Can Sugar Addiction Cause Depression?

Transcript:

LEAH: Hello and welcome to Dishing Up Nutrition. To start today's show, let's take a moment to check in and ask how you're feeling now, now that we're well into January. Do you feel energized and ready to work on your goals for the new year? Or are you stuck in that post holiday blue season? Are you feeling the effects of overindulgence during the holiday season?

You know, there is a biochemical reason why you might be feeling down. And we're going to be talking about this today and why that is and how to get back to feeling good. So our topic today is a very timely one. Can sugar addiction cause depression? We're going to be covering sugar's addictive properties and how it can relate to mood disorders like depression.

But first, I'm going to take a moment, we're going to introduce ourselves. I am Leah Kleinschrodt and I'm a Registered and Licensed Dietitian. And today I am joined by my colleague Brandy Buro, who is also a Registered and Licensed Dietitian. And Brandy, I bet you can relate to working with clients who are often surprised to learn how much sugar actually impacts their moods. This is kind of the time of year where it starts to come out.

BRANDY: Yeah, definitely. And this is something that comes up with so many of the clients that I work with, especially this time of year when I think people are sort of struggling with that post-holiday routine or lack of routine and the different foods that enter their scene and just trying to sort things out afterwards, pick up the pieces.

And once, you know, we take the time to really educate somebody about how their moods, how depression and anxiety could be influenced by their sugar intake, it really helps them reexamine what their relationship is like with sugar. And this, I think is a good time to do that because they've just come from a season where they're on sugar overload.

LEAH: You see one extreme of it, so it makes you step back and say, oh, okay. I've seen the one extreme. How can I find that middle ground again?

Some possible places sugar can hide

BRANDY: So there is a, you know, value in that experience in a lot of ways. And I think it is important to start talking about what we actually mean by sugar. So it's not just like the sugary holiday treats, but any carbohydrate will turn into sugar or glucose. So once it's digested, it converts into glucose and it enters the bloodstream. So even something like vegetables or fruit, they all convert into sugar, but it's the really high carbohydrate foods like the breads and the pastas, the chips and cereals in addition to those obviously sugary foods like dessert and candy and soda.

Sugar can really be hidden in foods that you don't necessarily expect it to be in: things like, condiments often. So like salad dressings, sauces and dips, marinades, even seasoning blends.

LEAH: Yeah.

BRANDY: Yeah. So like on a barbecued chicken wing or something.

LEAH: Yep. Mm hmm.

BRANDY: So even if you're going out to a restaurant and you're trying to make a healthy choice and you gravitate towards like a piece of meat with a vegetable side dish, chances are you are getting more sugar than you think, because whatever that dish is flavored with probably has sugar in it.

So something like a stir fry or the chicken wings I just mentioned, like very likely going to have some kind of sugar in it or the dipping sauce. So really sugar is everywhere. Unless you're cooking most of your meals from scratch and you know that you're not adding those sweeteners, you are likely ingesting more sugar in your day to day diet than you really realize.

How much sugar is too much?

LEAH: Yeah. Yes. Easy to do in our current food environment. And I'll, I'll get asked by clients. So they've, they've usually heard the message or they kind of know instinctively. All right. I know too much sugar is bad for me, but like what defines too much sugar? How much sugar can I have? Can like, what's the limit?

It can be a hard question to answer, right? But I mean, one benchmark that we often refer to, the American Heart Association did set out a recommendation a number of years ago now, they said that eating no more than six teaspoons of added sugar per day is kind of a good goalpost to aim for.

So six teaspoons of added sugar, that's 24 grams of added sugar. To put that into perspective, like a can of soda or a bottled sports drink, or even like a medium sweetened latte is usually somewhere around 30 to 40 grams of sugar. So just one of those drinks surpasses that suggested intake of added sugar for the whole day. So it can add up really quickly, especially in those beverages.

