5 Minute Facts - Sugar

This is episode 230 of the Empowered Team Podcast. Welcome to the Empowered Team Podcast where we explore how to optimize your performance in career, sport and life. And now your host, executive coach and life strategist, Kari Schneider.

Welcome. Welcome everyone to Performance Power. Power. This is our monthly opportunity to dive into five minute facts on a specific topic that's research based. So we dive into the science behind a topic. This month it's sugar, sugar, sugar. And then we'll do all the Q and A. Q and A for anything that you want to know about our topic, sugar, or anything you want to know about training, recovery, performance, nutrition, you name it. So our five minute facts today I'm going to try and keep it in five minutes. I think this one might go a little longer because I did a lot of research and here's what it looks like. Fact number one, the average American consumes three times more sugar than recommended. That adds up to about 66 pounds of sugar in a year. So what this looks like the recommended daily intake. So that's called an rdi. We have an RDI for all sorts of nutrients. And the RDI for sugar for men is 36 grams per day. That's additional sugar. So added sugar from, let's say sugar in your coffee or processed sugar that might be coming in from a cereal or fruit on the bottom, yogurt, that would be added sugar. So, so for men it's 36 grams and there are 4 grams per teaspoon. So that's 9 teaspoons of added sugar per day. So for women, it's 24 grams which would end up being 6 teaspoons per day. And for children, it's 12 grams which is 3 teaspoons per day. So right now, just to give you perspective on this, on this fact number one, four to eight year olds are currently consuming, the average four to eight year old are currently consuming seven times more, their RDI. So their RDI is 12 grams or three teaspoons of added sugar. For children, they're currently consuming seven times more. So I'm going to give you just a couple of examples so you get perspective here. If you look at a 16 ounce caramel Frappuccino from Starbucks, a 16 ounce, that would have 66 grams of sugar, added sugar. So right there, that would be double a man's rdi, a man's recommended daily intake than what is double what's recommended? A 8 ounce vanilla almond milk. So something that people might consume thinking, I'm consuming almond milk. This is healthy. So 8 ounces of vanilla almond milk typically has about 16 grams of sugar. If you look at a fruit on the bottom, yogurt, that has typically 24 grams of sugar. So I'm trying to give you a couple of examples for perspective of how much sugar is in some of our commonly consumed foods. So fact number two, over consumption of sugar, which I've just established, that most of us in North America are over consuming because Canada is right behind the US on all of these stats. So over consumption of sugar leads to an increase of depression, headaches, hyperactivity, anxiety, accelerated aging, impaired memory, Alzheimer's, heart disease, immune disorders, prostate cancer, breast cancer, high blood pressure, colon cancer, and more, and especially obesity. So over consumption of sugar leads to an increased risk of all of those things. And even more, what I want to point to, if, if people know this, then why would we keep over consuming sugar? The reason is because it affects the brain in ways that are similar to addictive drugs. So that's why we crave it so badly. It affects our dopamine system, our dopamine feedback system. So it's crazy. So that's fact number two. Fact number three, our body does not distinguish between sugars well. So what you might think of sugar as being glucose or table sugar, or even fructose, which is fruit sugar, our body doesn't distinguish between them very well. So there are many, many names for sugar that your body just recognizes as sugar and it will respond as though it is sugar. But on a label you might see something like glucose, dextran, fructose, galactose, diastatic malt, maltose, cane juice, molasses, beet sugar, honey, agave nectar, panocha, maple sugar, maple syrup, cane juice, and many, many more names for sugar, which are all still sugar to our body. So if we have too much of any of those things, it will still increase our risk of health issues as well. Okay, number four, and this is a little bit of a challenge because it points to things that we can potentially control as consumers. What happens is that advertising sugar to teens and children is a multi billion dollar industry. It is a really big business and it's supported with tax write offs. So the companies that are marketing to children and teens, they're allowed to write off those marketing expenses, whereas advertising for alcohol or cigarettes to children is illegal. However, it is not illegal for sugar. So there are very intense and highly profitable multi billion dollar marketing campaigns across companies that are directly marketed to teens and children. One UCLA study determined that watching commercial television, as opposed to DVDs or educational programming directly correlated to higher body mass index, bmi. So you'll see that BMI body mass index, particularly in children younger than six years old, this researcher said, was due to the fact that children see on average 4,000 television commercials for food by the time they're 5 years old. A child's risk of becoming obese increases by 60% with each additional sugar sweetened beverage consumed daily. So this is really challenging. So now that I've hit you with four facts that are really heavy, let's, let's go in with a fact that's not so heavy, not so challenging, and that is that it's easier to reduce sugar by small amounts than to quit completely. So for our brains, because we tend to end up craving, we have this addictive relationship with sugar and this dopamine feedback system when we just reduce it by small amounts, that does so much for us in being able to reduce our overall intake. So some of the things I'm going to give you a couple of suggestions that I do and that is that instead of having a sugary thing right when I crave it, these are some techniques that I've used and are backed by, by behavior research. Instead of having a sugary thing right when I crave it, I give myself permission to have that thing after I have a healthy meal. So I've created the rule in my brain that, oh, I'll have that sugary thing, but I'm going to have it after I have something really healthy that supports my health with vegetables or fruits and healthy options. Another one is just simply reducing the serving size of that sugary thing. There was a time where if I really wanted, I think you've heard my stories on chocolate covered almonds, but if I really wanted chocolate covered almonds, I would usually have about eight of them. And they used to be milk chocolate, but I slowly switched to dark chocolate and then I switched to 70% dark chocolate. And then instead of having eight, I would have six. And then instead of having six, I would have four. And so this happened over the course of probably five years. But now versus then instead of eight chocolate covered milk chocolate covered almonds, now I might have three 70% dark chocolate covered almonds. And it's a completely different experience. And I don't crave the milk chocolate covered almonds. And another easy way is to remove the thing that you have the least control over, remove it from your house or remove sweetened drinks, even juices. And another option which you may consider and is very hard to do on your own. And so much easier to do with other people is it is our sweet free month. So we do sweet free March in. I usually do it in September and March. So we'll have a sweet free month coming up in March. So those are some options for reducing the sugar, especially when you hear all of those really scary facts that come along with over consumption of sugar. And I hope that everyone gets the picture that we're talking about added sugar. We're not talking about the sugar that naturally occurs in fruit. We're not talking about the sugar that you would would have happen in vegetables or the sugar that's naturally there in let's say a glass of milk. We're talking about the added sugar like the vanilla almond milk. That's added sugar. So that's the distinction between what's naturally occurring versus what's being added in. And that's why there's rdis recommended daily intakes for those particular amounts, those added amount sugars. Okay, so I'm going to open it up to questions. I have a couple questions that were sent in and so I'd love to hear from you if there are questions that you have right now that are burning on your brain about sugar. And we'll also take in any other questions about training, nutrition, health, any of those things. Okay. What do you have anyone hand up?

