Sugars' Many Forms and Triggers — The “Perfect” Root Beer Float
Episode 75: Gutsy Health Podcast
Click Here to Get the Transcript for Free!
Show Summary: "We allow people to consume as much sugar as possible without them recognizing it and, it leads to a lifetime of health issues."
Sugary foods are yummy and inviting, but they are also addicting and dangerous. Its availability in the market without any limitations makes it accessible to everyone without recognizing the harm in the long run. Almost all foods contain sugar, but not all are aware of properly looking at the label or nutritional facts.
However, your cells, your body, and your brain use sugar as energy. So the question is, is sugar good or bad?
In this episode, Juanique, shares a story about Tristin's craving for root beer float and how it triggered their Instagram followers' curiosity about its sugar content. Together with Gina Worful, a registered dietitian and master of human nutrition, they discuss:
- What the body's threshold for sugar intake is
- What happens in the body when your blood sugar starts to rise
- When blood sugar spikes up
Stay tuned and find out if the “Perfect” root beer float exists.
Important Links
Gina Worful Mastering Mindfulness
Gina Worful Conquering Cravings
Use the code: Gutsy
Exceptional Highlight:
- Insulin in high dose is actually very inflammatory to the body. It can cause organ damage
- If we get a huge load of sugar at one time, it overwhelms your bloodstream.
- Self awareness is really your most powerful tool.
Show Highlights:
How’s Tristin and Juanique?
Juanique 2:14
- It's been really hard. Everyone is probably thinking 2020 was like the worst year of their lives, 2021 is potentially the worst year of my life..
How did the root beer float trigger start?
Juanique 8:08
- There was one day where he's just craving root beer floats. So his dad went out and bought him some ice cream, which is like a keto ice cream. It has low sugar, but a whole bunch of other ingredients. And then we got the zevia root beers and they taste really good, but they're sweetened with stevia. So I showed everyone online, I'm like, “Hey, this is how I make Justin's root beer floats.”
Is eating protein bars the same as eating Snickers??
Gina 11:19
- Seeing some of these bars, well, they’re healthy. It's a protein bar but it has 25 grams of sugar.
Are artificial sweeteners safe?
Juanique 37:00
- Artificial sweeteners do actually cause gut dysbiosis, which leads to obesity (long term), and it also leads to immune system dysfunction.
Transcript (DOWNLOAD)
This is a Gutsy Health Podcast with Jaunique and Tristin Roney.
Jaunique Roney
Hey, guys, welcome back to the Gutsy Health Podcast. We have Gina with us. Gina, say hi.
Gina Worful
Hey, everybody.
Jaunique Roney
So I don't know if you guys remember Gina Warful. She did a podcast with us back in December called Heart Space Healing. But while Tristin is missing in action, he doesn't really have a voice right now, you guys. And we'll do a little bit of an update but while he is recovering and healing, Gina is going to be my co-host. So welcome, Gina.
Gina Worful
Yeah, thanks. We'll have a good time. And how is Tristin doing?
Jaunique Roney
He's doing really great. Our last update that we did was back in December, and it was me and Tristin recording. And what was interesting, he was doing so good. And the next day everything fell to pieces. I'm not even kidding. His headaches went from like a 3 to a 10 and we were just trying to catch pain, like catch up and paint over and over and over. And it led to two weeks of honestly utter hell. He was just in so much pain, started throwing up dizzy and we're like, you need an MRI. And so we got an MRI. e found three really big tumors in his brain and that's why he was throwing up and that's why he was dizzy and had the headaches. And so the whole of January was just morning and like morning, you know, like death, because I think honestly, mourning death is one of the most liberating experiences you can actually go through. It's one of the hardest. But once you get it out of the way and you become friends with death, every day is a gift. Does that make sense?
Gina Worful
It does make sense. But I also can't imagine what it's like to be in your interest and shoes. I mean, both of you are just like no matter what is getting thrown at your way here, just like we're still here and we're so loving people and we are still loving our lives and we're still showing up and, you know, we're still connecting with everybody. it is truly unbelievable.
Gina Worful
It's been really hard. You know, everyone is probably thinking 2020 was like the worst year of their lives I am like 2021 is potentially the worst year of my life. And we're just barely in February. But, you know, there are so many lessons and it's been really great. So we both unpacked death. And what's really beautiful is he is still fighting so hard and he's actually doing amazing. But we were able to have conversations that were so healing and like we said goodbyes in the most beautiful way, even though we're not saying goodbye. We had so much closure, it was really beautiful. And then, you know, anyways, he started radiation and that was a really rough week on him and his pain levels. And then right after radiation, we found out that one of the tumors is just too big and it was blocking a ventricle in his brain. And so we were getting like this backflow of pressure that would eventually lead to his death. So we had a doctor refers to Dr. Reichman. He's a very well-known neurosurgeon. And it's amazing that Tristin had this is kind of a miracle, Gina. It's amazing. But Tristin had surgery on his I mean, his last radiation treatment on a Friday. Doctor Reichman calls me Saturday the next day he says, I'm squeezing you in on Monday. So he squeezed us in on Monday and then Tristin had surgery on Tuesday. It was insane.
Gina Worful
Wow.
Jaunique Roney
Yeah.
Gina Worful
Oh. Were you both feeling nervous about that? I can't imagine like, OK, I'm going in for surgery on my brain.
Jaunique Roney
You know, honestly, the pain and the suffering was so bad. We're kind of at a point where we're like it can't get worse, like anything is uphill from here. So yeah nervous for brain surgery. But since brain surgery, he is recovering so beautifully, like he was only in the hospital for five days. We thought he'd have to do physical therapy for a week and a half. He doesn't have to do that. They sent him home. So he had surgery on Tuesday. They sent him home Friday. He's up and about. He's walking. I mean, he was dizzy for a month. He's walking around. He's doing great, he's helping us with business stuff in the back. I know. Isn't it wild?
Gina Worful
How can you say I get like, you know, one short night of sleep and I can't think of how my brain is so foggy. I can't think like he had brain surgery. He's texting me the next day like, hey, we've got some great business idea.
