Change Your Brain Every Day - How To Spot The Many Names of Sugar On Food Labels

Episode Date: August 16, 2017

It goes by many names and comes in many forms and disguises, but no matter how you look at it, sugar is one of the biggest enemies of a healthy diet. It can cause inflammation in you system, and even lead to major diseases such as Diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease. In this episode of The Brain Warrior’s Way Podcast, Dr. Daniel Amen and Tana Amen teach you how to identify the many faces of sugar in your own diet.

Welcome to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. I'm Dr. Daniel Amen. And I'm Tana Amen. Here we teach you how to win the fight for your brain to defeat anxiety, depression, memory loss, ADHD, and addictions. The Brain Warriors Way podcast is brought to you by Amen Clinics, where we've transformed lives

for three decades using brain spec imaging to better target treatment and natural ways to heal the brain. For more information, visit amenclinics.com. The Brain Warriors Way podcast is also brought to you by BrainMD, where we produce the highest quality nutraceutical products to support the health of your brain and body. For more information, visit brainmdhealth.com. Welcome to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. Welcome back. This is going to be a very important podcast because, you know, we call it the Brain Warriors Way for a reason. You're in a war for the health of your brain.

And today we're going to talk about one enemy that has 56 different disguises, has 56 different names. And this enemy is addictive. It's a major cause of alzheimer's disease diabetes depression inflammation in your body can cause joint pain back pain has been associated with autoimmune disorders and you need to know what it is so this reminds me of when we uh when we talk about this topic it's like oh that lover that has a whole bunch of names you call it let's talk about those names only the problem is the lover's beating the hell out of you over and over and over again and of course we are talking about sugar. And sugar is one of the names.

Addictive, pro-inflammatory, increases erratic brain cell firing. But most people don't know when they read a food label that this bad boy or this sexy girl is going to wreak havoc. And she changes disguises. She's disguised in so many ways. So sugar, high fructose corn syrup. Which is a particularly toxic. Because it has more fructose in it. And people go, well, fructose, heck, it's fruit sugar.

It's got to be good for you. Except when you unwrap fructose from heck, it's fruit sugar. It's got to be good for you. Except when you unwrap fructose from its fiber source, it actually turns toxic in your body. And one of the problems with fructose in particular is it leads to a bunch of little nasty things like non-alcoholic fatty liver. It actually increases the bad cholesterol in your body. So it will make the type of cholesterol your body produces the kind that's really bad for you, bad for your heart. So we have sugar, high fructose corn syrup, agave nectar. So agave, that's a health food. Oh my goodness. I went to the vegan restaurant and they had all these incredible desserts made with agave.

What's the problem with that? 80 to 90% fructose. Ooh, bummer. Right. Next, we have beet sugar. And we're a huge fan of beets because of the nitric oxide. Right. And it can increase blood flow, but you have to be careful not to have too many.

But you just don't want it concentrated like that where you're like using massive amounts of it. How about blackstrap molasses? Right. Brown sugar. People go, well, brown sugar is better for me than sugar. Not really. Buttered syrup.

Wait, now if we're talking about Aunt Jemima, you got to back up for a second because that- Aunt Jemima's fat. So, if we're talking about Aunt Jemima, you got to back up for a second. Aunt Jemima's fat. Okay, forget that. I'm going to forget you just said that. Let's back up for a minute. When people talk about quote unquote buttered pancake syrup, do you know there's like no

maple in that maple syrup? It's maple flavoring. Maple flavored sugar. Cane juice crystals that must be good for me crystals you know like in spiritual practice so what is table sugar cane juice crystals so well the next one is cane sugar and then you have organic cane crystals caramel carob syrup castor sugar coconut sugar now isn't that supposed to be better for us there's a lower glycemic index but really you gotta be careful so same thing it's a lower glycemic product but you do have to watch the

amount you're using confectioners sugar that's like usually powdered sugar i think date sugar well dates it's a fruit it's the highest glycemic fruit on the planet and it's more it's higher glycemic than table sugar demara sugar i've never even heard of that i know it sounds like a game of thrones sugar uh evaporated cane juice florida crystals fruit juice fruit juice concentrate golden sugar golden syrup grape sugar um grape juice powder i've seen that in a lot of yeah things uh honey icing sugar invert sugar maple icing sugar um i think it's the thing you used to that i used to be like it's like my crack right i used to be in the corner like looking

frosting off of wax paper molasses raw sugar refiner syrup sorghum sugar uh sucanat triacl sugar turbinado sugar yellow sugar um and then there are things that don't have the name sugar barley malt right brown rice syrup well that's got to be good for me if brown rice is so the one thing with brown rice syrup that people do need to know it is oftentimes what in the health food industry or health industry people will have you switch to because it has no fructose okay so it's got no fructose but it is very high glycemic so you just need to know you need to know and you need to limit amounts right and high glycemic for those people who forgotten is just how quickly does a food raise your blood sugar one other thing you want to be

careful with with um brown rice the brown rice syrup is that it does contain trace amounts of arsenic but enough that it can raise people's levels well that's a bad thing right it's like apples if you eat concentrate unless you're on game of thrones and you're trying to get rid of somebody um so corn syrup corn syrup solids dextrin dextrose uh ethyl maltol glucose glucose solids lactose malt syrup maltodextrin maltose rice syrup and we're not even done yet. Crystalline fructose, fructose, D-ribose. So D-ribose is a special form of sugar. And you do need to know this. You won't find it in most commercial products. Typically, that is a special kind of product.

