Episode 8: Sugary Drinks

Welcome to the Beauty of Better Podcast, where we help moms thrive in health and faith.

Hi there, mamas.

We are so glad that you have joined us again today.

We're just thankful that you tune in with us each and every week.

And we post these podcasts on Mondays because we just hope that these give you a little tidbit of advice to just help you in those steps towards becoming better for yourself and for those who need you, your kiddos, your husband, anyone in your sphere.

All of these little steps are helping us become better, and we're all learning in this.

So today, we wanted to come to you with this topic of sugary drinks.

This is something that affects all of us.

Whether we like drinking our daily Starbucks, or maybe you have sodas in your house.

We just want to bring some of the science and have a conversation around this on, how does these drinks actually affect our bodies?

And are there ways that we can start taking little steps towards maybe reducing these a bit to add to our health?

We want to just look at the science of how is this affecting our bodies?

And so knowing that knowledge, how can we then take steps forward in being better in this area?

So I'm gonna hand over to Christiana.

She's gonna share some of the science, the current science that we have on this topic.

Yeah, so the general recommendation for females is to not have more than six added teaspoons of sugar.

So not just the naturally occurring ones that happen in an apple, but like the added sugars that are in our foods.

And so six teaspoons equates to about 24 grams, when if you're looking at a food label, just as we're converting those different, you know, things.

And these added sugars, and sugar in general, just stimulates those pleasure sensors of your brain and can become really addictive.

So it's good to be aware of how much we are consuming and really where it's coming from.

And with that, we know that sugary beverages tend to, as you're again, looking at those food labels, have very low nutritional value.

So you're spending, you know, a lot in terms of calorie with really not getting a lot of benefit back in terms of that added nutrition.

And the study from Tufts University that we'll link in the comments also talked about how it even raises the risk of tooth decay, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and heart disease, all which are very devastating and chronic diseases that could be reduced risk just by being a little bit more aware of what we're consuming.

And so, we want to just share some more examples, tips, and science behind that today.

Yeah, I think that part of our heart behind this, right guys, is prevention, right?

The fact that we can control what we consume as far as sugary drinks.

And so, the more knowledge we have around this, the better choices we can make, not just for ourselves, but for our kids and what we have in our homes, and even how to walk our kids through this process.

I used to work at a health department, and one of my jobs was to go set up booths, and they were on different health education topics, but my favorite one to set up was on sugary drinks.

And what I would do is I would just have this booth, and I would have various drinks, and I had cranberry juice, and I had Gatorade, and I had Dr.

Pepper, and Mountain Dew, and just like a wide variety where some people thought some were healthy, and other ones weren't.

And in front of all of the drinks, I actually had a physical bag of sugar, and it was how much sugar was in each drink.

And I would have everybody just hold it.

And I think that when we're drinking sugary drinks, we don't always equate the sugar that we're actually consuming.

Like liquid sugar doesn't feel the same as like if I was to eat a teaspoon of sugar, right?

And it's just shocking to feel the weight of what is six teaspoons feel like, or what is nine teaspoons feel like, or just what was in the various drinks.

And Christiana, I liked what you said about food labels, because that's where we can actually see where there are added sugars versus the naturally occurring sugars.

And that's just what we want to be more aware of.

Yeah, and really part of the big problem with these sugary beverages, when we talk about blood sugar, and blood sugar is so important, and it affects so many things.

It affects our hormones, it affects our emotions, our behavior.

There's so many things that are affected by our blood sugar levels.

And so when it comes to sugary beverages, those are readily digested by our body very quickly.

It just pretty much goes straight into our bloodstream, spikes that blood sugar level, affects our insulin levels.

And pretty much it just puts your body on this roller coaster kind of a thing with blood sugar.

And so you'll get that spike, and then you'll get a drop, and then you'll want to crave another sugary beverage to get your blood sugars back up again.

And when we have this constant process like this, that's what wreaks havoc on our metabolism and causes a whole host of problems in our body that can lead to issues like diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

And so that's why it's so important that we realize, okay, these drinks are affecting us more than we think.

And so our daily, even just being aware of this, it's having knowledge on these things is kind of pausing to think, okay, oh, what are the areas in my life that I have more sugar than I actually realize?

And maybe it's that morning Starbucks drink that you're used to getting the extra large size and not realizing how much sugar is actually in that drink, but just pausing to look at the ingredient label, see how much sugar you're actually consuming and how that might be affecting you more than you think.

So yeah, just some tips on that is something I do.

So I really like white chocolate mochas.

It's kind of like a treat that I have, but something I've learned to do, I don't have one every day.

I honestly probably have one once a week, and I order the smallest size.

And honestly, I just enjoy it.

I savor it.

And I think sometimes we think that more is better when it comes to our favorite thing.