BRANDY: Yeah, you can really spend your allowance pretty fast with a sugar sweetened drink. And that's not even counting, you know, where, where else is sugar hiding? And I bet if the average American wrote down everything that they ate in a day, that amount of added sugar would be much more than 24 grams. The American Heart Association reported that the 60 teaspoons a day.

LEAH: 24 versus 60, like there's a big discrepancy there.

BRANDY: Right. Almost triple. Yeah. So, and I'm not saying this to blame or shame anybody. It's just, like I said, it's sugar is everywhere and it's hiding in places you don't expect it. One example that I like to bring up with my clients, but also I, I kind of I've discovered this recently for myself. I was looking at a barbecue sauce that I had in my own fridge and I was reading over the ingredients list to check like how, how good of quality is this?

LEAH: Yep.

BRANDY: The very first ingredient was corn syrup.

LEAH: A form of sugar.

BRANDY: Uh oh.

LEAH: Yeah.

BRANDY: And then I looked at the sugar content. Two tablespoons had 18 grams of sugar.

LEAH: Yeah.

BRANDY: So, I mean, that's almost our daily limit right there. So if you cut yourself off at two tablespoons, like, okay, maybe you can get by.

LEAH: Maybe you have a little wiggle room.

BRANDY: Yeah. But you know, I'm not typically stopping at two tablespoons.

LEAH: Yeah, those sauces, again, easy to have a heavy hand to pour. And it's funny you mentioned that, because I did the same thing. You know, bought a barbecue sauce, didn't do my due diligence looking at the nutrition facts panel or looking at the ingredients really closely and yeah, two tablespoons was 14 grams of sugar where the normal one that I buy is like four to five grams of sugar.

So big difference there and you can taste it like when you're used to the lower sugar, like barbecue sauces, for example, like when you do get a higher sugar one, you taste that difference and it's like, oh, there is a difference in here.  

BRANDY: Definitely. Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of areas in nutrition. We can just have blind spots. So I'd like what you said too Brandy about like, this is not a blame and shame game. This is more of like, hey, can we get some guidance? Can we step back, take that mile high view, maybe do a little bit of tracking or inventory at this time.

Can we kind of look at areas where we might be able to do a little bit better? Can we make some swaps? Can we make some changes? So, yes, it is, it's hard to avoid those added sugars without really being intentional and conscious of the decisions you're making, making your meals at home, reading those labels diligently.

And that's what we help clients with day in and day out. So just another question for the listeners. Have you ever noticed that eating or drinking sugar, it makes you feel good in the moment, but afterward you feel a little down or maybe just like, oh, I'm ready for a nap or just kind of drained with your energy?

Sugar lights up the reward centers in the brain

It does feel great to take that first taste of the sweet treat or the dessert or that flavored latte. But one thing that happens, the sugar, it lights up the reward centers in your brain. The research suggests that they do that just as much, if not more than consuming, doing cocaine.

BRANDY: Wow.

LEAH: Yeah. I mean, that's a pretty bold statement, but stick with us here. Not only consuming sugar, but even thinking about consuming sugar lights up our brain. And we're going to get into this a little bit more. So think about when you've been in this situation, you're on your way to the coffee house to order the latte and the muffin or the pastry, whatever is there.

As you're driving there, do you kind of feel that anticipation, you kind of feel that brain lights up with anticipation of this? Or you're going to a birthday party, you know there's going to be cake and ice cream and gets you a little excited. It gets you a little jazzed up to be going. Or like this one hits home for me since I have two little kids.

As parents, we know like that window between when the kids go to bed and then you go to bed is a very precious time at night. So it is a common thing when I'm working with parents to say, kids go to bed. We sit down finally. Like we can get off our feet for a little bit, but that is a very vulnerable time for the chocolate, the ice cream, the chips and salsa, whatever it might be to kind of come out at that time.

When you're at five o'clock in the afternoon and the kids are melting down cause they're hungry, is that something that you look forward to and you get that little burst of anticipation and like that little bit of dopamine in there? So when you get that burst or that feel good moment, even though the thing hasn't happened yet, that's your brain releasing some waves of dopamine in anticipation of getting that sugar. So like dopamine doesn't just happen when you get the thing. It's the anticipation leading into it.

