[00:00:04] Speaker A: You are listening to episode number 256 of Better Blood Sugars with Delane Md.
Hey there. Welcome to the podcast. I want to thank you for taking time for you today and your health. I want to thank you for choosing to spend that with me and trusting me to help you along the way and trusting me for a little helpful pieces of information here and there. I have a couple of disclaimers to state. Before we get into the podcast today, I am going to be talking about food additives and why the additives are a problem and specific things that we need to avoid. So that's what we're going to dive into today. But before we get started on that one, I want worked last night, so my brain might be a little foggy. I have tried to load myself with enough caffeine to keep my brain clear, but, um, if I say anything that's confusing or doesn't make sense to you and you have a question, don't ever hesitate to email me. Delanemd.com. i'm happy to answer anything. I also want to let you know that I've been having some tech issues with my microphone, so sometimes it acts strangely and things will be paused and there might be a break in the recording. If you're listening to this on the podcast, like on the podcast players, I will correct that. But if you're listening, or if you're live on YouTube listening, or if you are, um, watching the replay on YouTube, I don't go through and edit those videos. So, um, I apologize. Just bear with me. I'll try to get my mic up and running as quickly as I can. So today we're going to talk about food additives. We are going to talk about, like, what food additives are, why they're sketchy, why you want to avoid them. A client pointed out to me that this would be really helpful information. They felt that there needed to be guidance, just in general, um, for women to improve their diets and know which food additives are a problem and what to focus on. I did post on Instagram, um, a food additive guide. You're more than welcome to find it at delanemd. On Instagram. You can go find that it's based on a stoplight system that is there and it goes through most of this stuff, although I present it to. I'm going to present it a little differently here in the podcast.
So a lot of women understand that they need to cut out processed foods. They understand that maybe just cutting out the processed foods are going to, that's going to be enough. Improvement for their blood sugars and to improve their diabetes and start seeing better blood sugars. But a lot of times what they understand is they're suspicious that maybe some of their other conditions, other, other symptoms that they have might be related to their diet, things like IB's or IBD, irritable bowel syndrome or irritable bowel disease. GERD, gastroesophageal reflux disease or heartburn.
Other disease states or problems that they might start to get suspicious about or ask about. A big question that I've gotten multiple times is autoimmune disease. Are there any dietary factors that play into autoimmune disease and autoimmune symptoms? So, women want to know if this, these symptoms that they're experiencing are related to the food that they eat.
Another big one that I don't think women realize, because I think the way that we as a society address anxiety and depression, um, one, we address it as everybody has it, and there's something wrong with it, where some of it's normal, like our body, our human experience is meant to have some anxiety and some depression. But I think because it's so, um, common, that people start to think that that's just something that's supposed to happen to the human, and it is. It's just not a problem. But certainly there are foods and food additives that exacerbate our mood disorders.
So women ask about these symptoms a lot, and inevitably, the answer for me, when I am talking to them, comes down to food additives. It's not like, oh, my gosh, I'm eating too many carbs. Is that why I have, you know, Sjogren's syndrome, or lupus syndromes, or rheumatoid arthritis syndrome, or symptoms. That is not the thing that we talk about. We dive into these food additives. So I do want to give, um, some resources in this podcast today. One of them is an app that my son actually pointed to me first, and then one of my clients pointed out they're using it also. I have not used this app. I am really proud that my oldest son on pointed it out to me, because it goes to show that when you set an example for your kids, you don't have to push them into doing what you're doing. You don't have to force it on them. They see you as an example, and when they're ready to get healthy, they know the place to start. That's exactly what happened. My son started asking. He knew. He knows what I do professionally. He knows I have a coaching business where I help people live naturally healthy lives. He knows I'm a physician. Clearly, he went through medical school with me. He knows all of that. I've never pushed anything on that kid as far as his diet. I watch him eat whatever, although he really does eat pretty healthy. But he contacted me. He's like, there's this app. So the app is called the yucca. Y u k, a yucca app. And he found it. And then again, a client asked me about it. I was like, yeah, I have heard about this. My son brought it up to me. So it's an app where you can scan a barcode, and using that barcode, you can then identify, um, if you're like, what they basically, they give a rating, like, how good or bad is this food as far as additives and for health? And they rate it on certain different areas. Again, I don't use this app. A client of mine is using it. She finds it really helpful. My son used it. He found it very helpful. So I want to, um, recommend that you can check that out. You can find it on the app stores.
