Top 10 Most HARMFUL Foods Thought As HEALTHY

Have you ever gulped down a couple of glasses of orange juice with your oatmeal in the morning, thinking you were doing your body good, lowering that cholesterol? What about drinking that magic fermented stuff, kombucha or kefir? What about the other fermented foods, like yogurt?

Do they do anything? Or are they just more ways for big food manufacturers to trick you into drinking more sugar or eating more sugar? What about that stuff all sandwiches are made out of and a lot of main courses at your favorite restaurant?

. . Have you been led astray ever since you were born?

How long has the intentionally misdirected marketing been going on with these products? How long has culture been messing with our health? Are nature's sweets as wonderful as we all think they are?

Just what is fructose, and just how bad is it? We'll cover all these and more in our list. The top ten most harmful foods that people think are healthy.

Now, you might find some here that you disagree with, but please, just give me a minute. Listen, and let's think about it. Number ten, fruit juice.

We're diving into the world of juice. Not just any juice, but the kind that's got folks thinking they're sipping on liquid gold, when really, it's more like a sugar bomb in disguise. Now, I'm not just talking about your morning OJ here.

We're casting a wider net over apple juice, cranberry juice, pineapple, grape, you name it. . .

These guys are swimming in sugars. Fructose, glucose, sucrose. But here's the kicker.

Our bodies and these sugars are like two strangers in a dance. They interact in a lot of ways. .

. Many are not good. Take glucose, for instance.

This rascal hits your bloodstream like a bull in a china shop. Cause there's no fiber to slow it down. When you juice a fruit, you're tossing out the fiber like last week's leftovers.

. . What follows is a wild ride of blood sugar spikes and insulin parties.

Assuming your pancreas is still up for the party. And when insulin crashes the scene, it's like a hoarder stashing away body fat like it's going out of style, leading you down a spiral that's anything but good. And wait, there's more.

Let's mosey on over to fructose. This little devil is sneakier. It doesn't stir up insulin very much.

But don't be fooled. It's no angel. Fructose heads straight to the liver, bypassing all the regular stops.

It's like a beeline to a barbecue. And here's where it throws a wrench in the works. It messes with your mitochondria, those powerhouses of your cells.

We're very dependent on them. Fructose in the liver is like a bad house guest, trashing the place and leaving your mitochondria in shambles. Less repair, less replacement, more chaos.

And what's the liver's last resort when. It'S drowning in this sugary fructose mess? It stores it as fat.

And not just any fat. We're talking the infamous fatty liver. Nowadays, fructose is the head honcho of fatty liver.

Causes clogging up those mitochondria like gum in your hair. Now here's the zinger. Juice is pretty much a soda's cousin.

. . Sure, it dresses nicer, it's got a few vitamins here and there, but underneath, it's rocking the same sugar levels as a good old can of coke or pepsi.

We've got orange juice and Coca Cola practically neck and neck in the fructose race with OJ, even giving coke a run for the money in the glucose department. Orange juice has 49 grams of fructose per liter. Coca cola, 55 grams fructose per liter.

Orange juice has 25 grams of glucose per liter. And coke has 25. 7 grams of glucose per liter.

Now, hold up. Even if orange juice was a smidge less sugary, it doesn't change the big picture. We're looking at folks who struggle to process sugars.

And wait a minute. If you think you're not one of them, have you ever really checked? Have you ever had a glucose tolerance test?

Oh, well, I've had an a one c. Even the ADA, American Diabetes association. Says a one c misses 70% of this problem.

Oh, my. Doctors check. Well, most doctors check with fasting glucose, and even the ADA says that misses 55% over half of people with the problem.

So thinking that you have, you've already. Done this is sort of like thinking you can handle a hot Texas summer because you once felt warm in Maine. Get the test.

. . And here's the thing.

There's a cultural myth around orange juice. Like it's the nectar of the gods or something. Now let's talk addiction.