BRANDY: Exactly. Yeah.

LEAH: Our brains are designed to release dopamine, which is one of our feel good neurotransmitters when ingesting that sweet tasting food, like sugar. And dopamine is the reward chemical in our brain that makes us feel great. And so anytime you get excited for something, that's your brain getting kind of a little hit of some dopamine.

And that's why chemicals that produce those big waves of dopamine can become addictive, sugar being one example, but alcohol is another one or some of these other habits, say like online shopping or gambling and things like that. So the body is kind of hardwired to naturally chase that light up that reward center in your brain because it feels good. It's that addiction cycle.

BRANDY: So the first time you have a taste of sugar, it's like it is releasing some dopamine. Yeah, but then your brain is sort of conditioned like the next time I see that cookie, like, I'm going to get that surge of dopamine before I even have my first bite. Cause now, now your brain is clued in like, oh, that was a good thing. I want that.

I don't necessarily consider myself a sweets person. You know, I can most of the time, take it or leave it, except for when somebody might leave a dessert at my house. After a gathering I can count on my hand how many times this has happened. Someone brings a dessert, it's in my house, then I'm thinking about it, but over the holidays, someone brought over some homemade peanut butter balls.

But we also had somebody at the party that had a peanut allergy. So we kind of hid those away after the party. Wow. We had a whole truckload of peanut butter balls. And I was like, okay, I'll try one. And that was fine. But then the next day I was thinking about that peanut butter ball and I had another one.

And then the next day I'm at work; I'm thinking about the peanut butter ball before I even get home. And then I had two that night. Suddenly I caught myself in this cycle. It's like, this is that cycle that I educate people about all the time. Now I have to cut myself off. That was really the only way to get off, out of this addiction cycle that had started. I had to throw them away.

LEAH: Yeah. Yeah. And again, I'm sure that didn't happen to any of our listeners out there over, you know, the last two to three weeks or so. But yes, that's a great example of, yeah, it's just like, even us dietitians, we know the know, and yet you had said something so perfectly before the show, and I don't, I might mess it up, but it was like, I don't normally crave sugar, but when it's in my environment, you shorten that leash a little bit, or like, it's just easier to get into something like that.

BRANDY: Right? If it's in my environment, you're more likely to have some, and then you put yourself at risk for that addiction cycle to start. So environment is important. So I caught myself with that, my brain lighting up, just thinking about those peanut butter balls, and I'm sure some of you can relate to this.

And that first bite of chocolate or something, it's going to give you that reward response in your brain. And it's basically sort of your brain's way of reinforcing that behavior. So it's telling your brain like, oh, that was good. Go after that the next time you see it. And once, you know, after you've eaten the treat, after you have that peanut butter ball or that piece of chocolate, the feeling is fleeting.

It's good in the moment. It passes very quickly. And then what you're left with, you might feel a little down. You may even feel a little shame or regret as I did for even doing it at all in the first place. And this is a normal response. This is a pretty typical pattern that you might see, but now you can see how sugar is addicting, just like any other drug or addicting behavior, because it is spiking that dopamine leading to this pattern;

Great in the moment. But when that moment passes, those negative emotions can creep in. And in the case of sugar, it may feel like a hangover, you know, not just the guilt and the shame for some people, but you're also maybe going to be left with low energy, low moods. And in some cases, you might reach for more of that thing, whether it's chocolate or ice cream, or maybe even chips, you know, sugar, deep fried and covered in salt.

LEAH: Yes.

BRANDY: So this is becoming a cycle of always trying to get that next dopamine boost and for a lot of people that boost comes from eating food, especially sugar because sugar is super effective at boosting our dopamine immediately. But that effect is going to wear off with time. So that's why the first taste of something tastes great. Your brain will adjust to it. And then it doesn't feel quite as exciting by the time you finish that thing.

