Part 2: Artifical Sweeteners

This is part 2 of our episodes on sugar.
In part 2, we are talking all about artificial sweeteners. We give some insight behind why these sweeteners became so popular, and dive into some pros and cons to the different ones.
We also go over some common side effects and go over some of the newer research that has been done on these zero calorie sweeteners.
At the end of the episode we answered the questions that our listeners submitted - Our goal is to give you all the information so that you can better make informed nutrition decisions. 

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Transcript

0:24

Hello, everyone. Welcome back to it. This week's episode of Mocktail Minutes. This is Bailey. And this is Brianna. This week I am drinking a poppy, my favorite cherry limeade flavor. I almost got poppies, but Costco is out of those flavors. They just have like the, the soda. Oh yeah. And I don't, I don't know if I like those. So I got Olipop. They have strawberry vanilla. Oh, that one's really good. I think it's my favorite. I also like the ginger one. and the gingerbread my husband won't drink. So I usually get that because I know they'll stay around. Yeah I actually just was reading yesterday that ollipops are not necessarily Recommended if you are pregnant because they have herbs in them and they're a proprietary blend. Oh Yeah, that's well, that's a good disclaimer. I think like anything proprietary like That when they don't have to disclose, you know, it's like a little iffy when you're pregnant. There's so many rules with pregnancy. Not to look at that. Don't drink any olive oil. Such a bummer. I mean, I've had one since I've been pregnant, so. That's very good. But I'm not doing any more. Yeah, you know. I know. Yes, today we are talking artificial sweeteners. So this is part two to our two part series. You guys really liked the last episode on added versus natural sugars. So I'm glad we did this, and I'm glad we broke it up into two, because I think it just. You know, allowed you to be able to listen to it better and kind of have actually taken the information than having us, like, give you every single thing at one time. Makes it digestible, Yes. We're talking artificial sweeteners today, so we're gonna go over just some what are artificial sweeteners, examples, and kind of some things to be mindful about. With artificial sweeteners, and then we both also had a few questions come up. So we'll answer some of them as we go through, and then we'll also kind of do a little. Q& A at the end. So for those of you that don't know artificial sweeteners are sugar substitute So they're designed to mimic the sweetness of natural sugar without having any calories. They're sweet. They're usually much sweeter than like normal table sugar So this allows for you to be able to use a lot less of them to get the same amount of sweetness I was actually talking to one of Josh's cousins the other day. She was using, she always asked me all the nutrition questions and she was using, what was it? Like Splenda or something. And so she was asking me about it. And I was like, well, it's just like a sugar substitute. And she's like, well, if I use sugar, it's not sweet enough. Like I have to add so much. It's like, well, actually your Splenda is so much more sweeter. And that sugar. Yeah. So that is kind of one thing that we'll get into a little bit. But really, I would say artificial sweeteners, they kind of started around to help essentially with weight management, but also diabetes. So there's lots of things that we can absolutely go into with these artificial sweeteners. But those are kind of the main things they were brought in to be used for. But like Brian said, they're usually much more sweet than these than like a table of sugar. So we need a lot less to sweeten it, but your examples could be like aspartame, saccharin, sucralose a sulfate potassium or ace K. And then you also have like stevia and monk fruit, which aren't technically artificial sweeteners. They're more of like. a natural substitute because they are from a plant. And then those natural sweeteners are ones that we talked about last episode. That's like your honey, your maple syrups, agave, because they're coming directly from a plant source where artificial sweeteners are going to be synthetically created or kind of extracted. It's not as like, natural is a good way to kind of think about it. Yeah, they're not made They're not made in a lab, right? I mean, technically, like, if you're extracting things from a plant, that happens in a lab. But you know, you kind of get the gist of it. Like, you can find it in nature. And extract it in its normal form. Yeah, for artificial sweeteners, they were kind of like, created, so that it was an option for those looking to decrease the sugars when, like, weight loss, or to help manage diabetes. So I think with this episode two, it's kind of one of those gray areas where it's not like use sugar or use artificial sweeteners. I think