Part 1: Added vs Natural Sugars

This is part 1 of our episodes on sugar.
In part 1, we are talking all about the sugars that are added to foods and how they differ from sugars that are naturally found in foods.
We break down how to find this information on food labels, recommended daily amounts, and uncommon ways that you may be  consuming sugar each day that you typically don't think about.
We also talk about "superior" sugars like agave, coconut sugar, and honey, and their differences and similarities to regular white table sugar.

If you have questions, or topics that you want to hear about, head over to our Instagrams https://www.instagram.com/nucrewnutrition/ or https://www.instagram.com/themomminnutritionist/ and send us a DM!

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Featured Mocktails:
Rayvi - https://rayvishop.com/?rfsn=6718894.02e06d
Jigsaw Pickle Ball -  https://www.instagram.com/jigsaw_health/  Code: Brianna10

Click play, sip back, and be empowered.

Transcript

0:23

All right, hello everyone. Welcome back to this week's episode of Mocktail Minutes. This is Bailey. And this is Brianna. This week I am drinking, it's actually vanilla almond milk, and I used the golden ginger ravi. And it tastes pretty good. It's like a creamy one, so I like it. That sounds good. I wanted something warm, but I'm just doing my pickleball again. I had a ton of lollipops. But they all get drank. I got them from Costco, and they were all drank in like three days. I told my husband, I was like, you're gonna get a stomachache. Oh yeah. A lot of fiber. He's like, they're so good. Okay, whatever. So, pickleball it is. They're really good, and I've been drinking those more lately, and it's a great way to get in some little extra fiber and switch it up when you're tired of water and you just want a little something different. I always bring one, like, if I know I have to eat, like, If I grab something quick to eat and I know it might not be like a good fiber option, I just like bring one. Yeah, that's a good idea. At least there's some fiber. And yeah, it tastes good. They're delicious, but we'll probably get more. Yeah. And no one drinks them all. Yeah. All right. So today we are diving into Added versus natural sugars. And I guess this is kind of like a part one, because part two will be next week, and we'll talk about the artificial sweeteners. So we can make it a two part series. Yeah, I definitely think like breaking it down this way is better, and then we can keep it, we can keep it shorter. Because if we try 40 plus minutes. We're not, we're not going to do that to you guys. Yeah, so we're just going to focus on added versus natural sugars, and then we'll have part two coming out next week. And we'll actually probably put a question box up for you guys as well so that you guys can ask us questions kind of following up this episode, but then also things you want us to talk about when it comes to artificial sweeteners as well. Yeah, like what we recommend what you should kind of avoid or what you should try to limit those sort of things. All So basically starting, like let's just define what these are. I think at first, so added sugars, which you can find this on your nutrition label. There is a section underneath your total carbs, your dietary fiber, and then you have added sugars and it'll tell you exactly how much added sugar is in your product. So the added sugars. is exactly what it sounds like. It is added to the product as it's being like processed or prepared. I feel like the common ones are like your baked goods, your candies, like soda, some juices, kind of things like that where they're adding sugar in to taste good. But also thinking about like, if you're making coffee and you're adding sugar to your coffee, that is considered added sugar. Basically sugar that's not naturally bound. In that product from like nature, like fruit, for example, fruit is natural. Unless you're eating it like it's canned. That's, you know, canned and, you know, extra syrup, whatever that's natural. And then same with lactose, I guess we should like throw that in there. Lactose is considered a natural sugar, lactose from dairy. Yeah, so yeah, your natural sugars is going to be milk, which is lactose, is the, lactose is a form of sugar in dairy, and then fructose, which is the sugar in fruit, those are your naturally occurring sugars. So kind of, I guess going back to added sugars a little bit, like I said, typically we kind of think about, I feel like, the desserts, the candies, the sodas, but I think it's also important to point out, like, granola is one. dried fruits, spaghetti sauce, yogurt, creamers, condiments, like barbecue sauce peanut butter, like all these other random things could have added sugars in them as well. So that's why I think it's important just to be aware of it and maybe start taking a peek at those nutrition labels. Yeah, and I think this is like where people started like trying to make people aware of sugar, right? Like we hear all the time like no sugar, no sugar, no sugar. I think it's just because we started having so much added sugar in so many foods that we normally eat. Like, I don't know if you've ever looked at like ketchup, for example. There's actually like a