But I'm going to dive in today to what additives are, what diseases I know that they contribute to, or what the evidence, as far as I understand it, is on what they contribute to.
And then we're going to talk about them specific as named items and things that you can start to look for in your ingredient list.
I did do a webinar, and you can find it on the YouTube channel. And that webinar was based on food label, how to translate food labels. So there is information about food additives there, and then there's also information about navigating food labels. So if you're looking at an ingredient label, the first thing listed in that ingredient list is the highest by weight, the ingredient that is most represented by weight. So if they weigh 3oz of the food that you're looking at, the, you know, first ingredient on that, which is if you're looking at processed food, is either going to be sugar or flour is the most by weight of all those ingredients. So there are some nuances there because some of these additives are added. Like, they're not one of those first few ingredients, which just means that there's a small amount, but there is still a very negative effect on our human biology from that. So what are food additives? Food additives are non natural chemicals that are added to your food. They are intended to do things like extend shelf life, enhance taste by sweetening it, or making things taste more intense. They're intended to enhance the texture of our foods. They're intended to enhance the presentation, the coloring or the form, like the shape that the food takes, the smoothness, the firmness. Ice cream is a great example here. They put additives so that the ice cream will hold its shape even when it gets warm and it starts to melt. So I make ice cream from scratch. I use an ice cream maker. I'm not some culinary genius. I just looked up a recipe and I use it. And I have noticed that's one of the things that I notice about my ice cream versus getting an ice cream from somewhere else. The ice cream from somewhere else does hold its shape. My ice cream turns into milk or cream rather quickly. So, um, all of these things are added to food so that they enhance the food in some way. So what I'm not talking about here is oregano or salt or pepper or time or sage, rosemary, any of those sorts of seasonings are not the additives I'm talking about when I'm talking. And I don't even consider those additives. I consider those seasonings, okay?
These food additives, they're added to your food that the food that you put in your mouth, they're also added to the things that our food eat.
[00:09:28] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:09:29] Speaker A: So sometimes they're added either at the site of harvest, usually to increase production. So pesticides and herbicides. But also thinking, as far as livestock goes, these are going to be things like hormones, right? All of these are applied in some way, shape or form to our food so that they either grow bigger and there's, like more food per pound. So more edible foods, stuff per pound in the form of cattle or even in the form of corn, right? Like corn, pre GMO was a much different looking variety of corn than what we see. But because we want to have a lot of corn kernels, which is what the human being eats, we have modified the corn so that it looks like the corn that we eat, this tall ear of corn. So there are additives that are put into our foods at the food source, okay? And again, that's going to be herbicides, pesticides, that's going to be hormones. It's going to be antibiotics in our meat. Those things are also part of what happens, or at least they impact what's happening in our biology with these food additives. And I am going to talk about, that's one of the things we're going to dive pretty deeply into is what is happening in our body. What actually, how do these additives actually cause a problem?
So ultra processed people is a great book.
I believe the author, I know, his last name is von Tulikan. His first name, I believe, is Christopher. He is a british physician, and he wrote this wonderful book called Ultra Process people.
I love his definition of what, you know is processed foods because these foods have additives in them. Right. Part of his book is to go through all of the different additives that are hallmarks of processed foods. So his book is really amazing. So it's an amazing source of information about additives and processed foods. But one of the things that he encourages you to.
A rule of thumb that he encourages to determine is this food, processed food that I should be eating or not. Right, because peanut butter is technically processed food, coffee is technically processed food. Anything that we're not plucking out of the earth is processed food. But are they all causing the same problems? Probably not. He likes to run it by the tester of who made this food. And is that person thinking of you as a human being in any way, shape, or form?
Whoever made or produced this food, are they thinking about you? Are they thinking about your well being? Are they thinking about your health in any way, shape, or form?