But actually, what if we learn to just really savor and enjoy?

It's like, I get it, and it has the sugar in it and all of that.

But either getting the smaller size or learning to reduce the sugar.

You can actually ask for, hey, can I get it half the sweetness?

And they'll reduce the chocolate in your mocha, or they'll reduce all the different sweeteners in your drink, and maybe reducing that slowly over time.

Maybe that's your first step in reducing that sugar intake.

Did you, Lace, have anything you wanted to share on that?

One thing we've done in our home is we just like to eat fruit as our go-to snack, or because it's more nutritious.

And so sometimes we'll chop up fruit, or if we have things that are getting a little ripe, stick it in the freezer, and then we'll toss it in water.

Or we even, you know, we'll squeeze lemon in the water.

And so it kind of gives you that, like, okay, I feel like there's some flavor, but yet it's different than just drinking a plain glass of water with ice.

So that's something that we've just kind of done in our home, just to kind of be like, oh, this is fun, let's put some berries in, or let's, you know, squeeze some lemon.

And it gets our kids on board with that as well, too.

And they actually enjoy it in different combinations and trying different things.

Sometimes it's even cucumbers.

But that's definitely one thing, I think, just in terms of our hydration, because we are supposed to drink, you know, several ounces of water a day.

So if we're being aware of what our beverages are, and which ones have higher sugar content.

And then I've been opting for black coffee every now and then, too, which is harder for me.

I definitely do like some things in my coffee, but every now and then I'll trade that out.

Yeah, I think when you move to having like fruit water, that can be shocking if you're coming from daily soda.

I feel like that could be a very drastic jump where it doesn't taste as sweet to somebody who's used to just having regular water and then you add fruit and it feels sweeter.

So I feel like those small steps are so important to just work your way to that if you're coming from the sugary side down.

I think that's the key is small steps, right?

We talk about that with everything, is how do we take a small step?

And one of my favorite stories of a client that I worked with was this client who was having a Route 44 soda every single day.

And this client just, I mean, it literally was an addiction, right?

A Route 44 soda has 94 grams of sugar.

So that was just one of the drinks that this client was consuming every single day.

And so this person came to me wanting to change health behaviors and said, oh, I'm just going to cut out on my soda.

I know it's bad for me.

I know it's too much sugar, and I'm going to cut it out.

I'm going to just start tomorrow.

I won't have any.

And I just started to reflect on that and thought, well, that's not really sustainable, right?

But I just started asking questions like, well, what do you think is going to happen tomorrow when your body doesn't have that caffeine?

And even looking at sugar intake and what your body is used to having, and Christiana, how you said those pleasure cells, right?

Like your body is used to having this in the form of an addiction.

And so what happens when you just cut it off?

Like, it's not going to be a fun process, nor will it be sustainable.

And I just posed this question, and I said, what if you just had six sodas in a week instead of seven?

And the client was just like, well, that's not much of a goal.

Like, that sounds too easy, right?

And I was like, well, just try it.

Let's try six sodas a week for the next two to three weeks, and let's see how that goes.

And so they did that, and it was a win.

And so then we got to that point, and I said, okay, what if we went down to five?

And so they did that, and really felt like they were gaining success.

It really didn't seem like a goal to them, actually.

And then a few weeks later, we dropped down to four, and then a few weeks later, dropped down to three a week, and then a few weeks later, dropped down to two a week.

And you know, it's a long process.

Like, this was months.

This wasn't just like, cut out one today and whatever.

It was months.

And at the end of it, they were down to just having one a week.

And then even went to like one every couple of weeks.

And so it was just shocking.

And we actually sat down and calculated the grams of sugar and realized that this person cut out 78 pounds of sugar in a year.

So when you think about what that does for your health, it's crazy.

But what's so inspiring about that story is that the client just did small, small steps over time that didn't even feel like a goal.

And so that's what I feel like I want our moms to think about, right?

Is what's one small step we can take where it might not even feel like a drastic goal or a drastic change, but in a matter of a year, it will add up.

Yes.

That's so good, Danielle.

I just love that so much because, yeah, I think so much people are just like a little bit extreme when it comes to like, like he said, he's like, I'm just cutting it out all tomorrow.

And honestly, it does kind of that tends to throw our body into havoc and it just freaks out.

And so then, and then that's when people end up like going back to their old habits because they're like, that felt horrible.

I never want to try that again.

So I love that you were in that person's life at that moment to just kind of speak some wisdom.

And, you know, this podcast is also about just inviting God's grace into all of these processes.

So if maybe you're listening and you're like, Oh, I'm feeling like, man, I drink soda every single day.

And just know that, like, God wants to go on that journey with you.

I'm like, you can start those little steps of, like, you know, just reducing those a little bit over time and, like, having a goal, like, hey, in six months time, I want to have, like, maybe one every two weeks, like that person did.

