All right.

I just want to um welcome everyone today to our The Truth About Carb session with Jacqueline Fedora.

She's back.

Um welcome back.

Thank you for coming back to see us.

Um, great topic for today for diabetes awareness month.

I think you'll enjoy the materials.

Um, I think I might have seen some of this presentation back in the day, and I'm a little bit updated quite a bit, but um, and with that, I do want to announce um a new program that we're gonna be offering here at the city to employees as a part of the wellness program.

Um, Jacqueline's gonna be visiting monthly and working with any employees one-on-one for sessions around nutrition.

If you're interested, um, it will use your insurance, um, which should be covered at 100%.

Um, we've got anthems on board, they know about it.

Um, it also will work with other insurances as well.

Um, we just need to, we're gonna run things, codes through and just you know, make sure if there's anything, Jacqueline will let you know, but it should be at 100%.

Um, but we just want it to be safe, and so we'll we'll just say that and leave it there for now, and we'll we'll see what happens.

So um, that begins in December.

So there's already a couple of rooms that have been booked, which is super exciting because I just got out there the other day.

Um, I have flyers if anyone else is interested in the program.

Jacqueline can give you some feedback about how the sessions work.

Um, they're here on site, so it's really quick, it's easy, it's right in the workplace, makes it convenient.

And um, if anyone's interested, grab one of these on the way out.

All right, all yours.

Okay, thanks.

Hi everyone.

How's everyone doing?

Good.

You ready to talk about carbohydrates?

Who here likes carbs?

I do too.

That might sometimes people are like, you do?

I'm like, yes, I do.

Of course.

How do you not?

So we're gonna talk about all about carbohydrates, not only just what are they, where you find them, processed first, unprocessed.

I'm gonna get into a little bit more of the digestion of carbohydrates.

What happens when you put it in your mouth, and then all the things that happen after that?

Because that really will help you understand which carbs are going to help promote energy for you, what carbs are gonna help promote digestion and bowel movements and things like that that are really really important for your health.

Okay, if you have any questions, let me know.

But we're gonna talk a lot about the process and unprocessed carbohydrates.

We're gonna get into different types of fiber, like I said, I'm gonna show you digestion, so what's going to happen in your body, and then we're gonna get into all the different sugars and sugar substitutes.

What's good, what's bad, and I'm putting it in quotes because I really don't like the words good and bad when it comes to this stuff, but it is just a succinct way to talk about them.

Um, but and then if if I if there's one I don't mention and you want to talk about it, you just let me know.

Okay, so first I have a true or false question for you.

True or false.

20 ounces of regular soda and six cups of strawberries have the same amount of carbohydrates.

What do you think?

True.

Could anyone drink 20 ounces of regular soda in a sitting?

You don't think so?

The volume of 20 ounces?

Yes, that's what I mean.

Like that's a reasonable amount of liquid to drink in a couple hours, right?

Could you eat six cups of strawberries?

No.

I probably mean I probably could, right?

Like if you forced yourself, you probably could, but you would feel so full.

You might even feel sick, right?

So this is volumetrics, which is something we've kind of talked a little bit about before, but the volume of six cups of strawberries and then the liquid of 20 ounces of soda, even though that does have the same amount of carbohydrates in them, which is about 65-ish grams, um, feels very different in our stomachs.

Okay.

That's what we're gonna talk about today.

The foods we're eating, not just good or bad, because I really don't like talking about carbs as good or bad.

It is truly more the amount, the type in the timing of those things.

Okay, how can you almost like optimize those three things amount type and timing for the most amount of energy that you need?

Okay, so that's what we're gonna talk about.

Okay, so what are carbohydrates?

Carbohydrates are a macro nutrient.

Have you ever heard the word macronutrient?

There are three things that we can get energy from.

Those three things are called macronutrients, those are carbs, proteins, and fats.

We call carbs are a primary source of energy, meaning if carbs are available, something you just ate, that is your body's preferred method of energy.

Okay, if they are available, that's what your body's going to burn for energy first.

Primary source of energy, okay.

Every single cell in our body needs carbohydrates, okay, after we eat them and digest them and they get into our bloodstream and get into every cell of our body, that's what our cells use for energy.

Um, most people, most people, average healthy adults should consume at least 40-ish percent of the total calories they eat in the day should be coming from carbohydrates, okay.

And then additional carbs might be needed depending on different medical issues going on, depending on your activity, endurance, um, how many hours you're awake during the day, things like that.

Okay.

Here are sources of carbohydrates.