Or are they thinking about the money they're trying to make from the food that they're selling? If they're thinking about the money, you probably need to avoid it. At least very critically evaluated it, evaluate it. If they're thinking about you, it's probably not the worst. I mean, like, maybe if you're still insulin resistant, you can't have some baked good that your best friend made you, or you can't eat a lot of it, but you can be pretty certain your best friend is not putting something in your food to make you addicted to it. So you keep eating it in a way that makes you and keeps you sick.
[00:12:52] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:12:53] Speaker A: The example I've used when I talk about this is chocolate chip cookies, which I make for my kids.
I. I always look over my shoulder to make sure my kids can't hear me because I make them chocolate chip cookies. And there's six or seven ingredients, like butter and flour and, you know, brown sugar and white sugar, vanilla, and, of course, chocolate chips. I feel. Oh, and like, there's probably baking soda or baking powder. I'm a culinary disaster. So I don't necessarily know the difference between those, but one, I would never put anything in there that I knew was horrible, harmful for my kids to. I know they don't need that much sugar, and I put half the sugar in there, half the sugar that the recipe will call for I put in their chocolate chip cookies and I bake them up and I chuck them full of my love, and I put them in our cookie jar, and my kids love them. And I usually leave a little note on the cookie jar with it.
[00:13:47] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:13:47] Speaker A: That is the difference between clearly treat food. Chocolate chip cookies are not a requirement to my kids nutritional needs, but I make them as a treat, and I do it out of love. There's a difference between the chocolate chip cookies that I make for my children and the chocolate chip cookies that chips ahoy makes for my kids.
[00:14:06] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:14:06] Speaker A: The difference is I don't put stuff in them to make my kids keep eating them and keep eating them and keep eating them and keep eating them despite them getting sicker and sicker and sicker from that food. And that's the difference between food additives and then things that are just made for us by people who love us. Okay? So let's talk about the food additives and how they cause problems. There's a few ways that this happen.
One primary issue is the effect that these food additives have on our gut microbiome.
So I want to define the microbiome briefly. There are bacteria that live in your intestine. They are normal and healthy. They are not causing you problems. And they've always been there. Nothing is broken. It's supposed to be this way, okay? We eat food, and part of the food that we eat, in fact, the fiber that you're eating, that fiber feeds that gut microbiome.
[00:15:01] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:15:02] Speaker A: So why are, why do we have this bacterial, and it's a lot of bacteria. Like they say, there's way more bacterial cells or bacteria in our human body than there are our own cells.
[00:15:14] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:15:15] Speaker A: So there's a lot of bacteria floating around in our gut and on our body. That's normal bacteria not causing a problem.
The bacteria like strep throat, that causes you to have a sore throat and your throat gets red and you get a fever, that is a problem. Bacteria, that is not what we're talking about. We're talking about bacteria that live in your body and serve a purpose.
[00:15:35] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:15:36] Speaker A: So the bacteria that or the fiber that we eat actually feeds the gut microbiome, which is why it's important to get a variety of different fiber, because you want a variety of different healthy bacteria in your gut. And the more different foods you feed your gut, the more different bacterias grow in your gut. And the more diverse that bacterial microbiome is in your gut, the more diverse it is, the healthier you are. Okay, so we don't want to do things that kill the gut microbiome. What the microbiome does when we get to the intestinal layer of our digestive tract, technically, what is in the tube of our intestine is technically outside of our body. Whatever passes from our mouth to our butt is technically outside of the body.
[00:16:27] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:16:28] Speaker A: That's. I know it's inside of our body. Like, that's located inside of our body, but it is a area that we have so sequestered to keep outside of our bloodstream and our, you know, brain, so it doesn't cross to our blood brain barrier. Right. These are things, we want to keep those things and be very selective about the things we put in our mouth and how they go through our gut and how we bring them into our body.
[00:16:56] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:16:57] Speaker A: Part of that selectivity is that we have a single cell layer. So they're, the gut lining is just one cell layer thick. It is very, very delicate. And this one cell layer thick lining is what is keeping the outside world and what some scientists will refer to as, like, a toxic sewer river going through your gut. Right? Some doctors and scientists refer to what's happening in our gut as this, like, toxic sewer river.