And just setting that before you and letting that piece, like, come over you.

That's like, OK, I don't have to fix it all tomorrow.

Like, I can work on this over time.

I did want to speak real quick into, and we can discuss this, but just the concept of artificial sweeteners.

So, you know, I was hoping you were going to talk about this.

Yeah.

Because, you know, it's like one of those things that I've always felt like kind of like masquerades as an angel of light.

It's like, oh, we're still going to have the sweet thing and no calories, and I'm not going to gain weight from this.

And, you know, when I studied this in biochemistry, I remember in my undergrad, I remember just them talking about how it wreaks havoc on our gut and just kind of affects the biochemistry in our brains.

And just how it actually like in the absence of artificial sweeteners, your brain is like amplified that much more like I need it, I need it, and creates cravings even way stronger than even regular sugar sodas.

And yeah, so studies have even shown that it can increase cravings and weight gain, and that may even be worse than regular soda.

And in the UK, they introduced this like sugar tax.

Back when we lived there, we lived there for nearly nine years, and they introduced the sugar tax to try and reduce people's consumption of sugary beverages.

And what I ended up seeing, I was like, no, it was like the whole aisle was then full of like, sodas filled with artificial sweeteners, and there was like a small section with like natural cane sugar.

And I was like, no, this, no.

And so I just say that just to say that, you know, it's not like get out of jail free card.

I don't know, that's the wrong analogy.

But it's like artificial sweeteners really aren't, you know, what they, they're not all that they are marketed as, you know.

So, yeah, if you guys want to jump in, just on your thoughts there on artificial sweeteners.

Well, I feel like not all sugar is created equal.

And I think that sometimes we just see it in a food label, and it's all in the same place, right?

But not all sugar is equal.

And so I try to substitute honey for a lot of my sugars, just because there are other health benefits.

And, you know, I also feel like it's important to talk about glycemic index, and maybe we need a whole other podcast on this, but just, you know, if you use coconut sugar versus regular cane sugar, your blood sugar won't jump as drastically.

It has a lower glycemic index.

So maybe we'll unpack that later in a different episode, but just knowing, like, when you do make those substitutions, there are different forms of sugar to substitute with.

But going for the more natural ones versus artificial are definitely healthier.

And one thing I do just want to say and just blanket this whole episode is, if you are diabetic or you're working with a physician, please follow their advice.

Like, don't experiment with different sugars.

If you have a diet prescribed by your doctor, follow that.

Don't veer from it.

So, yeah, yeah.

Um, there was one other point I wanted to share on the, uh, let's see.

Well, like, like you were just talking.

Oh, so in America, you know, we have, um, high fructose corn syrup and everything and everything.

And, um, for some reason, I thought that they had banned it when I was in the UK.

I thought that it was out in the US, and I came here.

I was like, oh, no, no, still here.

Maybe that was just the UK they had abandoned, which they do.

And so just knowing that, like, keeping an eye out for that in our food labels, like, it's really, it really isn't good for our bodies.

It wreaks havoc in a lot of ways.

And so a lot of sodas really are made with that.

And, you know, every now and again, like, I do like Coke, but I probably have it once a year.

But when I have it, I like the Mexican Coke in the glass bottles, because it's real cane sugar.

It's different in different countries.

Yes.

In America, it's always high fructose corn syrup and everything.

Yes.

So it's like, if you're going to have something, have the good stuff with the real things in it, not the fake things.

That your body can just process, for sure.

Yes, exactly.

I think when we talk about glycemic index, we'll probably also touch on all the different names sugar has, because I think it's gotten so hidden when you look at a food label.

They're like, oh, I'm just looking for the word sugar.

And so if you don't know some of the other names, it could have three or four different kinds just on that ingredient list.

And then yeah, so I think we'll probably unpack that a little bit more another time too.

And one conversation I even have with our kids too, and we're trying to decide between beverages.

Like their go-to like splurge item would be like a lemonade, right?

So we're like, okay, so do we want to have like this super sugary lemonade, or do we want to have dessert?

So it's like we can have something really sweet and we can enjoy that.

But we should try to be close to what our body needs in a given day and sometimes outside of that, right?

But it's good just to be aware that a beverage still counts, right?

Yes.

It's not just a beverage.

So even if it says zero galleries with artificial sweeteners, it counts.

Yeah.

Oh, that's so good, you guys.

So, you know, ladies, we are just so glad that you listen to this.

We hope you feel encouraged today.

And we really hope that you can just look at what you're drinking and just find one small step to take.

Find one small substitution to make with honey or cane sugar or something over artificial sweeteners or sodas.

Just whatever it is in your household, we hope that you feel grace in that and grace to move slowly so that it can become a habit and just take one small step to becoming better.

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