we can kind of fit them both in. I do get the question a lot of like, what artificial sweeteners do I use? And when I think about it, I honestly don't use a ton. I would say, I mean, I've had monk fruit in my pantry before. I never Really used it. I don't, which is not an artificial sweetener, right? That's the one I use. Stevia as well. Like Stevia, if I'm going to use it, I don't really use them much. The only times that I can be like, you know, I use them as when I get them in something that's like the convenience food. Like if I go to Starbucks, depending on what I'm doing with my meal or time of day, will I get the regular or will I get the sugar free, which I believe is sucralose. I think it is super low cent. But yeah, I would agree. Like, I don't usually buy artificial sweeteners. It's more in some products but even with that, I do try and limit it like protein powders. For example, one of the first things I look at is super lows and there are so many of them that have it. I use protein powder every day, so I want a high quality protein powder. I don't want one with super lows. That's why I use my. trusty drink wholesome all the time. But they, they, for example, sweeten theirs with monk fruit or maple sugar. And so I actually prefer their monk fruit one compared to the maple sugar one. Oh, that's good to know. I haven't, I haven't tried them yet and I really want to, I always recommend that brand to everybody. Just because I don't, I just haven't been using a lot of protein powder lately. Last summer, but I know as it gets hotter and as sports, like kids sports are coming up and I'm going to be working a lot earlier. I'm going to, I'm going to need it. So I'm going to try it. And I think that's like the big takeaway from this, right. Is like, because artificial sweeteners are generally considered safe when, when consumed in the acceptable amount and all of these different sweeteners have like, what is it? Allow daily intakes like they have now that's like, okay, this is now. Yeah, this is safe So if it's something that you're using every day Or maybe you're using it multiple times a day kind of like look at it and see like am I within that limit? I will say like there was a lot of You know everything going around when aspartame Started to be considered like a carcinogen or whatever people are like, oh my gosh We're dying like the studies that they used for those to be like art were the amounts were crazy high They were really high and they were in rats Which again we can't like we can't do ethical research on people and be like, oh take this really big dose And let's just see what happens like we can't do that. So we go off of rats So it's hard to tell if that would humans, but we do know tha also are people eating th what some people might be people who drink a lot of soda, fat free or sugar f And the other thing too, everyone is really different and everybody responds to them very differently. Like for example, sugar alcohols like urethritol, that bugs me so bad. Like I will know if I've had something that has it, I'm like, oh gosh, my stomach is hurting. And then there's other people that are like, oh yeah, it's totally fine. I should probably not consume it. And I think that's just another one of those reflection points where, yeah, everyone's going to be a little bit different. And with everything we talked about, it's also everything in moderation. Like we said, like we typically aren't buying artificial sweeteners, but yeah, maybe there are a few products that have it. And. Even like some of the things that do have sucralose in it, for example, that's usually not something I'm buying all the time. Like maybe it could be. I would say a good example, like if we're at the gas station and I did not prepare well and like the day is getting crazy and you're like, I need something quick and I'm grabbing like a protein bar. Yeah, might not be the best quality protein bar, but it's better than like a bag of chips or a lot of them right now around RX bar. So then I go for like something like that, but really just overall, I do try and limit them personally. And speaking of erythritol. That is one where a little bit does not bother me. Like there are some grain free granolas that I like and they have some erythritol in it. I can do those just fine, but I'm also not eating like a cup of it or even a half a cup. It's like. a little handful. A little sprinkle, yeah. Yes, but then there's a brand of protein bars, they're called No Cal. Not terrible, but they were an easy find. And those ones tear my stomach up, like very bloated. So it's probably the reason. Those are mostly in like the keto friendly snacks. Like keto products love to use sugar alcohols and I started noticing it. When I think it was Catalina Crunch, I was like getting it all the time because it was such a good brand and it was something I was eating every morning there for a while because it's like higher protein and it has some fiber and I was like, man, what is going on? And I feel