good amount of sugar in ketchup, and that's obviously because tomatoes are acidic. And you got to make it kind of sweet, but I think this is where like the scare of like, we're consuming so much sugar came in because we are eating a lot of processed foods or ready made foods or just convenient foods. And, you know, we're coming out of this phase now, I think of like this low fat craze, but, you know, we started eating everything low fat. And because of that, we had so much sugar added to foods. That and just, you know, sugar is a preservative. So the more sugar that you have in something, the longer it shelf stable. So there's reasons for this. So yeah, look at your labels, see how much sugar it has, you know, like if you're using a certain sauce or something every single day, like don't. I mean, you don't got to be like Bobby about it. I'm like, go on in the store and be reading all your labels and be like, no, no, no. But like for stuff that you eat every day, it's nice to be mindful of like, Hey, how much sugar am I drinking in my coffee? Am I having with my lunch? Am I pouring on the side? Because you can manage how much sugar you have and greatly reduce it from just switching up some products. It's just creating that awareness again. Like we always talk about, but like I said, I feel like a lot of things, we just don't think about them having sugar, like spaghetti sauce. Like we don't think of it as a sweet food or like the ketchup. You mentioned those types of things where they can add up pretty easily. And so thinking about, okay, like what is actually in my food? What am I consuming? And if you are someone who has a big sweet tooth and you're Maybe you feel like you need a dessert after like every meal. I've been there. I used to have a huge sweet tooth, like the Starbucks frappes, they were nothing for me, and they have so much added sugar in them. It's basically a milkshake. There is nothing. It's, it's a milkshake, like let's be honest. Right. But I was a major sweet person. When I started adjusting my meals to be more blood sugar balancing, I naturally started to decrease those sweet cravings because I was more blood sugar balanced. So, once that happens, like, your taste buds start to adjust as well. And I would say they adjust pretty quickly, too. It's not like you have to wait for months and you're like, Oh my gosh, I don't crave cake every night. Like, I feel like it's Within a week, like it's pretty immediate once you start adjusting how you're eating, how your taste buds are going to change. Kind of the same way thinking on the opposite side, where if you are starting your morning with a coffee and creamer, maybe some added sugars in that creamer, maybe a banana. And then maybe for lunch, you have some added sugars in your yogurt. Maybe you're having a glass of juice at breakfast. You know, like, wherever it's kind of sneaking in there, it can really start to add up. And the more you add in these sugars, the more your body is going to crave sugar. Because it's that quick form of energy. So that's always something I like to tell people too. Like, once you kind of adjust what you're doing, you might find that you just It's not that you're just a sweet cravings person. It's just your blood sugar was a little, a little off balance. A little off. Well, not only that too, but we do have like sweet receptors on our tongue. And it's, the more that we have really sweet things, the more we kind of like need it. for something to taste sweet. So this was totally me too. Like I used to be like, Ooh, venti white chocolate mocha with like seven pumps, white chocolate mocha. Like I love it. So sweet. Like now, if I were to order that, I'd probably vomit because it's so sweet, but when I was drinking it every day, it was like, Oh, well, this is delicious. Like. I was just so used to it. And the thought of like reducing my sugar was like, no, no way. That's disgusting. And so I gradually did it over time. And now it's like, I liked like my one pump that I get personally. I like that there might be people listening. That's like, Oh God, you're torturing yourself. But realistically, like, I don't like super, super sweet things, but that's because I kind of monitor how much sugar I have. And so that's not to say like, you know, the recommended amount is like 25 grams. Meaning eat less than 25 grams of added sugar a day. And so when you start to like, I mean, for most people, they're getting like 10 grams in their coffee alone. Right. And then you're adding all these other things that they're eating. And so no wonder why you're just like, I have a sweet tooth. Like it's because you're just so used to eating. Super sweet things all the time. And we're going to get into that with artificial sweeteners, but not today. So, you know, just try it out. Like it's the same thing for people who like start to drastically take out salt out of their diet too. You know, it's just, it's a taste bud thing. it's just an adjustment period. And if you're like, yeah, no, not for me. I mean, you can make your own decisions as always, but if you have goals that you're working on, if you want to have better energy, if you want to have stabilized moods, if you're working on fat loss, if you're working on sleep, you