You think I'm crazy? Think about it. And, in fact, don't think about it.

Check out this clip from Eric Clapton about what he was originally addicted to. And it started with. .

. heroin. The addiction it started.

No, it started with sugar. So fructose especially is a master at hijacking those brain pathways, making you crave more so why is juice a problem? It's the fiber, folks, or the lack thereof.

Going to circle back to this fiber tale as we waltz through our list of foods that are sneakier than a raccoon in your trash can. Number nine, oatmeal. Now, when I say oatmeal, I'm not singling out the old school, tough as nails, steel cut oats that take a.

In fact, I eat those often. We're eyeballing the quick, flimsy kind, the instant five minute, flaky stuff that looks about as real as a three dollar bill. Check out the picture here.

Steel cut oats on one side, flaky imposters on the other. Half hour to cook. Here's the heart of the matter.

It's all about how these oats are processed. Food processing. That's a tune you're gonna hear me humming a lot through these talks.

It's like taking a classic car and swapping its engine for a lawnmower's. It's just not the same. These processed oats, they have a lot more surface area.

They're ground up finer than a politician's promises. And why do you think they call it meal? Corn meal?

It's all about ground up, even powdered grain. Now, here's where the rubber meets the road. The carbs in this processed oatmeal digest faster than Mother Nature ever intended.

They spike your blood sugar. Then spiked blood sugar leads to insulin release. .

. Insulin is like a traffic cop, directing all that sugar straight into your fat cells. So ingest the sugar, sugar spikes, insulin gets released.

Insulin takes that sugar and stuffs it right into your fat cells. More carbs, more insulin, more body fat, more insulin, more carbs. It's a never ending dance, and it's not good for you.

I used to get into debates with. Folks coming in swearing by their oatmeal as the crown jewel of health. Healthy breakfast.

Then I wised up. I said, hey, you know, why don't you just check your blood sugar before and after you eat that bowl of oatmeal? And guess what?

Those debates dried up quicker than a puddle in Texas. Let's not forget about the smoke and mirrors of marketing. It's just like orange juice.

Oatmeal's touted as this cholesterol busting superhero. But here's the kicker. The whole cholesterol story is about as shaky as a fiddler on a roof.

. . The claim that oatmeal can zap your cholesterol, the evidence is just not that clear.

Some people have accepted I'm not so clear about it. Let's go on and think about that even further. Even if oatmeal did play a hand in the cholesterol game, I still wouldn't bet on it.

. . Then you have to believe fully in the cholesterol game.

Newer science is leaving that cholesterol theory crumble. Now, whether it did or not, think about what it does to your blood sugar, insulin and body fat. There's no question.

. . those trump cholesterol any day of the week.

It's like focusing on your paint job. . .

when your engine's on fire. Let's go to another thing about oatmeal. Have you ever really tasted it?

The instant kind. . .

or even the quick kind? It tastes about as good as a mud pie. So what do folks do to it?

Well, they jazz it up with fruits, cinnamon, and here's the kicker. More carbs, more sugars. Like a big scoop of brown sugar.

Just like orange juice. There's a cultural myth that oatmeal's the breakfast of champions. But let me paint you a picture.

Someone guzzling down two glasses of orange juice, a big old bowl of sugared up oatmeal. What do you think that's doing to their blood sugar? Their blood sugar's skyrocketing, their arteries on fire.

And they do that every morning, thinking. They'Re doing good for their body. Number eight, bread.

. . Again, I told you you might not like some of this list, but think about it.

Bread, my friends, is kind of like that cousin of oatmeal and orange juice. We just talked about. It's mostly just processed carbs stripped of fiber, puffed up to a surface area that's bigger than its britches.

Now, some folks might reckon, hey, you know what? Let's get wise and just reach for that whole grain bread, just like they say in all the commercials, thinking that they're outsmarting the system. But hold on.