All right, so you were saying for women, 24 grams per day.

Correct.

Okay, so the, so the only sugar I intentionally use is honey and it has a lower per gram than a processed sugar, right? I think it's.02 grams per however much you're taking in.

If you're taking in a teaspoon of honey, then consider that 4 grams of sugar.

Okay.

So if you're taking in multiple teaspoons or that honey is being added to maybe an oat muffin or something like that, then consider that the added sugar.

Okay.

It's so easy to over consume sugar. It's, it's, it's crazy. It's really crazy. It's super. It's in our faces all the time. So yeah, so that, that's what it would be. And take into account here, here's the thing that I want everyone to take with a grain of sugar, take with a grain of salt, take with a grain of sugar. It's this, that, you know, sugar is positioned as being a really bad thing. And with everything that I just shared with you, it comes across as being a really bad thing. The, the issue is that it's a consistent over consumption. That's where the problems come in. But sugar Itself isn't that bad. Sugar gives our brains want sugar, our brains crave sugar. Little kids who are really active can consume sugar with no problem. But it's small amounts. The fact is, is that our brains and our bodies are getting it really fast, really frequently and too much. And that's where the problems come in. But small amounts of sugar, especially when you've got the nutrients, you've got the other healthy foods, you're really active. Because active, physically active people, they'll, they'll be able to tolerate higher amounts of sugar than someone who's not physically active. Because we ultimately have this. If you think of it as a bowl, a, a capacity for an amount of sugar. Well, if you're burning a lot of calories by running or lifting or doing other activities like hiking and gardening and whatever, you're doing a lot of activities, then you're more burn that sugar. But it doesn't mean that you're supposed to still be having more added sugar. You'd rather be had it having the extra, extra piece of fruit, the extra piece of whatever, that's how our bodies tolerate it best. So I, I, I want to be careful in that, in demonizing sugar and having us feel bad if we're ever having a treat, but rather give ourselves permission and love on ourselves in a way that says, okay, I like to have a sweet thing here and there, I'm going to have a sweet thing and how can I honor my body best by not over consuming that. But honey is a fantastic option. You're going to get far more health benefits from honey than a, you know, a refined sugar, especially if it's in an area that can be with, you know, you can get blueberry honey, you can get raspberry honey, you can get wildflower honey. And sometimes those have beneficial effects on our own immune system as well. So those are fantastic. Okay, other questions. Go ahead.

