This week’s topic: Healthy Tips to Help You Reduce Hidden and Added Sugars in Your Diet
Namaste loves and welcome back to our Thursday Q&A show. Today we’re going to be delving into our food cornerstone and specifically around sugar. Healthy tips to help you reduce hidden and added sugars in your diet. And this is something that we want to be aware of across the board, whether we are plant based or omnivore or whatever.
Topics Covered
In this conversation, Kimberly discusses where our hidden sugars get into our diest because whilst we might be aware of trying to avoid the cake, there are many ways that sugar can come into our diets, whether that’s from pasta sauce or lots of different packaged foods that you wouldn’t even believe have sugar in them. Now, to be clear, I do not advocate for a completely sugar -free diet, meaning that I’m a big advocate for eating whole fruit.
I believe that fruit is a very important part of our diet, unless of course you have some sort of specific health condition or something that where you’re focusing on being low sugar across the board. There are of course certain medical and health conditions that warrant that. But what I have found, and I’ve been talking about this for years, is that a healthy body should be able to handle healthy natural foods. Sometimes we need to get our gut microbiome back in check so that it can handle fruit again. I personally went low sugar while I was getting my Candida and my gut health and my bloating under control. But after about a year or two, I was able to eat the full spectrum of wonderful fruit. But in that period, I did eat lower in fruit. And when I did eat fruit, it was something like green apples, sour fruit, lower sugar. But for the average person. And as we step into our power and we start to live a more natural, holistic lifestyle, which beyond food, of course, involves taking care of our bodies, our emotional well -being, and our spiritual growth, we will find that we will be able to handle fruit in a much more, in a great way. And fruit is very different than hidden sugars, like we’re talking about in the show.
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Other Podcasts you may enjoy! Click on the title to play.
Sugar Addiction & Emotions!
Does The Glowing Green Smoothie Have Too Much Sugar?
Sugar Cravings & Candida Questions!
What Are Some Healthy Desserts That Reduce Sugar Cravings?
STUDIES AND LINK ON TOPIC
“Sugar-sweetened beverages, weight gain, and incidence of type 2 diabetes in young and middle-aged women” (2004) by Schulze et al.: A 2004 study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association followed over 51,000 women for eight years and found a significant association between sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and weight gain, as well as an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
“Added sugar intake and cardiovascular diseases mortality among US adults” (2014) by Yang et al.: A study Published in the Journal of Internal Medicine, analyzed data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) and found a significant association between higher added sugar intake and increased risk of cardiovascular disease mortality.
“Added sugars and cardiovascular disease risk in children” (2016) by Vos et al.: This American Heart Association scientific statement reviewed the evidence on the impact of added sugars on cardiovascular health in children and concluded that excessive added sugar intake is associated with multiple cardiovascular disease risk factors in children.
“Sugar addiction: from evolution to revolution” (2009) by Lenoir et al.: A review, published in Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, discusses the neurobiological mechanisms underlying sugar addiction-like behavior in animals and humans, suggesting that sugar can induce cravings and dependence similar to addictive drugs.
“The toxic truth about sugar” (2012) by Lustig et al.: This review, published in the Journal of Nature, discusses the adverse metabolic effects of fructose-containing sugars, particularly in the form of high-fructose corn syrup, and their role in the obesity and diabetes epidemics.
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Transcript:
Note: The following is the output of transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate. This is due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is posted as an aid, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.
Namaste loves and welcome back to our Thursday Q &A show. I hope you’re having an amazing week so far. Today we’re going to be delving into our food cornerstone and specifically around sugar. Healthy tips to help you reduce hidden and added sugars in your diet. And this is something that we want to be aware of across the board, whether we are plant -based or omnivore or whatever.
type of diet that we specifically adhere to, hidden and added sugars can really wreak havoc in the body. As I’ve been talking about since my very first book, which was nutrition focused, the beauty detox solution. What happens when there’s a lot of sugar in our system? It’s sort of like eating a lollipop, which I admit that my kids absolutely love. We have these natural and low sugar ones.
looking down, my little one is actually sort of napping on the floor next to me. But it’s like when you get that stickiness and your fingers stick together, sort of like glycation effect. So what’s happening in the body is excess sugars can lead to inflammation in the body. It can lead to just a lot of digestive issues and just lowering our health and our vitality overall. So,
We want to see where our hidden sugars getting in because whilst we might be aware of trying to avoid the cake, there are many ways that sugar can come into our diets, whether that’s from pasta sauce or lots of different packaged foods that you wouldn’t even believe have sugar in them. Now, to be clear, I do not advocate for a completely sugar -free diet, meaning that I’m a big advocate for eating whole fruit.
