EP.278/ how to minimise sugar impact this festive season
The Christmas season is typically, a time of excess for those who celebrate – and even for those who don’t, New Year’s is right around the corner. For many people, we increase our intake of sugar, alcohol, processed foods, etc. and that’s okay – this episode isn’t about judgement. I love Christmas, including all the food that comes with it, but for many of us, the result can be more pain and a worse period come January, due to heightened inflammation levels.
So today’s episode is all about how to lower the impact of added sugar and blood sugar spiking foods, to lessen inflammation and hormonal imbalances.
Now, these are just options and ideas, if (and only if) you want to try anything to help balance blood sugar during the festive period – but you don’t have to do all of them - or any of them! And if you do choose to try some of them, remember to fit them into your lifestyle in a way that works for you, so you’re not stressing about it all, rather than you trying to fit your lifestyle around them.
Okay, so let’s get to it.
Number one you’ve heard me say a million times and this is more about balancing blood sugar overall rather than how to manage eating lots of sugar, but this is at the heart of balancing blood sugar, so I wanted to start here.
So, make sure you have fat, fibre, complex carbs and protein on your plate, and consider your ratios – ideally, we want to fill half your plate with veggies (that’s your fibre), a quarter of the plate with protein (so that’s meat or plant-based protein), a quarter of your plate with complex carbs (so that’s foods like beans, whole grains or root veg) and then two heaped tablespoons of a healthy fat.
Now, if we’re thinking about what many people eat on Christmas Day, at least in the UK where I am from, we’re typically eating a roast dinner. So that’s quite easy to achieve some nice ratios from. There’s lots of veggies to fill half your plate with, like carrots, cabbage, greens, etc. and then you could have a quarter of the plate filled with roast turkey, beef or whatever plant-based protein you’re having, and then your roast potatoes would be your complex carbs. Now, if you’re having a Yorkshire pudding or bread sauce, those would come under simple or refined carbs and they can spike blood sugar quite quickly, so I would try to share that quarter of the plate between those carb sources rather than adding those as additions. So, just to be clear, the potatoes, Yorkshire and bread pudding would fill a quarter of the plate. Now fat wise, it’s a little less obvious with a roast dinner, but there may be some nuts in your stuffing and you’ve probably cooked your roast potatoes in some kind of fat, but it’s worth just adding in some additional fat to ensure you have enough to balance blood sugar, and a simple fat that could work well with a roast dinner could be adding some grass-fed organic butter to your veggies, or eating a handful or two of nuts before your main meal (which I think I always do by default every Christmas anyway)!
Remember – if this is making you feel stressed about your delicious Christmas dinner, please do not worry about it and just enjoy yourself!
Number two is doing some kind of movement after carby meals or sugary foods, to help use up some of that glucose and therefore prevent a spike. You could go for a wintery walk with the family, which I always try to convince my family to do each year (but rarely happens) or you could clear the table and get some dishes washed, or whatever it is that works well in your day and doesn’t feel like you’re punishing yourself for enjoying dessert – because remember, we want these tools and methods to help you feel better, not worse!
Number three is to eat fibre/fat/protein with or before a sugary food. So, for example, if you’re about to tuck into a rich chocolate dessert, could you drizzle it in nut butter to add some fat, protein and fibre. Or, if you’re about to eat some chocolates, could you eat some nuts first, or chia seeds, or a source of protein? Or a very simple strategy is to just eat your sweet treats after meals, as it takes longer for the sugar to hit your system, because your body is already working on breaking down fibre, protein and fat from your meal.
Number four is, if you like to bake and cook, could you try experimenting with low sugar or sugar free deserts? There are lots of recipes that use fruit sweeteners like apple puree, and whilst apple puree can still spike blood sugar, it contains more fibre than a refined sugar like coconut sugar or white table sugar, so that lowers the spike a little. Additionally, if it was made with a recipe that had more fat and fibre and protein than sweet foods usually do, so for example, it included ground almonds vs. just flour, than that would also help lessen the spike.
Alternatively, you could use natural sugar free sweeteners that don’t spike insulin or glucose levels, and my favourites are allulose and monk fruit. As it stands, these two are the least disruptive to our gut microbiome. Pretty much every sweetener affects the gut microbiome, and that includes straight up regular sugar – sugar actually increases intestinal inflammation and negatively affects the gut microbiome significantly, so the fear mongering around sugar alternatives and the gut is not giving the full story. Having said that, sweetener like erythritol or any sugar alcohol, do cause extra fermentation in the gut, so eating lots of that can cause gas, IBS issues, etc. and I wouldn’t recommend eating that regularly or at all if you are someone with SIBO or IBS.
However, allulose and monk fruit, at present, are the two that are seemingly the least reactive gut wise and well tolerated by people with IBS and SIBO (though of course, every one is different) and have little to no known side effects. In fact, monk fruit has some positive effects on health, including anti-inflammatory properties.
Monk fruit is very, very sweet and doesn’t granulate like sugar, unless it’s mixed with something like erythritol, so it’s better used to sweeten hot chocolate, sauces, homemade ice cream, etc. but if you need granulated sugar, then allulose is great for that and is pretty much a one-to-one sugar replacement.
Again, these are sweeteners and processed foods, so we don’t want to be eating these every day of our lives, but they can be great alternatives to sugar when we do want to indulge.
Finally, you could also utilise blood sugar supportive tools or supplements during the holiday season. Chromium picolinate or berberine phytosome are two of the best supplements for improving blood sugar levels – it doesn’t mean you won’t react to eating lots of sugar, but they can help to stabilise your blood sugar levels more overall, which will mean less inflammation and hormonal disruption.
If you don’t fancy supplements, a very simple hack is to drink one tablespoon of apple cider vinegar in water, within 15 minutes before a sugary food or starchy meal (and thanks to The Glucose Goddess for bringing this one to my attention). This has been shown in research to lessen blood sugar spikes, though make sure you drink through a straw, as vinegar can be very harsh on your teeth and can damage the enamel.
Okay, so that’s it. I’ve linked to a few of the brands I use for allulose, monk fruit and the supplements in my show notes. None of these are affiliates or gain me any commission, they’re just what I use personally!
Show Notes
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Produced by Chris Robson