How blood sugar can affect mood

LEAH: Yeah. Yep. And this also relates to a topic we bring up on almost every one of our podcast episodes, and that's blood sugar. So we're going to steer away from dopamine for a little bit and talk about the blood sugar effect. It's the same idea as Brandy was just talking about.

When you eat a high carbohydrate food or something sugary, something very sweet, your blood sugar spikes. It goes up that roller coaster hill, and especially if we're not pairing it with a protein or balancing it out with a healthy fat, I've heard the term naked carbs before, like, you don't dress them up with anything.

Then we think, okay, we eat that, and then anywhere maybe from like 20 minutes to like maybe an hour or two later, your blood sugar starts to drop. So now we're on the downside of that roller coaster. And the symptoms of that can look like irritability, shaky hands, inability to concentrate, or brain fog.

For me, I always know my blood sugar is dropping because I'm reading an email and I have to read it five times before it actually penetrates my brain. And that's my signal, like, I'm probably hungry, I need to go eat something. And then you get excessive hunger to the point where you feel like you can't function until you get more food in, so we got to rescue those blood sugars.

I was actually doing a little research before the show here, and there was a book I was looking into. It was called Beat Sugar Addiction Now. And they talked about this term as sugar being an energy loan shark.

BRANDY: Ooh, I like that.

Yeah, I thought, that was kind of snazzy, so I grabbed it out of there. And really what they were talking about with that is like a credit card, when you get that hit of sugar, those higher carbohydrate foods, it does give you a lift in your energy, a lift in your moods, kind of makes you feel good for a short time. But what you're doing is you're kind of borrowing against future energy, future moods, future, stability with your blood sugar is kind of like a card.

Eventually you got to pay it back. So sugar comes in, it does its thing for a little while, but then we got to make up the balance later on. So I thought that was an interesting way to think about it.

BRANDY: No, I like that. I've never heard it described like that, but it makes complete sense.

LEAH: Yeah. Absolutely.

BRANDY: So we do have to take a quick break. When we come back, we will talk more about how sugar can influence our mood and our mental health. We'll be right back.

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BRANDY: Welcome back from break. Before we dive into our topic again, I wanted to mention one of the ways we've helped folks with their relationship to sugar. In case this conversation is resonating with you, we've developed and hosted a couple rounds of a How to Break Up with Sugar in 28 Days program. It's a 28-day challenge all done online with modules, handouts, community chat, and a live Q & A session with a registered dietitian where you can learn tips and habits to get to the root cause of your sugar cravings and how to overcome them with real food nutrition. We'll be holding another one of these live programs soon.

So if you're interested or you want to learn more about what's entailed and what you'll learn, head over to our website, weightandwellness.com, and find the class under the nutrition classes tab. You can add your email to the wait list and we'll let you know when the class is open for registration.

Sign Up For Our 28-Day Break Up With Sugar Challenge

We would love it if you joined this community. I just love this program. I've met with quite a few clients that have done the course, and I think it's a really great jumpstart into what real food nutrition is and just kind of gets you in the groove of what a good foundation is.

LEAH: Yeah. We were talking about dopamine hits a little while ago, and I mean, there's always amazing comments that come out of this group. And so it's like, oh, we get a little dopamine hit when you see those positive comments. It's so fun because people can make huge breakthroughs, even in the first week, like we hear some great stories. So it's fun to run this challenge and just to see what people notice, what their takeaways are.

BRANDY: Yeah. I love it too. One of the first things you'll learn in this class is how to balance your blood sugar. That's what you were talking about before we went to break just talking about blood sugar's role in how that impacts our moods and getting into what that blood sugar roller coaster is and how that can set you on a roller coaster with your moods. So maybe you could pick up where we left off there.

LEAH: Yeah. I won't linger on it too much longer, but yes, we were saying, you eat the higher carb or the higher sugar foods and you get that spike in blood sugar. So you spike up the roller coaster, but eventually you got to come back down.