know, all these different pieces. Your sugar is going to affect all these things and even we'll talk about this more in the next episode But if you're using artificial sweeteners, even though you're not taking in sugar, you are still enticing those sugar cravings and artificial sweeteners are sweeter than just sugar, too. So then it's like, again, you need more and more and more. And we're not saying like, oh no, be scared of sugar and don't do any sugar now. Because sugar is not harmful in small amounts. But our bodies also don't need added sugars to function properly. I mean, over the years, like we're saying, we have just steadily consumed more and more and more. Like we just have, I would say like a lot of the snack foods that are readily available, like Little Debbie Cakes, the Ho Ho, Swiss Rolls, like you name it, they are so easily accessible now. Years and years ago, they didn't necessarily have that. It was just a different time, like, how we view meal times, like, I mean, yeah, like even 50 years ago, like, nobody was going through drive thrus every single day for meals. Like, it's just, it was a different time. It was like, we were cooking more of our foods at home. So, just so everybody knows, added sugar does include brown sugar. Agave, honey, maple syrup, coconut sugar, what else am I missing? High fructose corn syrup. High fructose corn syrup. All those. And just fructose. Yes. Just corn syrup. There's not a major difference, by the way, between high fructose and fructose corn syrup, just so everybody knows. Yes. Well, anyways. Ha ha ha. Yeah. And I would say th that because there's a lo like choose a honey or a a real sugar. So at the e honey, maple syrup, whate to sweeten, whatever it i to sweeten with it. That into sugar in your bloodstream. It's going to affect your blood sugar levels. That is what happens at the end of the day. The difference is, like I'm thinking about, maple syrup, honey and agave, they have a lower glycemic index. So what this means is basically your glycemic index is a rating system for foods containing carbohydrates and it will tell you like how quickly each food is going to affect your blood sugar when that food is eaten just like by itself. I think that's an important part, too, is that like eaten by itself, too. So like your high glycemic index foods are going to be broken down quickly by your body. They're going to be causing a rapid increase in blood glucose. They're going to have a high glycemic index rating. So this is like your sugary, like your candies, your soft drinks, white bread. Those would all affect your blood sugar quicker. And make your, make you need more insulin as well. and I think this has become a craze too, like, Ooh, low glycemic food, and like, if it's high glycemic, it's bad. If it's low glycemic, it's good. And it's like, okay, first of all, because carrots, for example, are a high glycemic food. No one is eating a plate of 50 grams of carrots by themselves, just so we know. However, whatever. So that's it. But when it comes to, you know, people being like, Oh, I want agave or, or, you know, maple syrup or honey, they have a low glycemic level. This is just because they have more fructose. They still have glucose, but they have more fructose and fructose is digested and metabolized differently. It goes directly through your liver. It doesn't go through your blood with that being said too much fructose. still leads to high triglyceride storage. Like it can lead to insulin resistance. So. Everything in moderation. And I think this is like where fruit comes into play is people get really scared of fruit because they're like, Oh, well, fruit contains fructose. So, which is interesting to me that people are like, eat agave and maple syrup and, you know, honey, cause they're low glycemic cause they have fructose. But like fruit is bad. Fruit has fructose. Yeah. That's, that's where it doesn't make sense. I'm like, but this is not having a good understanding of nutrient metabolism, which, of course, not everybody does. Most people don't. This is why we're dieticians. But I will say the difference between, again, they're not the same, right? Agave sure has higher fructose and so does fruit, but fruit also has vitamins and minerals and fiber. Which is so beneficial. Micronutrients as phytochemicals has all these things that just pure agave itself doesn't. Yeah. And like Brianna said, like, don't feel like you have to, you can only eat low glycemic index foods either. Like they're definitely great to include because it's going to be your whole grains, your fruits and vegetables, your beans and lentils. So they are definitely great to include, but this doesn't mean high glycemic foods are just. automatically unhealthier. We should just not eat them because, I mean, you mentioned carrots. Potatoes are another one that are higher on the glycemic index or like white rice. Fun fact about like potatoes and white rice, you can actually make them more of a resistant starch by cooking them, cooling them, and like using them the next day and reheating them. Makes them more resistant, aka they don't affect your blood sugar as much. And your gut loves them. Yes, that's a great system you want to mail from. I love it. I usually had to