This is where the plot thickens. You see whole grain bread, whether it's whole wheat, whole rye, any of the whole grain breads, they have this health halo glowing around them like a neon. Sign in a desert night.

But. . .

don't let it fool you. Its effect on your blood sugar, only. A smidge better than the white stuff.

We're talking a glycemic index of 50 to 55. And I know some people get frustrated with glycemic index. It has its place, and this is a great place to think about it, comparing specific foods.

Glycemic index of whole wheat. Whole rye bread is 50 to 55, compared to white breads, 65 to 70. And here's the even table sugar.

That sweet outlaw itself scores only 50, so chew on that for a minute. Whole grain bread hikes up your blood sugar faster than plain old table sugar. Now, bread's got its roots deep in culture.

It's like a mighty oak in an ancient forest. It's everywhere, from your subway subs all the way to those. .

. tempting baskets of warm loaves at restaurants. .

. It's even got a spiritual side. How many times have we heard, let's break bread together?

It's a symbol of community, of sharing. But here's the twist. There's been a whole lot of tinkering with that wheat over the years, genetically jazzing it up to feed the masses.

Not just a few hungry souls. But every rose has its thorns, and this one's no exception. Today's wheat, once it's processed, is like a shadow of its former self.

Low on fiber, heavy on carbs. . .

In the good old days, non modified bread was a different story. Less carbs, more fiber. Fiber's like the bouncer at the club, slowing down the absorption, making bread a friendlier guest at your table.

But let's face it, finding bread like. That nowadays is maybe as likely as finding a unicorn in a rodeo. So there you have it, folks.

Bread. It ain't the wholesome, hearty staple that it used to be. It's more like a wolf in sheep's clothing dressed up in whole grains, but packing a sugary punch that'll send your blood sugar on a rollercoaster ride that you didn't think you signed up for.

Number seven. Fruit is like nature's candy. But don't get it twisted.

It's not all sunshine and rainbows. When fruit hits your taste buds, it's. Like flipping a switch in your brain's reward center.

The nucleus accumbens. It's like a party in there, and everyone's invited. Have you ever tried to eat just one slice of a sweet pineapple, a blueberry, or just a single grape?

Good luck on that. Now I get it. Some of you are saying, you know, I'm a fruit lover, and you're raising eyebrows at me.

Take a gander at the folks that I work with. Many of them are dancing with prediabetes or diabetes. They know that if they're lounging around munching on fruits all day, it's like throwing gasoline on their metabolic fire.

And so you say, well, good thing that's not me, right? How do you know that's not me? That's not you.

A staggering 90% of folks with this problem prediabetes don't even know they have it. And half of us over 18 have it. So put those two numbers together.

Half of us over 18, and 90% of us with it don't know it. . .

So maybe it's time to get an oral glucose tolerance test or a glucometer, a continuous glucometer to check if you're playing with fire. too. .

. . -.

three quarters of doctors don't know how to diagnose. . .

prediabetes. That's not my opinion. It's in the science.

Now, again, I'm not painting all fruits with the same brush. Just like people. Fruits come in all sorts and varieties.

Some are higher in sugar. Now think about mangoes, pineapples, apples, grapes, pears, and overripe bananas. Fruits do have fiber, too.

Unlike some other culprits that we've talked about, fiber slows down the sugar rush, kind of like a traffic cop on a busy highway. The fiber also means the fructose makes it to your lower gut where it can mingle with the gut biome. That's a big deal.

Don't get me wrong, fruits have their charm. They're packed with these fancy sounding things called phytonutrients, meaning a plant based nutrient. And some of them are good for you.

But here's the rub. Fruits are loaded with so many of these chemicals, it's like. It's like a honky tonk on a Saturday night.

We don't really know who's doing what. . .

or to what extent. Some might be helping, but some might be causing a ruckus. .

. So. .

. let's zoom out to the big picture. And that's all about the sugars in these natural treats.