We have all of our grains, okay, like wheat, oats, quinoa, beans, and legumes, those have great protein in them, but they also have starches, carbohydrates.

Fruit, dairy products have carbs, it's called lactose.

That's the natural sugar found in dairy, that is a carbohydrate.

Vegetables, of course, the Halloween candy and the sugar and sweets and stuff like that.

And then beer and wine are is the alcohol that also has carbohydrates in them.

Okay, not all carbs are created equal.

And again, I I don't like good carb versus bad carb because there is room in a healthy diet for everything, it's more the amount, the type, the timing.

Okay.

All right, now fiber.

Fiber is a type of carbohydrate.

Did anyone know that?

Type of carbohydrate that is in digestible.

What does that mean?

You chew it and chew it and chew it, it goes into your stomach.

Your stomach starts breaking it down, but it does not get any smaller than that.

It does not get absorbed into our bloodstream and used for any type of energy, like other carbs, proteins, and fats do.

Okay, but it is so important for our health.

Um, found in plant foods only, okay.

So, does chicken have fiber?

No.

Does Coca-Cola have fiber?

No.

Does olive oil?

No.

Only plant foods, okay?

So that would be like your fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, seeds, beans, and legumes.

Okay.

Most adults need about 25 grams per day.

30 would be even better for most healthy adults.

Um, and the average American gets about eight grams of fiber per day.

So very, very, very low.

I work with people one-on-one about fiber a lot.

Because most people, when the topic comes up when we start talking about fiber, I'll say, Do you think you get enough fiber a day?

And they're like, Yeah, I have a salad for lunch.

Say, okay, what's in your salad?

They say, like three cups of iceberg lettuce, um, uh like three pieces of cucumber, three cherry tomatoes, you know, stuff like that.

There's nothing wrong with any of that.

Those just aren't particularly going to get you to 30 grams of fiber in a day.

You just need more, okay.

What does that more look like?

Oatmeal for breakfast, maybe some roasted sweet potatoes in that salad for lunch with some chickpeas at dinner.

Maybe it's some quinoa with some carrots and some roasted broccoli or something like that.

Making sure that there is fiber present every time you're eating during the day.

Okay.

Okay, so which type of fiber should you choose?

There's two main types, soluble and insoluble.

I want to teach you about these two and and the differences between them, but most people do not need to leave here and say, I need to make sure I get this amount of soluble fiber, and I need to make sure I get this amount of insoluble fiber.

Usually, if you just focus on getting plant foods every time you eat fruits, veggies, grains, nuts, seeds, things like that, you'll be okay.

All right, but I want to teach because the mechanisms of the two different ones are a little different.

So soluble gets gel-like.

Okay, it helps lower cholesterol.

So if your doctor has ever said to you, we're gonna watch the total cholesterol, or you're looking at your labs, which bravo if you are, and you're seeing your LDL cholesterol kind of creep up year after year.

It was 120 and then it was 130, and now it's 140.

Now it's 150, and your doctor says, okay, we're gonna watch that.

This is the type of fiber that can help lower that number, okay?

Soluble.

Where do you find that?

Oats is a huge source of soluble fiber.

Beans, apples, citrus fruits, and flax seeds, insoluble fiber, a little different, does not dissolve in water, so it doesn't get gel like, it's more bulking, okay?

Um, helps prevent constipation, and then this is more whole grains, nuts, seeds, and vegetables, okay?

Both are very important.

Yes.

I think of that, so that the question is about uh fiber supplements.

I think of that as a really good insurance policy.

If for some reason you cannot get these types of foods in in a day, whether it's a volume issue or an allergy issue or something like that, yeah, a fiber supplement can help bridge the gap of getting you from maybe 20 to 30 grams a day.

Um, should it be used in place of eating these things?

No, it shouldn't.

It could in the short term, like, oh, I've just, you know, just went on a big trip and I'm a little constipated and just not to my normal, haven't been eating my regular foods and regular amounts.

Okay, I'm gonna have it a couple days this week and just try to get myself back in order.

That's fine, relatively safe.

I like celium husk is one that I really like.

You could throw it in a smoothie, it doesn't dissolve in water like beautifully to just put it in, stir it up and drink it plain.

But if you put it in a smoothie bowl type of thing, or a yogurt parfait or something, then it's fine.

Um, and they do make capsules of it too, if you didn't want just the powder.

So there are a couple different ways you can do it, but again, that's it's just an insurance policy, it's a supplement to help the gaps, not um, I wouldn't rely on it.

Okay, so now we're gonna talk about unprocessed carbohydrates.