like most people are so quick to be like, oh, it's the yogurt I'm eating or, oh, it's actually the protein and my protein powder or it's this and then, usually it's like not. You know, because I know that I'm fine with yogurt, especially Greek yogurt. I'm totally fine with it. Like, why is my stomach so messed up? Yeah. Yeah. I'm eating a keto friendly Catalina Crunch. So it's like, okay, well. that's a good point to bring up too, is just like, how do I know to kind of like look for these products? Where, I mean, yes, you can look at every single label, but also a good indicator is if you have a product that says low sugar, no sugar added, Keto, or something like a diet, something. Net carbs, net carbs is the big one. Those are kind of key labels that are on the front that'll give you a little bit more clue to let's check the back, especially like I was looking up the other day, some yogurts, like those dessert flavored yogurts that are labeled as low calorie. Well, if it's supposed to taste like a chocolate cheesecake, whatever, and there's like no added sugars, then that tells me, okay, there's something added. to it. So one of them, I looked up, it had sucralose, another one had monk fruit. So that would be one that I would choose the monk fruit over that. And I think we're going to get into like some of the things that are being studied right now and what they're associated with. I will say when it comes to your best bet, monk fruit right now seems like your best bet. For non nutritive artificial sweeteners, or I don't, it's not artificial, but you know what I mean, non nutritive, so no calorie containing sweeteners. I think that, gosh, I meant to look up, when these became, all the rage. I know it was in the 2000s, like, early 2000s at some point, and like you said, it was because we were having all these epidemics of, people with obesity and diabetes and just everything really unmanaged. I think where we're seeing a lot of the issues come from is we still haven't yet taught people lifestyle changes. We kind of are just like, replace this with this, you know what I mean? And here's the thing is like when I see people in the hospital and I'm getting diabetes education and I'm only going to have them there for, you know, I'm never going to see them again. Pretty much. One of the first things I asked them is what do you drink throughout the day? And nine times out of ten, it's a lot of soda, and it's a lot of like sweet tea. And so, for them, their number one question is, Can I just switch to diet or zero? And is that gonna do the best thing for them right now when they're in the hospital and they have like blood sugars in the 600s? Yeah, it is. Because now you're gonna have not two liters of regular Coke, but something that's not grazing your blood sugar all the time. But I think because like that's the only interaction a lot of dieticians have with people in a setting. They just use that as like, I can still have as much as whatever I want. It just needs to have these, these sweeteners in it instead. And I think, like, we're not getting down to the root problem, And that's what's hard about it, too, is as a dietitian, it's so hard to see someone just, like, one time. And that's what happens a lot in the hospital setting, where when we are working one on one with people, or even in metabolism, we go over, like, We're having like contact with you, like, let's say at least four times in metabolism makeover because it's a process. You can't get all this information out. I mean, a hospital you're in there for maybe 20 minutes and then other times, like an initial session is at least like an hour or so you can't get it all in an hour either. So it takes time. So we have to think about. Exactly. Say, like, what's going to be most helpful right now. And you mentioned Starbucks, how you'll switch between the full sugar syrup or a sugar free syrup. And I do the same thing. And when I do get the sugar free, it it is a lot sweeter. I'm like, oh, I can't even take like one pump. Usually, I'm like, yes. Alright, let's see. Yeah. And how you can navigate that, like, if you know, I always get the example, let's say you're running errands all day. Like you're going to Target, you're going to, I don't know, like you're shopping, you're going to the outlet mall, you're going to be walking around all day. Make your target Starbucks, you make your Starbucks stop at Target and you know, you're going to be up walking around for a little bit. Yeah, just do the full sugar. And since you're walking around, that's going to help decrease that blood sugar. Rise in it. I would still kind of limit it. Like I wouldn't do four pumps of it personally, because they could see like 20 grams of additives right there. if I'm doing a full sugar, I do one or two pumps. And that's usually good for me. And we talked about this a little bit in the last episode. But if you're someone who's like. That sounds absolutely terrible. It's basically black coffee and you're just like, yeah, no, I have