Corey, in deciphering, you know, children, etc. If my 13 year old daughter is, you know, you know, seems like, you know, hey, you're a full grown adult already, she would be in that 24 grams area versus obviously the, the, the, the smaller amount, etc.

Right? Yeah, I agree there.

Okay.

Yeah, so I think that that's ideal for her. And I think that another question that was asked that you were interested in as well is, is brain performance overall and muscle performance. So when we're in taking, if, if somebody's done a physical activity that's really intense, consuming something that's got sugar in it after, in that 15 to 30 minute window after can replenish our muscle glucose stores really quickly. So if somebody's a training athlete and they're training every single day or a couple times a day, you've got two a days, whatever it is you. But there's consistency in training every single day. Having something that has carbs or added sugars right after training, our body is able to deal with it much better because it's trying to replenish the glucose in the muscle. So your muscle glucose and your muscle glycogen. So, so your blood glucose and your muscle glycogen and your liver glycogen. That's when we're able to try and replace and restore what we've depleted from being really active. So the timing of when we eat refined sugars has a big impact. If we eat a lot of refined sugars right before bed, then that's when we're going to store it. We're going to store it. Eventually it'll be converted into fat because we're not utilizing it. If we're eating something that's a little more refined immediately after a workout, our body typically tolerates it better than if we're eating it at other times of the day. I, I don't like to eat something sweet and sugary right after a workout because it's, it's not my thing. So I tend to do workout recovery with just a regular, regular meal. So I don't like having chocolate milk, I don't like having recovery drinks. So sometimes what I'll do is I'll replace amino acids with some branch chain amino acids, some, something like that, but not, not typically a sugary thing. So I think that was another question that you had around the muscle and sugar. And in terms of brain performance, our brains love sugar, but it's a very fleeting effect. So we get the sugar drop from the insulin that's released. So our brains feel really focused and active for a very short span of time. Think the child who's had too much sugar and they're running around like crazy. That's what our brains are like. And then it doesn't tend to last for a long time. And that's also why, because our brains want the sugar so much. It's also why we'll crave something that is sweet. Typically if we, we are overtired or we haven't had enough sleep. So that would be another, another circumstance that we would crave sugar. And when we're aware of it, we can often redirect intentionally go well, what do I really need Right now, is it, I'm craving sugar, I'm craving something sweet, but maybe I actually need a 10 minute meditation or nap and that will have me be refocused. So. Okay, other questions there. Good one. Okay, so let's open it up more. You can have other questions on sugar or bring it into whatever else you'd like, whether it's your training questions, your health questions, injury questions. Bring it on. What do you got? So there's a comment here. It gets confusing when other experts say sugar is necessary and our brains die off when we don't have sugar. Please clarify this misinformation. So, you know, our, our brains can function really well on ketones, which is being without sugar. When we're producing ketones, when we're in a ketosis state and our brains love sugar, our brains get that zap of focus. Like I said before, however, the sugar that we naturally get from the, which are the carbohydrates in leafy greens, cauliflower, carrots, all of the vegetables, the sugars that we get from that, the sugars that we get from oats, the sugars that we get from any of our, our grainy carbohydrates or our fruits and vegetables, all of those sugars fuel our brain just fine. And even if we go completely without sugar, our body is designed to survive. And that's why we still do well on ketosis in a ketosis state. So having a ketogenic diet or something along those lines, the thing that has happened and, and I want to be careful here because this is, this can be very triggering for people who have had health success in one particular way of eating, whether it's Mediterranean, whether it's paleo, whether it's keto. And a lot of those revolve around reducing sugar. So if somebody has success around one, it, it can be very triggering if I say something that's, that's against that particular way of eating. But here is what I will offer. It's this, that I've, I've worked with thousands of humans who want to perform optimally. From Olympic performers to business executives to people who just are looking to be optimal in their lives in every way. And when working with thousands of humans, and many of which have tried Atkins, because that's how long I've been doing it, when Atkins was the thing, which is basically another version of keto and paleo and Mediterranean and all of the things, what they all work. They all work. The question is, what works long term? And for most humans, they, they don't See, living a life that is completely sugar free for the rest of their life, that's what people have the challenge with, is reducing or eliminating something like that for the rest of their entire life. When that's the case, they tend not to be successful. So we can, we can easily survive on any sort of eating plan, but most of us have to have something that still works in the social aspect of eating, the pleasurable aspect of eating, the health aspect of eating that's going to lead to a really fulfilling, long term, healthy life. And most of the plans that people follow are so restrictive that no one can follow them forever. And that's why behavior change, revolving around what works for you and your life that you can follow forever, that's why it ends up being so much easier to make small changes that evolve. And that's why I gave the, the chocolate covered almond example. That example happened over years. To go from overeating milk chocolate almonds to being fully satisfied and loving three 70% dark chocolate covered almonds and being able to have them in the house and leave them. So that's, that's the long term versus completely cutting everything out. I hope that addresses that a little bit. But you know, our bodies will, we can be starving for days and days and days on nothing and our bodies will find a way to survive. So we don't need a whole bunch of sugar. What I can say is that we use our brains so much is that they become more sugar hungry because they're. Our brains operate highly on glucose and only operate on ketones if it's forced to. Glucose is number one for the brain. Operation ketones are a forced scenario for the brain to operate on ketones. And most people can't see living the rest of their entire lives with zero sugar. So most people do not sustain on ketogenic situations. Okay, other questions. We got five minutes left. What do you got? Training exercise, nutrition injury. What's there for you?