It's a dance with sweetness. And sometimes the music is a little too loud. Number six, smoothies.

And I wince when I say it because I know you heard me right. I can already hear the keys clacking with angry comments. .

. My smoothie's great. You don't know what you're talking about.

Lend me your ear before you start throwing those digital tomatoes at me. Last week, we had Robert Lustig on the, on the channel. He's a nutrition scientist, food activist.

He was spinning some truth about smoothies. He said, and I quote, smoothies masticate the fiber in the fruit, shearing the. Insoluble fiber, the long, stringy stuff to smithereens.

Now, what does that mean in layman terms? It means smoothies tear the fiber apart, turning it into something like juice. And juice, my friend, is where the trouble starts.

Or that processing is where the trouble starts. You render the fiber useless. You're rolling out the red carpet for fructose to waltz straight into your liver.

And what does it do there? It wreaks havoc, like a bull in a china shop. Messing with your liver's mitochondrial function.

We've talked about it. The mitochondria are critical. .

. It impacts three or four different enzyme pathways, decreasing the function of the mitochondria, the repair of the mitochondria, and the renewal of mitochondria. So now you end up with fatty liver.

Let's not forget about glucose. Without the fiber, it's a racehorse out of the gate, spiking your blood sugar, stirring up a whole mess of problems we've already chatted about. You see, blending up a smoothie is still processing that fruit.

It's just like big food corporations. I hate to say it, but think about it. You've got a tiny food processor on your kitchen counter.

If you're one of these smoothie enthusiasts thinking about sipping on liquid health, you just might want to double check your blood sugar. I've seen it happen over and over again. Patients coming in with their daily smoothie ritual, thinking they're doing great for their body, but sending their blood sugar on a rollercoaster ride.

Don't take it for granted that smoothies are safe. It's simple. Just test.

Don't guess. Some smoothies are safe and very healthy. Others, not so much.

What smoothies can really do is pack a truckload of carbs or other nutrients into a drinkable form so you can guzzle it down like it's happy hour. That's a lot more than you'd munch on if you're eating the fruit whole. Remember what we talked about with fructose, that sweet little troublemaker with addictive powers.

Let's dive into the brain research and you'll see fructose is like the ringmaster of addictive food appetites, way more than glucose or any other sugar. So when you're blending up that smoothie, you're not just mixing fruit. We're stirring up a cocktail of craving number five.

Kombucha. Kombucha. We're venturing into that territory we haven't explored yet.

Fermented foods and the star of the show, kombucha, the gut biome. It's like the unsung hero of our health. It's got a significant impact.

No doubt about it. This fermented tea gets a lot of love. Cause folks think, well, fermentation equals health.

But here's the catch. We're still pretty green when it comes to understanding the gut biome. Just a decade or two ago, the gut Biome became the new frontier in health.

Everyone jumped on the prebiotic probiotic bandwagon, counting bacterial colonies like stars in the sky. . .

But it turned out most of these colonies were inactive, like a hibernating bear. And. .

. many of them just never woke up. The industry hasn't made much headway since then, so sipping on kombucha for our gut health is like taking a shot in the dark.

And here's where it gets sticky. The sugar content in Kombucha now it's all over the map. Some are not so bad, like GT's original.

Six to 10 grams for a twelve ounce serving. But I've seen this one in the grocery store. Honest tea, a whopping 35 grams.

That's a sugar bonanza in a bottle, way beyond what I'd recommend. People take in sugar, especially just in one serving. I recommend about 100 grams of total glycemic carbs in a day.

100. This is over a third of that of sugar. .

. in a bottle. The big issue with kombucha comes down to this.

The jury's still out on its benefits. Take the only clinical trial we could find to date, done in 2023 by Mendelssohn and team. .

. It's fresh off the press. Let me tell you, it's got some quirks.

And. . .

this won't be the first time you've heard some of these themes. First of all, it was small. Only eleven folks split into two groups.