And when you come down, that's when you can get some of those miserable types of feelings, the irritability, the “hangries”, and this can be where more of those anxiety and depression types of symptoms can come up. Ideally we got to get people off that blood sugar rollercoaster. Like you said, it's one of the first cornerstone pieces that we teach people in that how to beat sugar challenge, because it's easy to get into this vicious cycle where we, we’re up and down on our blood sugar.

We're not eating the most nutrient rich types of foods. We have this high sugar diet. We don't feel good. Then when we don't feel good, we don't have the capacity to cook real food and high quality meals. So boom, like we're on the hamster wheel. So we have to break through that cycle. And ideally it is with real food, eating a balance of proteins, some vegetables and fruits, healthy fats, every couple of hours. So we don't get the high highs, but we also don't get the low lows that come along with it.

BRANDY: Right. So just stability.

LEAH: Yes.

How inflammation can affect moods

BRANDY: Then the air clears and you can finally see where you're at and where you want to go. One other aspect of this blood sugar rollercoaster and how sugar is connected to mood, I think inflammation. So I want to talk a little bit about inflammation. And if you've been listening to Dishing Up Nutrition for any amount of time, you've probably heard us talk about how blood sugar balance and how sugar can cause inflammation.

And I don't think a lot of people realize that depression is often thought of as inflammation of the brain. In fact, higher levels of C reactive protein or CRP, which is basically a measure of inflammation in the body, is related to higher rates of depression. So this is a lab test that maybe you've even seen on a lab report, maybe if you've gotten a physical. It's a pretty common lab to run. So higher rates of CRP are related to higher rates of depression.

So think of it like a cycle. Sugar leads to inflammation in the body and the brain. Inflammation in the brain leads to depression. Then that depression, those low moods could trigger cravings for more sugar. So now that cycle continues over and over again.

What is inflammation?

So I just want to go over a really simple explanation of what exactly inflammation is. So I like to think of inflammation as the body's defense mechanism.

LEAH: Yeah. Love that.

BRANDY: Yeah. So it's kind of like your body's way of putting out a fire. Yeah. You think of the word “inflames” is kind of what I think of when I think of inflammation. You're eating too much sugar. It's kind of like setting your body on fire.

Then your immune system is going to kick into gear and it's going to try to put out that fire. Chronic inflammation is when that fire can never be put out because something is constantly triggering your immune system. So it could be from constant sugar intake in this case.

So in the case of depression, constantly eating sugar is constantly inflaming your brain and not really giving your body the opportunity without the sugar to put that fire out. It's always burning. So in order to put that fire out, we really need to be eating low inflammatory, low sugar foods. So that means lots of colorful vegetables, high quality animal based proteins, and a variety of natural, real fats and oils.

The gut health connection to moods

LEAH: Yeah. Inflammation: huge for so many people and I want to kind of bridge that topic into gut health. So we can't talk about blood sugar and inflammation also without talking about gut health because this is where the vast majority of our neurotransmitters are made and I had no idea that that was the case before I worked at Nutritional Weight & Wellness.

BRANDY: Me either.

LEAH: I had no idea. So in fact, the gut is being referred to as the second brain. So now when I talk to clients, maybe they've had a brain injury or they have something going on with their gut and they've got, some mental health symptoms too. I always say, well, a happy gut makes a happy brain, vice versa.

They're so connected. So what it comes to no surprise when our gut health is compromised, it affects our neurotransmitters, or it's those little chemical messengers in our brain. Sugar causes inflammation in the gut, so it's that simple. Sugar disrupts that delicate balance of bacteria in our gut and damages the gut barrier, and that just leads to inflammation throughout the body. So this could be your joint pain. This could be your asthma. This could be a lot of other things, but it could also be that depression.

BRANDY: Exactly.

LEAH: Yeah.

Artificial sweeteners harm gut health & are addictive

BRANDY: And I do want to mention that even artificial sweeteners in diet sodas, they're really no better when it comes to your gut health. So we know sugar does disrupt your gut health, but so do the artificial sweeteners. So when it comes to addiction, artificial sweeteners can be even more addicting than regular sugar. And it kind of makes sense because these artificial sweeteners like aspartame, they're several hundred times sweeter than regular table sugar. So it's really no wonder how people can become so addicted to diet sodas.

