts or other types of restaurants. So, what is really a good limit or bad limit?

Caffeine's a drug, right? It's a drug like every other drug. And, you know, they're all, they're all, you know, Andy Wild wrote a book called From Chocolate to Morphine about psychoactive substances. And, you know, chocolate is a drug. and so we have to be really aware, you know, if you're drinking 16 cups of coffee a day, it's probably not good for you. You know, I I worked with this guy who was a famous, very famous head of a very big, you know, newspaper that. That was, you know, like 90 million homes or something like that. And he just was always tired and exhausted, and he was drinking, like, 12 cups of coffee and having 12 Diet Cokes a day and was falling asleep at his desk, and, like, his body was just really overwhelmed and exhausted. Um, but caffeine is, is different for different people. Now, some people have the gene that makes you metabolize it very quickly, and some have the gene that makes you metabolize it very slowly. So there are those people who can have a cup of coffee in the morning and they're anxious and sweaty and they're palpitating all day long. And there's other people who can have a triple espresso and go right to sleep. And, and so there's a genetic variation how we tolerate caffeine. so I think, I think for most people, you know, having a cup or two of coffee in the morning is fine. Having coffee later in the day will interrupt your sleep. If you do have sleep problems, it's best to avoid caffeine entirely. If you, if you look at, I know, what kinds of coffee should you be drinking? You know, there are ones that are better and worse than others. You know, there's mold in coffee sometimes. So getting fresh roasted or small batch coffee is very good. Having you know, organic coffee is important, having coffee that without additives, contaminant, contaminants, pesticides, important. You know, coffee is, is the largest source of antioxidants in the American diet, which is not a good thing. It just means that it, you know, there are a lot of good things in coffee, but, but actually our American diet is so bad that we all drink coffee as the main source of our antioxidants. So I think, I think You have to just know your own body and your own system and, and be tolerant or not. But if you have any chronic issues around anxiety, insomnia, palpitations, it may be worth or sleep issues, really, I would, I would probably take a holiday and see how you do and then, you know, try some. But I think for most people, a cup or two of coffee in the morning is, is fine.

Okay.

Thanks.

Yeah.

About two years ago, I gave up caffeine from coffee. So now I drink primarily decaf coffee, but occasionally I'll have a regular coffee and it's, It hits me pretty hard.

Yeah.

I was just curious.

Yeah, it depends on how it's prepared and what you're doing. So we can have a lower strength coffees or lighter roast coffee.

Hi.

Hi, Lisa. How are you?

Awesome. I am so thankful to be able to speak with you today. I live in Cleveland.

Oh, great.

Dr. Mark Hyman runs functional medicine. Just sharing. Sure everybody knows at Cleveland Clinic.

Yeah, Cleveland Clinic.

Thank you.

Of course.

So speaking of the American diet and the standard American diet, my question is when you're not eating properly and when I say that, I mean like the standard American diet, coffee for breakfast, how do you jumpstart your body to get ready for pregnancy? Your nutrition?

Well, you just brought up something really importantly, Lisa, which is getting ready for pregnancy. And you should think of it like getting your garden ready to plant a seed. If your soil is depleted, if there are no nutrients in it, if there's no organic matter, the plant's not going to be very healthy.

And I think we have to understand.

That the gestation period is not just about growing a baby, it's how do you grow a healthy baby. And we know from study after study that what happens in the womb plays a huge role in child's long-term health, risks of disease, and all sorts of issues. So one, while you're pregnant, it's important to eat and be healthy. Two, beforehand, you want to make sure you top yourself up. So I help people focus on healthy eating at all stages of lives, but it's not different, right? It's not like there's one diet that's great for Alzheimer's, another diet that's great for pregnancy, another diet that's great for heart disease, another diet that's great for cancer. There's a way of eating that helps restore your body's health and creates a healthy garden for anything to happen, for you to be healthy, for disease not to be able to grow. I mean, when you look at really complex in generative and biodynamic farms, there are very few pests, there's very few weeds, there's very few problems because the environment is so healthy that these weeds and pests can't take hold. And so this really what we want to do as you're getting ready for pregnancy, you want to create a really healthy environment. what I highly recommend for people is to eat a whole foods diet, get rid of all the crap, get rid of the sugar, control your blood sugar, really important before you get pregnant because imbalances in your blood sugar affect the baby and affect them long term in terms of the risk of diabetes and obesity. So get yourself together before you don't have to gain a ton of weight. You shouldn't eat whatever you want. You shouldn't pig out on ice cream. I mean, you really need to get yourself prepared by eating a whole foods plant rich diet with lots of omega-3 fats, lots of fiber, get your gut.

Healthy, making sure your nutrient levels are really important. Do a blood test with a doctor for nutrient levels. What are you looking for?