Unprocessed carbohydrates are carbs as close to nature as possible, okay?

Um, fruits, veggies, whole grains, like the actual grain, which is different than whole grain products, which we'll talk about, beans, and then yogurt and milk too.

Okay.

Why are these so much more nutrient dense for us?

Is because when we eat them, they're not just carbs alone.

There is also the fiber, protein in most in some cases, vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, antioxidants.

There's all these other things that are beneficial for our health, versus if you look at just all-purpose flour.

Okay.

Does anyone like all purpose flour?

No.

Have you ever tasted it by itself?

No.

But if you mix it with butter and sugar and bake it at 350 with chocolate chips in it, like, yes, of course, it's much better.

So all-purpose flour is like a pure carb.

Okay, and I say flour instead of sugar, because of course, if I say sugar, everyone's gonna say, yes, I like that.

So it's just the carbohydrate.

There are no vitamins and minerals.

There is no fiber.

There is next to no protein in it or or healthy fats or anything like that.

And it doesn't taste that good.

Okay.

It's not that it's bad, it's just the amount, the type, and the timing.

This should be the where the majority of that 40% of our calories should be coming from carbohydrates, should be coming from more of these.

Okay.

Yes.

I'm sorry.

Are we going to get these fall up plants?

Yes, I think you're gonna send the amount.

Yeah, Christy already has it.

Okay, so processed carbohydrates.

So, like the all-purpose flour, okay, they take the grain from nature, they strip it of the bran, in this case, if we're talking just about um grains, very little to no fiber left.

Sometimes it goes through other stages of processing, like being bleached, so that that white color is really vibrant.

Sometimes it's enriched, meaning through processing, any vitamins and minerals that were pulled out from like the bran on the outside of the whole grain or something, anything that they've pulled out, they can kind of decide which ones they want to add back in.

This happens a lot with breakfast cereals.

Have you ever seen a box of breakfast cereal that says like high in vitamin C?

A great source of iron, things like that.

They can just tailor those things.

Um, what they're adding back in.

So enriched means it was there to begin with, and then fortified means it was never there to begin with.

So, for example, breakfast cereal doesn't have vitamin D in it, but sometimes you'll see fortified with vitamin D.

And it's just because they've recognized that the population is low in something like that, and here's a way we can get it added in.

Um, again, doesn't taste very good.

Think of that all-purpose flour by itself.

So it usually needs other sugar, sugar substitutes, other things in that in there to make it taste good.

Very good.

I'm just curious about the quality of the enriched and fortified.

So is there like fake vitamin D that they can add in, or is it man-made vitamin D or is it at natural vitamin D?

Like all those fortified.

No, if anything's added in processing, it's synthetic, which doesn't necessarily make it bad.

If you take a multivitamin over the counter, that's all synthetic too.

That's that doesn't necessarily make it a bad thing.

Um when it comes to processing of flowers in particular, then yes, there's different, I don't know if you want to call it levels, but there is different ways they can process the grain.

Sometimes it retains more nutrients than it does in other ways they're processing the grain.

For example, stone ground is a way that they can preserve, even if the bran is taken off, they can still preserve some of those vitamins and minerals.

You know, how much?

I don't I don't know.

I think it's negligible, but they put it on the package that it still retains the nutrients.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Okay, so examples of processed carbs, instant oats, okay.

The deal with oats is really they're very good for you, but the faster they cook, the faster they digest, which means the faster they get into your bloodstream and will raise your blood sugar, which we'll talk more about.

Um, and it just goes through more stages of processing.

Okay.

Does anyone eat steel cut oats?

That would be the second level of processing for oats, if you want to kind of think of it that way.

So when oats are grown, um, and just the oat is taken off the plant, it's called oat groats.

Has anyone ever heard of that?

Very, very hard to eat.

Almost no one eats them.

You would need like a pressure cooker for 40 minutes.

I mean, very hard to cook and eat.

Steel cut oats takes the oat groat and it's cut into smaller pieces.

So now you've got that cut side where water can get in and actually cook it.

And they're still fairly long cooking, but not like oak groats are.

Then after steel cut oats would be old fashioned, so they take the bran off the outside of the oat and they roll it flat.

Then it would be quick oats where they roll it a little flatter, or sometimes they're cut in half, and then it would be instant oats, which would be if you put the old fashioned oats in a food processor and pulse it up a few times.

So they're bits of it, and then if you keep pulsing it up, it would turn to oat flour.

So that's kind of like the stages of the oats.