do this project in grad school. It was like one of my classes. It was like my whole semester, like, focus. But we looked at the difference between, like, high glycemic foods and then taking into account the glycemic load, which is basically like, what are those foods like when you have them in a normal amount, like a normal portion? And what that does. And we found that a lot of high glycemic foods in a normal portion was actually more beneficial for blood sugar because they are full of fiber and all those sort of things. So again, this is just like labeling and it's like a big thing right now. People see low glycemic and they're like, yes, but just so you know, that doesn't automatically mean it's the better choice. Yeah, it can be helpful, but it can also be misleading to decipher all your decisions versus, not versus, based on the glycemic index. So helpful, but not like end all be all because there's some great foods that still include. On the high high end of the glycemic index other things with this We're kind of jumping around between added and natural sugars but With added sugars too. So brown I had mentioned like less than 25 grams per day of added sugars So what can be helpful? I think with that is thinking about like When looking at your labels, doing less than 5 grams per, like, food choice. Yeah. I think it can be helpful and kind of put it in perspective, so that way you're not like, I'm trying to add it up all day long. Because if you're doing, like, less than 5 grams, if you're, I mean, eating 5 of those foods in that day, then you're on that 25 gram range. With that being said, you don't have to eat 25 grams. Like I said, your body can function without added sugars. It's like an upper limit, like do not exceed, not exceed. So yeah, that can be helpful. And then also another good visual. So four grams of sugar equals one teaspoon. So I think that's a great visual. So that way, if a label says like contains 12 grams of sugar, like, okay, cool. Like 12, I don't really know if that's high or low. So you have that five gram. range to kind of indicate for you. It's on the higher end or low end. So you have that now. Plus if you know four grams equals one teaspoon and this product has 12 grams, divide that by four. Now you have three teaspoons. That's a little bit easier, I think, to visualize, like, having three teaspoons, or a tablespoon, I guess. Yeah. I'm sure. In my mind, I'm all, ooh, conversions. Yes. So that's a little bit easier of a visual, because at first you're like, okay, 12 grams, yeah, that doesn't seem crazy. But if I were to tell you to eat a tablespoon of sugar, then at the same time, you'd probably be like, no, you're absolutely crazy. Right? Well, it just gives you a different visual there too. And I say like, look at what you're eating it in, right? If you're eating like this, like a yogurt cup. Why do I need three tablespoons of yogurt in this yogurt cup of added? Because again, we're already getting sugar from the lactose, right? But neither here nor there. Just think about like, what am I eating? Like, do I, you know, can you imagine your coffee cup with, you know, a whole tablespoon or sometimes two tablespoons of sugar? Does that make sense? So this kind of helps. I do get this question a lot. You know, I don't typically eat a lot of added sugar. I'm usually pretty minimal, but sometimes I like to enjoy like dessert at a, at a, at a restaurant. And I know it's probably like more than the 25 grams of sugar, right? Well, if you're not eating, if you're eating well under the 25 grams every single day, and like occasionally you go out and you're having like dessert, that's fine. Like we're not saying like. We're saying stay under the 25. That's just recommended. Like that's our health recommendations. But you know, if there's a time where you're like, why, you know, all week I had like minimal sugar and then I had something that was high in sugar. Like the world's not going to end because you had more of 25 grams in like one day. Right. Like we're just here to tell you like. If you cut down in other areas, it's just gonna be beneficial, right? Because who's skipping out on dessert all the time? Not me. Odds are, you're gonna be having it. So it's like, how can we be goal supportive, health supportive, and still mindful? Yeah, balancing it all out, because again, it's all about like, what are we doing most of the time? Looking at it in big picture type thinking, because if we are doing too much added sugars, Day after day. This is what leads to Waking. This is what leads to blood sugar imbalances, mood changes, poor mental focus, increased inflammation, increased risk of chronic disease, Non alcoholic fatty liver disease. So many things are connected to too much added sugar and blood sugar imbalances. Yeah, and even like insulin resistance, insulin sensitivity, because the more You have these blood sugar spikes and this is why it's this is crazy to me I have like a beef to pick with certain dietitians on the internet right now people being like if you don't have diabetes You don't need to worry about your blood sugar spikes and stuff like that. Okay That's like saying because you don't have heart disease. You shouldn't care about your heart health like pen