ep 99
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Sheree Beaumont: [00:00:00] Your brain doesn't suddenly start go in going into what we call seeking mode.
So what that really highlights to us is that when we're having these diet foods or these sugar free foods. It's gonna encourage those cravings. It's actually gonna encourage you to eat more because you've had the false sense of sugar come in and the body is looking for where is the fuel actually landing, right?
Remember, sugar or any food that you actually put in that contains calories is communicating to the body that there's fuel coming in. We can utilize that sugar to go and train. We can utilize the sugar to, do whatever we need to do for brain function, right? There is a purpose to having sugar when ideally we're getting it from complex carbohydrates or fruits and things like that, where it's paired naturally with something that's gonna slow down the blood sugar spike.
Welcome to the Wild and Well Collective Podcast where we believe empowered health is your superpower. We have combined our expertise in medicine and nutrition to bring you the latest research expert insights and success stories of people on a mission to live a big life. So buckle up and get [00:01:00] ready to learn how to live wildly well.
Christa Elza: Welcome back to another episode of The Wild and Well Collective, and today we're gonna be talking about something that's on the list of people, of what people will say, okay, my New Year's resolution is to quit. Today we're gonna talk about diet sodas, so not just diet sodas. We're gonna kinda talk about the content of what's in diet sodas and why it just might not be the healthy option.
I think a lot of us do think like, oh, if I have. a diet Coke, it doesn't count. And people get addicted to these things. I know. I don't like Diet Coke. I like Coke Zero. That's kinda my go-to. I still like it, but you know, it was getting to the point where I had to have a soda every single day and I would go get a large, you know, even if it was diet or for a while it was half, I would do half regular half diets.
I thought, well, it's got a little bit of sweet, but it's got, this good mix. And the more I dove into it, I thought there's something to this that's not healthy. I mean, [00:02:00] it's straight up chemicals. We know that. I mean, sodas of all kinds. So for me, I never bought into that, oh, I'm just gonna quit for a month, or I'm gonna quit for, I'm just cutting sodas outta my life.
It took me really playing mind games with myself of like, okay, let's just say we do it for two weeks and what, how would I replace these things? It really, doing that did help me replace more water. Part of it was because I was doing that instead of water, so I wouldn't drink water all day.
I would have coffee. I would have hardly ever tea. It was usually coffee or sodas and then here and there, some water. But I really knew that I was chronically dehydrated because that's just how I live my life. And so I started telling myself, okay, you can't have soda. Like, you can't, when you go through a drive through, you're not getting your soda like you've gotta do water.
Or I would replace a lot of times with tea or bubbly water. That was a big one to help me with the process. So, yeah, I found like I hit the two week mark and then I [00:03:00] was able to hit the one month mark and then over time I hit the year mark and really, soda has completely exited my life for the most part.
I mean, I still have 'em here and there. It's not like it's a hard, fast rule, but I was finally able to change that habit. And so I think a lot of people don't even know why should you, why should you even attempt to cut out sugar? I mean, diet. Sugar and sodas, but then also even the diet sodas, like why,
Sheree Beaumont: It's so funny, like, and I'm not saying it's not a problem in New Zealand, but the diet soda or just the soda culture even here in the US is crazy. And obviously you get them in such big portions and it's on offer every time you go out. And like, even, the few times we've ordered takeout here, I do, I just order the water.
I've. I grew up in a household where soda just was an absolute treat. We call it, we not call it soda.com, but essentially like, and so if you were to have it, the other thing is we're not even dealing with just the sugar [00:04:00] content, whether it's diet or not. In the sucralose or not, you're dealing with a lot of the times there's caffeine, like you said, it's a whole bunch of chemicals and.
For me, it's just not worth putting in my body. I would much rather have some of the alternatives. I've always been a sparkling water person, love that. I'll add all sorts of flavors. And I think now with electrolytes being such an integral part of people's day and people really starting to get on board of the electrolyte train, it makes drinking water so much easier.
And to your point, it. It's if you feel like you're hydrating when you're having a soda, you feel like you're, putting more liquid into your body. So how bad can it really be, but you're not realizing the side effects. We can go down the rabbit hole and we'll talk a little bit about the, the negatives that come with drinking soda particularly diet soda in terms of, your blood sugar regulation in terms of your appetite, in terms of your gut health.