a sweet tooth and I want my sweets. The more you do this, your taste buds adjust. I talked about my frappe intake. I am a sweet tooth girl. Like I get it. You just got to try it out. And it is again, one of those things where people think I'm absolutely insane. When like we can get. Not get rid of, but decrease the sugar cravings. I had someone tell me that this week. She's like, I honestly did not believe you at all, but I don't crave dessert every single night anymore. I'm like, I told you, I told you so. Yes. And like, this is where it comes in. Like the typical dietitian answer. Like it depends, you know, because I mean, people ask me like you're a dietitian, you eat regular sugar. Yes, I do. Like you're a dietitian and you use artificial sweeteners. Yes, I do. Like, it depends. Yeah. So like the artificial sugar could be like, if you're grabbing coffee on your way into the office. Yes. Now with that being said, like if you're someone who's grabbing coffee every single day, I mean, I think that's a time to be more mindful of what are we putting into it? My coffee, like actually I don't drink coffee every day. So maybe it's a bad example. But like if I, I talked about like if I do coffee at home, I do just the coffee. Almond milk and then like vital chocolate, vital proteins, or I just do a splash of cinnamon and that does it for me. So if you are a daily coffee drinker, we got to be a little bit more mindful instead of deciding between like the sugar free versus full sugar, everything. Yeah. And it's totally dependent on what you're going to go do after. What did you have for breakfast? You know, like those sorts of things. So there's not like a one. Size fits all blanket answer, and I think that's what people want, but if you're on the fence of being like Zero calorie sweetener, everything, and like sugar is horrible. I would challenge you to kind of take a step back. It is okay to eat like real sugar and I will say when I'm in a position, and again this is coming from a place where I don't have a ton of added sugar. I'm not eating a ton of added sugar anyways. So I know that someone who might be, this might be a different answer for them. But like for me, I would rather have the real sugar. Then the artificial sweetener, there's very few cases, like times where I do the art. It's usually like when you said, like when I'm grabbing it on my way into the office, and I don't want to be charting for the next four hours, not really moving. I probably don't need sugar. Okay, because that's just not going to help me. And then I'm going to crash. Right? So I feel like it's dependent. You can totally have real sugar. And I would just be mindful because it all goes back to that a habit that. Those habit changes that I was talking about. I think we've just gotten really comfortable with being like, Oh, there's like an easy way out. I don't need to change any of my habits. I can just have zero, you know, calorie sweetener. And it's like, that's the issue, right? And that's why I like working with people in like the one on one setting or metabolism makeover setting. It's because like we can progress. Because there's no way I'm going to tell the person in the hospital that I'm giving education to that's drinking two, three layers of regular soda a day. Just switch to water only. That's not going to help them. They're not going to do that. So I'm like, what can I do right now? If they never see me again, best course of action. Right. But if I'm working with you outside, it might be like, okay, let's Let's limit it. Let's lower it to, let's start off with that Diet Coke or Coke Zero, right? And then let's add in more water. And then like progressively we work towards the consumption of regular sugar and zero calorie sugar being much less and still enjoying life and making that actual habit change. Cause I think for a lot of people it's just overwhelming. And so many doctors have got, you know, it's the same thing with doctors. They don't see you often. So it's like, what's going to help your blood sugar right now? And like, what's going to help. You know your obesity. Oh less sugar, right? And you know, we hear from doctors all the time less calories less calories So it's like oh, what's like a way around that? Let's use Splenda Yeah, and like even Splenda for example, that's like your sucralose. That is 600 about 600 times sweeter than table sugar your sucrose so it just kind of goes to show you like how much sweeter and these things can actually be. And this, I mean, so many things can kind of come up when we start utilizing these artificial sweeteners, especially if we are overusing them. And that is like Your taste preferences and cravings can actually change where now you might have like an increased desire for more sweet foods because you're sweetening even with these artificial sweeteners, you're not necessarily getting those extra calories, but now you're just having all these cravings and you're having to fight your cravings all the time. It's more