men. Yes, we do We care about it. Okay, you should because we know that prolonged like increases up, like when you're constantly needing a ton of insulin over and over and over again, that's what leads to diabetes. So like, we should care about it. Now, I'm not saying don't panic because you have like a random blood spike after a certain meal. Like, okay, you're gonna get diabetes from that, but we should care. Because the more that your body needs insulin, the more resistant you get to it. You're just not as sensitive to it, so then you need to produce more. And then sooner or later, you burn out your pancreas, it can't do it anymore, and then you have diabetes and you have an issue. So, I'm always on the like, I'm always like, let's, what can we do right now to be proactive about our health, right? Because I feel like in America, we're like, don't worry about anything until you really have to worry about it. And that's like silly to me. Yeah, and I think that's another hard part on the internet and social media right now is that there's a lot of accounts that I've seen that are like one side or the other. Like it's either do not do added sugar or who cares type of approach. Right. Where I feel like we tend to be a lot in the gray area. Which can be frustrating and it might not entice our followers and be super flashy. But that's the reality of it, is finding that gray area. We're all different. We all have different priorities. We all have different needs. So the gray area can actually be a pretty cool area to embrace as well. Yeah. Well, because realistically, like, nothing is black and white. Everything is gray. We're all biologically different. We all have so many things impacting our health and Why we make food choices, you know, we're all so different that you can't just put these extreme blanket statements on it. And then nobody feels good when you do that, right? Let's find an in between area. And honestly, to me, I mean, I'm probably going to get some pushback for this, but I feel like that's just poor practice. It's like when you don't know how to adjust how you are educating somebody based off their individual needs. You know, if you can only do it one way, you're probably not very good at what you do. Nobody, nobody that I'm talking about is going to listen to us. They're not. Yeah. I don't want to rant today. You guys, I'm at that part in my cycle where I'm like, ooh, choo, choo, choo. This is how I feel in a day, but okay. With it. So that, with that being said, we don't want you guys listening to this and be like, dear God, I need to not have any sugar. And we also don't want you listening and being like, okay, I could have all the sugar I want. It doesn't matter. Like we're trying to just give you this information so that you can make. Your own decisions on your health and wellness goals and nutrition goals and weight loss goals and whatever it is. Yeah, and we gave you some numbers to kind of help you out there. So, utilize those numbers, like thinking about the less than 25 grams, less than 5 grams on your labels and that'll be super helpful. But also just giving yourself a little reflection time too, I think can be helpful because I promise you know your body pretty well. And if you think about things and just have a real conversation with yourself, maybe like write out your day of ease and say like, okay, maybe this is an area. Do I need to check out my yogurt? What's all in it? You know, like different things like that and just see do a little check in. Yeah. And hopefully we, hopefully we touched, like really drove it home that like added sugars and natural sugars. They're different. I don't want anyone coming away from this and being like, Oh my God, fruit and milk. Fruit and milk are great. Yeah, we're not adding those. Those aren't where we're at. Unless, like, you look at your yogurt and you see added sugar. Okay, that's different. They're not counting the lactose. That's already in there. So, again, and always whole food focused. You're always going to benefit from whole food sources, hands down, because there's vitamins and minerals in them. Yep. I've seen accounts before, compare a blueberry to gummy worms or some other type of candy, and I'm like, no. Not the same. Yes, they both break down into sugar, but blueberries also have, like you said, the fiber. You got folate, you got antioxidants, you know, you got all these other things coming along with it. It's not just a blood sugar spike. Right. Right. Yes. I don't, I think I should just stop. Because I feel like I could go on a tangent right now. And we're at 25 minutes and we're doing good. So I won't. No, yeah. So yes, that is our spiel on added and natural sugars. I hope we covered the basis pretty well and gave you guys a good understanding of kind of like what to look at. And like I said, part two for artificial sweeteners. We'll be coming next week. So stay tuned, be watching for our stories. Don't put up a question box to kind of follow up with this episode and then assess any questions that you have for our next episode too. Yeah. Cause I know we're going to have some questions, so I'm excited to answer those. Absolutely. Well, have a great week, everyone. And we will talk to you next week. Bye.