Jaunique Roney
Yeah, I know. And often they'll be text like three in the morning or something. I'm like, what are you doing awake? But you know, he's actually doing great. And the bright side of this is he doesn't remember most of January and it's kind of a blessing in disguise because of all the radiation and the swelling and the inflammation and the pressure. It obviously caused some damage. And so his short term is not the best right now and I'm OK with that. I'm OK with him not remembering January because it was really heavy and it was really brutal and he was just in so much pain and now next steps are he's meeting with a hematologist oncologist tomorrow and we're going to pursue an antibody therapy while he does his enzyme therapy again and all his whole routine. And we're just kind of getting back to life again.
Gina Worful
That is great. Is the enzyme therapy something that your doctors put him on or something you are going about, the two of you?
Jaunique Roney
So the enzyme therapy is something that a naturopath is guiding us with right now. Her name is Pamela McDougle. She's fantastic. And yeah, I adore her. She's so brilliant. And, you know, the enzymes were when he was doing them back in November, December, he was breathing so great. He was doing so well. But one thing that we learned for everyone that's like, hey, we're supposed to be talking about rootbeer floats and sugar, why are we doing this? We're getting there soon, you guys. We're talking about rootbeer floats and triggers around sugar and ingredients lists. But Tristin was doing so good back in December with his enzyme therapy and he was breathing better and he was coughing less. But it's really hard for enzymes or any kind of therapy to cross the blood-brain barrier. And so we might have been seeing progress in his lungs, but there was none in the brain. So we're OK with the radiation and the fact that there are only three and not like 20, like it's great. We consider ourselves very lucky and blessed. And so there's still one dead tumor hanging out in his brain, but we're not going to do anything about it right now. So there you go.
Gina Worful
Wow. Well, thanks I really appreciate that you both are willing to share so such an intimate part of his life. And it's really been like a gift just to hear from both of you about your experience and the appreciation you have for this journey.
Jaunique Roney
Thank you. It's been long, but the lessons along the way have been life-changing. And I know it's lately I haven't on my platforms been super sciency and talking about research. It's mostly been about life lessons that come to us. But I feel that's part of a healing journey. You know, if we are not leaning into the emotional healing of a healing journey, we might be doing it wrong, you know?
Gina Worful
Right.
Jaunique Roney
So that's why I asked you to co-host with me, because you are all about mindset and all that jazz. So thank you.
Jaunique Roney
Yeah, so I'm sure that we can dive in today around sugar and the root beer float a little bit of some science and some of the mindset around it.
Jaunique Roney
Yes. Yes. So you guys, if you don't follow me on Instagram, I need to tell you a story because I think I triggered my entire platform. And for that I apologize because with Tristin being on steroids, it makes him ravenous and ravenous for the worst things ever. Root beer floats, pizzas, you name the worst thing and he wanted it.
Gina Worful
At least he's eating. Oh my gosh, That's great.
Jaunique Roney
He's eating so much and that story is just kicking his butt. Holy cow. But hopefully he'll be off of it in a month. But there was one day where he was just craving a root beer floats. So his dad went out and bought him some enlightened ice cream, which is like Akito ice cream. It has low sugar, but a whole bunch of other ingredients like fibers and gums and all that jazz and then we got the zevia root beers. I think they were like ginger root beers and they taste really good that they're sweetened with zevia. So I showed everyone online I'm like, hey, this is how I made Tristin root beer floats. And I love making fun foods for the family. I don't like calling it bad food because that has such a negative connotation to food. Right? And it puts in a lot of energetic shame, especially for children. Right? Don't eat bad food. Well, no, what I tell my kids is let's save the fun food after the healing food. Does that make sense? What do you think about that?
Gina Worful
I love that you said fun food. When you said that fun food. I was like, oh, that's such a great way to encourage. We do need to have, you know, healthy food and let's not, like, demonize it and call it good and bad, because then we take that bad food and we put it on a pedestal of like, you know, all of a sudden we become enchanted with the bad food we have versus like we love the good food and we have fun food. I love that you created fun food.
Jaunique Roney
Right. And when we demonize it, it becomes the forbidden apple. Right?
Gina Worful
Right.
Jaunique Roney
Just becomes that much sexier. Let's not make fun food sexy.
Gina Worful
Yeah, no kidding.
Jaunique Roney
Let's just keep it at fun. Right. So anyways I was showing people how to make the beer flow and I got all of these questions and you know, one of the questions that kind of steamrolled people's trauma and I do want to use the word trauma around food, because when we are embarking on a healing journey, we kind of get overwhelmed with information and that overwhelm leads to stress and that stress can turn into a trigger. And then it kind of like feeds itself. Right. And so when I was talking about the ingredients and people are learning new things, they were getting overwhelmed and they were getting triggered. And so I got a question that someone asked. So what's the difference between this Kito ice cream and an organic ice cream that just has sugar, cream and vanilla? So I kind of broke it down like this. And you guys, I do want to get into the difference between alternative healthy foods to organic. OK, so what I told everyone online was the first thing I look for in everything is sugar content because there's sugar in everything and sugar is just super addicting. And I mean, what foods has sugar in it that shouldn't have it in there? Like ketchup, for instance, meat. What other foods can you think of that when you think about it, you don't think it should have sugar, but yet there it is. And it's in like high quantity.
Gina Worful
Yeah, I think the surprising high quantity is sometimes like tomato sauce. One serving of tomato sauce has more sugar than two Oreo cookies.
Jaunique Roney
Does it really?
Gina Worful
We don't think of tomato sauce as being high in sugar, but some of them had so much.
Jaunique Roney
It's insane. And I mean like corn dogs, for instance, pizzas.
Gina Worful
I think a big one, too, is protein bars. And that's where I see a lot of people going for protein bars. And, you know, seeing some of these bars that they're like, well, it's healthy, it's a protein bar. And when you look like and it has, you know. Twenty five grams of sugar. Well, a normal Snickers bar has twenty-five grams of sugar.
Jaunique Roney
Right.