sweet. You're just used to much more sweet. Yeah. Yeah. And that is why like even some new research is suggesting that Adding in these artificial sweeteners may be actually associated with weight gain due to changes in those Cravings appetite regulation and then it can even affect your gut microbiome With these artificial sweeteners like sucralose is one that can like kill off your good bacteria I mean with all this there's more research needed, but it is I think more evolving research and I will say I don't know if you if you've kind of noticed this but a lot of people I have that come from Weight watchers specifically have a lot of bloating issues and a lot of times it's because you get zero points if you're using an artificial sweetener compared to like honey or even like the inflammatory oils like You get less points if you do fat free versus like an avocado or something like that. So that is something I do notice is a correlation there. Because people will find ways. I talk to clients all the time that are like, I would find loopholes in the system. I would find it. And that's the majority of the time what I was trying to do. I didn't even Like really realize what I was eating, how I should be eating. I was just like, let's find loopholes. And so suddenly it's like, Oh, I can eat as much as this as I want. And it's zero points. I'm starving and no one has really told me how to eat still. And so I'm going to eat all of this, you know? And I would do the same thing. Yeah, a hundred percent. Yeah. We've talked about it before. Like my weird obsession with the a hundred calorie Oreo fin. But I eat the whole box. I should have just had some Oreos, man. Like, it's Yeah, and I actually really do like those, but they, like, I mean, yeah, you, you just need the whole box. And Oreos are A little pack isn't gonna do it. First of all, I'm done. I've already started. It's delicious. It's very sweet. Let's keep it going. Yeah, 100 calories is not even enough for a snack anyways. But exactly. That's the topic for another day. Loopholes. Everybody's always trying to find loopholes. And so they're just eating normal food. But yeah, that's a big one. The, and that's hard too because we all have such unique microbiomes and the gut is connected to so many things. It's connected to, you know, how we are able to regulate our blood sugar. It's like linked to, you know, cognitive diseases later on in life. It's linked to a lot of things. And so maybe for some people. It is messing up a certain part of their microbiome or it's not because their gut bacteria is different and They're okay, but for some people it might not be and that was one of the questions I know we'll get to it at the end But that was one of the questions that I got was somebody told me if I just take a probiotic With my artificial sweeteners, it'll be okay because it like reverses The bad damage that it could do to the gut and like that's not how it works. Mm hmm So no, that's not true. And also, unless you're doing like a GI map and you're doing a lot of targeted, like gut testing, you don't really know exactly what strains you need to be supplementing with anyway. Exactly. And like there's other effects, like even if that was the solution to fixing the gut microbiome, there's all these other things that kind of come along with artificial sweeteners. I mean, there's people that get migraines and headaches just from consuming artificial sweeteners, especially aspartame is a big one with diet sodas. And I mean, you could get headaches from them. We mentioned with the sugar alcohols. I feel like There's less effects with sugar alcohols than like the artificial sweeteners. Yeah. The sugar alcohols are more, like, individualized. You can kind of tell when you're like, Wow, I am super bloated after all that Xylitol. But yeah, I mean, you can have these get stomach issues that like you either just feel uncomfortable and then you have like bloating, you have gas, you have diarrhea, anything like that too. So that's other things that we also want to kind of be mindful of too is okay on the days that we have diet soda or if you have a soda diet soda every day and you also have a headache every day, that's something we can kind of work with. I'm going to tell you the first thing that happens. When people are like, oh man, I'm having a lot of bloating. It must be because I had too much fiber. I need to cut out vegetables. It will always be the vegetables and the fiber, and it's never going to be, like, the protein powder that you're using. And I'm like, no, it's not the vegetables. That's not the answer, so. I would say a lot of avoiding, I get questions about, should I avoid gluten, should I avoid dairy? Where, for gluten and dairy, they get such a bad rap. They're just trying to live their life, and everyone's like, no. What I would do to eat some cottage cheese right now, let me tell you that. I know that's horrible. I love cottage cheese. But yeah, no, it's always like, oh, it's these whole foods or it's this. And