I believe that fruit is a very important part of our diet, unless of course you have some sort of specific health condition or something that where you’re focusing on being low sugar across the board. There are of course certain medical and health conditions that warrant that. But what I have found, and I’ve been talking about this for years, is that a healthy body should be able to handle healthy natural foods.
Kimberly Snyder (02:23.086)
Sometimes we need to get our gut microbiome back in check so that it can handle fruit again. I personally went low sugar while I was getting my Candida and my gut health and my bloating under control. But after about a year or two, I was able to eat the full spectrum of wonderful fruit. But in that period, I did eat lower in fruit. And when I did eat fruit, it was something like green apples, sour fruit, lower sugar. But…
for the average person. And as we step into our power and we start to live a more natural, holistic lifestyle, which beyond food, of course, involves taking care of our bodies, our emotional well -being, and our spiritual growth, we will find that we will be able to handle fruit in a much more, in a great way. And fruit is very different than hidden sugars, like we’re talking about in the show.
fruit comes with a fiber, it comes with all these amazing vitality enhancing vitamins and phytonutrients. This energy that we’re all looking for, this beauty, it’s not something that can just be painted on. It comes from the inside. It exudes out of you and a big part of that is what you are eating, what you are taking in and assimilating and making part of your body. So I’m very excited to get into this topic.
And a little reminder, I’ve already started to go down the rabbit hole, but I am waving to those of you watching here on YouTube. We will be putting the links to the YouTube in the show notes so you can check it out directly. If you want to see me, we can make some eye contact. Otherwise, it will always be on Spotify, Apple, wherever you listen to our show. Over in the show notes, I will be linking to other podcasts. I think you would enjoy. Resources.
Reminder that in just a few weeks, we will also be launching our much anticipated glowing greens powder. So this is meant to be a booster to our beloved glowing green smoothie or a standalone vitality booster that you can mix with water or coconut water or put also in other smoothies like your power protein smoothie. I’ve been working on this formula for two years, so I’m very excited to share it with you very soon. Seven.
Kimberly Snyder (04:41.902)
key vitality enhancing ingredients in efficacious amounts. So please be sure to sign up for our newsletter over at mysaluna .com if you haven’t yet already for the latest updates on the glowing greens powder and more. All right, let’s get deeper into our topic today. And our question comes from Sylvia who lives in Montana. Sylvia, thank you for being a part of our community and raising this important topic.
You write, I have been vegan for a few years and have to be honest about consuming too many of these packaged goods, but I know have loads of sugar in them. Is there an easy way to reduce sugar without the negative withdrawals? So Sylvia, thank you so much for being here. And I know it’s very easy to go into patterns to like,
certain treats and goods. Sometimes they’re even packaged as healthy foods, but they have a lot of sugar in them. This can include yogurts and of course a lot of pre -packaged smoothies, which I have never been a fan of. I’m sorry, but I do not like those ones that they sell at Starbucks or the Green Machine. Certain things that you get at stores or you see at Costco, they are usually super loaded with sugars and fruit puree’s and things that are less than whole and things that are designed to taste good and whilst they are convenient, they are sugar traps. That’s one of the things that we’re exactly talking about today. So I want to get into some really practical tips and tools where you can continue to live a healthy lifestyle even in your very busy life. I’m very busy myself. I’m sure you can relate. While my kids are in school, it’s like every minute.
Almost every second is accounted for running around from moment to moment after I shoot this podcast, my little one on here on the floor, going to race to get brother from school, going to chess club after that. So there’s a lot going on and we need food to be accessible and easy. And I get it. So I’m going to be sharing some tips for that. But in the meantime, I just, if you’re looking for even more evidence around why we want to avoid more sugars.
