Just like with last week's post about diet sodas and sugar free Jell-O, Crystal Light is not okay to consume just because it has 0 sugar. 0 sugar does not give things a pass for consumption. The battle is not against sugar, per say. It is against blood glucose dysregulation. There are many things besides dietary sugar that affect proper blood glucose regulation. For example, endogenously produced "sugar" also affects proper blood glucose regulation.
Negative effects to hypothalamic function, caused by sweet taste, is obesogenic because it causes a dysregulation of blood glucose homeostasis. Just drink water.
2. Should you drink bullion cubes or bone broth?
Bullion cubes are usually consumed when you need sodium. Some people use bullion to up their electrolytes, but you should really track and supplement electrolytes in a more precise way than this.
You can't make a meal out of bone broth, so that means you would be consuming it between meals and that's snacking. Snacking is not recommended on this blog. Bone broth can be used in recipes, etc. Other than that, you shouldn't be drinking your calories, in any way shape or form. That means that you shouldn't drink Pepsi, but you should also not drink olive oil or bone broth.
Teeth are anti obesogenic. Use them.
3. Will artificial sweeteners help you transition away from sugar?
No. The only thing that artificial sweeteners do is replace sugar. You don't want to replace sugar. You want to eliminate it.
The only thing that helps you transition from sugar is stopping the taste of sweet, in all of its forms.
Replacing sugar with artificial sweeteners is what the calories in/calories out (CICO) advocates believe in. After all, if the artificial sweetener has no calories, then it becomes benign. Well, we know that's not true because obesity is a metabolic adaptation, not a calories condition. The taste of sweet drives obesity, irrespective of caloric content. It does this through dopamine expression.
Metabolism is not fooled. It can't store the artificial sweetener, so it just waits for the calories to come in from elsewhere and stores those instead.
You cannot out run, out fast or out smart obesity. You can only treat it effectively or not.
4. You can "control" high morning blood glucose by eating breakfast later.
You can control not seeing your high morning blood glucose by eating breakfast later. The high morning blood glucose is still there, whether you choose to see it or not.
High morning blood glucose is indicative of metabolic syndrome and/or diabetes, depending on how high it actually gets. Metabolic syndrome is the first sign of impending diabetes. You probably are already aware of that and I am sure your doctor is too, as they use fasting blood glucose to determine a diabetes diagnosis.
High morning blood glucose is referred to as Dawn Phenomenon (DP), which I have covered extensively in my past blog posts. It's basically an adverse response to dropping blood glucose during the overnight fast. When blood glucose begins to drop when fasting, in the presence of higher than normal insulin levels, the body overreacts and adrenal counter regulation kicks in to release blood glucose and prevent hypoglycemia. Cortisol is the hormone that is responsible for DP as this is the hormone that naturally wakes you from sleep.
This problem will persist, as long as you have metabolic problems. You can try things to manipulate this effect, but none of them will correct the problem. They will only "mask" it. For instance, you can exercise, the moment you wake up, and that might drop your blood glucose. For others, it actually rises it further. You can eat breakfast, as soon as you wake up, and it might drop your blood glucose, as the stress response lowers but again, for others it makes their blood glucose even worse.
The reason there are so many variables between individuals and there are no remedies is because chasing symptoms like DP is not correcting the root problem. You can spend years on this roller coaster of ups and downs every morning, as diabetes keeps progressing right under your nose.
The only solution to this problem is proper blood glucose regulation. Keeping blood glucose as steady as possible, through the proper and consistent implementation of a diet, fasting and exercise routine is the first step in combating this problem. Consistency in your protocol is what will lower this stress response over time.
Don’t flip flop between diets. Don’t fast for three days straight and then binge for a week, to then fast again for another week. Don’t take a month off from your exercise routine. All that BS will only make DP worse.
5. Exercise can have an adverse effect on blood pressure, so it must be avoided.
This is caused by an exaggerated stress response. Just like above, the stress response is kicked on due to any effect that is deemed stressful for the body, like lowering blood glucose during the overnight fast and/or exercise. Exercise lowers blood glucose, just like fasting does. Well, metabolic syndrome/diabetes are conditions that prevent the lowering of blood glucose as it wants to be kept at a high set point. People with metabolic problems have a dysregulation of their catecholamines, which are also released by the adrenals just like cortisol is.
When you exercise blood glucose lowers and since metabolic syndrome is a condition that tries to keep blood glucose high, your stress hormones respond by releasing more blood glucose and also raising your blood pressure and/or not allowing it to lower.
I don’t know what type of exercise you may be doing, but I recommend that you downgrade it. Steady state exercises like walking are what’s recommended on this blog. Stay away from anything strenuous, until your body can take control of this response.
6. You cannot "overeat" real food.
I try to stay away from the term "overeating" on this blog, unless absolutely necessary. This is because it is very difficult to quantify what "overeating" is. Nutrient recommendations are very individualized and must be determined on an individual basis. This is why we like to use macros instead of any other metric. Remember, the target here is obtaining proper blood glucose regulation and macros are a more precise metric to affect blood glucose than calorie counting or special "small" plates. So when the term "overeating" is used, I usually think of disordered eating habits which usually do not manifest in the quantity or quality of food.
For example, I could be eating salads for breakfast, lunch and dinner. That would be overeating salads and their calorie totals or quantity wouldn't much matter as I am not getting adequate protein or fat due to this disordered eating habit. Eating salads is basically starvation reinforcing blood glucose dysregulation.
I could be drinking "keto" coffees for dinner, instead of a real meal, again affecting adequate protein intake and making me go over moderate fat intake. Once fat goes over 150 grams a day, it becomes much easier to store, particularly if I am leptin resistant.
I could be eating rib eyes, fried in butter, for dinner, going over the recommended moderate intake for fat, once again.
Salads, "keto" coffee and rib eyes with butter are all real food but yet, my eating habits have made them all obesogenic. So in essence, I would be overeating them and affecting my blood glucose regulation, regardless of the calories consumed.
For others, disordered eating habits do fall into quantity. For example, if I am able to eat a pound of burgers with a block of cheese and a jar of mayo, poured over them, plus a bucket of "keto" ice cream for dessert, I have a problem. I am disrupting my insulin/glucagon ratio just by the massive workload I am putting on my digestion. How long will it take me to digest all of that? How much insulin will I release in response to it? How much glucagon will follow? All of this disrupts blood glucose regulation, irrespective of calories.
So, we have to be very precise when we speak of overeating. Overeating what and how? None of the information needed can be obtained through the calorie or quality metrics of the overeating.
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