Um the least processed, the better.

However, oats really are good for you.

That even if you were like, yeah, just can't stomach steel cut oats, but I could certainly eat quick oats, then that would be great.

You your health would most likely benefit from that.

Um, wheat or multi-grain products.

Does anyone know what I mean by that?

Like wheat thins, 100% whole wheat bread, things like that, where it's not the actual grain anymore.

We've taken that grain and then have made it into something else.

Just more stages of processing there.

Pasta cracker, cereals, most of your come in a box or a bag, um, highly processed crunchy air, snack food sort of things.

Okay, so how do we digest carbohydrates?

What happens?

Digestion hap starts in your mouth.

Okay.

When people, I work a lot with digestive things, and when people say, I'm bloated, I my the food feels heavy in my stomach.

I don't feel like I'm digesting food very well.

Um, my first question is how long are you chewing it?

Because if you don't feel like you're digesting food every very well, probably not, but we need to start where digestion starts, which is your mouth.

Okay.

Chewing your food really well is so important.

Does anyone know how many times you should chew your food?

Like 20 something.

Has anyone ever tried that?

Can like kind of make you gag.

I mean, it's a lot, but it's a great exercise to see, hmm, when I'm speeding through a meal, am I really am I chewing my food four times, or am I really chewing it until it is almost liquid, which is what it should be?

Okay, so it is kind of a uh eye-opening exercise, but that is exactly where digestion starts in your mouth, mechanically through your teeth, grinding the food and making it into smaller pieces, but then also physiologically with your saliva.

Your saliva has enzymes in it that starts to break down the food too.

Okay, so the longer the food sits in your mouth reasonable amount of time, the better.

This is starting your digestion, okay?

And you swallow it, goes down your esophagus and into your stomach.

Okay, that happens fairly quickly.

Then it sits in your stomach where you've got um stomach acids and things that are all starting to break the food down even more, okay?

Then it goes into your small intestine and then your large intestine and then elimination.

When you have carbohydrates, and you die, you you chew the food, you digest you it goes down to your esophagus, it's in your stomach, starts moving into your small intestine through the lower part of your stomach into your small intestine.

That's where glucose starts to be absorbed.

Okay.

Does everyone know what glucose is?

If you don't, the glucose is the smallest sugar.

So you eat the carbohydrates, whether they're starches or sugars, when it breaks down into the smallest thing it's going to get into, that's called glucose.

Glucose is now small enough to be absorbed from your small intestine into your bloodstream.

And if you heard of glucose in your bloodstream before, that's blood sugar.

Okay.

So you eat the carbohydrate, you digest it, it gets small enough to now be absorbed into your bloodstream, and it starts to raise your blood sugar.

Okay.

That's not necessarily a bad thing.

Okay, that is how your body takes sugar and brings it into your cells for energy.

It's got has to get into your bloodstream first, and that's how that happens.

When we have different types of carbohydrates, the rate in which we dig how fast we digest those foods and they get into our bloodstream is different.

Okay.

Unprocessed carbohydrates, because of the fiber and sometimes protein and other things, take a longer time to get to the formation of glucose and then into our bloodstream.

So what does that look like?

More steady, sustained energy.

There's no sugar high and crash type of thing.

When we have straight sugar, so a simple processed carbohydrate, then this whole thing happens really quickly and our blood sugar comes up really fast.

Okay.

When the sugar starts getting into our bloodstream, our body produces a hormone from our pancreas called insulin.

Insulin is a fat storage hormone.

It takes that sugar and brings it into our cells for energy.

That's a wonderful thing.

We have to have that happen.

Now, if our cells do not need the energy, we store it, short-term and long-term storage.

Short-term storage would be our muscles and our liver in the form of glycogen.

And then long-term storage, anyone want to guess where we store that?

That body fat.

That would be our long-term storage.

So if our cells don't need energy and our muscles don't need energy and our liver doesn't need any energy because we're well fed, then the excess goes to stored body fat.

Okay.

Any questions on that?

Okay, I have a picture.

If you wanted to see what it looks like.

I thought this was a good representation of what a what happens in digestion when you have fiber for when you don't have fiber.

This is the rate in which, like how fast are we really digesting this food?

And why is that important?

The rate in which we are digesting all of this stuff.

Two reasons.

One, energy, instead of the sugar high and then crash later.

And then two, our appetite, because most of us, when we eat a meal, the intention is for that meal to keep us full until the next meal, where there's very little to no reason to snack in between, because we know in four hours we're gonna have that next meal.

