Food for Thought, Thoughts If It Were You, by
Neogentrics. We're going to try something totally
new here. I'm actually going to do three different
podcasts today. I'm going to go ahead and record
them all now. And I am going to release them
one after the other, a little bit at a time today.
Okay? Now, while it sounds like my voice is a
little out of it, keep in mind... Um, there's
a lot of stuff going on, especially in Houston
with the weather, weird weather phenomenons.
And now that new, um, African dust coming over.
And, um, while I don't have allergy issues, it
does cause issues with your breathing and such.
Okay. So keep that in mind, uh, and pray for
me and my family. Okay. And I will be continuing
to pray for everyone else who's affected by this
as well. Okay. So before we begin, um, one of
the things I'm going to go ahead and talk about
today is sugar and diet. That's what this podcast
is going to be. We're going to follow that up
with a podcast on fats so you can know which
ones are good, which ones are bad, whether or
not you should be eating them or not. And then
I'm going to cover what the difference is between
cooking with fats and oils. After that, we only
have three more topics left to cover and we'll
be done with the nutrition section for a while.
Now, we're going to go ahead and pick it up where
I left off with sugar and diets. Now, the last
time we had covered sugars and the different
kinds of sugars they were, complex and simple,
okay? And we already know that sugars are carbohydrates
that have a short chain. They're generally cylindrical
in shape and they have a sweet taste, okay? They're
usually found in almost everything we eat in
one form or another to different varying levels,
alright? consist of single sugar units, the monosaccharide,
glucose, fructose, or galitose, or even double
sugar units known as disaccharides, like sucrose
and lactose, okay? And the reason I brought this
up is for this increase of, how do I put it?
The amount of sugar that we have in our diets
is rising, and dietary fats, were linked to heart
disease, obesity, and high blood pressure a couple
years back. So food manufacturers had to respond
by replacing the fat with sugars in many products.
In addition, evolution of man moving forward,
and I'm not saying evolution is real, to light
sugar, both to ensure that we have enough energy
in our diet and because fructose, a component
of sugar, helps us to store fat. It was an important
advantage when the food was scarce. So it's a
good thing to have. So we're going to take a
short break and then we'll talk about how your
metabolism is affected by sugar. Next is your
metabolism and how it's affected by sugar. So
let's ask this question here. What happens when
you consume sugar? I want you to think about
that one for a minute. The metabolic pathways
depend on what sugars have been ingested in your
body. In general, the disaccharides initially
divide into two consistent monosaccharide units
prior to being absorbed by your body. However,
glucose is your primary energy source for most
living organisms as it can be broken down to
release energy more easily than either fats or
any other amino acids. makes it is how do i put
this more difficult for the body to store glucose
because it is more water soluble okay uh glucose
is therefore converted to less soluble polysaccharides
called glycogen for storage in your muscles and
your liver okay glucose is absorbed directly
through the intestinal wall into the bloodstream
and that triggers a release of the hormone insulin
from your pancreas all right and With that being
said, the insulin promotes the absorption of
glucose into the cells by reducing the blood
glucose levels back to normal. If, for whatever
reason, the energy is required by the cells immediately,
glycolysis begins and the glucose is metabolized
to release energy in the form of adenosine triphosphate
to help your body. side effects of adrenaline.
However, in the absence of the energy demand,
the glucose does get metabolized into glycogen
and then stored for later use. So when blood
glucose levels drop too low, it converts it back
to glucose either aerobically, which produces
more energy per unit of glycogen and is important
for endurance activities such as running, anaerobics,
such but anaerobically it produces less energy
per unit but it is a faster process for activities
in different categories especially when you're
sprinting if you're a sprinting type of person
okay So with that being said, fructose also has
a different metabolic pathway to glucose as it
cannot be used directly by energy by your cells.
Instead, it's absorbed through the intestinal
wall and transported to the liver where it's
metabolized through one of two pathways, either
through blue glucose or, again, the glycogen
levels. when they're depleted. Fructose is metabolized
first though into glucose and then it's glycogen.