There is so much going on, but just. We're not coming at this from a, you need to give it up, but just giving you some in like indication and education of what's really going on in [00:05:00] your body. I know for me, like I've got a number of friends, they're like, well, it's just Diet Coke. It's just Coke Zero. Like what's the difference?
It doesn't really matter. At least I'm not having the sugar. I remember buying an actual Coke 'cause I really, really wanted it. And again, I will give my body what I want when I really feel like it. And he was in absolute state of shock. He's like, you're gonna have those calories. Like why would you not just get.
Like a non-sugar one, and I was like, well, I know and I get a headache. The second I have a diet soda, I also then crave ridiculously crave sweetss and sugars. So it's almost like it feeds that cycle to keep you craving again, the chemicals that are in there keep you craving more suc, low sweet. I can't remember the exact number.
But a lot of the sweeteners are like a hundred, 400, a thousand times sweeter than sugar itself. So we can see how this can start to be a bit of a problem if you are trying to train yourself to stay away from drinks that are, or like from food that's really, really high in [00:06:00] sugar. Like I know when I was doing.
My bodybuilding era essentially. And like I was cutting hot, I would have a salad with a vanilla Coke zero. That was my go-to. And I wondered why I still always wanted more food. And so we're gonna unpack this a little bit more today and look at what really goes on in your body. Do you wanna start us off with the study that we found, Krista?
Christa Elza: Yeah, the study that we were looking at, it included 75 people. They divided it into three groups. So one had sucralose, which was a diet soda. One group had sucrose, which was real sugar, and then one had water. That was the control. And I think it was really interesting because the sucralose group had a 8%, they actually looked at the brain and there was an 8% change, like more change more.
What's the word? More charge, I guess, in the brain with the fake sugar with the [00:07:00] sucralose. So it actually activated the brain more than real sugar. The other thing that real sugar did was increase our natural satiety peptides, which is GLP one, which we've talked about in other podcasts. And GLP one is a natural peptide that are found in a lot of, the medications now.
But the purpose of GLP one in our body is to cut off that hunger or craving and those cravings, right? So real sugar does that, but sucralose doesn't, which is crazy, which is probably why you had more of the cravings even after you'd had a meal drinking the diet soda. The sucralose did not.
Trigger the brain. It was still in seeking mode. So because that GLP one was not released, the hunger wasn't stopped, or the cravings for sweets didn't stop. And so the brain kept in seeking mode. So it was an interesting find with those three groups of people. The other thing that sucralose was found to do, which is in the diet sodas or in diet.
Candies [00:08:00] and anything that's trying to replace real sugar. When it says sugar free, it's most likely replaced by something like that, like sup lows which unfortunately doesn't really stop the sugar craving. You think it would because it tastes so sweet, but it really doesn't because after that's done, you still want more.
They also found that in the gut microbiome of these patients that in, or the study group that had the sucralose, there was more inflammation because there was impaired glucose intolerance or tolerance in the gut. So it actually decreased lactobacillus in the gut, which is a probiotic or a microbio, what's the word I'm looking for?
It is a. Bacteria, not a probiotic, a bacteria that we want to have flourishing in our gut. And the sucralose actually found to decrease that amount of commensal bacteria that we really do need. So I thought that study was interesting to see that there is an impact on our body negatively, even though we think we're cutting some calories.
And yes, in the moment [00:09:00] you're maybe saving 150 to 200 calories depending on how much you're drinking or more. Neither, both of them can cause inflammation. Let's be real. If you're drinking your sugar, you'll create inflammation in the body and spikes in your blood sugar. I mean, that's bottom line, but the alternative isn't that much better.
You're just creating inflammation in a different way, and you're creating that vicious cycle of cravings in your brain. So, pick your poison, know what you're doing. But yeah, it's either one there. There's not really a better option per se.
Sheree Beaumont: Yeah, and I just wanna highlight what you said around the fact that the sucralose, which is the diet stuff that we would find in so many different things, does not have the same.