We got one here. Kari.

Hi, Kari.

I just first of all wanted to share that. That's great advice. I appreciate that so much because I find that over the years trying different things and I've definitely felt better on vegan or when I've done the whole 30 before that type of thing. But it's never something that has lasted for me. So I, I really appreciate that lifestyle that comes into it and just minimalizing. So thank you for that. But also one of my goals this year is just simply to get leaner. And I'm wondering two things. One, if you would share kind of what Your day of food plan sort of looks like maybe some of your favorite things. Morning, lunch, supper. And then on top of that, just if you were giving advice regarding getting leaner, what are some of the big no's and maybe some of the things that you would include.

Yeah. So first of all I really acknowledge you for trying different things because if you've tried whole 30 and you've tried Mediterranean or you've tried different ways of eating, that's your discovery process. So that's a beautiful thing. I love that. And to acknowledge that our bodies change over time. Time, whether it's hormones, whether it's environment, whether it's the stressors we have in our lives. So one thing that felt amazing, like if vegan felt amazing at one point, be open to the fact that it may not feel amazing always. And that's why I'm so I really want to acknowledge you for trying on different things because that's the process of figuring out what works for us long term. So as an example, so when it comes to leaning and, and losing some body fat, there's one of the easiest ways to do it is like I said, incrementally and that's a long slow process, but it lasts. That's the thing that lasts. So what I would suggest with that is if you can get some level of activity in the morning before you've eaten, that's a time where you're training your body to rely on some fat stores because you've basically been sugar depleted all night. Excuse me, you've been sugar depleted all night. And then you go to wake up in the morning and instead of feeding yourself right away, you ask your body to rely on your fat stores to walk or to get a little bit of activity and then you have your food. And when you have your food it tends to be a little more protein based. So there's not, you know, for me, I'll give you some examples in a second. But if it's a little more protein based then you're teach or fat based, then you're teaching your body to draw upon that. Now I again being open about your body because we are all extremely different. Some bodies need to detox a little more and they don't respond very well with something like avocado or nuts in the morning. I like that personally. Or some people don't like to eat anything in the morning, but then they find themselves overeating at night. So I would start with something like that in that just attempting to have your body learn to rely on fat A little more. And then the other thing is, is, is that making sure you're always eating the thing before the sugar, so the healthy meal before the sugar and trying to get to a space where you don't feel over full. You're always feeling satisfied but not full. And there's a difference. There's typically a three point scale, a plus three and negative three. So if you're negative three, you're starving, you're so hungry, but you want to be getting to a place where you're having your food when you're around a minus one or a zero because you're not over hungry, which is going to lead to overeating, which is going to put you up to a plus three where you feel disgusting and full and lethargic for hours. So you want to be eating to a zone where you're only getting to maybe a plus one and you're only ever getting to a minus one. You're never getting down to the minus three or the plus three. That can be very helpful in determining in, in controlling portions, determining when to eat and not getting super over, over hungry. I'm going to give you an example here and how I tend to eat, which is completely turned upside down right now because of the autoimmune thing that I'm dealing with.

Sorry.