[00:17:33] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:17:34] Speaker A: And you want to keep those things outside of your body, and you only want to bring in the things that are nutritious for our body. And what has happened is we have the single cell layer that is very tightly regulated to allow things that we need inside and keep things that we don't need outside. Part of this regulation and part of this barrier is that gut microbiome. It is the first layer that keeps things from coming to the single cell layer to come inside.
[00:18:08] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:18:09] Speaker A: So what happens is, in that single cell, those one cell layer, it's just very thin wall in our gut. And that single cell layer, the cells are attached to each other through things called tight junctions, are very tightly bound to each other, and that keeps things from slipping between the cells and getting into our body when they shouldn't be.
Part of that. Part of why that can exist is because of the microbiome, the bacterial layer that overlays the single cell barrier between the outside of our body and the gut and the inside of our body in our bloodstream, okay?
So having that microbiome healthy and doing its job is really important to keep toxic things out of our body.
[00:19:00] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:19:01] Speaker A: In addition, there is an endocrine function with the microbiome. The bacteria eat our fiber, and then they release certain chemicals that then get absorbed through that single cell layer and go to all parts of our body and do things, they send messages, okay?
When we break down that gut microbiome, and there's a variety of ways that we do, we aren't getting those messages. What they're called endocrine. It's an endocrine function, kind of like our hormones send their endocrine functions. Also, our hormones will send messages from one organ to another. This microbiome in our body, these bacteria inside our gut, eat the food that we eat, the fiber that we eat, and release hormones that send messages to our body to let our body know things. Organs on our body know things that they need to know to respond to the environment that we find ourselves in and the food that we find ourselves eating.
[00:20:00] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:20:00] Speaker A: So breaking down or killing off the gut microbiome prevents this endocrine function, but it also leads to this breaking down or, um, this damage of those tight junctions that keep our cells very closely together and don't let things slip through. It breaks that down. This condition is called leaky gut. And you may have heard of it. It's pretty common, because we eat a lot of processed foods. It's really pretty common. So when we have leaky gut, our gut is no longer. That single cell layer is no longer able to keep the things in the sewage river outside of the bloodstream. So now we have things leaking from that toxic river that flows through our gut into our body, into our bloodstream. So this is everything from bacteria to fungal elements and fungi, like. So we get fungal infections and viruses and chemicals and other non natural foods, like food colorings, emulsifiers. These are things I'm going to talk about, but they're things that texture our food. We like the way it feels in our mouth. Emulsifiers do that. All of these chemicals are then able to leak into our body and get in contact with our blood. And what then happens is your immune system identifies them as foreign, not right, and it sets off an immune response. This is what leads to inflammation. So, IB's IBD, that's inflammatory bowel disease, for the love of all that's holy. I mean, it says it in its name. There is this inflammation, this inflammatory response that's happening at the gut because of the breakdown of that microbiome layer and the leakage of our gut, allowing things from our gut to leak into our bloodstream and creating this immune response.
All of the chemicals, the chemicals, at least, that are not found naturally in our food, then have access to these non natural things, then have access to the inside of our body, they get into our bloodstream, and they go all sorts of different places, like, right at the site, they're going to set off an inflammatory response, but certainly there's so much of it, and the inflammatory response isn't immediate. They are able to then travel through our bloodstream to a variety of different other places in our body, including organs and our brain. Right? So our liver, our kidneys, our heart, our skin, our muscle. I mean, we're feeding the mitochondria this junk, right? Like, and that's supposed to be the powerhouse, but we're feeding them poison. But in addition, it's some of these chemicals. They get to our brain, and they are actually able to cross the blood brain barrier. And now we have this foreign chemical floating around in our brain. So from here, I think you can see there's pretty limitless possibilities and the impact that this leaky gut syndrome can have on our health.
[00:23:00] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:23:00] Speaker A: There's a variety of different things that we see. So leaky gut is probably one of the most impactful ways that we see food additives negatively impact our human health.