Kimberly Snyder (07:01.134)
There was a study published in the Journal of American Medical Association that followed 51 ,000 women around for eight years. Can you imagine how hard that went to two? These studies are incredible. And it found a significant association between sugar sweetened beverage consumption and weight gain, as well as increased risk of developing type two diabetes. So these sugar sweetened beverages,
We often think of soda and we definitely want to avoid soda, even diet soda, all the high fructose corn syrup and the sugars that are in all different types of soft drinks. But as I mentioned, a lot of these pre -packaged drinks can be really high in sugar. And this even includes certain varieties of kombucha. So make sure to look at the labels and also make sure that
you are aware of how many serving sizes there are because sometimes one bottle, and I noticed this with the green smoothies that are pre -packaged, they count as two smoothies. So suddenly this little bottle is giving you or your child 56 grams of sugar, which is quite shocking. So we want to make sure that as much as possible, we are sticking to very simple water, herbal tea,
If you like some coconut water, it has sugar, but it also has benefits and electrolytes. Very simple. Even the carbonated waters like the La Croix or the Spindrift have lower sugar. So if you’re looking for something that has a little bit of fizz, a little bit of excitement, these are options that can work as well. Another study published in the Journal of Internal Medicine analyzed data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. This is a 20 –
14 and found that there was a connection between added sugar intake and cardiovascular disease and mortality. So our hearts are the center of our being. This is the focus of my next two books, one of which is coming out this month, my children’s book, Tila Gorilla and Lanky Lemur Journey to the Heart and my next adult book in September, Heart, Meaning Physical Heart and the Energetic and the Spiritual Heart.
Kimberly Snyder (09:21.038)
is we want to take care of our heart, which has this wisdom, this power to gateway to the true self. And sugar, we hear a lot about saturated fat and certain inflammatory compounds, fats, omega -6s, fried fats, things that are not good for the heart. And it’s important to remember that sugar is also very damaging to your cardiovascular health. And this is yet not yet another reason.
to curb the sugar and also to protect family members. A lot of people don’t really associate sugar in the heart necessarily. So you may want to inform loved ones, hey, let’s make a shift together as a family towards lower sugar options. This is something my friend Dan Butener, who discovered the Blue Zooms, talks about quite a bit. The environment and surrounding yourselves around friends and family.
who are motivated to eat healthier and therefore you can help support each other on this journey. So it’s a really great idea to remember there are many motivating factors and our hearts are so precious. Life is so precious. So instead of having a crappy soda beverage, maybe make a delicious glowing green smoothie for yourself and a family member.
and you will give them the fiber, the amazing nutrients, vitamins that are so wonderful instead for the heart and the organs. Kind of laughing because I’m looking across my computer to my desk where my glowing green smoothie today is actually my glowing purple smoothie because all I had today was blueberries. I have a food delivery coming later. Mama has been very busy. Real world here. Haven’t been getting to the market. So I had blueberries.
which made my smoothie very purple today. And that’s what we need to do. Sometimes we mix and match, but ideally we would have a lot of those beautiful apples and mangoes and pears and bananas and some of the other fruit that I highly recommend. Over on mysalina .com, we have many different versions of the Glowing Green Smoothie, which you can check out as well for variety. And this cardiovascular risk was also attributed in children.
Kimberly Snyder (11:38.926)
So unfortunately, cardiovascular disease obesity is on the rise in children. And this study was back in 2016, which found that excessive added sugar intake is associated with multiple cardiovascular disease risk factors in children. So we really want to make sure that we are caring for our families. And I get it that kids like treats. My kids definitely like treats.
But instead of keeping them at the home all the time, make it a special occasion, make fruit available as much as possible. I know on the way home from school, my son is sometimes really hungry and I just hand him a bunch of oranges or apples, grapes. So he really starts to get that fruit into his body first and it’s satisfying and it sort of gives that sweet craving, satisfies that sweet craving. So,
We can just be a little bit more strategic in keeping fruit around for our kids because madura sweet, as it’s called in Ayurveda, is a natural taste for our children, for all of us humans. So we just want to, I would say, rely more and more on fruit, which is, I believe as humans, we are meant to eat fruit. And that’s something that you can do with your kids instead of giving them a bunch of candy or sugary treats all the time.
So this interesting publication, this review from 2009, it was called Sugar Addiction from Evolution to Revolution, found that sugar addiction -like behavior in animals was similar to, including humans, was similar to addictive drugs. So sugar is really addictive. I think maybe a lot of us have experienced that to varying extents.
where we really just crave that feeling of the sugar. And so, as I mentioned, it doesn’t mean that we necessarily have to go sugar -free. I want to emphasize that. We talk about here a lot, hidden sugars, added sugars. There’s a lot of ways to make things taste really good and to get that taste in without the really crappy artificial sugars or just the added cane sugar, which isn’t a lot of packaged foods.