I typically eat, I typically eat an egg or two in the morning with fruit. And that, that fruit might be blueberries or apples or oranges, but usually we have a few pieces of fruit and it's split among the three of us. So it might be one apple, one orange, some blueberries or a grapefruit that was split and they're split between all of us. And that would typically be my breakfast if I'm traveling. It's typically nuts and fruit or avocado and fruit. At lunchtime I eat a salad. And there's a question in here that is the question in here that's about what's my favorite sugar free salad dressing? Oil and vinegar. Oil and balsamic vinegar. And typically I don't usually use salad dressing. I usually just have avocado in my salad. So every single lunchtime I'm eating a leafy green salad, either mixed greens or spinach. And then on top of it there are things like peas and carrots and peppers and avocado that I eat that every day. And there's usually whatever leftover protein that we have that might be chicken or steak or whatever. And then lastly, I might have a snack in the afternoon if I. Oh, sorry. At lunchtime When I have that salad, I also have about a quarter cup of nuts, mixed nuts that are half salted. I also have my chocolate covered almonds and I might have an oatmeal, I might have half of or a full oatmeal chocolate chip cookie. And I'll have tea, I'll make some sort of herbal tea so I'll have tea as well. If I'm hungry later in the afternoon I might have some nuts again before dinner or a fruit if I'm hungry. If I'm not, then I don't eat till dinner. And then at dinner we usually have hello fresh. So we might have. Or I'll cook something that's different from hellofresh. So it could be anything from turkey soup to, to a, a bowl of some sort. So maybe some sort of rice and veggies and, and meat to vegan options to. But there's always vegetables and there's usually some sort of protein. Sometimes we'll eat vegan, sometimes we don't. But there's always fruits and vegetables with every single meal. And then I usually have a snack sometime around 8:30pm and that is often homemade granola that I make. I might have a little bit of goat milk with it. And what else? Sometimes a fruit, sometimes what else will I have? The other night I made frozen banana blended with wild blueberries and it's like ice cream. So good. Those types of things. So that would be an example of how I eat now to, to Deb's point. Sugar and inflammation. I'm. I'm in a stage where I have what's likely a thyroid disease, Graves disease right now. And it is turning me upside down. But that means that I'll be exploring also all sorts of things. But the thing is, is that my food intake, my activity are all in the optimal zone. So this isn't coming from that. This is coming from a lifetime of traumas that have stacked. And so that's likely where. Likely where mine is coming from. So with the things like sugar and inflammation. March. I cut out sugar every March, every September. That's what I'll be doing. And that will likely assist my body in healing and support my body in how I need to. And obviously I'll be exploring all the things in order to support that inflammatory situation. Okay. Any last comments? I hope that supported your question.

That was excellent. Thank you. And I wish you luck with your.

I've got one last one. Corey. I eat a lot of small things frequently throughout the day.

You do?

Yeah. So sometimes it's like you're not giving your body a chance to not just be digesting. I'm like, you know, back and forth, kitchen or something. And it's just like, you know, a couple nuts, this, that. And you're always kind of. It's like you're grazing all day.

Grazing? Yeah. You're agreeing. Not a bad thing, not great. You want your body to have the digestion. Here's the thing. If you want optimal brain performance, then let your body digest and let those cells replenish. Because when you are digesting all the time, then your body puts energy into that. It puts blood into it, energy into it. It's not. I mean, where it becomes more of a problem is if it's overeating, grazing. So when you're going beyond what you actually need, but you know, it's not the end of the world. There's lots of people that I know that prefer that because it's the only way they can get the calories in because they're so active and they don't want to sit down and have a big meal where they feel lethargic and full right after. And that's. That's partially how I am in that I don't eat big meals, which makes me then more likely to be hungry in between meals. But. But ideally you want the breaks in between. And that's something that has definitely helped me in terms of energy overall, is. Is not having in years ago, 20 years ago, I'd have breakfast and a snack and lunch and a snack and dinner and a snack. And by having breakfast and not eating till lunch, that provides for me personally way more energy than if I would have breakfast, especially if it was a sugary breakfast. I used to eat cereal for breakfast back in the day. And then my energy would tank and then I'd be hungry and then I'd have a snack around 10 and then be hungry again at lunch and probably have a sandwich or something. And eating that way did not. Was not great for me. And I. That's why I eat the way I do now. And I'll be exploring other options because of what my body's challenged with right now and. And learning different things that can support my body to truly heal it. And knowing that part of that primary nourishment is emotional. That's. Our primary nourishment is emotional and then our secondary nourishment is food and nutrition. So that's where it comes into. Okay, thank you so much for your questions, everyone. I really think that that supports each other in figuring out different ways that we can be open to finding what's optimal for our bodies and and certainly sugar is one of those things that's always going to be there. We're probably always going to crave it to some level and if we have the tools and support to find ways that we can figure out how it works for us and has us feel our best. So thank you so much everyone. Have a wonderful rest of your day and happy Valentine's Day tomorrow.

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