[00:23:14] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:23:15] Speaker A: Other things that we can see, we can see some of these food additives change the microbiome. So there's bacteria that live in our mouth, and they help keep our teeth healthy and our gums healthy and our taste buds functioning normally. There are things that we eat that will change the bacteria that live in our mouth. In fact, in science, and so the journal science, I think it was 2021 that summer, they did a entire issue that was committed to and devoted to the microbiome and what it means. And one of the studies and that issue talked about, there is an abnormal bacteria in our mouth. It is not normal. It doesn't live there normally. There's an abnormal bacteria in our mouth that produces the protein that we test for. When we are diagnosing rheumatoid arthritis, it is the most specific protein that we test for, and it is produced by a bacteria that's abnormal, an abnormal bacteria that lives in our mouth. So when we're eating these additives, we're changing the microbiome everywhere, not just in our gut, but in our mouth. We're also changing the taste buds and how they function. So natural food no longer tastes good and appealing because we're expecting the fake taste that comes with fake grape or fake cherry from jolly ranchers.
[00:24:33] Speaker B: Right?
[00:24:34] Speaker A: That's what your taste buds become accustomed to, that intensity of that taste.
[00:24:40] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:24:40] Speaker A: So these food additives change the function of our taste buds. In fact, if you cut out processed foods. If you cut out mints, if you cut out gum, sugar free gum especially. And there's some mixed information about the benefits associated with that. But the intensity of the sweetness of the artificial sweetener on your taste buds actually alters the way your taste buds taste normal. Fruit, grapes, cherries, apples, bananas, they no longer taste as sweet because we have altered those chemicals, alter our taste buds.
Some of these additives are carcinogenic. So carrageenan is one that's added to a lot of dairy products to help with the texturing. And that is carcinogenic. That has been linked cancer. Right. Sodium benzoate is added to pickles as a preservative, been linked to cancer. So some of these additives are carcinogenic, which clearly nobody's into developing cancer from these food additives. And then others of these additives are really added just to cross your blood brain barrier or interact with your brain and your nerves in a way to make you want more of these foods. Two prime examples of this are maltodextrin and msg. Okay, so some of the ways, this is not an all inclusive list, but some of the ways that these additives can cause, like, the mechanism that they cause problems in our body is by affecting the gut microbiome, leading to leaky gut, affecting our microbiome in our mouth, not only leading to things like rheumatoid arthritis, or being associated with things like rheumatoid arthritis, but also definitely leading to things like dental problems, um, cavities and periodontal disease, those sorts of things.
They change your taste buds. They are carcinogenic or been linked to cancer. And some of these additives simply are added to make you want more of them. Okay, so the list of specific additives is long. I've tried to put it into some categories, and then I am going to discuss some more specific names, but I want to talk about specifically what these additives are doing and why you want to avoid them. Okay, so, again, this is not an all inclusive list. This is the list that I came up with. But there are many other additives I'm sure I'm missing. So I don't want you to think this is a perfect, forever all inclusive list. It's not. So preservatives. So these are things that are added to our food to make them stay on the shelf and not go bad longer.
[00:27:15] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:27:15] Speaker A: They are associated with mental health issues, anxiety, depression, also ADD and ADHD. These chemicals get into your bloodstream, they cross that gut, um, barrier, and they get into your bloodstream, and then they cross the blood brain barrier, and they lead to. They make the brain, depending on the additive, and depending on the brain, let's be honest. But they either ramp it up and make us anxious and add ADHD, or they bring us down and everything is slowed and we experience depression. Okay, so added or preservatives are a food additive that leads to all sorts of mental health and mood issues. Okay, emulsifiers. So these, again, these are chemicals that change the texture of food. They make things that usually like oil and water that don't mix together. Well, mixed together.
Our tongue and our mouth likes the way that foods with the right mix of emulsifiers in them, our mouth likes the way it feels inside. Okay, so there's a smoothness and creams. There's a lightness and smoothness in the baked goods. Sometimes there's a butteriness in the baked goods. So what are emulsifiers? Emulsifiers are actually derivative derivatives of detergents, things like soap, dishwasher detergent, laundry detergent. It makes sense that these are going to kill your microbiome, and that's exactly what they do. They kill off your gut microbiome, and they lead to leaky gut syndrome. And this allows toxins to get inside your body and wreak havoc in your body.
[00:28:54] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:28:55] Speaker A: Leche thins are also. So, um, that's. Lechesn's is like soy lechen. Honestly, any oil. I've seen sunflower, safflower, leches, then I've seen all of these. So it's leche thins. And those are emulsifiers.