Well, I think most important is vitamin D. Vitamin D is really important. So getting your vitamin D levels between, you know, 45 and 65, probably, or 70, your, your homocysteine, which is an important test to look at folate status, which is really important for babies. So making sure you're getting the right B vitamins, getting also the right levels of Omega-3 fats critical for brain development. There's a test called Omega Check that you can do through a regular lab. These are really, really important. You can look a little deeper if you want at your zinc status, just a plasma zinc level. These are some of the fundamental things, magnesium levels, red cell magnesium. These are tests that you can order through a regular conventional lab. But I would say it's just important to just take a good basic multi, even a good prenatal, but not one of those industrial pharmaceutical ones. But, yeah, there are a lot of companies out there that I use. I use peer encapsulations, I use Thorn, I use metagenics, I use designs for health. Zymogen, these are all companies that, that have created very clean products without contaminants or additives. They're usually used through professionals. I don't have any direct relations with any of them, but I, I do recommend them in my practice. And I think that it's really, really important for you to get a high quality product. So good prenatal. a good vitamin D, a good fish oil that usually covers the bases, maybe a little extra magnesium. And basically you're, you're nutrifying the soil before you get pregnant so that when you, and especially because you don't even know you're pregnant for the first bit. And that first bit matters, right? That first developmental phase of the first 12 weeks or six weeks even, when you don't even know you're pregnant, are really important. So it's really important not to just start getting healthy once you figure out.

You'Re pregnant, but figure out how to.

Get healthy before you're pregnant.

It's game time, right?

Game time. You're creating a healthy human, so you want to do that thoughtfully and carefully.

Thank you so much.

Appreciate it. Of course. We have one more question. Hi. Hi, how are you?

I'm good. Thank you for being here, Dr. Hyman.

Of course. What's your question?

Yeah, so I am a registered nurse. I love your Instagram, everything about health. I was wondering, how do you start getting friends and family eating healthy into functional medicine? Because I'm very much wellness, but how do you get other people on board to kind of like shift their lifestyles without getting those like odd stares or, you know, getting judged?

I would say show not tell. Show not tell. So, you know, I love to cook for people. I invite people over my house. I make them the most amazing, delicious Gourmet meals that they don't even realize are healthy because they're just so yummy. And I do it easily, simply. And I think it's important to understand that, you know, if you are an example for people, if you show how you can be healthy and what you're doing and share it with them, not beat them over the head with it, but inspire them and say, hey, how did you get to that? Or what did you do? You should try this if you want and give them little, little crumbs that they can follow. But, you know, I just, I went to, you know, as part of this movie fed up, I've told the story before, but I went to this small town in South Carolina, easily South Carolina, one of the worst food deserts in America. I worked with a family of five on food stamps and disability who are very severely overweight. The father was 42, already had kidney failure from diabetes on dialysis. There was very, very overweight. The son was 16, was almost diabetic, very overweight. And they struggled on food stamps and disability. And, you know, they were living in, in an environment where they really never eat a vegetable. I mean, there was nothing alive in their refrigerator, period. It was all boxed can package, Frozen, full of junk chemicals, additive, sugar processed ingredients. And they didn't really know any different. And so I said, well, let me not give you a lecture on what to eat or give you what, you know. instructions. But let's go get some real food and let's make a meal together. So we got in their kitchen, we pulled out, you know, there was no knives or cutting boards even. And I just said, let's make some dinner. So we made, you know, turkey chili from scratch, a simple salad with olive vinegar, some, you know, simple carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, not expensive. We made some roasted sweet potatoes. And what was amazing is that, is that They loved the food. It was so delicious. It was so yummy. And they were like, wow, this is really good. I was skeptical. I didn't think I was gonna like this. Oh, there's vegetables in here. Really? Like, you know, even the little kid who'd never eaten an onion or had a vegetable, I was like, is there a food vegetables in this? Like, and I, well, there's an onion, but it's like a candy onion. It's sweet. It's like, you know, he has a chili. Uh, and, and it was just a very inspiring thing for them. And they were able to take that on just from that one meal. and then they, they decided to, I gave them a cookbook. I gave them a guide on how to eat well for Less. And I share with them, and they were able to lose 200 pounds as a family in the first year. The son gained back going back to work at Bojangles, but then finally figured it out and lost 138 pounds and had asked me for a letter of recommendation for medical school. He got into medical school, and his family, nobody in his family ever gone to college unless medical school. So I think it's a very inspiring story about what can happen if you show, not tell.

That's very inspiring and I'll have to start cooking for my friends and family. That's a great idea.

Yeah, just make it fun. Well, thank you. Thank you so much. And thank you everyone for joining our show. That's our show for today. If you want to ask me a question in the future, you can text me at 413-225-8995 with the hashtag AskMark and my team might pick your question for one of our future calls. so thanks for joining us and we'll see you next time on the Doctor's Pharmacy. And if you share your question with us, we might pick you to ask a question live. So we'll see you next time. It's great to be with you all. Hi, everyone.

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Forward slash Pea and Shake. Hi everyone. I hope you enjoyed this week's episode. Just a reminder that this podcast is for educational purposes only. This podcast is not a substitute for professional care by a doctor or other qualified medical professional. This podcast is provided on the understanding that it does not constitute medical or other professional advice or services. If you're looking for help in your journey, seek out a qualified medical practitioner. If you're looking for a functional medicine practitioner, you can visit ifm.org and search their find a practitioner database. It's important that you have someone in your corner who's trained, who's a licensed.

Healthcare practitioner, and can help you make.

Changes, especially when it comes to your health. Don't forget, there's a way to listen completely ad free. With Hyman Plus on Apple Podcasts, you can enjoy every episode without any breaks. Just open Apple Podcasts and tap try free to start your seven day free trial.