Gina Worful
So maybe like you just ate a candy bar, but with some added protein.
Jaunique Roney
Right. Just eat the Snickers, you know, like in my mind I'm just like, oh I just go for this snickers I'll just drink a protein shake later. But yeah, it hides everything and the thing is to make sugar, it's so cheap. I mean, our country, our government literally subsidizes sugar like we pay taxes so that companies can make sugar for less. How messed up is that. Then impoverished people can eat foods that are cheap but loaded with sugar and then that makes them more dependent on the system for medical aid further down the line when the sugar is finally actually breaking down their body and they're getting diseases like arthritis, autoimmune diseases and type two diabetes. Right? Going back to the original question, I always look for sugar content because it's in everything. And did you know that adult women should only be having about twenty four grams of added sugar per day? That's one protein bar. Right?
Gina Worful
That is not a lot.
Jaunique Roney
That's two I think two teaspoons or two tablespoons of sugar. Right. It's not a lot of added sugar and yet the average American actually consumes, depending on the study, between ninety to one hundred and thirty grams of sugar per day. So we are...
Gina Worful
Wow.
Jaunique Roney
Yes. Isn't that insane?
Gina Worful
Wow, that's huge.
Jaunique Roney
And there's no cap on it. So let me give you an example: here in Utah, we have really strict laws around alcohol and probably for good reason because alcohol is toxic to the liver and it causes drunk drivers and, you know, it can be harmful. You know, we regulate seatbelts. We regulate how often people go to school because in our mind, it's for the betterment of everyone. But we don't do that with sugar. We allow people to consume as much sugar as possible without them recognizing it. And it leads to a lifetime of health issues. So it's not killing you today, but it's going to wreak havoc on your body ten years from now, 20 years from now, 30 years from now. So sugar is just one of those hidden evils that it's the first thing I look for in every single product. I mean, let's talk about health foods, for instance , I mean, when last did you see a low sugar kombucha Gina ?
Gina Worful
They are really hard to find usually with kombucha. I like to do a little bit of a sparkling water or something just to try to lighten it up a little bit. But Kombucha is really tough because some of them again, yeah, may have 20 to 30 grams of sugar in a bottle.
Jaunique Roney
Right, and it's interesting, too, because you look at the bottle and I'll say ten grams of sugar and you're like, oh, there's only ten grams of sugar for the whole bottle. No, that's for one serving and there's two servings in there. So it's really twenty grams. So check for the servings and how many servings are in that. So that was my first thing that I brought up. So the reason why I used the keto ice cream for Tristin instead of like an organic sugar sweetened, organic sugar, organic creme, organic vanilla ice cream is because sugar content is actually a lot lower. But yes, they still use sugar alcohols. But, you know, it's not going to spike his blood glucose. It's not going to wreak havoc on his insulin. And anyways, that's a story for another time. He actually has insulin-induced Type two diabetes at the moment.
Gina Worful
Oh poor guy.
Jaunique Roney
I know, like steroids are so hard on your body. They're so hard. But anyways, he's managing it great. So that's what I said. And then the second thing was dairy. And actually, I said in my comments, I said, when it comes to the keto ice cream and this like organic ice cream, I actually prefer the dairy if it was raw and grass fed because raw dairy is not heated, it still has the healthy bacteria in it. You know, the proteins are not damaged from the overheating. And so, like in an ideal world, raw dairy and then organic dairy. So the keto ice cream didn't win that match. I was like, meh. And then the third thing that I brought up was keto ice cream when you look at the ingredients, it has like 20 different things, maybe 15. I don't know. And a lot of these things are thickening agents. They are fibers that are actually very sweet. There's one that I can't think of right now that is used a lot. Is it allulose? Tell us about that.
Gina Worful
Well, Allulose is really interesting because it does come it actually comes from fruit. So it is a natural sweetener that doesn't raise blood sugar. So it does come from fruit. So it's kind of nice that if you don't like the aftertaste that stevia sometimes has a lot of the time with stevia, they have to add a little to it because stevia alone doesn't taste very good. So allulose is kind of nice because it doesn't have that aftertaste. What I found is when I started using allulose or products with allulose in it, I noticed I would get really bad, like really intense sweets cravings. So even though it wasn't spiking my blood sugar, I just noticed that as soon as I ate anything with allulose, I really wanted more of it and more sweet. So I don't know if anyone else experiences that, but sometimes I wonder if maybe the mechanism behind that is you're tasting something sweet and so maybe your body is preparing to digest something sweet and raising your blood sugar or I'm sorry, not raising your blood sugar, releasing insulin to prepare for that carbohydrate, but the carbohydrate never comes.
Jaunique Roney
Right.
Gina Worful
So maybe your blood sugar drops to that point and triggers a craving. So I can't validate if that's true, if that's an actual mechanism that's happening. But I'm kind of wondering that.
Jaunique Roney
You know, I think you're 100 percent correct on that because, you know, we always think digestion happens in the stomach. No, it actually starts as soon as you start to see and smell and touch your food. I've mentioned this in another podcast, like when you prep your food, your digestive juices are going. And that is something that we've actually lost in our culture, is we put something in a microwave and it's read or we go out to eat and it just shows up in front of you. So your brain hasn't had the chance to kind of tell your gut like, hey, let's start producing like juices, right, to break down your food. And I'm going to tell you something really interesting. I'm glad you mentioned that, Gina, because I personally have a very, very what's the word I'm looking for? A very intense thermometer and I'm going to call it a thermometer. It's a sugar thermometer in my body. If I eat too much sugar, I get a headache. As soon as I get around 30 grams of sugar per day of added sugar, I start getting this light headache. And I'm like, OK, I went too far. My body's not happy. My inflammation is starting to spike. Right? Well, and then when I eat high sugary foods, the headache stays in longer. When I eat keto like sweetened foods with like allulose and xylitol, I will still get a headache. And I think it's because my body is releasing insulin and insulin in high dose is actually very inflammatory to the body. It can cause organ damage, which is another thing I learned while Tristin going on this type two diabetes path. But and so I feel like my body personally is very sensitive to insulin. However, if I'm going to for me personally pick between the organic ice cream that has twenty fifteen to twenty five grams of sugar per serving, or if I am going to pick the keto ice cream that has like three grams of sugar per serving and ten grams of sugar alcohol, for me the keto ice cream makes more sense because the backlash is less intense for me.