If we eat a meal that doesn't have enough fiber in it or protein or healthy fat, and we're getting this quicker digestion, that's the scenario where people are like, yeah, I'm a grazer, I'm a grazer.

Every hour and a half or two hours, I just feel like I need a little something.

I need a little snack.

Has anyone ever felt like that before?

I certainly have.

Fiber and protein are great ways to fix that, okay, so that you are satiated.

You don't have that breakthrough hunger in between your meals.

Okay.

Okay, so now looking at just purely blood sugar, okay.

When we eat a meal that has processed carbohydrates, or if we just eat a meal that's carbs alone, there's little to no fiber, protein, and healthy fat in the meal.

This is what happens to our blood sugar.

It spikes up pretty high in a short amount of time, and then what goes up must come down.

And when this crosses down here, this red line, that's that feeling where people will describe like all willpowers out the door, where you walk into your house and it's five o'clock and you have nothing ready for dinner, and where do you go first?

The snack cabinet, because you're just hungry.

Okay, we don't want that to happen.

When we eat carbohydrates with fiber and protein and healthy fat, we get that more sustained energy where you might be hungry, but you're not like I need the box of wheatins right now.

You can wait, okay?

But you're ready for your next meal.

So this is what it looks like in this is what it looks like in just looking at blood sugar.

Um other thing I want to talk about that I do see people struggle with is something called rebound hypoglycemia, where they are eating meals that just are mainly carbohydrates for whatever reason, that's their taste preference, or what's easy or what's available to them.

And then when they get to that one two-hour mark, um, it's not just that they feel hungry, they feel sick.

They feel dizzy, lightheaded, shaky, like I just need sugar right now.

Okay, and through diet and and meal planning and stuff, those are certainly symptoms that we can um resolve or at least make a lot better.

Okay, so now on to whole grains.

Now, this is the actual grain that I'm talking about and not the whole grain products.

And I've kind of mentioned this a few times, but here's the visual of it.

When the whole grain is intact, it has these three pieces to it the bran, the germ, and the endosperm.

Through processing, the first thing that gets pulled off is this bran.

Okay.

This brand is where the majority of the fiber is.

Okay.

When they pull that off, this germ is now exposed to oxygen, the air.

This is where all the really nutrient dense parts of the grain are, like the vitamins and iron and things like that.

Because it's now exposed to the air, it goes bad really quickly.

Okay.

So through processing, they say, yeah, we we gotta pull that off too, because these foods need to be more shelf stable.

We they can't go wheat thins, can't go bad.

Okay, they need to stay for at least a year or so.

So now we're just left with the endosperm, and that's really just what we know of as like the white flour.

Okay, but that's what happens through the processing.

So when I talk about whole grains, I'm talking about all three of these parts are still intact.

They're the most nutrient dense type of grain when all three of those pieces are intact, high in fiber, antioxidants, phytochemicals, like I said, the iron, the B vitamins, really helps reduce our risk of chronic diseases, lots of different chronic diseases because of those nutrients that are still intact and not fiber.

Okay, and makes us feel really full.

Now, processed grains, this is when we start stripping away those layers, contain a small amount of whole grains, which usually makes us feel like we are having whole grains because of the fancy language they put on the front of the package, or like you know, a nice big bright star that says one time I saw something that said 59 grams of whole grains per serving.

I was like, it's a lot.

Not many people need 59 grams in a sitting, and they were making it seem like it was um protein or something.

Um, we've already talked about fortified foods and what that means.

And do I think processed carbs and processed whole grain products are bad?

No, I don't.

There is a place for them.

However, come back and still when you find yourself wanting to call those things bad, come back to the amount, the type, and the timing.

Okay, because that's what matters more than just saying it's bad.

Okay, I have another true or false question for you.

You can tell if a product is a whole grain by the front of the label.

What do you think?

No.

If there is any whole grain in there, then they're gonna write it on the front of the label, okay, because it's catchy, makes it sound really, really, really healthy.

Instead, you want to look at the ingredients, okay.

If the first ingredient is a whole grain, like it will say 100% whole wheat as the first ingredient for bread or something, then you know that that is going to be a little bit better, a little bit more nutrient dense than some other ones, but you have to come down to the ingredients versus anything else.

So when I'm talking about grains, I'm not just talking about wheat.

Okay, it's it we're all very familiar with wheat, it's kind of easy to use that as an example, but there's others.

There's grains that have gluten, and there's grains that have no gluten.

Um, does everyone know what gluten is?

No.

Gluten is a protein, a single protein found in wheat, barley, and rye.