like, it's never the health foods I'm eating because those are healthy and those help me lose weight. And like, it's like, well, it's probably the super ultra processed sweetened with non calorie sweeteners powder that you're having. Yes, or your diet soda, you know, so yeah some other things that, I mean, I'm telling you guys, I, I went down rabbit holes for these, the weight management and the insulin response and blood sugar response that some of these things can have, I'm not going to get super sciencey on you, but it is. there are like more areas, recent areas of study that show like, okay, maybe some of these artificial sweeteners don't impact your blood sugar, but they might be impacting your insulin response and your insulin sensitivity over time, which if you're someone who is dealing with diabetes or prediabetes may not be great. If you're having that two liter of Coke zero every day to make your blood sugar better when it's impacting your insulin, we need insulin. We need it to work well. And if you don't know a lot about insulin, just like a brief little. blurb for you. Insulin is what essentially shuffles your sugar into your cells once it's broken down into the bloodstream so that your body can use it for energy. So yes, you're not technically adding sugar to your bloodstream, but we are having insulin released for not a great reason. And I don't want to get too far into this because I don't want people to get like stressed out about it. Insulin is like a fat storing hormone. It's an anabolic hormone. So we don't want it in our system all day long. With that being said, that doesn't mean we don't want insulin because we do need insulin as well. So it's kind of like a balancing act, which is exactly what we teach you. But yeah, that's all I'm going to kind of say about it. Right now, and this is, we're seeing in research, it's very highly dependent on epigenetics too, right? Like so your own genetic makeup. Might react differently to a certain food or compound or chemical that like your brother or sister or your best friend or whoever, like we are also individually different. So for some people, this may be impacting, you know, insulin sensitivity. It may be impacting like how you store fat. Like we just don't know. We can say for the general, you know, this is what we generally see or this is what we see in mice who were created to be tested on and are very like have all these like genetic things that are. They're created to be like a perfect genetic specimen in a certain way or created to have a certain disease state So that we could test the disease states, right? So that's a controlled situation We don't know when you're out in the world Everything else going on like how this could be impacting you because that's another thing like a lot of things are tested just really narrowly and that's not everything is always working together So when you take an aerial view of what's going on Sure, it may be helping your blood glucose because you're not just flooding it with a ton of sugar, but we don't know what's happening in your pancreas, in your intestines, with your heart health, your brain health. So, everything works together all the time. There's all these different pathways that are being turned on, turned off, regulated, all these things. We just don't know. Yeah. Is there, I feel like that gives like a good overview of the artificial sweeteners. Let's go into the questions. So I want to make sure we get these answered since you guys specifically asked them. So, do you want to start off with the first one? Yes. Do they cause cancer? So we know that It depends. Depends. It's generally safe, right? But we do know that in certain amounts, chronic large amounts can cause certain cancers. In rats, we've seen it. Or be correlated with certain cancers. That's the same thing as like the sun, right? Like, we're not just gonna stay out of the sun. But It's one of those things where it's like, okay, too much of anything can be a bad thing. Yeah. I mean, you can kill yourself with water. You know what I mean? Like, you can do an orange for me, like eating too many carrots. Yeah. You know, like, I mean, you had made a lot of carrots. Yeah. Granted. But so can they cause cancer? They are considered a carcinogen, but that doesn't mean that because you have a diet coke every now and then, like, you're going to get cancer. Next question is what is the best artificial sweetener to choose from? You know, I wouldn't say there's like a best one. Well, I guess like artificial sweetener wise, like I said, sucralose is usually like my red flag one because it is in so many different products. So I just look at that, but as sucralose, I usually don't grab it. But if you are looking to sweeten something, but you don't want to use like honey or table sugar or maple syrup, something like that. I would go with either the monk fruit or the stevia. I agree. That would be, that's my general recommendation too. What's the next one? Let's see. Artificial sweeteners and