Gina Worful
Right.
Jaunique Roney
Right.
Gina Worful
Maybe we should explain a little bit what's happening in the body because a lot of people are like, OK, you're freaking out about sugar. What about a little bit? What about, you know, where is that threshold? And maybe we should explain what happens in the body when your blood sugar starts to raise and when it spikes up too much and what kind of looks like. Some people know, are we talking like should it be zero sugar? Is it a little bit? Is it a moderate amount?
Jaunique Roney
Right.
Gina Worful
And some people handle a lot, you know what I mean?
Jaunique Roney
Yes, dive into it. I want to hear what you have to say, you guys. Gina, we didn't introduce her, but she has a master. Is it like human nutrition?
Gina Worful
Yeah, I have my undergrad in Dietetics and my master's in human nutrition thanks.
Jaunique Roney
So she's really smart. And most you probably listen to the podcast that she did with us back in December, but no, she is the science queen, and so do you think you can go into explaining to people what is happening when we're eating sugar? What happens when we eat too much? What happens when we don't eat it with fiber, et cetera, et cetera?
Gina Worful
Yeah, sure. I would love to explain this because it can get confusing, especially when people are like, is sugar good or is sugar bad? Is it fine? And when you understand the mechanism of what's happening in your body, you can kind of get a feel for what we're talking about. So your cells use sugar, right? They can use them as energy, your body can use it as energy, your brain can use it as energy. So whenever you eat sugar or any kind of a carb and it gets digested, what happens is it gets digested into glucose and then that sugar goes into your bloodstream and ideally your cells, it's hopping on with insulin where insulin is kind of the key to the lock. It lets it in the cell, right. Something are like what is insulin have to do with sugar? Sugar can't get into the cell unless it has insulin kind of unlocking that door. So when sugar comes in, ideally we're unlocking the door, the cells are using it and burning it up as energy and then, you know, minimal harm there. Of course, any kind of digestion of any food does leave some byproducts, but we have to eat right. So where the problem comes in is if we get a huge load of sugar at one time, it overwhelms your bloodstream. So the analogy that I love is if you've ever seen the episode of I Love Lucy where there's little chocolates and they're coming down the assembly line.
Jaunique Roney
Oh, yes
Gina Worful
They're getting overwhelmed and like they eat one and they're like, oh, my gosh. And then like, a bunch of them are coming. So they're just like they're trying to shove them in their mouth or shoving them down they're sure.
Jaunique Roney
Yes.
Gina Worful
So that's kind of what happens in the bloodstream when it gets overwhelmed with too much sugar all of a sudden it's like, oh, my gosh, we're overloaded. Sugar is a sharp molecule. So if there's a lot of sugar in the bloodstream and your cells are not taking it and metabolizing it and using it for energy, you've got a lot of sugar that's floating around in the bloodstream. And over time, this can create a teeny, tiny little micro tears in the blood vessels.
And so when we think of a lot of people dive in, it's like cholesterol is cholesterol being the bad guy, but cholesterol job is to come in and protect those arteries from any damage, just kind of like a nice little Band-Aid. So sometimes too much sugar is what ends up creating this cholesterol to come in and protect the arteries from any of these tiny little micro tears and creating a little bit of inflammation. And so it makes sense when we see that over time the blood sugar isn't regulated now where diabetics might have issues with those nice, tiny little delicate blood vessels in the eyes and in places where we have these little gentle capillaries and blood vessels where the sugar is kind of creating too much rubbing and wear and tear.
Jaunique Roney
And another thing to mention is as much sugar as you have in the bloodstream, your body will try to produce the same amount of insulin. So if you have a lot of sugar being rushed into the bloodstream, your pancreas is going to produce a ton of insulin to match that. And so an insulin has its own issues as well. It serves us, but not when it's in mass. Right?
Gina Worful
Yes.
Jaunique Roney
That's why we're trying to emphasize today why we just need to be mindful of sugar when it comes to eating it. However, we don't want people to freak out. Right? Because we're always in choice. And when we recognize the problem, hey, we have a sugar problem in our country and in our culture and no one's regulating it, then we have the choice to say, OK, I'm going to regulate it myself for myself and my family so that it doesn't lead to long term issues down the line.
Gina Worful
Exactly. So if you are eating some sugar and you're active and your cells are metabolizing the sugar is coming in and your body is keeping up with it, like, great. If you're constantly overloading the system and you're getting that assembly line that's overloaded and your body can't keep up and your body is surging like this insulin to try to put it away and store it and get it get it out of your body. Over time, that pancreas can start to get a little bit tired or your cells might get a little bit resistant to using that insulin in that sugar. All of a sudden, the key doesn't work as well anymore to bring the sugar into the cell. So people are like, what is insulin resistance? That's over time. If you have too much sugar, all of a sudden that key doesn't really work as well. And then that sugar can stay floating in the bloodstream and you might be eating plenty of sugar, but you're feeling exhausted, like your cells aren't getting the energy that they need to turn that glucose into energy. So I end up not actually using it as well l as you should. So the goal is to try to keep glucose coming in as that steady stream that your cells can keep up with versus let's say you eat 80 grams at one time and you overload the system and you're doing that really often, you get these big blood sugars.
Jaunique Roney
Exactly. So I want to circle back to that insulin resistance really fast and then we'll kind of move on. But this is just so important for you guys to understand right, because a lot of people say, OK, let's go back to like a doctor's office. You go to a doctor's office and they check your fasting blood glucose. And let's say it's like 95. It looks beautiful, right. Do we know how hard your body is working to keep it at ninety five? Is it in flow and it's not working hard, or is it like maxing out insulin to keep it at 95? And there's a reason why ask that question because a lot of the times doctors will not check your insulin levels. And I see this all the time in the blood work that I do where people's blood glucose, they're A1C it's all beautiful-
Gina Worful
Normal.