That's about as many people as you'd find at a small family backyard barbecue. . .

We're talking tiny, like five or six per group. In the world of science, that's like trying to judge a chili cook off with only a spoonful of chili. Group one got 240 milligrams of kombucha, one serving with dinner every day for a month.

Group two, they got a placebo that tasted like kombucha. Now here's the kicker. .

. The kombucha group's fasting blood sugar dropped from 162 to about 114. Whoa, wait a minute.

162 average for the group. One guy actually even clocked in at 260. When we're talking fasting blood sugar, I've got hundreds and hundreds of full blown diabetics.

I don't have any right now that have fasting blood sugars routinely at 160 or higher. And this was a full hundred points higher than that. So what does that tell you about the researchers and their knowledge of healthy metabolism and disease?

Metabolism like diabetes. So you know where I'm going. This study paints a picture.

There's more holes in it than a fishing net. The researchers obviously don't know anything about the metabolism that they're trying to impact. Let's talk about the folks running this rodeo.

One of the designers is from symbiotic health. They sell probiotic goods like kombucha, the others of big cheese at the International association of Probiotics and Prebiotics. Ah, talk about a conflict of interest.

Need I say more? It's sort of like asking a barbecue pit master if meat's good for you or a vegan if plants are good for you. You sort of know what they're going to say before you even ask.

Then there's the placebo group. Remember, the study group dropped their blood sugar by 40 points? .

. Well, the placebo group dropped their blood sugar by 20 points. So that makes you wonder, was it the kombucha after all, or was it something else, like even the Hawthorne effect?

The Hawthorne effect is when folks begin to change their behavior because they know they're being watched in a study. And that happens more than just with behavior. Maybe it's just sipping a big old drink at dinner every night.

You know, some people recommend that as a way to decrease calories and lose weight. Oh, and get this, all the drinks, the kombucha, the placebo, they were donated by Kraff. Kombucha.

So the whole studies just got more biased than a home cooking contest. It was designed, analyzed, and written by folks who'd make a pretty penny if kombucha came out looking like a star, like it did. .

. If you just read the headlines, go a little bit deeper. And when people talk about studies.

I know youtubers love to talk about studies and they show headlines, but go a little bit deeper than the headline. Now, what does this mean for the kombucha believer? This study, with its fancy results, is just a signal.

It's not the gospel truth. And in the world of health, where everybody's looking for the next big thing, the next easy button for health, it's easy to get caught up in the hype and the study headlines. But for now, Kombucha's benefits are about as clear as mud in a swamp.

We're just skimming the surface now. Who knows? Maybe one day we'll find out that kombucha helps.

. . Or maybe we'll find out it's just another flash in the pan number four, greek yogurt.

Oh, I know some people are going to throw bananas at me, but before you go thinking greek yogurt's completely a health food, let's pull back the curtain on some sneaky marketing moves. You know, when they slap. .

. air quotes low fat on the label, it's like a magician distracting you while they're loading up on sugar. It's a classic bait and switch.

Less fat, more sugar, and often even more salt. So keep your eyes peeled. Now, all that greek yogurt, not all of it's been led astray.

The no sugar added kind. That's a good sign. It may be the real mccoy.

Packed with protein, healthy fats, like a nutritional cowboy, rugged and reliable. . .

But then there's this whole song and dance about fermentation. Oh, it's the key to a happy gut and health. Okay, as we said, sure, your gut biome is important to health, but does greek yogurt have the right kind of live cultures and do they really make a difference?

Again, the evidence is not so clear. Its not just greek yogurt. It goes for the whole fermented food.

Rodeocombucha, kefir, yogurt, you name it. Everybodys acknowledging the gut biome is vital, but were still in the dark about which of these foods actually help, how. .

. and how much. Its like trying to lasso a ghost.

Now lets go talk about diabetes and gut health. Clearly there's a chance that fixing up your gut will help with diabetes, mental health and other ailments. But until we get a good long look.