[00:29:10] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:29:11] Speaker A: Acyl glycerides. So these are typically listed on your ingredient list, like monoacel glyceride and diacel glycerides. They, again, are put in the food to make it have a nice feel. These particular ones are known to have a metabolic effect on the pathway, um, that leads to insulin resistance. My dog is very upset about this and has something to say about it. I don't know what they're barking at, but I apologize.
So, um, these lead to a blocking of insulin signaling. Signaling within the cell that is not on that, um, cell surface area where the insulin just can't bind. It's a different area inside the cell that these acylglycerides, negatively, they block the way the insulin is messaging inside the cell. So these can lead to insulin resistance and other endocrine and metabolic problems. Polysorbates. Those are other emulsifiers. Carrageenan. Again, this has been heavily linked to cancer this is added to ice cream. This is added to yogurts, to all sorts of milk, dairy products, in order so that we like the smoothness. There's no chunkiness or chalkiness that's noted, noted with it, or experienced with it. And then Xanthan gum is another one. And these are added usually to.
Oh, like, salad dressings will have these xantham gums and guar gums, although these seem to be different. But xanthan gum is another emulsifier.
So another food additive that's added is sweeteners. And this list is clearly very long. We use all sorts of sweeteners in our processed foods.
Most of the time, we're adding sweeteners to our foods to make you want more of them. They have started adding even artificial sweetener, like sucralose or Ace K or even sorbitol or xylitol. They've added these artificial sweeteners to things like ketchup because they didn't want, you know, no sugar added ketchup. A lot of times, if you look at them, there is an artificial sweetener in them. I'm not sure why we need to be adding sugar to ketchup. I don't think of it as a sweet condiment, but we're adding the sweetener to it. It's not because I think any of us want sweet ketchup. It's because the food manufacturers know that the human brain likes sweetness and will eat more of it. So sugar is typically added to make you want more of it. It they also, again, if it's the first ingredient. Right. They have to be labeled differently. So if the first ingredient in any food is sugar, it has to be labeled as, like, a treat, a snack, junk food. It can't be labeled as a health food.
[00:32:03] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:32:04] Speaker A: So a lot of times, these food manufacturers will alter the kind of sugar. That's part of the reason why there are so many different sweeteners out there. They can put sucrose, they can put date sugar, they can put dextrose, and they can put corn sweetener, four different names for sugar, into one food and keep it from being listed as the top ingredient. Kind bars, those granola bars, they're called kind bars, is a great example of this. I just looked at this just last week. I was walking through checkout, and I saw it in the checkout aisle, and it said. It said, like, simple ingredients. And I'm like, really? Well, maybe I've never looked at this. Let me look. Nope. It had sugar listed at least three different ways when I briefly glanced at that ingredient list.
[00:32:50] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:32:51] Speaker A: And the reason that it puts it in three different ways is because if they put it in all of it as sugar, they have to list it as the main ingredient in that food. And then they can't label it as a health food. That's what happens there. So recognize also, if we're eating tons of sugar, that sugar then dictates it goes to our gut and our microbiome, and it grows. It dictates it feeds the gut microbiome. And that bacteria that you grow based on sugar or with sugar is less healthy. One, it's very narrow, right? You're going to grow a narrow, more narrow type of bacteria. You're not going to have the diversity you're looking for, first off. But second, you're growing bacteria that grow on sugar. And the human diet did not have, like, naturally occurring humans did not have that much sugar in their diet.
[00:33:42] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:33:43] Speaker A: So they grow a different kind of bacteria.
So there's sugars, dextrose, sucrose, corn sweeteners. There are syrups, um, rice syrup, anything with the word syrup. Invert sugar syrup, high fructose corn syrup. There are other things like high, uh, like fruit juice concentrates. There are artificial sweeteners. Sucralose, a sulfame, potassium asper, aspartame or aspartame. I don't know how you say that. Aspartame, saccharin, neotame. There are alcohol, sugars. Those are going to be xylitols and sorbitols. All of these artificial sweeteners, they don't just grow bad microbiome, bad bacteria in your gut. They kill off the bacteria in your gut. They poison and kill the bacteria in your gut. Think about alcohol. Like, you know, alcohol hand sanitizer is made to kill the bacteria on your hands. When we drink alcohol in the form of wine or vodka or tequila or beer, or if we're eating it in the form of xylitol or sorbitol, those things kill the microbiome. And artificial sweeteners are also known to negatively impact and kill the microbiome. So artificial sweeteners, if it's in your food, especially if it's in your food, that's not meant to be sweet. I mean, if you're having a soda, a diet soda, once a week or something, probably not an issue. If you're having a tea or something that has these sweeteners in it every day, every day you're exposing your gut to something that will kill off the gut microbiome in there.
