Understanding the Link Between Diet Coke and Blood Glucose

Hello angels and welcome to the Glucose Goddess Show. My name is Jessie Inshauspé. I'm a French biochemist and I really want you to understand food and your body. I'm obsessed with helping you figure all this out, and in this episode I want to discuss one of the most misunderstood topics in nutrition out there, one of the most common questions I get, and one of the biggest sources of confusion and one of the biggest tricks that food companies use to make you buy their food products.

I'm talking about sugar and the notion that some sugars are good for us and some sugars are bad for us. And then we're also going to cover sweeteners and whether they are better for us than sugar or worse for us than sugar. Okay, let's do this. I'm so excited.

In order to discuss this topic, I want to tell you a story. One of my readers, Olivia — she was 18 at the time of this story — she comes from Argentina and she told me her story. She used to have quite a few struggles: bad acne on her face, exhaustion, lack of focus, really low energy. And her breakfast used to be a hot chocolate, a slice of toast and some jam on it.

She told me that she went to her friends telling them that she didn't feel that well, and her friends suggested that maybe her breakfast was causing the issues. The friend said, "Hey, I think what you're doing is you're eating bad sugar. You should switch your breakfast to eating something way better for you like a fruit smoothie."

So Olivia changed her breakfast of hot chocolate and toast and jam and replaced it with a fruit smoothie. She made it with mangoes and bananas and kiwis, so a pure fruit smoothie in the morning.

She thought that she would get better, she thought she would start to feel more energy, that her skin would get clearer, that her brain would work better. Turns out, my dear, that this new breakfast, the fruit smoothie, actually made her feel worse. Her skin got worse, her energy got worse, she could not focus in school anymore.

She had thought that the sugar from the fruit smoothie was good sugar, that it was sugar that was going to help her have energy, that it was sugar that was good for her brain, whereas the sugar from the hot chocolate and the toast and jam was bad sugar.

And indeed we've been indoctrinated with this idea that sugar from fruit is good for us and is healthy, whereas sugar that is refined and the white powdered sugar is bad for us. So many of us believe that fruit smoothies and fruit juices contain good sugar because we've been told that if something comes from fruit then it's going to be really good for our body and it's going to promote health and it's going to help us feel better. And this is what the food industry really wants you to believe.

But the reality is, my dears, that believing that some sugar is good and some sugar is bad is fundamentally misunderstanding the sugar molecule and what's actually going on.

And here's the deal: the sugar that is in a hot chocolate or in crystallized white cane sugar, that sugar molecule sucrose, is the exact same molecule as the sugar molecule sucrose that is in fruit — in a banana or an apple or a kiwi or a mango. Sugar is sugar for the body. The body doesn't make a difference between "oh this sugar came from a cake or hot chocolate" and "this sugar came from a fruit." In terms of the molecules it's all the same stuff and it's all going to be processed in the same way in your body.

And in the case of Olivia, she was actually eating more sugar in the fruit smoothie than she was in her previous breakfast. So overall, she was creating a bigger glucose spike in her body and her health was getting worse.

So when I spoke to her, I encouraged her to switch to a savory breakfast built around protein with no sugar except whole fruit if she wanted for taste, and that started solving all of her issues.

I want you to understand that sugar is sugar no matter where it comes from. Whether it's in a candy bar or in a fruit juice, it's all the same molecule.

Now what does differ is the wrapping the sugar comes in. So if you take a whole fruit, for example like a banana or an apple, yes, there are sugar molecules in that piece of whole fruit and they are the same sugar molecules as in a chocolate cake, but in the piece of whole fruit there's also fiber and water. And the fiber is the key here because the fiber in a piece of whole fruit is going to slow down how quickly the sugar molecules get to your bloodstream, so the fiber is going to reduce the impact of the sugar on your body. Eating a piece of whole fruit is always 100% the best thing to eat if you want to eat something sweet because of the fiber that it contains.

Hey, really quickly, if you can't always do my food hacks and you want to eat the carbs that you love with less impact on your glucose levels, I created a capsule just for that. It's called Anti-Spike Formula. You take two before a meal; it cuts the glucose spike of carbs by up to 40%. It's 100% made out of plants and tested by over 25 clinical trials. Link is in the description. Okay, back to the episode.

Now the issue arises when we denature a piece of fruit. If you take an apple, for example, and you smoothie it — you blend it — or you juice it, what you're doing is you're damaging or removing that protective fiber. As a result, for example, if you juice an apple, you're getting rid of all of the protective fiber — that's the matter that you're throwing away when you juice a fruit — and you're only extracting the sugar molecules from that apple.

And those sugar molecules are exactly the same as you will find in a can of soda, or in a cake, or in a candy bar, or an ice cream. There's no difference in those sugar molecules. The only thing that matters is: is the sugar still in the piece of whole fruit (in which case it's better for you), or has the sugar been extracted and turned into something else (in which case it's just free-flowing sugar)?

It's not because sugar came from a fruit that it is miraculously better for your body or miraculously healthy. It's all the same stuff.