Blood sugar response. In fact, it drives more of that craving, right? Because whilst the real sugar does drive inflammation, and I am not here, we are not here advocating for you to consume high levels of sugar like you would in a soda. That is going to have a lot of disruption on your gut microbiome, on [00:10:00] your hormones, on your health, on your mental state, everything that comes with that.
We know that sugar is technically perceived as poisoned by the body. This real sugar, if you were going to reach for a soda, the real sugar does cause the blood sugars to spike the instance to spike and the GLP one to spike. But you get the society from that. Your brain doesn't suddenly start go in going into what we call seeking mode.
So what that really highlights to us is that when we're having these diet foods or these sugar free foods. It. It's gonna encourage those cravings. It's actually gonna encourage you to eat more because you've had the false sense of sugar come in and the body is looking for where is the fuel actually landing, right?
Remember, sugar or any food that you actually put in that contains calories is communicating to the body that there's fuel coming in. We can utilize that sugar to go and train. We can utilize the sugar to, do whatever we need to do for brain function, right? There is a purpose to having sugar when ideally we're getting it [00:11:00] from complex carbohydrates or fruits and things like that, where it's paired naturally with something that's gonna slow down the blood sugar spike.
But your brain's actually looking for the fuel, and when it doesn't get the fuel coming in, when it's getting this false sense of taste, it's actually in hyper alert mode wanting more. And so it will encourage you to eat more, which is rather crazy. And when we think about, a lot of us are trying to, we, a lot of us are doing this from a, what we've been told or perceived as a healthy thing.
It's not just the diabetics, it's not just people that have been told they've got blood sugar issues. When they did this study, what they found is that people, particularly females. And those that are already struggling with obesity or low insulin sensitivity, actually had the strongest hunger responses.
So that seeking energy that I was talking about really ties back into this factor. So if you are someone that is really struggling to lose weight, or you've been told you're insulin resistant, or you're being told you need to work on your insulin sensitivity because [00:12:00] maybe your metabolism isn't working.
Or maybe you're just a woman sitting here listening to this podcast and you're like, I'm choosing a diet soda. I'm choosing the Coke zero, or I'm choosing the sugar free option here. But like thinking that you're doing the right thing only to find, like, this is why your hunger, like your sugar cravings have gone through the roof.
This is why you're not making any progress in losing the weight because you're actually feeling like you're out of control once you've finished having that and, and what you then end up seeking, it ends up disrupting our hormonal rhythms, our dopamine release. To the point that. It is exacerbated even more so in females.
'cause we know that , this hormonal picture really does govern our metabolic, like our metabolism and our, and the way that's all functioning. So it was, there was another study that actually showed this specifically that women were linked to this brain hunger activation from these artificial sweetness.
And I will be very clear, we are talking about the artificial ones here. So things like your super loss, in New Zealand, I think it's the nine five oh and the 9 5 1. Like look up what the [00:13:00] names. Or the numbers, which is where they're very, very cheeky around this. In fact, they rebranded in New Zealand like the Coke Zero for a while, and tried to remarket it as this whole new thing.
And all they did was change the name, literally the name being on the ingredient list to the number. That is all they did. They remarketed it, pushed it back out there as if to say, it's a healthier alternative when in reality it's not. So cluing yourself up with what the names for these artificial sweeteners might be, can be really, really helpful when you are picking up a healthier alternative.
'cause there are also a number of sugar free, there's one that I found recently, sugar free sodas that are naturally sweetened with monk fruit, have no sugar in them at all, taste amazing and aren't loaded with a whole bunch of chemicals. So there's definitely options out there.
Christa Elza: Yeah. In terms of other options, I think we have to replace one habit with another.
I don't think it's, feasible to say, just cut it out and only drink plain water. May [00:14:00] not have a lot of success there. So you mentioned monk fruit, other, natural sweeteners. And this doesn't go just for sodas because these can be added to all sorts of diet or sugar free, low calorie types of foods, drinks, teas, whatever.
But you wanna look for more like. Raw honey maple syrup. Monk fruit. So these will increase your blood sugar. They are a very simple carb, but they're more natural to your body. So your body's gonna recognize it, your brain's gonna recognize it. Your brain is going to say, okay, we've had enough.