Jaunique Roney
And and their insulin is like through the roof. And I'm like, this is what happens with that insulin resistance and that lock and key mechanisms. So insulin resistance is when you use one key to open one door to let one blood glucose go in. And that key lock mechanism is not working. So now you bring in another key to shove in the second key and push, push, push, push, push. And now the doors opening. Right. So we've used two insulin molecules to get one glucose molecule in. After time, now we're going to need three insulin molecules to shove, shove, shove that door in that lock and key mechanism so that door can open and glucose can get in. And so that is insulin resistance right there. And so your body is using a lot of insulin to do the job of what one insulin molecule used to do back in the day when your body wasn't so overwhelmed with sugar. And that is the problem. And that kind of stuff leads to fatigue, weight gain, inflammation, organ damage, autoimmune issues, you name it. Did I explain that okay Gina?
Gina Worful
Absolutely. You're spot on and I see the same issue where some people have all the signs of blood sugar dysregulation, where they're eating high amounts of carbs throughout the day and they have like stubborn belly fat and they're exhausted. And all these signs of blood sugar are being a little bit off. But then we look at their fasting blood glucose and we look at the hemoglobin and see and it looks normal. And that's just because we're looking at an average Right? We not seeing like those highs and those lows. We're not seeing the midday spikes and we're not seeing the drops. We're actually just seeing like an average. And so they're like, no, no, no, I keep my blood sugar in check really well. And then it can be Eye-Opening. If maybe they had the opportunity to use a continuous glucose monitor or they do a fingerprint just to check and see where it's at, or we just look at their diet and we see that they're actually eating way more sugar than what they had thought they were.
Jaunique Roney
Right. Right. You know, this concept of sugar is just so tricky because we are not taught it in school. We're not taught it by our doctors even. There's a book by Ben Beckman. He has a PhD and he wrote a book, I think it's called How We Get Sick and it's all about this. It's all about how sugar is really the poison of our modern day society because we over consume it. And again, I want to take it back to the trigger. Right. I don't want people triggered as they're listening to this, just informed, because when you're informed, then you can make good decisions.
I know I keep saying this. Let's bring it back to the root beer float, which one better? The keto ice cream that has less sugar but more potentially problematic ingredients, or the organic ice cream that has more organic sugar, but less of the other weird ingredients. You guys, at the end of the day, it depends on how when you ingest each ice cream, how did your body feel? Right. Because maybe you do have insulin resistance and your body utilizes a lot of insulin to keep your blood sugar stable. Maybe the keto ice cream is better for you. Maybe, you know, you have got dysbiosis and you have Sebo. And so all that fiber in that keto ice cream is going to make you bloated and gassy and tired and it's going to like produce an entirely different immune response. So maybe the keto ice cream isn't for you. Maybe the organic fifteen grams of sugar ice cream is your friend. But I want Gina to kind of touch on like, why we need to get away from these rigid ideas that there's only one perfect food, one perfect way. We don't have to be militant about this. Can you dive a little bit deeper into why this is problematic and how that kind of mentality needs to change in our health culture?
Gina Worful
Yeah, I love that you brought that up, that you said. It's really about knowing yourself and your body. We are also different, right? We have different genetics. We have different issues. We have different blood sugar levels. Like to just say that every person should be eating this one same way or this one same product or this one same style is crazy, it's so crazy, and so I always think about it is like your health is the relationship between you and your body. It's knowing your own body and using this information as ways to navigate that information and try different things and help you dial in what's the best thing for you, but really kind of seeing yourself as your own research project in your own experiment. Because if we get so lasered in on this is the one and only way, then it kind of puts our health back up into our brains and not trusting what our bodies are telling us. And then we get so fixated on it and a lot of people will end up finding that something just doesn't work for them. But everyone believes that they should be doing this one thing and then they lose that trust with their body and they're like, I don't know what to do. Everyone says that I should be doing keto or I should be vegan or I should be this or I should be that. But it's not working for my body. And then they're at this war with their body because society is telling them that this is the one and only way of eating and their body isn't responding.
Jaunique Roney
Yeah.
Gina Worful
And so I think that just getting to know your body and being really open to how does my body respond is going to be the best way that you learn how to honor it. You don't get too hung up on I have to eat this way or else there's something wrong with me. So I love that. That was your conclusion of what you came up to. There's different ways of going about this. What is the right one for your body? And that's where you're going to reach your best health and most trust with your body.
Jaunique Roney
And I think I learned this from you Gina. I've started telling clients when they ask me a question about what do I think they should do for their body, I now make them close their eyes and breathe into their body. And so here's an example. I had a client yesterday who was asking me about intermittent fasting, and she's like, do you think I should do intermittent fasting? And I said, well, let's do this. Let's have you close your eyes and take a deep breath and when you think about doing intermittent fasting, how does your body feel around that? Does it feel anxious? Is there's some resistance? Or is your body telling you it actually needs food in the morning? And she actually came to the conclusion. She was like, I think I need some food in the morning. And I said, I'm feeling that too. And here's why. Because you get the afternoon slump at around one or two, like you need more calories in the morning. Your body's tired, your body is trying to pull from stores that it doesn't have, you know. And so she came to that conclusion herself. I could have told her. Right. But the thing is, like, we need to learn this for ourselves because you can't just call up your nutritionist or your doctor on a whim and ask them these questions. I love how you said, we need to be our own research project. Right. Keto isn't for everyone. Autoimmune paleo isn't for everyone, especially athletes. If you have an autoimmune issue and you're an athlete, going grain-free is going to be really hard because you need some carbs to keep your energy stores going for like the marathons that you're running. So we have to really become our own Dayal, our own thermostat, our own thermometer. Right?
Gina Worful
Yes.
Jaunique Roney
And figure out what our body is trying to tell us. It's not trying to break down on us. It's not trying to punish us. It wants to work with us. And this is its language.
Gina Worful
I love that. How empowering. What an amazing way to empower her and be there, like as her resource and her sound science. But to give her a chance to say, like, what do you think your body is telling you? I love that. That's so great.