Kimberly Snyder (14:04.078)
I will say that my family loves honey as well. I have deep, deep respect for bees and for honey. And as our beekeeper in Hawaii says, it takes about the lifetime of 13 bees to create about one teaspoon of pure raw honey. So these bees are working, they are helping to really pollinate the environment and keeping things really healthy. Bees spread,
just they’re bringing different compounds in there. Like I mentioned, they’re a vital part of a healthy environment. And so we have about a million bees in Hawaii and we have wild hives. And sometimes we integrate the wild hives into our box hives. And I believe a little bit of honey is very nutritious. We do not heat it up. I make my son sometimes hot cocoa, which he loves with raw cacao.
and coconut milk, and then we add just a little bit of that raw honey in, and it tastes really great and it satisfies them. And it’s a lot better than giving high fructose based sugar or candy treats or a bunch of cookies or whatever that is. And the last little piece of research that I want to mention is from 2012, and this is a review in the Journal of Nature that found the adverse metabolic effects of
high fructose corn syrup and their role in obesity and the diabetes epidemics. So high fructose corn syrup is a very cheap form of sugar that is even more destructive in the body. And I wrote about this in my first book all the way back when I started really learning about this in the beauty detox solution, because it’s truly incredible how unfortunately there is so much focus on profit.
in the food industry and cutting corners and making things as cheaply as possible. And these very cheap forms of sugar are very, they just spike our blood sugar levels. They are very inflammatory. They create a lot of destruction and damage and this builds and builds over time. So whether you are a parent or not, whether this is for yourself or not, please be aware that we need to pay hyper attention because these…
Kimberly Snyder (16:24.398)
food companies are not necessarily going to be looking out for us.
Kimberly Snyder (16:33.742)
So let’s talk about some key points that we can make here today. And the very first one, as I mentioned when we were talking about the green machine and some of these pre -made smoothies that you can get at Starbucks in the store is to read labels and look for terms like sucrose and glucose and fructose and corn syrup and these added sugars. But also, as I mentioned, it is essential to see and be clear what a portion size is considered. If your child or you is drinking,
that bottle, which by the way is not really large, know that that company may consider that to be two servings. And same thing for kombucha. I was pretty surprised. There’s a lot of different brands out there. And even within, let’s say the GT Synergy brand, we had GT here as a guest on the podcast. He is amazing, amazing entrepreneur. But even within this brand, which I love, there are some kombuchas which are quite low in sugar, like the green one.
And then there are some that are very high in sugar, especially if you consider that one bottle may be one or two servings. So really look at the labels and be aware and make choices, even if it’s different flavors between what you and just being aware of what you’re really putting in your body. The next thing is to really work on choosing whole foods. And as I mentioned, the most obvious choice here is
you know, instead of orange juice giving your child oranges. We love the little cuties in our family. Whole foods have a complete nutritional package. They are able to help our bodies properly metabolize the foods. We start mixing with taking out fiber and just eating juice or just eating pulp or puree and messing with things or boiling fruit down into different compotes or jams or sauces or whatever it is.
We start to mess with the sugar profile and therefore we’re messing with our natural metabolism and nutrition. So as much as possible, stick to simple. I can’t emphasize this enough. People sometimes ask me, what has changed in your nutritional perspective or life over the years? And if there’s one thing I’ll say is that the way that I eat and the way that our family eats just has become increasingly more and more simple.
Kimberly Snyder (18:56.974)
It’s delicious, it’s flavorful, yummy, yes, but very, very simple. The next thing is the beverages. We’ve got to limit the beverages. It’s very easy to drink something down, to not really feel full or satiated, and yet to have consumed upwards of 40 grams of sugar or more. This is where we got to eliminate those sugary pops. The other day, we were in the general store here locally and my son saw this grape flavored soda.
And he said, look, mom, it’s healthy. It’s his grape. And I said, but it’s really soda. And it just has grape flavor added in. So a healthier option that we found that he really likes, that’s a treat. We don’t keep it at home all the time is the Ollie Pop, which is lower in sugar. And it has some, you know, probiotic benefits, although they are transient and they are not.
resident forming the way that you would get from our SBO probiotic supplement. So these probiotic sodas definitely do not replace probiotic supplements in any way. I also don’t consider them a replacement for raw sauerkraut or some really great lactobacilli that you can get from fermented foods. But as an option, instead of having a sugary drink, sure, my son loves that grape ollie pop once in a while.
But be aware of the juices, the so -called healthy pre -made, like in packages, even for very young children and toddlers, these like juice packets and these little smoothies that are made. Just make your own at home. Get a Vitamix. It’s very simple, very easy. Then you can control putting them in a lot of veggies and lower sugar fruit and not just making it a sugar bomb or just straight orange juice or straight apple juice.
really spikes the body’s blood sugar levels and creates that inflammation and that reduction in health that we, none of us want. Also wrinkles, glycation, it’s just terrible for your skin, terrible for everything. The next thing is to use natural sweeteners. So I really like raw honey, as I mentioned, and we’ll even use maple syrup sometimes. These are the ones that we go to if I’m baking, sometimes I’ll use coconut sugar, but we want to avoid a lot of these.