[00:35:10] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:35:12] Speaker A: Then there are other additives. Thickeners are a big additive that we see in our food. Maltodextrin is a huge one that goes into our food, and it's. It's not just an thickener. I mean, it's added to things for a variety of reasons. It also makes meat. It's literally injected into meat so that the meat will feel, um, more moist. It will be just a juicier piece of meat. Um, I found maltodextrin in pre cooked chicken. I was opening it. It was pre packaged and pre cooked. I thought it was so very clever, like, three ounce, pre packaged things of chicken. And there you could buy them in, like, a, like, a set of six of them. It was in this package. It was plastic. I should have known better. I don't like even having plastic on my food, but I thought it was great for being in a pinch. It would be a really helpful thing. And so, um, I bought them, six of them, and I just briefly glanced at the nutrition label, thinking, I mean, it's chicken. Literally, it's like, roasted chicken. That's what it says on the package. I'm like, how can we go wrong here? I look at the, um, nutrition label, and there were 3 grams of carbohydrates and chicken. And I was like, really? That's the weirdest thing I've ever seen. Like, chicken shouldn't have carbohydrates. I wonder what that's about. Does chicken always have carbohydrates? I started questioning it. I looked at the ingredient label and the ingredient list, and sure enough, maltodextrin was on that list. So here's the kick in the teeth about malta maltodextrin. It is a sugar. It has a very, um, intense, exaggerated, um, sugar response. Okay. Glycemic index. So your sugars will pop up.
[00:36:51] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:36:52] Speaker A: Um, it also is meant to bind a certain neuron in your intestine, the first part of your intestine as you're passing through the stomach, it's meant to bind that and trigger your brain to release the dopamine and the neurochemistry that the brain releases when it eats sugar.
[00:37:10] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:37:11] Speaker A: And that's why it's put into things that aren't sweet, like chicken, so that you will want to eat more of that chicken. Okay. This is the second twisted thing about processed foods, is they are making things, and they are making them in a way that makes you want to eat more of it, even when it makes you sick. And that's why I think it's really important to start seeing what's in your food and deciding, hey, you can totally eat the multodextrin chicken. Like, as long as, you know, I'm going to eat it and I'm going to want more, and I might see my blood sugars go up with this and do I want that? I really think that's the important part for you to ask yourself, is this what I really want to happen?
Guar gum is another thickener that's added to our food, um, to make, like, dressings and sauces thicker. And again, not the same impact that I'm aware of, at least the blood sugars, but definitely changes to our gut microbiome occur with things like guar gum and xanthan gum and all of these.