Jaunique Roney
Well, and I've griped about this before and I'm going to gripe about it again. But our health world is so dominated by male health enthusiasts. Right. And these men are telling their male and female platform that everyone should do Keto and everyone should do intermittent fasting. And I'm like, that's really nice when you have one hormonal cycle a day. But when you're a female, you have to going at different times like it's not going to work for our bodies. Please stop telling female listeners they need to do intermittent fasting and keto all the time because it could potentially hurt people. Right.
Gina Worful
What's so interesting about that is self-awareness is really your most powerful tool, because I have some people that I work with that are like keto is life changing for me. My body feels great and then on the other hand, I have more people than not who get so hung up on but the science shows is going to lower my blood sugar. It's going help with cravings it will help me lose weight, but then they can't stop bingeing or overeating and they lose control of their food and they end up back to square one every few days or every week or every month. And it's just they don't actually heal their bodies until they're like, you know what? When my body's fed a little bit of sugar, even though from a science perspective, I might want my cells primed with keto, they actually don't heal until they surrender to that a little bit and just say, you know, my body is just different.
Jaunique Roney
And that's OK, because we all have different genetic predispositions. We all have different gut biome. We all have different body weights. We didn't mention this earlier, but the more adipose tissue you have, the more prone you are to insulin resistance because that adipose tissue actually blocks the insulin receptor sites on the cells. You know, so that's a factor. There's so many factors that come into play. Emotions come into play, like stressors come into play, environments come into play. There is not a one-size-fits-all. There's no perfect rootbeer float. There's none. It is what is good for your body and what portion size is good for you. Like I said earlier, when I get my headaches from the low sugar stuff and the sugary stuff, I just have to be really mindful of my portions. And that's it. It's not like, oh, well, this is evil. I'm not going to do it. No, like, I'm going to live my life and I'm still going to have fun foods, but I'm going to be really mindful of the portion sizes that I do it. And I've gotten my body to a point where I've healed it so much that I can eat fun foods without terrible repercussions like back in the day.
Gina Worful
What would you say to people who are still saying, OK, so what about some the old-school sweetners, not nutritive sweeteners that maybe some people are still hung up on things like Splenda or aspartame? What would your advice be for them? Would you say kind of same concept a little bit It's okay, where would you give some guidance on that? Because I'm sure there are some people who are still like I do still see that there are some people who are like, I just can't quite give up my Splenda or I just got the question a few days ago, what do you think about diet soda? Is that okay? So I'd love to hear your perspective.
Jaunique Roney
So we do know that Splenda is not only a neurotoxin, but there is research showing that these artificial sweeteners do actually cause gut dysbiosis, which leads to obesity long term, and it also leads to immune system dysfunction. And so if someone's like, well, I only do one Diet Coke a day, I actually did a post on my Instagram stories on sodas and the research behind it and why soda is actually not my friend. But if you're using Splenda like once every other week or something and it's, you know, and you're using stevia and you're using all of these things sparingly and it's not your crutch for breakfast, lunch and dinner, I think everything in small portions is okay. But again, everyone is so different. I don't love the artificial sweeteners. I'm not going to lie but very sparingly is what I would tell people. How did you answer that?
Gina Worful
Yeah. Yeah, right. So I gave the same answer that there's just so much research supporting things like aspartame affecting the gut microbiome. And even though a lot of people are still drinking it because of the zero calories, there's just so much evidence to support that it's contributing to obesity because of that gut microbiome mechanism. And there are so many alternatives now, like you had the zetvia and there's so many alternatives that are better than aspartame or Splenda that I would really strongly encourage people to try and find a better alternative.
Jaunique Roney
Exactly, and like you mentioned earlier, with the keto ice cream, when you eat allulose, it makes you crave more sugar later. This is what a research study actually showed, unlike the Splenda and what not is that people that drink the diet sodas, they will actually consume more calories throughout the day versus someone who drinks soda with the sugar in it. So our brain is really-- like you can't really trick it, right? You can't touch and tease its pleasure center and then not pleasure it. Do you know what I'm saying.
Gina Worful
It's really funny.
Jaunique Roney
Where's the carbs? You're telling it in your mouth. Yes. You're telling it in your mouth. You're like, oh yeah, the good stuff's coming just your way. And then your brain's like, oh, I'm excited now. And then it's like, wait-
Gina Worful
That's a great analogy.
Jaunique Roney
Where's my fun? Where's my party, you know? And so it's like, go get some chips, go get some donuts and ice cream and then you do.
Gina Worful
Yeah and again, If you have a little bit of allulose or a little bit of fruit or sugar alcohols and you're like, it's fine. It satisfied my palate and I'm good, I'm fine with the day. Great for me. I know. Like I tried to not use it that much because I just noticed that I get worse sweets cravings. And if I didn't have it or if I probably would have just had sugar.
Jaunique Roney
Right.
Gina Worful
So I use it very sparingly.
Jaunique Roney
So here's a little bit of TMI for listeners. I'm so sorry you're going to hear this, but when I eat lakonto, like chocolate, because it's actually sweetened with they say it's among fruit, but it's actually mostly arithmetical. It's mostly sugar alcohol. It triggers UTIs in me every single time.
Gina Worful
Really? That's so interesting.
Jaunique Roney
Yes, so I can't touch him anymore like no more. And what I did one day and this is really terrible, you guys, I was having a very stressful week and I bought their bag of their white chocolate chips. I ate that entire bag in two days. And ever since, every time I touch their food now, I get a UTI.
Gina Worful
Oh, so interesting.
Jaunique Roney
So I don't think sugar alcohols are perfect. I do not I think we all interact with these sweeteners very differently and we do not have enough research telling us or guaranteeing us that their effect and their interaction with our microbiome is actually is not problematic. We don't know that yet. So we have to be our own experiment. So like toy right? Experiment on ourselves. How do we feel? Do we get symptoms? Do we get bloated? Do we get gassy? Do we have skin outbreaks? We just have to be really mindful. And that's the key to all of this mindfulness. Right? Being mindful about how you interact with your food, be mindful of the ingredients, don't stress about it. Just be mindful. Right?