Okay.

Um, there's many people that have sensitivities to gluten, or of course, their celiac disease that where your body kind of attacks its own small intestine in the presence of gluten, but it doesn't mean not every grain has gluten in them.

Okay, so group gluten-free grains would be things like millet, quinoa, buckwheat, brown rice, still cut oats, wild rice, and then those are the ones like I said, that have gluten in them.

If you have no problems digesting gluten, then you can look at all of these as this almost like the same level of nutrient density for yourself.

Even whole grains are best mixed in meals, okay.

So trying hard not to eat any type of carbohydrate, processed or unprocessed carbohydrate alone.

Trying to have them in a mixed meal.

What does that mean?

Making sure that you have some protein and some healthy fat with them, okay, helps with that whole digestion, not making it turn to glucose as fast to get into your bloodstream as fast.

Alright, so now on to added sugars.

The average American consumes around 22 teaspoons of added sugar per day.

Do you know how much that is?

You know, a little white packet of domino sugar?

Imagine 22 of them.

Like it that's a significant amount of sugar.

But think about it.

I certainly see people tell me they watch sugar and they don't have much sugar.

But then when we look at their coffee creamer, the snack in the morning, the yogurt, um, their salad dressing, the one piece of chocolate they have in the afternoon, the teriyaki teriyaki sauce at dinner, the three dove chocolates at night after, like it can add up really quickly.

Okay.

Um, how much should you have in a day?

Well, you don't need any.

You don't have to have sugar, of course.

You can.

The World Health Organization says um six to nine teaspoons, six for women, nine for men.

Um, and I just looked it up for children today, too, and it's six teaspoons for children, which is a lot.

It is not something you have to strive to get if you're not getting right now.

But that's what they put their cap on.

Oh, um, one teaspoon of sugar is four grams.

Okay, I'm gonna show you what that looks like because when you look at a nutrition facts label, it's kind of hard.

Like, what is 10 grams of sugar?

Like, is that a lot?

Is that a little?

So I like to turn it into teaspoons so I can visualize it, like those white packets of domino sugar.

So if you take added sugar and divide by four, that gives you teaspoons.

Now you can visualize.

Okay, would I put two teaspoons of sugar in this plain yogurt?

Maybe that's kind of like a reasonable amount.

Or you could look at maybe a canned, a drink of some kind, like a lemonade or something.

Would I put eight packets of sugar in this iced tea?

No, probably not.

That's a lot.

So you could use that as your own benchmark of would I add that much sugar into it if it was plain?

Um, to decide like, is this too much for me, or is this okay?

That's kind of how I do it.

I visualize it into teaspoons.

Um, okay, so here's a plain yogurt.

So I want to just point out that on food labels now we do have total sugar and added sugar.

Okay.

So this is plain yogurt, no sugar added.

Why do you think it still says total sugar is five grams?

Yes, that's the natural sugar found in there, okay, in dairy.

So don't pay as much attention to total.

I would look more into the added.

Yeah.

Yes.

Mm-hmm.

Yep.

Yep, even if it was sweetened with honey, maple syrup, any anything like that.

Brown sugar, molasses, any of those.

Now, here's the a label with a sweetened yogurt.

Okay, you can see that this one has total sugar, but then it also shows you what it is for the added.

So if you're gonna divide it by four to try to visualize how many teaspoons is this, make sure you do it with the added.

Okay.

Now, what to look for?

So this answers the honey question.

Um, but the truth is I I think there's like 65 different ways that sugar can be written on a food label, okay?

Between cane, sugar, sugar, brown sugar, maple syrup, honey.

I mean, there's so many of them.

So here's a bunch here that I see a lot, but there's more than that.

Okay.

Now, when I look at an ingredient list, I kind of run through three things in my head.

One is the list fairly short.

Is it readable?

Like, do I know what these things are?

And could I read it like a recipe?

Could I walk around the store and purchase all of those ingredients if I wanted to make it myself?

And if it passes those three checks in my book, it's pretty good.

You know, of course, there's exceptions, but that's kind of the rough little three tests that I do.

So if you see things like maltose, can you buy maltose in the baking section of Market Basket?

Probably not.

No.

Um, those are things that I start to question.

Okay.

Now, this doesn't, this is the this is the type, right?

This is really not telling us the amount.

The amount I still consider, but when we're talking about the type, that's what I think about.

Can I walk around the store and buy it?

All right, so now on to the sugars and sugar substitutes.

Okay.

So when we talk about sugar, it's usually just we're referring to cane sugar.