Let's take that further. If sugar extracted from fruit is the same as white table sugar, you know what else is the same? Brown sugar, molasses, maple syrup, agave syrup — all of these other forms of sugar are also the same exact molecules. Don't be fooled into thinking brown sugar is better than white sugar. Brown sugar is simply white sugar tinted with molasses to make it appear healthier. It's not healthier. Same with coconut sugar — it's all the same molecules. Same with agave syrup — it's all the same molecules. Same with maple syrup. The only thing that differs is the ratio of glucose to fructose. But the molecules are the same.

In fact, when you look at the glucose versus fructose ratio, you’ll notice that things like agave syrup are actually worse for you than table sugar because agave has more fructose, which is a worse molecule for our body.

Now let's discuss honey. Honey has a good reputation. People believe it has incredible virtues, that it's healthy, that you should take it when you have a cold and put it in your tea.

Here's the deal with honey:

First, most commercial honey you find in supermarkets is not actually honey. It's just something made to look like honey — liquid sugar in a bottle.

Second, even if you're getting organic raw local honey, it is still the same sugar molecules as table sugar. It's still sucrose, glucose, and fructose. Your body treats those molecules exactly the same.

When you are eating honey, you are eating sugar. It's going to be processed the same, leading to big glucose spikes, inflammation, glycation, etc.

Why am I telling you this? Not to depress you. I know many of you like honey. I just want you to understand that when you're eating honey, you should be doing it for pleasure, not for health.

Pick the sugar you like best. They're all the same. Whether it's brown cane sugar, white cane sugar, maple syrup, agave, honey — it's all the same molecules. So pick the one that gives you the most pleasure because none of them are healthier than the others.

Now, I know what you're going to say: what about the antioxidants in honey? Eating honey for antioxidants is not a good move. Yes, honey contains antioxidants, but it also contains a large amount of sugar. If you want antioxidants, it's much better to eat fruits and vegetables — they don't come with huge sugar spikes.

As an example: you can find the same amount of antioxidants in one teaspoon of honey as in one-sixth of a blueberry. If you eat one whole blueberry — which is tiny — you're getting as many antioxidants as in six teaspoons of honey without the sugar.

Honey is not the best way to get antioxidants.

So, all sugars are similar. Have the one you like best. Even if you love honey, go for it — just remember you're having it for pleasure, not health, and you should use my glucose hacks to reduce its impact. There's a link in the description for my 10 glucose hacks.

Something else to know: food manufacturers love giving new names to sugar to make it look healthier on labels. Tons of alternative names include fruit puree, glucose syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, saccharose, palm sugar, panela, cane sugar, corn sweetener, corn syrup solids, fruit juice concentrate.

If you see “fruit juice concentrate” on a label, that means it is sugar molecules extracted from fruit. It's all the same molecules. Don’t be fooled.

Now let’s cover food packaging tricks. One thing that annoys me: “100% natural” on packaging.

What does “100% natural” actually mean? It just means no synthetic additives. It does not mean the product doesn't contain sugar.

Example: a yogurt might say “100% natural,” but the ingredients list includes cane sugar.

Same with “no sugar added.” That does not mean no sugar. It just means no sugar was added during production. They could extract sugar from fruit and still label it “no sugar added.”

If you see “100% natural,” “organic,” “no sugar added,” “gluten-free,” “fat-free” — these health halos mean nothing. Always turn the package around.

It’s okay to eat sugary foods, but know what you're eating. They are for pleasure, not health.

Use glucose hacks to reduce their impact:

• Put clothing on your carbs
• Never eat sugar on an empty stomach
• Have sugar after a meal, not alone
• A vinegar drink can help
• Anti-Spike capsules help reduce spikes
  

Now the big debate: sweeteners.

Sweeteners = sweet taste, no calories. Examples: stevia, allulose, monk fruit, erythritol, xylitol, aspartame, sucralose.

Some sweeteners cause side effects like insulin spikes, glucose spikes, microbiome damage, more cravings.

Sweeteners fall into two groups:

Sweeteners to avoid:

• Aspartame
• Maltitol
• Sucralose
• Xylitol
• Acesulfame K
  

Better sweeteners:

• Allulose
• Stevia
• Erythritol
• Monk fruit
  

Now, if you use sweeteners and have seen headlines about them causing cancer, etc., remember: real sugar is far worse.

A regular soda contains 25 grams of sugar, which causes far more damage than the sweeteners in a diet soda.

If you drink diet soda, do not switch back to regular soda. Diet soda isn't good for you — water is better — but regular soda is much, much worse.

To recap:

Have any type of sugar you like; they're all the same for your body. Use my hacks to reduce their impact. Don’t be fooled by marketing tricks. And if you use sweeteners, switch from the “avoid” list to the better list. Do not switch diet soda to regular soda.

That's all we have time for today. Resources are in the description of this episode — my hacks, the list of sugar names, everything you need. Thank you for being here. I'll see you next time.