. . at the effects on the gut biome, we're just shooting in the dark.

The science ain't there yet, folks. Manufacturers big food. Oh, they know how to play this game.

They use health claims to lure you into buying sugary foods like the sugar loaded yogurts. They know that you're looking for a healthy food and that yogurt is a healthy food. They hook you with the sugar, you start firing, your nucleus accumbens.

And now you've got that double thing, the lure of health. And it fires your reward nucleus, your addiction pathways. .

. If you're one of those 50% of us over 18 struggling with blood sugar or carb metabolism, tread lightly. If it's raw, organic, no sugar added, then you might be in the clear.

Read the label. Well, speaking of yogurt and sugars, let's just look at a few. Some yogurts like dan and oikos phage total 0% fat greek yogurt and Siggy's 0% plain skier.

They are on the low end. We're talking one six 4 grams of sugar per 170 grams serving. But then let's look at the other end of the scale.

Oikos triple zero black cherry, Stonyfield farm mixed berry yoplait, light and fit. Blueberry banana. Oh, those all sound great, don't they?

And they taste great, too. But they're packing a whopping 1819 20 grams of sugar in the same serving size. That's a sugar showdown you just don't want to be a part of.

. . So when we're reaching for that greek yogurt, don't just grab and go.

Take a minute. Check those nutrition facts. It could be the difference between a health hero and a sugar villain.

Number three, pasta and grain products. Well, wait a minute. Didn't we just cover that back with bread?

Well, we did. We touched on bread. But let's spin this pasta plate from a different angle.

Biologically and health wise. Yes, pasta and breads are cousins. .

. But when you're cruising through your grocery store or sitting at your favorite restaurant, scanning the menu, pasta's play in a whole different ballgame. .

. Let's talk numbers for a minute. A tiny hundred gram serving of pasta packs a whopping 75 grams of glucose.

. . with a glycemic index of 55.

. . Remember, that's higher than table sugar.

Imagine that big bowl of pasta sitting in your stomach. It's like launching your insulin levels into orbit. And insulin that gets you to storing fat, kicking off that cycle of carbs, insulin, body fat, carbs, insulin, body fat.

Meanwhile, your arteries are throwing a fit. They're on fire. And who doesn't get fooled by a whole wheat pasta trick?

Let's hope that it's not you. Hopefully, by this point, it's a magician's sleight of hand. The glycemic index of whole wheat pasta is 48.

White pasta, 55. That's sort of like choosing between getting bit by a rattlesnake or a copperhead. Either way, it's just not good.

The whole pasta predicament. It's not just about spaghetti and fettuccine. It extends to other things, like basic grain products, like pizza crust.

So next time you're eyeballing that pasta dish or slicing into a pizza, remember, it's not just comfort food, it's comfort food. But it's got a sting in its tail. Be wise.

Look past the marketing gimmicks, the cultural height. Get those nutrition facts in your mind. Pasta's playing the same carb loaded, insulin spiking, fat depositing game as bread, except it's just wearing a different costume.

Number two. . .

Oh, and a lot of people are gonna hate me for this one honey. . .

Now some folks will say, look, you can't throw shade on honey. It's nature's nectar, good for colds, packed with goodies. And sure you can find some studies that show honey has its charms.

A dab in lemon tea or a spoonful in cold remedies to give it some medicinal mojo. It's got phytosterols, other neat chemicals, but let's not sugarcoat it. At its core, honey is a double trouble of fructose and glucose.

. . Picture.

. . in just 100 grams of honey, youre dipping into 39 grams of fructose and 31 grams of glucose.

Thats like a sugar bomb with a sweet disguise. Remember when we talked about fructose in orange juice? Honey is playing the same game, but without any fiber to slow its roll.

Lets talk about fructose first. Food science wizards like Robert Lustig have been preaching that the fibers in fruit are like the antidote to the poison: fructose. .