You know, I've known several people in my life, personally, where their only beverage is a diet soda of choice, and I've met several people like that, but I get it now, it's addicting and just because calorie free sodas or diet, anything, it doesn't necessarily mean that they're risk free.

BRANDY: Yeah.

LEAH: Yeah. I like that. You know, we can say, all right, maybe it doesn't impact the blood sugar necessarily, although there is some research there too, that we won't go into. But those diet sodas might not necessarily impact blood sugar the way that a regular soda would, but it keeps you wanting sweet, like you said, that's 200, 400, 1,000 times sweeter than sugar.

So how do you break that brain's need for sugar when you have something that is so sweet? So I, yeah, I think that also plays into like, I feel clinically that is harder to break the addiction to diet sodas than it is to even regular sodas.

BRANDY: I've seen that too.

LEAH: Yeah. And yeah, so here on Dishing Up Nutrition, we talk about how sugar and artificial sweeteners cause inflammation in the body and mental health is no exception because that inflammation interferes with neurotransmitter production. We need a healthy gut to produce adequate amounts of our serotonin and our dopamine.

We talked about dopamine a little bit earlier. When you eat sugar, you do get a little search of these neurotransmitters, but as you mentioned, Brandy, it's fleeting. It doesn't stick around in the long term. And afterwards, again, you're borrowing against your energy in the future. It leaves you feeling depleted and down afterwards.

So when sugar really becomes a problem is when you feel like you need sugar to feel good and you feel depressed or depleted without it. Ideally, we want to be able to feel good without having to rely on sugar.

BRANDY: Right. Sometimes I've heard clients describe the energy they feel from sugar as fake energy. Once they experience the energy they get from balancing their blood sugar with real food, getting good sleep, being hydrated, like that type of energy feels more substantial, more real to them. And you're right. Like gut health is so important to this whole process.

What do we need to build neurotransmitters?

A healthy gut is naturally going to produce those feel-good brain chemicals, serotonin and dopamine without relying on sugar. That's what we want. So what exactly do we need to build neurotransmitters? Well, I like to think of it as two main parts.

I think about the need for good bacteria in our gut 'cause they play a big role in producing those neurotransmitters. But we also need the building blocks of neurotransmitters: amino acids.

LEAH: Yeah.

BRANDY: And we get amino acids from protein. So what I like to do is I like to start with a probiotic, a beneficial bacteria like bifidobacteria plus making sure we're eating enough animal based protein throughout the day to get those amino acids. So it's basically the equation probiotics plus animal based protein equals happy brain chemicals.

LEAH: I like it.

BRANDY: Very simple. So if somebody is focusing on better mental health, we always talk about the importance of incorporating protein with every single meal and taking a high quality probiotic every day. And for probiotics, I do like bifidobacteria because it is the main beneficial bacteria that's found in your digestive system. It makes up a pretty large proportion of that balance of bacteria.

So I'll often start with about a quarter teaspoon to a half a teaspoon of the powder mixed in water or one or two capsules two or three times a day before meals is a good time to do that. Every time you take your probiotic, then you have some protein. So have your probiotic, have a meal with protein, and you can think to yourself, I am building feel good neurotransmitters.

And there's one amino acid in particular that is especially helpful to repair your gut. And that is L-glutamine. So you can get L-glutamine just by eating animal based protein, like beef, fish, eggs, it's in there, but I will sometimes suggest supplementing with L-glutamine for more of a therapeutic dose because it does help repair the intestinal lining. So any gut healing protocol will typically include L-glutamine because it is so important for that repair process.

LEAH: Glutamine definitely has some interesting research behind it too for those addiction types of patterns. Like I've read a lot about that for alcohol recovery and stuff like that too. So I think, yes, it's important for the gut health piece of it, but it does have some other interesting implications.