Kimberly Snyder (21:20.27)
liquid. I don’t like agave. I don’t like high fructose corn syrup. I don’t like straight cane sugar I try to avoid. These refined sugars are very inflammatory. So at least there are minerals in maple syrup and at least there are definitely nutrients in raw honey. So opt for those options instead, which are much better nutritional profile for you and your family.
The next is be aware of condiments because this is where hidden sugars can really come in. I mentioned things like pasta sauce, but also salad dressing can have a pretty shockingly high amount of sugar. So can ketchup and some of these other sauces and dresses, dressings. So look for organic ketchup, for instance, and there are some that are very low in sugar. You can even make your own ketchup.
based in tomatoes, you can even make a carrot based ketchup or any sort of variety that your family may be drawn to. But beware of some of these food based, these big food companies, which I mentioned are often hiding a lot of sugars, adding things in just to jack up that flavor and keep us coming back to buy more. So we have lots of recipes as I’ve.
mentioned before on mysaluna .com. Many of them are very simple, very clean. You can make something really yummy for your family. Doesn’t have to have the sugar in it. It can just be tahini, lemon juice, water, sea salt, soy sauce, liquid bregs, right? Nutritional yeast, very simple. This is how our family likes to eat. And you can retrain your kids to get excited about simple flavors again, just by making things taste good without all that sugary.
crap and add -ins.
Kimberly Snyder (23:15.694)
So you wanna watch portion sizes as well, again, just to be aware of what is considered a portion size. So there’s certain things, if you get big containers of dairy -free yogurt, for instance, some of it can be quite sugary. So watch those labels and watch how much an actual serving is. The more we stick to whole foods, the more we don’t have to worry so much about all these serving sizes. I’m not sitting there measuring my cauliflower or my sweet potatoes.
I do eat whole foods pretty much to satiation, loading up on the big salads, loading up on the veggies, and denser foods like if we’re making black bean burgers or having chickpeas or something like that, watch a bit. But I don’t worry so much because the closer we eat to scratch, the more we realize that we are in control of the nutrients, of the sugar, of the salt, of the oil, and we just metabolize those foods so much better.
The next thing is that we want to plan ahead. When we are in a bind, when we are busy, and I know this firsthand, we may choose options that are not as healthy. We may go that way to the fast food or the takeout because it’s the end of the day and we are exhausted and we have all been there. So for me, it is essential that I get my food delivery system. I’m a huge fan of Instacart because I’m so busy. I just couldn’t.
I just don’t have the bandwidth to go food shopping right now. So check out delivery programs like Instacart. And there’s some that I really like as well where you can get meals, you can get the ingredients for meals, because when we plan ahead and we are better armed with the tools and the ingredients that we need, we tend to eat healthier. And that’s the truth, right? It just requires a little bit of planning.
and making that a reality. So reality for me is not going and picking my own celery and kale, you know, twice a week as much as I would love to do that. I haven’t seen the inside of a grocery store in a long time, to be absolutely honest, although I’ve been to the farmer’s market some, you know, it’s life, but whatever you need to do with food delivery or support or help or getting your partner or doing, you know, roomie swapping, sharing, whatever it is.
Kimberly Snyder (25:37.582)
Make it a reality, plan ahead and really value your food. And the next is educating yourself. So you can educate yourself again around healthy, simple recipes, which we have many on our website, mysaluna .com. You can educate yourself by looking at labels and learning about which foods may be better than others. Certain nut milks are much higher in sugar. I don’t like oat milk personally. I don’t like the seed oils in it. So you could get something like an unsweetened hemp milk or
There’s so many different nut milks out there. So educate yourself, read about it, look at labels, find recipes that make you feel satiated and great without all the added sugar. And you’re just going to keep going better and better in your low sugar quest. So I hope that this gave you a lot of motivation. As always, we will have the show nuts for you at mysalina .com. Please peruse our website for many recipes, as I mentioned.
And for joining our newsletter, we have the glowing greens powder coming out this month. We have our Chilla Gorilla children’s book coming out this month, along with our guided heart aligned meditations. There is so much going on. So please keep in touch with me. I look forward to supporting you more. And I send you so much love right from my heart to yours. Namaste.