And that is something that sometimes sports medicine doctors will have people take, put in their water if you've got a heart condition or like that's something that was actually suggested that I use when I'm training really hard. Now, the problem is you have to know and you have to be honest with yourself. Am I training really hard? Because it can actually offer a little support to like marathon runners

or people who are training really hard and offer you a little bit of support for heart health. Galactos. So so oh my goodness so many ways to hook up with something that's going to hurt you back right so you have to know you can see why here you need to know right because they're they are mostly just another name for sugar and there's a couple in there where it's like oh that's not the typical thing and i need to know what this is so yeah things like that you would think are healthy like concentrated fruit juice right sugar or organic cane crystals another word for sugar and the sugar. And the reason we want you to break up with sugar is addictive, is pro-inflammatory, it can mess up your gut, it causes erratic brain cell firing. And I know if you're in love with

sugar, you're really bummed out now and you're wondering if you're ever listened to the brain warriors way again i can promise you that the brain warriors way cookbook that tana works so hard we're not all about being a bummer filled with amazing desserts that taste great but they're made with ingredients that you will love that will love you back in return. Right. And even if you see... And that's what this is about. It's about your relationship with food. And it's about combining ingredients in a way so that if you do put a little bit of honey...

See, we think of sugar like the legal controlled substance, right? It's a legal drug is what it is. So if we know what the people aren't going to get away from it, 100%. But if there are those times that you're going to have it, do it responsibly. Okay. Don't drink and drive, right? Well, same thing with sugar. Know what you're doing, know what you're getting into. And if you're going to have a little bit now and then, then know how to do it. Because when you eat dessert, like the desserts you buy, the processed foods, it triggers your cravings. And then you can't get away from it.

And when you eat a lot of it, it's going to make you sick. So you'll notice in the cookbook, most of the desserts we have have like no sugar added to them. And if they do, they might have like a couple tablespoons of honey or maple syrup to an entire recipe, which means you're getting less than, you know, maybe two to three grams of sugar for the entire, you know, for a serving. That's actually within range to help keep your cravings under control and not stimulate inflammation. That's what I want you to focus on. So about two weeks ago, I had my 63rd birthday and we were out of town when that happened. And when I got back, my staff had a surprise party for me at the office. And Honor, who's our corporate chef, actually made a strawberry cake for me and it was phenomenal that everybody including me loved it but in the whole

batch just like you were talking about that fed like 20 of us there were just a couple of tablespoons it was awesome she had no she had two tablespoons of honey in the entire cake and no one could believe it. So she used a little bit of fresh strawberries for the, she used coconut whipped cream with some fresh strawberries in it and that made it sweet enough. It was amazing.

So, and one of the things that, when we start doing this, people can't sort of wrap their brain around. They're like, eh, I'm not diabetic. It's fine. Eh, I can't sort of wrap their brain around. They're like, I'm not diabetic. I'm not diabetic. It's fine. I can't really wrap my brain around the cholesterol issue, whatever. Like they just can't sort of wrap their brain around it.

But what if we told you that sugar actually really increases your risk of Alzheimer's disease? Like there's actually a connection and we know that now. Why is that? Why does it increase your risk of Alzheimer's disease? Well, one, it increases your risk of inflammation. Right. Inflammation increases every bad thing in your body, including depression and dementia. Right.

So inflammation, major cause of Alzheimer's disease. It also increases your risk of diabetes and prediabetes. And what's the problem with diabetes? And both you and I know this personally because we've had loved ones who died with it. When your blood sugar levels go up, blood vessels become brittle and they start to break and it can affect your eyes. It can affect your heart. It can affect your healing and it can affect your brain. So in fact, Alzheimer's disease is now being referred to as type three diabetes. By some people, yes. And your body just becomes insensitive to insulin. So insulin can't lower effectively your blood sugar levels.

It erodes all of your blood vessels, the 60,000 miles of blood vessels in your body and damages every organ. So we don't mean to be a bummer there. I am the grandson of a candy maker. I loved my grandfather very much. And he died early because he ate way too much candy. That's why we make our candy bars. It used to be, you know, emotionally, it was sort of hard to give up sugar because I felt like I was giving up him until I realized we actually at BrainMD make our Brain in Love and Brain on Joy bars that are incredible, but they're made without dairy, gluten, or sugar. People go,

what are the alternatives? We particularly like erythritol. We like stevia. There's actually been health benefits for stevia in a number of studies. But don't go crazy on it because if you go crazy on it, you'll never lose your addiction to sugar. Right. Pick up the Brain Warriors Way cookbook and you'll have a whole bunch of recipes

to check out. And you can check it out on our website as well. It's a war you can win. Stay with us. free signed copy of The Brain Warrior's Way and The Brain Warrior's Way cookbook we give away every month.