and depending on the types of sugar, say a processed wheat bread or skim milk, these things can have a dramatic impact on raising blood sugar and insulin and making you crave foods even more. it s really looking at sugar differently, not just glycemic index, but looking at the load of sugar, looking at insulin, looking at fructose and then contrasting those with fiber and nutrient density. and that means that something like berries are great or an apple. but apple juice is a problem, right? red wine vinegar is great, but balsamic vinegar, which is actually syrup, is a problem. some chunky tomatoes are fine, but a tomato sauce that generally has condensed sugar from the tomatoes and added sugar is a problem. so in terms of a shortcut, what it seems to me is you re saying a lot of processed foods are using hidden sugars to make you addicted to their products.
us? yes. ultimately all carbs, except fiber, turn into sugar. but there s two different fates. there s either they either turn into glucose or they turn into fructose. and when you really look at those, fructose is the worst of all. it goes straight to the liver and doesn t raise blood sugar, which sounds like a good thing, but by not raising blood sugar, it doesn t trigger any of the signals. you didn t know your ate. your body doesn t know that. it goes straight to the liver, starts making fat, and you re still hungry. how unfair is that? now, glucose has issues too. it raises blood sugar and can make you insulin resistant. so tell us a little bit about the seven hidden sugars so we can look out for these sugars. so you want to look at roots, fruits, and grains, dressings, drinks, low-fat and no-fat dairy
and sweeteners. make better swaps in each of those things. instead of sweet potato fries, have butternut squash fries. instead of the whole wheat bread, have a coconut wrap, which is an amazing food. instead of a sweetened drink or artificially sweetened drink, have a fruit essence water with no added sugar. there s simple swaps in each of these categories. those were seven categories where i saw the biggest issues happening. do you recommend any kind of sweeteners as good for you? there are some sweeteners out there that are healthy. they re good for you. monk fruit is one of them. steevia is one of them. these have been found to be safe for diabetics. the sugar alcohols are rispertol. cinnamon, vanilla, and chicory are some others.
i m so glad you brought up the a word. when you look at sugar, we found it s eight times more addictive than cocaine. they did a study on oreos and rats. they gave rats the choice of oreos or sugar. they both lit up the same reward center in the brain. when the rats were given the choice, they chose the oreos over the sugar. they got more pleasure from it. so processed foods, 80% of them, have added sugar. that s before you look at the natural sugars and carbs in the food. and that does make us addicted. it gets us wanting more and more. it s a problem. that s why you have to look at the impact and start what i call trading the higher sugar impact foods, say a marinara sauce, for something like chunky tomatoes or a white pasta for, say, quinoa. they help you break that addiction to take back control over sugar. you talk about different kinds of sugars. you talked about fructose and glucose. can you separate them out for