Alzheimer's risk. So, there have been a couple of epidemiological, I'm gonna say that wrong, but I know what it is. Anyways, studies that basically what they look at is they like look at All these people who have developed a certain disease, so maybe Alzheimer's, and they do something like a food frequency questionnaire. So it's something where it's based off someone's bias, off of their recollection, there's a lot of room for error, but that's what we have when we're dealing with, you know, humans and those type of studies. There is an association between excessive intake of artificial sweeteners, or beverages specifically, and Alzheimer's. And even added sugars too. Yeah, I was just going to say, it's also added sugars because that's where we get into like the type 3 diabetes, right? Like Alzheimer's. Because of having poorly managed blood sugar and specifically like insulin resistance in the brain type thing. So for me, what that says as like a practitioner is there's lifestyle changes that were not happening throughout this person's lifetime. And I'm not saying like, oh gosh, it's because they did this. I'm just saying when I see excessive intake of sugar or even non nutritive sweeteners. And how it's associated with it. Like, there's so much more going on. So, again, I don't think it's one of those things where it's like, Dyke, he, my grandpa has Alzheimer's because he Um, Next question, will they make my gut issues worse? We can't really say yes or no here. I mean, it depends what's going on in your gut, but I would say most likely it's not going to probably benefit you. Yeah, I would, yeah, because, you know, I think this question came in because someone has like celiac disease, which means like they have areas where it's already like permeable, right? Like in your intestines, like food is large chunks of proteins and stuff are getting out. So I would say like with that information, if we know you already have some gut health issues, we're having like that leaky gut almost, we're having like an inflamed gut lining due to celiac. Like if you are consuming gluten or you recently became gluten free cause you just found out, then I personally would not do them because we do know That it's likely, we do know that they can cause gut health issues. Yeah. And disrupt the microbiome. So if we're gonna take care of that gut health. We want to build your gut back up and make it healthy. And so I would say abstaining from anything that can really, really bother the gut would be a good idea. Like including alcohol, including a lot of regular sugar, like including just, you know, but again, that's, I can't just be like, yeah. And with this being said to you, like we're, again, we're not saying you can never have anything sweet ever again. For example, like what this looks like on a real day. I, for breakfast, I had avocado toast with eggs. And then, oh, I had strawberries. Oh, and I had part of a protein shake because I only wanted two eggs this morning. I need more protein. So I had part of like the drink full of some protein. So I did have some monk fruit in that. For a snack, I had like one of the wild Zora soups. While we're doing this, I did the poppy, which has the five grams of added sugar. So, I mean, half, over halfway through the day, and I'm only Maybe I like 10 total and for lunch I have a burger. I have veggies and Blueberries, so there's no added sugars there. For dinner I don't even know what we're having for dinner. Oh, we're doing pork loin, some more veggies, and probably like potatoes or something. So definitely under probably 15 calories at most. Yeah, and like if you wanted to have like a little bit of dessert or something with the regular sugar, you'd still be under, like you'd be okay. Yeah, you know, and this is where I would say like, because I know you, I know you don't have like diabetes or anything, like, you could pair that regular sugar cookie, brownie, whatever you have in a way that's still gonna balance your blood sugar and not overpower. When I have been having some more like sweet cravings at night, like this week, I've been liking dates with a little bit of peanut butter on it and a few of the mini chocolate chips. So having that peanut butter is a great way to balance it out. Oh yeah, I love dates with peanut butter. Dates and cream cheese too, that's a good combination. That is a good idea. A little bit of jelly. I haven't tried that. I like food, you know? So we're not sitting here telling you guys like, Ooh, don't enjoy your life. Like most of us are dietitians because we're foodies too. That was like one of my favorite classes was like food science and you get to like bake all the things that, Ooh, it's doing this with the flour and like, you get to eat it. Yeah. You have to learn like why your muffin it's tunneling. Those are some of the classes we take and then we also take the biochemistry. How do you make it flaky? How do you, do you use room temperature fat or do you cut in your butter? You know, you cut in your