. . But when you're dealing with honey or juices, or, I hate to say it, smoothies, you're mainlining fructose.

No fiber, no safety net. And what does the fructose do? It takes a shortcut straight to your liver, bypassing the usual sugar control points, and goes straight to your liver mitochondria, stopping their function, decreasing their replication, decreasing their repair.

If they're not burning right, then what does your liver do? It switches to storage mode. So what does that look like?

Fatty liver. Thanks to our modern diet, fatty livers outpacing even alcoholic cirrhosis in the liver disease race. Now that was fructose.

Let's talk about the glucose in honey. 32 grams per hundred gram serving. That's not just a spoonful of sweetness, it's a blood sugar rocket.

You take a taste of honey, check your blood sugar before and after, and watch it soar. So when you're reaching for that honey jar, think twice. .

. It's not just a sweet treat, it's a fructose glucose cocktail wearing a health halo. Honey in the end is a bit of a sweet talking trickster.

Number one, artificial sweeteners. Now this also, this one might make you raise an eyebrow as well. Some people would cheer me on.

Some would say, oh, these sweeteners are as dangerous as a rattlesnake in your sleeping bag. People just want to come with their pitchforks and torches to. .

. string up non nutritive sweeteners. I remember back when I was at Hopkins, one of these happened.

We got word that saccharine was linked to bladder cancer in lab rats. We were all scratching our heads, looking at each other and thinking, but diabetes have been. Diabetics have been using this stuff for ages with no association, no trouble in this area.

So once you get into the details, to get that cancer risk, you'd have to down a pickup truck load of saccharine every day. That's like trying to drink the ocean. It's just not going to happen.

So let's just chew on another perspective. Some folks are quick to demonize non nutritive sweeteners. Like we said, take sucralose, for example.

. . Yes, there were whispers that it caused insulin resistance.

There were studies hinting that sucralose might bump up your blood sugar by about 20% in a glucose challenge. . .

But there's still nothing to write home about. So why even bring up these sweeteners? This is supposed to be a top ten list of foods that are dangerous.

So all I've said is, maybe they're not as dangerous as we thought. Well, here's the thing. It's all about that addiction.

Let's go back, take a gander at Eric Clapton's chat with Ed Bradley. And it started with. .

. heroin addiction. It started.

No, it started with sugar. Clapton called sugar his gateway drug. So when you peek into the brain's wiring, the nucleus accumbens, the amygdala, the ventromedial nucleus, that's where we light up.

It's the same place as a hit of cocaine will light us up. And guess what? Both fructose and these non nutritive sweeteners flick the same switches.

I've had my own tango with these sweeteners. Back when I was pounding the pavement as a marathon runner in the deep south, I'd come back from a scorcher of a run. Guzzle a liter or more of diet Coke.

I'm not proud of those decisions. I should have had good old water. These days, I've dialed it back, but the craving is still there.

Mmm. It's real, and it's got a bit of a gateway drug vibe to it. One thing that helped me cut back on that sweet tooth was gymnema sylvestre.

. . It's an ancient ayurvedic remedy.

It turns sugar into not so much. If you drink Diet Coke after gymnema silvestre, it sort of tastes like metal on your tongue. They call gymnema silvestre the sugar killer.

So. . .

while I still enjoy my coke zero every now and then I'm not downing it like I used to. So when you're reaching for that artificial sweetener, think twice. It might not be a direct health hazard, like chugging a truckload of.

. . saccharin or.

. . a truckload of fructose.

. . or even glucose, but it's still playing a sly game with your brain's craving center.

It's like dancing with a shadow. You may not see the harm, but maybe it's there keeping step with you. I've received numerous inquiries from individuals interested in becoming patients at our practice, so I wanted to talk about that real quick.

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. due to inadequate biomarker tracking and interpretation, resulting in ineffective, dated tests. .

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