Okay.

Cane sugar can be in food products in a couple of different ways.

It can be a white cane sugar.

It can be a raw sugar that's also called turbinado sugar, bigger crystals, has a little bit of a darker color.

The darker color comes from some minerals that haven't been stripped away.

Does it make it healthier for you?

No, not really.

Um, it's still just sugar, but it looks prettier, right?

Like it looks like it should be healthier.

Then we have brown sugar, which has some molasses in it, light brown sugar, dark brown sugar, okay.

But that's all in the same family of sugar cane.

All right.

That's the caloric form of sugar that most of us are familiar with.

Honey, maple syrup, agave, things like that are also other forms of caloric sugar.

They don't come from a sugar cane, but there's still other plants and other things out there that we get caloric sugar from.

Now, non-nutrient sweeteners, non-caloric sweeteners would be things like Splenda, stevia, monk fruit, sweet and low, equal, things like that.

This category of non-nutritive sweeteners, um, I kind of split into two.

We have artificial sweeteners, so ones that are totally man-made, and then we have plant-derived sweeteners, ones that come from a plant, but through a lot of processing, make a sugar substitute that would be like monk fruit and stevia, and then artificial would be like Splenda equal sweet and low.

Okay.

In general, are these things bad for you?

Like going to harm your health immediately?

No, they're not.

I still put them in the same category as the amount, the type, and the timing.

Okay.

60 ounces of diet coke a day, is that really going to benefit your health?

Uh no, it says it's not.

But is a diet coke healthier than a Coca-Cola?

Some could argue yes.

Okay, because of what that sugar does in your body immediately through digestion.

Okay, does that make sense?

This is where it gets a little tricky, where a lot of people want just the the straight answer.

Like, can I have artificial sweeteners?

Yes or no?

And it's just not a straight answer.

Um, it's not a no, but it's how much and how often?

And are your habits around artificial sweeteners um preventing you from other health promoting habits?

Like, are you drinking Diet Coke all day instead of drinking water?

Or do you have one diet coke here and there because you feel like it, but you're still drinking plenty of water?

Very two different scenarios, but both include Splenda.

Okay, does that make sense?

Does anyone have specific questions on artificial sweeteners or even the plant-derived ones or anything?

No.

Sugar in it.

Like I'm trying to, I guess I'm trying to think about the benefit.

It wouldn't bring your blood sugar up.

Correct.

These would be.

If you had a packet of Splenda versus a packet of cane sugar, correct.

One is going to raise your blood glucose, one is not.

Okay.

Yes.

Thank you.

Yeah.

And there's other things with the artificial sweeteners too.

Like they definitely desensitize your taste buds.

I mean, you could try it at home.

You could have a bite of something really sweet, like a banana or pineapple or something, take a sip of Diet Coke, have another bite of the banana.

It will taste completely different immediately.

So they absolutely alter your taste buds.

Now, in an individual scenario, one of the things we would talk about is that altered taste bud making you say, Yeah, the strawberries I've been buying lately from the grocery store don't taste that good.

Well, is it the strawberries or is it the you know diet Pepsi?

It could be one or the other.

And that's where we kind of get into the individual pieces of it.

Um, but yes, one affects your blood sugar, one does not, but the artificial ones, yeah, totally man-made in a lab, um, very processed, alter your taste buds.

They're not health promoting, but there's definitely scenarios where if it makes you not have regular sugar, then it can be helpful.

Uh sugar alcohols.

I do find from type one.

I do find that they do raise my um my blood sugar.

I'm glad you brought that up.

So, sugar alcohols are a sugar and an alcohol molecule fused together through digestion.

Our bodies do break that bond to some of them, not all of them.

So, legally, like on the food label, they can't put or they don't have to put exactly how much actual sugar you're going to absorb because they don't know.

I could digest more than you, you could digest more than me.

You don't know.

I see that a lot more in digestive issues because this bond to break is actually really difficult.

So sometimes sugar alcohols will give people a lot of digestive problems, like bloating, um, sometimes acid reflux, but mostly just bloating or cramping.

Um, if you experience that, then I would definitely look at sugar alcohols to see if you're having them.

You know it's a sugar alcohol because it'll have this OL at the end.

So there's xylitol, erythritol, manitol, malatol, there's a whole bunch of them.

Um, but yes, you will absolutely absorb some sugar.

I don't know how much.

And um, if you're having any bloating, then I would look for sugar alcohols.

Yeah.

Um, gum too.

Sugar-free gum is pretty much all xylitol.