butter. But yeah, like those are, like, am I a chef here? Also on the RD exam it's very obnoxious. If your cake didn't rise. This is going to be so helpful. So humble. But anyways. Okay, let's get into our last questions. Should I eat artificial sweeteners? It depends. Honestly, like, hopefully we've helped you guys. Have more information and you're able to see when would it maybe be appropriate like what one should I choose and you know, make that choice for yourself, but it's a personal choice and we kind of explained How and if we use them in our life too. So, if you have more questions about that, feel free to DM us. Yes. Next question, does monk fruit taste funny? I'm trying to think like what I've used it for. I would say, I know stevia tastes funny with cold things. That's also another food science thing. Some of these things do well with cold. Some of them do better with hot. Some of them have a bitter taste if you use them in certain situations. And also I think it's like super dependent on your taste buds. Yeah. Like, cause I guess. Like I said, I did have monk fruit in my pantry. I can't even remember what I did use it for. But I mean, it happened in my protein powder. And I like the protein powder. But some people are like, I cannot stand monk fruit. So, I've gotten like the monk fruit drops from Trader Joe's. I've added'em to like Greek, plain Greek yogurt that does kind of taste bitter. Like one of my kids loves it with this Devi drops and my other one's like, ah, this is horrible. I'll just take it regular. So I think, yeah. It just depends, really. Totally up to you. What are good alternates? Or alternatives? We kind of answered this one. I was going to say it depends again, but. Depends on what you're looking for. But if you're, again, if you're thinking about like You're wanting to decrease added sugars. We talked about this in the last episode, but when decreasing added sugars Don't just think about it of what can I replace it with necessarily slowly come back and you'll notice those tastes but change But if you also want to sweeten something, but you don't want to add a bunch of added sugars Go for the monk fruit go for stevia if you're looking at to sweeten it and We're going for the real thing. My personal favorite is honey or maple syrup. Yeah. I'm a big honey fan, but yeah, let's actually make some lifestyle changes. Like, why are we wanting to decrease the sugar? You know why? Like, so I think, you know, with diet culture, we've kind of just been taught, like, let's find the loopholes. Like I'm not eating sugar, you know? So really just figure out like, okay, why do I want to decrease it? And then what does that look like? Do I just want to make a swap for still consuming just as much as I was, but the artificial sweetener or, you know, cause I will say if you give it a chance, you will find that you really don't need that much sweetness. And I'm not trying to sit here and be like one of those dietitians. It's like just eat fruit if you want something sweet. But I will say like for me, I have worked towards that and I feel totally fine. Like if I want something like a dessert. I eat it and it's to the point where like I probably don't need all of it because it is so sweet and like Fruit really does do it for me. I haven't always been that way, but you know, that's a good point for like smoothies Where I don't add Any type of sweetener to my smoothies because I just utilize the sweetness from the fruit. I mean, I guess technically the protein powder, it does have it, but like I don't personally add honey or anything to it because it's plenty sweet for me. All I know is like if my husband can start to tolerate things less sweet, I know anyone can. He has the biggest sweet tooth of anyone I've ever met in my life. Like it's amazing. How much sugar he could eat. Like, I'm like, Whoa, like, how are you not like a kid at a carnival? How are you not vomiting right now? You know? And he's like, really been like, all right, I'm going to get a grip on this because you know, I'm getting older and I'm like, whatever. And like, even now, sometimes they'll be like, Oh wow, this is like super sweet. And I'm like, did hell freeze over? Did it freeze over? Have you been abducted by aliens? Who are you? So there's hope. Yes. Yes. Yeah, we hope we got all your artificial sweetener questions answered. We'll probably put up another question box to follow up this episode, just to make sure we covered everything. There's not any other additional questions that pop up. But yeah, I hope you guys enjoyed this little two part series. And like we said, any other questions come up, we'll put a question box. We will talk to you guys next week with a new episode. Yeah. I think we're, I think we're talking about starchy carbs. Yes. That'll be a good one. So stay tuned. But also we should probably put up a question box for that too. Oh yeah. All the time. Every day. Yes. All right, everyone. We'll have a great rest of your week and we'll talk to you next week. Bye.