But if the glycogen stores are full, it is metabolized
into triglycerides or fatty acids which are then
stored in your adipose tissue. Basically your
rear if you will. And high fructose consumption
either from excess fruit or fruit juice ingestion
or more importantly from the sugars or high fructose
corn syrup which is used to sweeten foods and
drinks. It is therefore becoming a major concern
when you're trying to fight obesity, and we understand
that. Galactose is not generally found free in
nature in large quantities, but forms part of
lactose. It's less sweet than glucose, but can
be metabolizing to glucose when necessary. So,
I mean, you have to consider this fact when you're
trying to lose weight. What are the reasons why
I'm obese? What's causing it? And how can I lose
that weight? Alright? We'll take a short break.
So, we're back. And I want to go ahead and cover
sugar and health. Okay? Sugar has been associated
with a number of health issues, including dental
problems, even obesity and hunger. When it comes
down to dental problems, extrinsic, or added
sugar, is known to contribute to the development
of dental caries, tooth decay, particularly in
children, adolescents, and even the elderly.
And in societies where sugar consumption is less
than 60 grams per person per day, Those are rare.
And it led the UK to set a proposed guideline
that the average intake of extrinsic sugar should
not exceed 60 grams or 10 % of your dietary energy
per day. And with that being said, this brings
up obesity. Sugar contributes to weight gain
in a lot of different ways. And like I said before,
it provides calories of energy per gram. Four
of them to be exact. And with no additional nutrients.
So in addition, the very reason that we evolved
to light sugar is that it encourages fat storages.
Which is great if you live in a cold area, but
not normally. You know, not only does excess
sugar get stored as fat, anything else we eat
at the same time tends to get stored there too.
So try not to eat a huge amount of sugar in a
short time frame and then expect to eat regular
food. Wouldn't be so bad if we didn't have that
much sugar in our diets, but almost everything
we eat has sugar added to it to make it taste
good. And with that being said, I want to bring
up hunger. Like I said before, ingesting sugar
has little effect on how hungry we actually feel.
Absorption of glucose causes the release of insulin,
which then forces the glucose in your cells.
rapidly reduces your blood sugar levels and leaves
you feeling hungry again and in addition fructose
inhibits the release of hormone leptin which
tells the brain that you're full so in the absence
of the leptin signal you never actually feel
full so we are not prompted to just basically
stop eating and it's not good okay The worst
thing that can happen is insulin resistance.
Ingestion of glucose or the glucose portion of
sucrose causes the pancreas to release insulin
into the bloodstream, which facilitates the absorption
of glucose into cells. If there is a continued
high glucose intake, cells become resistant to
the effect of insulin and need more and more
to trigger the glucose absorption. Therefore,
the pancreas releases more insulin in order to
maintain your glucose regulation. In an insulin
-resistant person, high blood insulin levels
combined with a fairly normal blood glucose level
is not healthy. Insulin has an additional role
in fat metabolism, promoting the synthesis of
fatty acids in the liver and when the glycogen
stores are full and inhabiting the breakdown
of fat. In adipose tissue, when energy is required,
it does cause high insulin levels. So with that,
it's understood that high insulin levels can
contribute to obesity. Alright? Sorry, I'm having
a hard time breathing. Let's go ahead and cover
something important for a second here. Metabolic
syndrome. It is related to sugar, so I might
as well cover it. It is under the umbrella term
that it covers a cluster of conditions, including
obesity, large waist size, high blood levels.
low HDL, cholesterol levels, insulin resistance,
and high blood pressure. And in order to be classified
as having metabolic syndrome, at least three
of the risk factors have to be present. And the
risk of it increases, metabolic syndrome increases
the risk of developing type 2 diabetes or heart
disease. So, I mean, with that being said, I
feel like I should at least cover diabetes a
little bit. Type 2 diabetes generally follows
a period of insulin resistance. As the cells
become more and more resistant to the effect
of insulin, there comes a point at which the
pancreas is unable to produce sufficient insulin
to trigger the uptake of glucose into muscles
and liver cells. At this point, the blood sugar
levels become, well, way too high, and the result
is diabetes. High blood glucose levels can lead
to the hardening of arteries and heart disease.
kidney disease, blurred vision, even nerve damage.