So for our clients that either are recovering from alcohol addiction or identify as sugar addicts, this can be a really helpful little amino acid. And one thing you can do, and you can find L-glutamine either in capsule or powder form, but if you're having a really strong craving for sugar in that moment, I actually just had a client recently who said she'll be driving down the road and all of a sudden just like, bam.

She'll get the sugar craving. It'll be strong. She describes it as her sugar alien, which I think is just kind of funny. But, one thing you can do is actually take a little of that L-glutamine powder, or you could just open up a capsule and put it directly on your tongue.

BRANDY: Yeah.

LEAH: It absorbs fairly quickly and it kind of acts as a natural blood sugar stabilizer and also a stabilizer of those neurotransmitters. So it can be helpful just to cut those sugar cravings, like in the moment when they feel really powerful.

BRANDY: I love that trick.

LEAH: We do get glutamine, but we also get a lot of other important amino acids when we eat that three to four ounces of animal protein with each meal. Don't forget about the snacks too. We need at least a little bit, usually an ounce or two with the snacks, and it might seem like a lot at first. I hear that from clients too.

Like, I'm not used to eating this much or this frequently, but when I'm working with a client to cut back on sugar, I think it is helpful to emphasize that we're not depriving ourselves from food. Like we're not just taking things away and having to white knuckle our way through it.

Oftentimes, like I said, we're eating more food than maybe they're used to. And that's some of the beauty of it is we got to crowd out some of the non-desirable stuff with the stuff that we want to have in there.

A lot of women will come to us not eating a ton of protein, or maybe it's pretty light on protein at breakfast and lunch, and then boom, we get that big chicken breast or steak at dinner. So we try to spread that out throughout the day, and even though we are cutting back on sugar, we're not cutting back on food. We never want people to get overly hungry or feel deprived.

BRANDY: Right.

Detoxing sugar & possible side effects

LEAH: That being said, when we're detoxing off of that sugar, there can be side effects. Like you feel it, especially if it's something that like you're used to, it's become an expected thing from your body and your brain. So some people might feel like the headaches, a little bit of brain fog, irritability, mood swings, including anxiety and depression, just not feeling like themselves. And it's unpleasant, but these symptoms, they are common during a sugar withdrawal. It doesn't mean like, oh, like you need that sugar to function.

It will get better over time. One of our colleagues said once and it's always stuck with me, like when you're getting off of sugar, you're in for like a three to four day battle. So you kind of got to know what's coming, be prepared for it, take care of yourself, and it will pass. It will lessen its hold.

So your body's just adjusting to not being fed the sugar that it's used to relying on. So the sugar withdrawals, it's a real thing.

BRANDY: Yeah, and if you're aware of that, and you know what to expect, it's maybe it’s a little easier to get through.

LEAH: Get some L-glutamine and some Bifido on board, like that could help cut through some of just that withdrawal.

BRANDY: Exactly. Yeah. Well, I'm glad you mentioned that because it can be a tough period. But once you get over that hump, it gets a little easier. And just like withdrawing from a drug, withdrawing from sugar or even a sugar substitute, like a diet soda, it can deplete your source of dopamine, and that's going to affect a lot of different functions in the body.

That's why you experience those really uncomfortable symptoms. But like you said, over time your brain is naturally going to adjust back to those normal dopamine levels without really needing sugar.

Natural ways to boost neurotransmitters

So maybe we could just talk about some natural ways to boost your neurotransmitters. So real food promotes good moods. Remember that. So real animal based proteins will give you a little boost in your mood.

LEAH: Yeah.

BRANDY: So grass fed beef, eggs, wild caught fish, that's going to provide you the amino acids you need. We also need real natural fats, like olive oil, avocado oil, butter, extra virgin coconut oil, even nuts and seeds, avocados. So that's really helpful for your brain. It's really great for stabilizing your blood sugar. Acts kind of like an anchor.