So what diseases are associated with some of these food additives? So, GI, I hope. I've clearly made a case for many GI diseases and symptoms are going to be associated with processed foods. If you have diarrhea, if you have loose stools, if you deal with constipation, if you have bloating, if you have heartburn, if you have any of those things. I would get really, really clear about how much of these additives are getting into your diet on a daily basis. It is an effort to cut these things out of your diet. You really have, you're not going to just serendipitously stumble across having an additive free diet. You're going to have to work at it. So if you have any of those symptoms, I would very seriously be considering, what is your additive burden? How many additives are you getting into your diet? So IB's and IBD, so that's inflammatory bowel disease, inflammatory bowel syndrome, both of those, um, gerd symptoms. Again, gastroesophageal reflux disease or heartburn. Ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease, mood disorders like anxiety, depression, ADD, ADHD, even things that have significant mood disorder, like schizophrenia, like personality disorders, schizophrenia, bipolar. There is a clear connection between the processed foods that we are eating and the amount of symptoms that people have with those conditions. There is something going on there. We may not have all the answers, but there is definitely something going on there. And then autoimmune diseases are the other one, like, major class of diseases that I really do feel that these food additives can play a big role, have a big impact in those diseases and those autoimmune diseases, some of us are just prone to that. Fine, that may be just our genetics and our nature. The way we nurture our genetics, right? We need to nurture. We have the kind of genetics that need. We need to nurture our nature, right? We need to nurture our genetics. It isn't that we're just destined to be sick all the time. We aren't. Maybe we do have a genetic makeup that makes us more prone to that. We have to nurture that by making good decisions, decisions that benefit our health. So that's a lot of stuff I feel like there. If you have any questions, again, don't hesitate to reach out to me. Delanemd.com dot I'm happy to answer any questions. I am not saying that it's easy to have an additive free diet. It is not. Again, it takes work. I'm not even saying, like, if you look at the 14 days to better blood sugar guide, there may be things in there that have additives. And so, you know, you have to like either look for other brands. Like, a great example is cottage cheese. If I get the off brand of cottage cheese, it has carrageenan in it. If I get, um, Daisy is the brand. It has a very clean ingredient list as far as I can read on their labeling. Okay, if you're wanting more information, there are a few books. Again, Chris von Tuleken's ultra processed people is a great book. I've talked about it on the podcast a lot because I really think it's an amazing book. Michael Moss's work, I think he should put me on the payroll because I'm constantly promoting his work. But salt, sugar, fat is one of his books. And then follow up to that was hooked. Michael Moss. M as in Michael. O s as in Sam. S as in Sam Moss, like the stuff that grows on a rock. Um, those books by him are great. Robert Lustig's metabolical great book. Dopamine Nation by Anna Lamke. That's l as in Lollipop. E m as in Michael, b as in boy. K e lemke. Dopamine nation is the name of that book. And then the craving mind by Judson Brewer is another really great book that talks about all these additives and the kind of what happens in our body and in our brain with these. So check out those books. If you have any questions, let me know. I want to remind you that if you are on medications for your diabetes, that you have been medicated for the way you have eaten in the past, and. And if you change the way you eat, you're going to need to change your medications. And if you don't you can get very sick, the kind of sick that involves getting into the hospital, getting admitted and possibly dying or having some horrible outcome. I don't want that for you, and I don't think you want that for you. So what I need you to do is if you start making these dietary changes, I need you to start watching your blood sugars very closely, and I need you to call your provider, the provider that prescribed you the medications for your diabetes. I need you to call them and I need you to tell them, hey, listen, I'm going to make some dietary changes and they're going to go, that's awesome. I hope that's what they say. And then you need to ask them, how do you want me to share my blood sugars with you? And they're going to say, I want you to email them, I want you to fax them, I want you to carry your pigeon them, whatever they say, they're going to tell you how to share your blood sugars with them. And then I want you to ask them, how can I expect to hear how to change my meds from you? And they're going to tell you, I'll have my nurse call you. I'll respond to your email. I'll call you, I'll carry your pigeon you back. Whatever it is they're going to tell you, get a very clear line of communication open with your provider so that you stay safe as you make these changes.
[00:43:12] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:43:12] Speaker A: If you're not sure what you need to be eating or what to do to fix your type two diabetes, you can download my 14 days to better blood sugar guide. You can find
[email protected] forward slash better that is a 14 day guide of breakfast, lunch and dinner that will lower your blood sugars. Again, if you're medicated, be very careful using that guide. It's very powerful, as always. Again, I've said it a couple times already. If you have any questions, send me an email.
[email protected] I'm happy to answer anything I would ask that you like and rate this podcast. The more people that like and review and rate this podcast, the more people hear about the podcast.
[00:43:49] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:43:50] Speaker A: Nine out of ten Americans have insulin resistance and are on the path to type two diabetes. People need to hear that they do not need to be sick for the rest of their life. They do not need to be on meds for the rest of their life. They do not need to be tied to the american quote unquote, healthcare system for the rest of their life. There is a way to live healthy. People need to hear about this. The more you like, rate and review this podcast, the more people will hear about this. Lastly, guys, keep listening. Keep avoiding the foods that are making you sick, and keep making choices for your health, your vitality, and your longevity. I'll be back next week. Bye.