Symptoms of type 2 diabetes include excessive
thirst, frequent urination, increased hunger,
weight loss in some people. Although many people
do not experience symptoms immediately, it does
take time for it to happen. One of the things
that can cause this is addiction. And sugar is
very addicting. It causes the release of neurotransmissions
known as dopamine in the brain in a similar way
to drugs such as cocaine, heroin, and alcohol.
And in a similar fashion, dependencies can result
in needing more and more sugar just to get the
same good feeling that you like so much. You
know, for example, many people start off taking
a half teaspoon of sugar in their coffee, but
this may increase to two or more teaspoons over
time. Okay? Studies at Princeton have shown that
laboratory rats fed sugar have exhibited all
the classical components of addiction such as
binging, craving, withdrawal, cross sensitivity,
and although the same experiments have obviously
not been carried out on humans. Well, obvious
reasons. Many individuals would report similar
experiences. And then there's the whole sugar
withdrawal symptoms thing in humans. I mean,
it can cause headaches, nausea, even mood swings.
And while in some people it does cause a lack
of concentration and the shakes, these will only
last for a short while. And they can be lessened
by slowly reducing sugar intake rather than cutting
it off completely all at once. And the last thing
we want you to do is go through a sugar withdrawal.
Okay, so let's go ahead and consider a thought
here. Would you ever consider sugar as a white
deadly poison? I know it sounds like a weird
question, but apparently Robert Lustig did back
in 2009, and he's a leading expert in child obesity
at the University of California, located at the
San Francisco School of Medicine. He gave a lecture
entitled Sugar, The Bitter Truth, in which he
claims that sugar, irrespective of the calories,
is a poison in its own right. Now, while this
view does seem a bit extreme, there was a lot
of evidence that supported the argument and promoted
the idea that moderation may well be the best
approach to our sugar intake. Unfortunately,
our dependence on processed foods and drinks
makes this difficult to achieve, but it is...
still an effort worth making so while we're on
that topic let's go ahead and consider giving
up sugar okay it doesn't into the world health
organization recommended that sugar should account
for more no more than 10 percent of dietary calorie
requirements which works out around 50 grams
per day per for a person of average weight however
Those same said guidelines issued by WHO in 2014
revised this to recommend that sugar should make
up less than 10 % of the total calorie intake,
with 5 % being the target. However, reducing
the amount of sugar in our diets, or even giving
up on it altogether, is technically easier said
than done. I mean, it's due to the amount of
hidden sugars in the food that we eat, you know?
And if you do intend to give it up, you will
need to be determined to succeed in reducing
or giving up sugar. But here are a number of
things that you could do to help with that. First
off, read the label. Anything that ends in O
-S -E is definitely out, as they are most likely
syrups, honeys, fruit, juice concentrates, etc.
Start preparing food yourself. Processed food
of any sort, even savory foods, will contain
sugar. Watch out for the amount of fruit you
consume. Fruit is a great source of vitamins
and fiber, but they also contain fructose. So
get in the habit of visualizing spoonfuls of
sugar every time you look at an apple. Fruit
juice and smoothies are even worse. I don't even
explain why. Allow more time to shop and cook.
Tell your friends and family you're going to
go sugar -free. Throw out the forbidden foods
so you can resist night cravings. No alcohol
whatsoever. And now that one must suck. Be prepared
for some withdrawal symptoms. Such as headaches,
irritability, cravings, muscle aches, etc. And
then focus on the good. Increase energy levels,
better sleep, and you'll lose weight. And you'll
be a lot healthier for it. And with that, that
pretty much wraps up everything I have to say
about sugars. I'm going to go ahead and end this
podcast right here. I hope you guys have a great
rest of your day, and I thank you for listening.
I look forward to the next two podcasts coming
out later today. Like I said before, the next
one will be on fats, and then after that, cooking
fats and oils. All right? Enjoy the rest of your
day.