And of course we do want real food carbohydrates. This is going to help feed the beneficial bacteria in your gut. So things like colorful vegetables, a variety throughout the day. You could even do some fruits and whole grains and legumes. That counts towards your carbohydrate intake. You just want to watch out about the portion size. These are a little higher in natural sugars. So we do recommend trying to limit fruits and grains and legumes to about a half a cup with each meal.

LEAH: Yeah. Makes sense. It's, those are still real foods or things like sweet potatoes and winter squash and stuff like that, that's out right now. Yeah. Good real foods. It is just easy to like blow past that half cup portion size. So might have to measure the first couple of times, but usually people get the hang of what that looks like.

BRANDY: Yeah.

LEAH: Yeah. And there are some supplements that can help during this process of getting off sugar and supporting moods. We mentioned a couple things. You mentioned that probiotic, bifidobacteria. We also mentioned L-glutamine. I'd like to touch on omega-3s briefly. So omega-threes or fish oil fights that inflammation and supports brain health.

So specifically, there is a little fatty acid that's a part of those omega-threes called DHA. That one is specifically targeted for brain health that makes up a good portion of the fat that's in our brain. So that's always a good one to have on board. When you have regular fish oil, you're naturally getting some of that.

And then, vitamin D, that's also crucial for brain and mood support, especially this time of year, especially if you live up in a Northern climate, like we do, it's helpful for battling some of the seasonal shifts and it is getting lighter out little by little every day. But it's like I kind of wish we could fast forward like another six weeks until the light is really out after we get off of work. So at this time of year, it's not uncommon.

I'll have clients easily 5,000 IUs a vitamin D a day. That's usually a pretty safe bet for people. But you do if you're able to please check your blood level of vitamin D. That's really the way we're going to know one way or the other are we in the ideal range, which is like 50 to 80 nanograms per milliliter, or are we above that? Are we below that? So we can adjust the dosing as needed. So that would be if you're due for your physical with the new year, like this would be a great time just to check in on your vitamin D.

BRANDY: Yeah cause sometimes that 5,000 international units is not enough if you’re low.

LEAH: Yeah. I've seen that. Yep.

BRANDY: And if you're really struggling with sugar cravings, I have a couple more supplement ideas for you. I always recommend a probiotic, usually bifidobacteria and usually the amino acid L-glutamine. Taking both of these before meals will help with healing the gut and building those neurotransmitters.

And like you mentioned earlier, L-glutamine can be dissolved directly on the tongue to fight off some of those in the moment sugar cravings. So that is something to keep in your toolbox, especially when you're trying to wean yourself off of sugar.

Similarly, we have a supplement called Crave Control Plus, which I've seen really help for some people with sugar cravings, especially diet soda cravings. So just a word of warning though, if you're thinking about taking this and you're taking an antidepressant, I would talk to your doctor before starting Crave Control because it contains something called 5-HTP, which will boost your serotonin production. So it does have the potential to increase your serotonin too much if you're taking an SSRI.

LEAH: Yeah. So that Crave Control, I agree; seen it work really well, be helpful for people because the idea is it gives us those building blocks for serotonin, but also that dopamine that we talked about earlier. So you get kind of a two for one there. I think there's a little magnesium in there, a little vitamin C.

So some other just really great things. Magnesium is one that we can be really depleted on if we've been eating a lot of sugar, so it was good to have an extra source of a little magnesium in there too.

Recap

So quick recap before we wrap up our show. Sugar, it's an addictive substance; might be hard to hear, but it is, and it can absolutely have negative long term effects on mood playing into depression. This time of year can be especially difficult with low daylight, the post-holiday season. We're still kind of in the thick of it for probably another month or two, or maybe even three, depending on what the spring has in store for us in terms of winter.

But it is possible to overcome sugar addiction. So hopefully people were able to take some nuggets out of today's show. We've got to start with real food and quality supplements for the right person can absolutely help. You don't have to suffer through sugar addiction and we want to help. We have tons of tools available. If today's conversation resonated with anyone out there I encourage you to set up an appointment with me, with Brandy, any one of our other registered and licensed dietitians.

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So thanks everyone for listening and have a great day.

BRANDY: Thank you.