Gina Worful
Yeah. And I think that that's actually a really good place to start, that people don't realize that if they're having bloating or gut issues or they're not really looking at the types of sweeteners that they're putting in, whether it's a sugar, alcohol or something else. And sometimes it's often it's not uncommon that they can trigger gut issues. So sometimes it's a good place to start. But if you're having gut issues like try eliminating, check your food, you know, do you have a Witheridge toddler Mannitall or Sorbitall that might be causing some issues there?
Jaunique Roney
Exactly and another thing that you guys can do as well is a very pleasurable food is fat. So if you're doing low sugar, high fat something. I often find like with either my coffee, or my rossa, I like to do like half and half or like something that's very creamy and it's so pleasurable and satiating. We had back in the 90s, we did low fat, high sugar crap. Right? And it's because we had to load food with sugar because we didn't have the pleasure from the fat. So if you just like, try to add more fat to your stuff, you might find that you're just as satiated as when you used to eat high sugar. However, I do want to share that. I actually saw some labs yesterday where someone's cholesterol was 3.13 and this is like first time where I'm like, you need to actually watch your fat intake, you need to be mindful. Right. And again, bio-individuality, you guys. This is why we need to research ourselves, maybe get some blood work done, see where you're at, what is your baseline right now? And then fine tune instead of feeling lost in the dark. The best thing we could ever do for ourselves is learn more about ourselves in a very kind and gentle manner. More knowledge is power. Right. And so instead of trying to guess or guesstimate, just do some testing.
Jaunique Roney
Absolutely.
Jaunique Roney
So and you guys, I actually am back in the clinic. I am doing BCI again and I'm training my other counselors to do BCI. So hopefully, our issue in the past is like people have just had to wait for like a month or two. And so things are starting to open up now that my calendar is opening up. So just FYI, if you guys are like, well, we can't get in. Try and call the office and see if you can get in. Let's figure you out. I don't want to say too easy, but it can be like if you just know a little bit of information here, here and here now, you're going to save yourself so many issues down the line.
Gina Worful
That's so empowering too. I have had quite a few people who I think it's not uncommon to be intimidated by getting our labsdone. I have a lot like for me, I'm like, oh, labs are like getting a gift on Christmas morning.
Jaunique Roney
I know.
Gina Worful
I love data. I love labs. When I was working with people, you know, a lot more seeing them in office. Sometimes you would have a husband come, he's like, for my wife's birthday I want to get her all these lab panels and I think, wow, that's so nice. I wish Jaman would buy me lab panels.
Jaunique Roney
Don't get me flowers, give me lab panels.
Gina Worful
But I do know on the flip side, there are a lot of people who do not feel like their labs are a birthday gift. They're quite terrified by it and there's just something about knowing that is really scary. But when they cross that threshold and they know regardless of whether their numbers come out in range or their way out of range, they have like this huge sigh of relief of like, oh, it feels so good to not wonder, like, how well does my body hand up my blood sugar? What is the status of my health? How is my cholesterol doing? And really knowing their numbers and regardless of what their numbers turn out to be, they feel so much more empowered, like, OK, I know what my body needs. I know what I need to do, and you let go of so much worry and anxiousness around not knowin.
Jaunique Roney
Right, there is also an elephant in the room in our health world where we, I think, have used the C word cancer to as trauma. You know, like everyone is scared and this happens a lot when I look at people's labs and they'll ask me at the end, do you see any signs of cancer? I think this is everyone's, not everyone's maybe I'm projecting, but this is a lot of people's core fear is because, you know, we hear statistics like one and two people are going to get cancer in their lifetime. That is scary, right? That can be very scary. And so, I want listeners right now to maybe check themselves and ask themselves, am I traumatized? Did I pick up trauma along this pathway along this healing journey? Because if you have and if you are trying to heal yourself through a trauma response, it's not going to happen. Right?
Gina Worful
Right.
Jaunique Roney
If you find that there's the resistance with learning more about your blood work, doing more testing, like we need to get to the bottom of that trauma, we need to be mindful of it and release it so that it doesn't have power over you anymore. Right? Because I truly do believe that the universe is working for you and not against you. But when we're stuck in trauma, it can often feel like the universe is working against you. Let's not stay there anymore, you guys. Let's face this head on. And part of me wonders, too, because I was so scared of cancer, did I put out information through that lens? And I hope I didn't, I hope I didn't traumatize people while I was healing my trauma. And if I did, I want to apologize right now. Right? Because no one should ever make lifestyle changes from a place of fear. It should always come for a place from a place of love. Right?
Gina Worful
Jaunique have you heard of the book, The Biology of Belief?
Jaunique Roney
Yes. Oh, my gosh. Yes.
Gina Worful
That's wonderful, isn't it?
Jaunique Roney
I have mentioned a book like I think eight times on the podcast. If this is the first episode you've ever listened to you guys, buy that book, get the audio book, get it now because it's so beautiful. Can you tell listeners what it's about?
Gina Worful
Yeah. I mean, I don't want to minimize all the different mechanisms of cancer and disease development. You know, there's so much to it. It's more than just this one book. But what's so beautiful about this book is they break down the science of how our beliefs influence our physical body. So everything in order for ourselves to be able to change our physical body, we have to have first a signalling molecule that binds on to a receptor and then that signals to your body to start changing our bodies proteins and making different things. And so, for example, one of the examples that the author uses is, you know, when you feel cold air is like the signal that binds on to your skin receptors and then your skin actually changes shape goosebumps. You start shivering like your physical body changes based on that sensory input. Or let's say you start thinking about food, you're not actually eating food but if you start thinking about food, that's signaling and then that's actually creating a change in your body starts salivating. Another example he uses is he says, when you think about sex, the body starts changing. Right?
Jaunique Roney
Exactly.
Gina Worful
We can we could have so many sources of proof that our thoughts can actually change our physical body and in the same way happening with disease manifestation that if we believe that there is a disease, how that can actually change ourselves and our physical body?