We're done, we're full. Whereas with, some of these OSE and other fake sugars, you're not gonna get that like we've explained. The other thing that you know you may wanna ease into is just starting to do cutting back on sweetness. So let's say with tea instead of a full sweet tea, you're cutting back to unsweet tea.
Then you're at water, but slowly getting your brain used to completely unsweetened. Drinks, especially drinking your calories is such a calorie waste in my opinion. [00:15:00] Like really just chew your calories, don't drink your calories. So the more you go unsweet your brain really does adapt to where you actually crave.
Even things like plain water, way more than you did before. I always find it interesting when I've gone for a big break without any sodas at all, and then I'll drink like a canned soda, how sweet it is. But when you're in the mode of drinking one a day or often you don't recognize like how sweet it is, right?
So that is a brain thing. You will adapt to it. So those are just some tips to take what you're currently drinking, assess it, recognize what it's actually doing to your body. It's taking the place of where you can be hydrating yourself. Mm-hmm. Now, obviously live your life. I live by the 80 20 rule.
80% of the time you follow rules. 20% of the time you do what you want. But you know, for the most part, you want to be consuming water unsweet things when you're drinking throughout the day.
Sheree Beaumont: Yeah, a hundred percent. And like having some of those alternatives around, like you said, there is the [00:16:00] monk fruit.
And monk fruit is actually reducing inflammation in the body as well. There's actually so many benefits to consuming these natural sweeteners. Stevia gets a bit of a mixed bag review. Some people hate the aftertaste, some people don't. But for me, I'm like, as long. It's a high quality source. It's natural.
I think that's one of the key things is your body knows what to do with it. It may not technically come with calories, but your body knows how to break it down. It knows what it is. It's communicating the right things to your system versus the disruption to the microbiome, the inflammation that it may cause.
So just being aware, and I think this just comes back to, we did a earlier podcast episode. Quite a while ago now, we were talking about the red food dyes and things that are just put into your food that you just have no idea the damage it can cause. And so just being educated around this knowing to look, like you said, there's not.
There are so many things out there that are loaded with artificial flavors, sweeteners, colors and just being aware when you pick up a packet, like it's so easy. And [00:17:00] I'll even say this from firsthand experience, I have picked up drinks before and been like, oh, perfect. That says this on the label. You get at home or you start drinking it and you are like, what the heck?
Or there was a probiotic drink or prebiotic drink that I picked up the other day. My friend picked up a different one. I checked the label. I was like, yeah, this is good to go. We've got two grams of sugar in it. Totally fine. That's, I don't worry about two grams of sugar. It's not gonna bother me. I love my sparkling drinks.
We were driving, she's like, damn, this is good. We turned hers over a completely different flavor, 15 grams of sugar. So like again, just. Taking your health into your own hands and knowing that there is an abundance of options out there, but just check the back of the labels. And also, with all the big changes that are happening in the food industry at the moment, there are different companies buying different companies and ingredients do change over time.
So just because something may have been really clean a little while ago, we're starting to see shifts where companies are trying to cut costs and what was once a organic or clean brand is now being. [00:18:00] Not so clean or there are other random ingredients being added into it. So we share this just to empower you with information that is really what we're about here.
And like Krista said, it's not an all or nothing. I just said that I have Kohler from time to time, but there's also so many other options out there for
Christa Elza: sure. And I think, you made a good point, the concoction, the ingredients can change depending on who owns the company. You never know.
And really this is just to bring awareness to the difference between the sucrose, the sucralose, how it affects the brain, how it affects your metabolism, because what we consume gives. Chemical messages to our brain, to our cells in our body. And so, this is just a reminder to chew your calories.
Don't drink your calories. Don't be fooled into thinking that all diet drinks and sodas and artificial sweeteners are actually better for you because in the long run, they just might not be. So I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Wild and Well Collective, and we can't wait to see you [00:19:00] on the next one.
If you love this episode, be sure to leave us a review, download, and subscribe. If you know someone that could also benefit from this conversation, please share. That's how we Spread Empowered Health. We'll see you again for another episode of the Wild and Wild Collective.