So that could be that too.

Yeah.

Okay, so sugar-free foods advertises light, low sugar.

Doesn't always mean they're low in calories.

Like we already talked about desensitizing our taste buds because they are so so sweet, kind of making us want more sweeter, something else.

Kind of gives us a license to eat more.

Like if we know it's sugar free, it's kind of easy to say, like, okay, I'll have more than normal.

Um, not always carbohydrate free.

And I put are they working?

Because that's something just for you to think about and you to answer, you know.

Like, honestly, am I turning to some of these diet type foods?

Um, why?

Is it because I'm looking for something?

Is it because I've restricted something for so long?

And I feel guilt if I have it, so I'm looking for an alternative.

Like, what is the reason?

Okay, and again, those are things we can talk about one-on-one too.

Um, okay, so in summary, whole minimally processed carbohydrates, definitely the best for your health, choosing those types.

Remember that sugar is still sugar, like all the things people say about sugar is generally true.

But instead of just putting it good or bad, really think about the amount, the type and the timing.

Okay.

Um, try to spread carbohydrates evenly throughout the day.

So most adults need to eat three or four times a day.

So trying to have each of those meals be pretty even when it comes to carbs, protein, and fat instead of grazing or instead of having really big meals and small snacks or something like that.

And then try to minimize the artificial sweeteners as best as you can.

Think about when and how you're having them and if you're using them really as a band-aid for something else, or if it's truly just kind of here and there.

Um, so like Christie said, I'll be back in December.

If you want to talk about anything one-on-one, I'm more than happy to.

What those conversations look like will be totally individual to you and what your goals are.

But if it's um meal planning, weight loss, chronic disease management or prevention, if it's food allergies or digestion or supplements or anything like that, then we can talk um one on one.

I'll be here December 3rd.

I think it's the third, yeah, December 3.

Any other questions?

Yeah.

On the sugar alcohol um theme, if I'm remembering correctly, a lot of the sugar-free stuff, um, will have the sugar alcohol.

Is that kind of like added in?

Is it kind of like your added sugars?

It won't be on the label.

Everyone's seen it on the mile and see sugar alcohol on a label.

It doesn't have to be.

If you see it, then that just means the company they chose to add that in.

But there absolutely can be sugar alcohols in something without there being like a line item here.

So that's when you'd want to look at the ingredients and look for that OL at the end.

And if you're if you're having no problems, like you don't have to watch your blood sugar to a tea, and you you have no digestive problems, um, then having sugar alcohols every once in a while in something is is safe.

It's there's nothing wrong with that.

It's just if if there are problems, that's something that we look at.

Yeah.

Moderation.

What was that?

In moderation, yes.

Yeah.

Any other questions?

No.

Okay.

Well, if you think of anything, I'm always a resource to you.

Even if we don't meet in person on the third, and you want to reach out and have anything you want to talk about, then I'm happy to do so.

You're welcome.

So I want to thank everyone for coming today and taking the time out of your day.

The PowerPoint will be shared with the recording up on the wellness page under virtual sessions.

So you'll be able to see that.

Um, Jeff is traveling, so I'm not sure how quick, and I'm actually out next week, so I may see if someone else can upload it to the um to the actual um website so that we can share that.

Um, but it will be there.

And I do have flyers for the December 3rd session.

There's a QR code to um Jacqueline's Calendly.

Um, and all you do is schedule a session.

Um, as I did say, you you'll bring your insurance card.

Important to note um if you're gonna talk about that with the coworker that may not be on the city insurance, that's okay too.

So Jaclyn will work with all insurances, she'll run it through the provider.

If it's not the anthem provider, um she'll get the details for you ahead of time so that you can be aware of it.

Um, but again, a great service.

A lot of um wellness programs within companies are doing this sort of service for their employees because this is one big piece um that oftentimes we don't schedule for ourselves because it's an added appointment and finding that time is difficult during the workday.

So we're trying to make that easier with our wellness program here at the city.

So I hope that um staff take advantage of this because it's a great resource.

Um so you'll be seeing Jaclyn around um and she'll definitely be here to present in the future um on other topics.

So um if you have any questions for her that you'd want to ask after the fact, um, you know, once the camera's off, that's okay too.

She'll be here for a few minutes, and I I encourage you to do that.

And um we'll see you guys at the end of the month on the 18th.

We have um we reversed it actually.

So on the 18th, we have our um benefits resource session.

Um, so we just flip them this month to change it up a little bit.

So hopefully we'll see you on the 18th.

Thank you.

Thank you.