Jaunique Roney
Right, right. I truly believe that we as a society, oh, my gosh. Now I'm going all wo-wo. OK, I'm going to back up because a lot of people that actually get cancer actually have to go through a lot of shame first because they feel like they did something to get cancer. If you are a cancer listener, you have done nothing wrong. If anything, you are a kind, sweet soul in a very violent world. And so I mentioned this in my stories back in January, my downloads on cancer is, you know, cancer is literally a cell that had to mutate in order to survive its harsh surroundings. Think of someone who because I think of my Tristin, right. And he's just this sweet, kind, gentle soul. He always has been. But he has gotten these really toxic messages from the world that made him feel less than . And that stuff that he is processing and trying to heal. But he had to mutate who he was to his core in order to survive all of this like programming from the world. Right. And it hurt him very deeply. And so I know this is getting very personal and not sciency, but I truly believe that the cancer statistics are a message to us as a society that we are failing each other. If people are still getting cancer, it's because we are not healing ourselves. We are not loving ourselves. We're not loving our communities. And so in the sense of energy, that's the energetic output that we are putting into our universe and into each other. When we heal that energy, we will start to see cancer declining. But this is our gauge right now. This is our thermostat. And that was my download with thinking about cancer. So you guys, with that being said, thank you for listening. Gina, thank you for cohosting with me today. You are just wonderful. And you guys, few things. Gina, you have a thing called mastering mindfulness. Can you tell people a little bit about that?
Gina Worful
Oh, I do. Mastering mindfulness has been such an amazing way to help people connect with their bodies and their food and and use that innate wisdom that they have as their guide. So sometimes when we're trying to dial in, like you said, I know what my tipping point is with too much sugar. They're actually practicing to connect with their bodies and their food to be more in control over their food so that if they do want to eat sugar, they do want to eat some food. It's not that the food is taking over and then they can't stop eating. They're the ones that are feeling in control and connected with their food and their body. So, yeah, thanks for bringing that up. That kind of goes and well with the sugar discussion.
Jaunique Roney
Exactly. If that is something that resonates with you guys and you're like, I want to master mindfulness around food and eating, how can people find this course?
Gina Worful
Yeah, there's some more information on my website GinaWorful.com, you'll see some more information about the program there. They can always reach out to me directly with any questions or see if it's the right fit for them.
Jaunique Roney
I'm trying to remember I should have written this down, but people know I'm very unorganized. Was there a discount like a code? Do you remember?
Gina Worful
So for me, yes. I have a smaller course called conquering cravings, which is kind of an introduction. Yeah, great point. So that was an introduction to getting really confident with just cravings in particular. So that is like a you know, you can go through the materials. It's about four hours of materials where you can work and do the skills to get really confident when sugar cravings come up. And then you can identify, like, what cravings do I have? How do I get in control? And you start practicing the skills and that they can use the code Gutsy for a discount for that. It's kind of like a spot course, it's a self study at home, spotlight course. Mastering Mindfulness is a three month. It's the signature coaching program where we're actually working one to one or one and with a group together where you're getting more long term guidance of really mastering your food in your body.
Jaunique Roney
That's awesome. And you guys, there's also the Gutsy health membership to like if you are just learning about health and wellness and you're listening to this podcast and you're like, this feels overwhelming. There's so much to understand. The Gutsy health membership, it is fantastic. If you go to myGutsyHealth.com and sign up, you learn about the breakdown of your foods. You learn, you get like pantry lists. You become an expert at understanding carbohydrates and how they break down in your body fats, how they break down in your body proteins, how they break down in your body. You become your own nutrition expert. Plus, there's the Zoom calls on Wednesday where you either talk with myself or Gina or another health experts and you bring your questions to us. And we learn in this group setting. And it's really beautiful because it's so empowering and so important for us to learn the lingo of our health and our bodies so that you're not hemorrhaging money over time trying to figure out how to heal yourself. Only you can be the expert at you. It doesn't matter how many people you pay for blood work, how many people you pay for consults. If you do the work for yourself, healing yourself over the rest of your life is going to be easy. And so the Gutsy health membership is a great platform to learn the basics so that you can start doing some problem solving around your own healing journey and becoming your own expert. So mastering mindfulness, conquering cravings, the Gutsy health membership will put links in the show notes. But those are some really great resources for you guys to get started.Okay? and that's it.
Gina Worful
Thanks for all of that. And I just want to say, the members site is such a cool option that you have because you can pull in so much value into one member site that all these courses individually. Oh, my gosh, you would be spending an astronomically high amount by doing all these things individually. And then you pull it into one resource which is so valuable to be able to have access to that. So I think it's great. I loved being on your member call, too. And we just like we're going and going answering everybody's questions was fantastic.
Jaunique Roney
It was really beautiful.
Gina Worful
Where people cam get personal support.
Jaunique Roney
Right, sometimes there's weeks where people are like crying because we're just processing so many beautiful things in a group setting. It's like group therapy, you know, around food and around healing. And it's really it's such a beautiful it's my baby. I love the membership and I don't know if I can sneak peek this, but Gina is actually helping me create more content for the Gutsy health membership. So there's going to be a part one and part two. And the part two is going to be the order of healing. And it's going to be classes on. OK, what you need to heal first, what you need to heal second, what you need heal third. And it's going to take you down this road map on how to problem solve your own healing journey so you don't have to use doctors to micromanage it for you. You are your own doctor. So there you go. You guys, thank you so much. We're so excited for things that are like there's fun things happening this year, you guys. And this is, I think, the first podcast being released in 2021. I don't know what's going on. Do we call this like season 10 Gina? Because it feels like this has been going on forever. So you guys, thanks for checking in until next time and hopefully we'll get episodes rolling for you guys weekly. Don't hold me to that because life's a little chaotic, but we will try to get back in the game because we love you and we love education and we appreciate your support so, so much. So until next time.
Gina Worful
Bye.
Support the show (https://www.mygutsyhealth.com/gutsy-family)
Listen on:
