Episode 48: Is Sugar an Addictive Drug?
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Episode Transcription
Participant #1:
Hello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Epidemicians podcast. Hello, everybody. Welcome back to another episode. I know I always say this, but I'm very excited for today's episode. Very excited. This is a question I probably get every day. Question slashcomment I think I want to preface by saying that we're going to kind of say both food addiction and sugar addiction, maybe kind of interchangeably today. So we'll kind of try to specify that a little bit. But we will be talking about foodsugaradiction today and if that's like a real thing and we'll kind of go over maybe why it is and why it isn't. But again, we get this all the time. I feel like I'm addicted to sugar, I'm addicted to food. I can't stop eating. And I think we also want to preface by saying that if you struggle with what feels like food or a certain type of food addiction, we feel for you. Like those feelings are so, so valid. And spoiler alert. We might kind of lean towards saying it's not actually like a real addiction, but that does not discredit any of your lived experiences or your feelings around food addiction. Like having that feeling that food has control over you is first of all very normal, unfortunately, but also very real. It's a very real feeling. So I think it's more going to be how we like what causes those feelings. Like, why do you feel like you're addicted to food or sugar and maybe shifting the phrasing a little bit? But we want to first go into what addiction is and then go over what food addiction is, and then we'll kind of wrap up, although likely to be the biggest part of the episode about the arguments against food addiction. So addiction is actually like mental disorder. It is defined as a chronic relapsing disorder characterized by compulsive drug seeking or continued use despite harmful consequences and long lasting changes in the brain. And it's considered both a complex brain disorder and a mental illness. So it's legitimate mental illness, which is something I feel like is kind of thrown out for my personal comfort. I don't really love how much the word addict or addiction is thrown around because a lot of people have very serious addictions to, like, drugs or alcohol or whatever it is. But nevertheless, that is the definition for it. As you guys know, we always like to find a straight up definition first, but also depending on the particular substance that's involved, it can be affecting you differently physically and mentally. And you can't really be addicted to something that your body needs. For example, like water.
Participant #1:
You're not a water addict. No, there might be something going on. It's like I'm blaming the word. My diabetes background is polyurea. Polyurea is what I was going to say. Like when you pee a lot. I was thinking about the first one. Polydipsia, that one. Okay. I was thinking polydipsia. And I was like, that's not right. But to further that food we need carbs. Our body runs on glucose, which is sugar. We need these things. So it's hard to say that you can't be addicted to something that you need to survive in life. Let's talk about food addiction so oftentimes. I'm sure you've heard someone say, I'm addicted to sugar. I'm a sugar addict. I've heard this so many times. And oftentimes this claim, especially around food addiction, that diet culture has kind of pinned for where those who want to sell you a book or supplement to stop the addiction really kind of Hone in on that phrase and target you. And there's actually a Yale Food addiction scale, which I did not know this, which is pretty cool, but it's a self reported tool that measures kind of those addictive behaviors related to food. And it's based off of criteria more so from a substance addiction. So it might be useful, but it can only tell us really so much. It's basically more so the information gathered around it was based off of lived experiences already. There like a little bit more like testimonial work. And then it doesn't include any questions about dieting or restriction, even though those are strongly related to feelings of food addiction. So it's important to note those disclaimers if you kind of want to utilize it or check it out. Yeah. Going back to, like, the diet culture selling you this idea of food addiction, I think of like, maybe Dr. Mark Hyman doesn't necessarily pedal sugar addiction. I don't know for sure if he's one of the ones, but doctors like him in that realm that are like, sugar is the worst. You're definitely addicted to it. We as Americans are always just eating so much sugar, sugar, sugar. So here's a solution. Buy my book where I tell you how you can cure the addiction. And if you also buy my supplements, that's going to help you. So they're all just saying that you have this addiction to make a buck. That's all they're doing that for. Because again, spoiler alert. But we probably aren't addicted to sugar or food because we need both of those things to survive. And like sugar specifically, you're not just like eating spoonfuls of sugar, whereas if you have a cocaine addiction, you're straight up doing cocaine. It's all just diet culture, which really stinks. And yeah, that Yale Food addiction scale. It's very surface level. And like Emily said, it really is just based on your lived experiences. And I think the biggest flaw of it, it does not have any questions about like, have you died in the past? Have you ever cut out food groups. Have you ever restricted foods or had periods where you had good food, bad foods? And as we'll get to in a little bit too, that restriction and just dieting in general is one of the biggest indicators of these feelings of sugar addiction. Like, if you tell your body you can't have something, you want to have it even more. I always say if you tell a kid, like, you can't go push that big red button, what are they going to want to do? They're going to want to go push that big red button really bad. And it's kind of like us with food. Like if someone told me I could never have Oreos ever again, all my brain would think about how badly I want Oreos, even though I could go like months without having Oreos and not have any problems. But because it's like in the front of my brain that I can't have it, I want to have it even more. And then it becomes all consuming and it feels like an addiction to Oreos, even though it's definitely not. Yeah. So a few more things on what food addiction is. I think one of the biggest reasons why this claim also exists that we can be addicted to food or sugar is I'm sure you've heard it before. Everyone will say, like sugar releases the same feel good hormones as drugs do that dopamine is released when you eat sugar. But the thing is dopamine is released when you hug a friend or like you're laughing at a joke or you're smiling. But I highly doubt that you would say you're addicted to hugging or laughing. No, we definitely can't say that just because it leads to a similar reaction in the brain that it is the same type of addiction. That's definitely not the thing. And that said, too, it's not even the same type of neurochemical response when we do drugs. There's a very specific type of response that happens. And it's not the same as when we eat jelly beans. It's just not the same thing. And another kind of sign that it's not the same response is that if you do I don't do cocaine. I don't do drugs at all. So I don't know exactly like the lived experience here. But when you do cocaine, you kind of build up your tolerance to it. Right. And you kind of have to get more and more and more. Maybe not cocaine specifically, but I'm sure certain, like alcoholism still a drug. Definitely they can be addicted to for sure. Okay, good idea. So alcohol that one. I definitely know you can increase your tolerance to it and you need more and more and more to get the same effect. But that's not going to happen with food, like eating jelly beans. You're not going to build a tolerance to it where you have to eat more and more and more to get the same effect on the body like it's going to be the same amount of calories and the same tolerance to it, whether you're eating four jelly beans or four bags of jelly beans. Jelly beans, a lot of jelly beans. I wouldn't recommend doing that. But if you do, it probably won't feel great. But no guilt. Yeah. So I think one of the next biggest things that people argue with food addiction is the withdrawal symptoms where people take something out and it's very often times they'll crave these things, they take out a lot more. I see this happen all the time with like the bingo restrict cyclist. I think it's very closely paired with food addiction. I say in quotes for people who are listening on the Pod, more so than YouTube. But some people report having these withdrawal symptoms around taking out specific food. And depending on the context, this might just be related to cutting out essential nutrients or more so mentally restricting where you just want more. Like what Hannah was saying, if you tell a kid, don't touch that red button, you're going to want to touch the button. If I were to tell you, you are never allowed to eat a donut ever again, guess what? You would create a donut. Yeah, I feel like it's very much there. It's not as black and white as we always say with nutrition as like, you take something out, it's addiction. It takes something out. Maybe it is related to specific nutrient you were lacking, or maybe it's more so that mental restriction. There could be multiple factors, but oftentimes this is not an addiction. It's more so something else is going on. But diet culture has convinced us that we feel out of control around food. We cannot trust ourselves. I hear all the time I can't trust myself with sugar in the house, so I don't buy it all the time. That's probably one of the biggest things I hear about that. Oh, yeah, it's crazy. And we'll probably talk about this later, but it's crazy when you allow yourself to have these boots and you don't view them as bad, you no longer experience that lack of control around them. This is actually a really big flex. And I hope that everyone listening who can't relate to this can work towards getting this place because it really was so cool. If you guys follow me on Instagram, you know, I'm a big fan of Oreos, trying all the new flavors. So I have Oreos in my house all the time because there's always new flavors coming out and I always have to buy them to try them. Yeah. I had to throw away probably like three giant things of Oreos last week. Like just throw them away because they were all stale and disgusting from a year or two ago. I forgot I even had them. I forgot they were in the house. And someone who has these feelings of sugar addiction would be hearing me say that and be like, what? Like you didn't eat all those Oreos the minute they were in your house. So it's possible to get to that place where you can have these things in your house and just either forget about it or just not really care because you can really have it. Whatever you want. Exactly. That there's nothing stopping you from going to the store and getting some Oreos right now. Yeah. It's not the last time you were going to have Oreos. Exactly. Unless you decide to go on a diet again. Yes. I even hear health care professionals, doctors and others who to help with weight loss. Their recommendation is get it out of the house. And I hate that. I hate when I hear that, like clients will be like, I know I spent to get out of the house or whatever. No, that's the bandaid. That's not actually fixing the problem. No. It potentially could cause more problems for when you go off your diet. And then you start having them again. Then you start pinching them again because you view them as a bad food. Yeah. So if you are someone telling your clients that do better stop that. Okay. Our last little bullet on what food addiction is, I guess this is more, I guess, getting into our arguments against food addiction. But research has yet to find a specific addictive agent in foods. Whereas with alcohol and drugs, there are particular reasons why it's addictive. Like ingredients, like chemical composure, like, there are chemical components that make it addictive, whereas with food, they haven't identified certain ingredients or chemical components that make it addictive. It's usually because of restriction, which we'll kind of get to more here. Yeah. Cool. So let's get into it. Because this is going to grab a snack. Because this is going to be the bulk of today's episode, first and foremost, about why food addiction is not a scientifically based issue. There are natural pleasure centers in the brain that are fired off when we eat. That just normally happens. Eating brings us happy. As should. Yeah, as it should. As it should. You're allowed to be happy when you eat. Yeah. And this response is very similar to the other nonaddictive behaviors, like smiling or like laughing or hugging or listening to music, like what we talked about before. And you probably wouldn't argue very addicted to smiling. I saw like a similar thing on Instagram. They're like music releases dopamine. But you're not addicted to Spotify. No, it's not that simple. No.
Participant #1:
Because. Yeah. No. Okay, enough said. That's argument number one. I touched on that a little bit. But even though it is similar pleasure response, it's not addiction. It's just you like it. Yes. I kind of mentioned this already, too. But if sugar was addictive, people will be like just eating spoonfuls of table sugar or like taking corn syrup and just like squirting it into their mouths. But we don't do that because again, it's not an addictive agent. We likely just have told us that we can't have it, and so we find ways to get it. Although I will say one time I said that on TikTok, I was like, kind of explaining this whole process. You likely aren't just like spooning sugar into your mouth. And I got tons of comments saying, oh, I actually do that all the time. I was like, okay, but I don't think that's for the same reasons. I think that's just odd behavior. But we don't judge food behaviors here. So you do you if you want to eat spoonfuls of sugar. I think the big thing, too, is that things that are sweet and things that are fatty and crunchy and salty, they just taste really good. And so we want to eat them. I think we touched on this a lot when we had our episode with Andy Does healthy Andy Miller. She talked about this a little bit too. Like, foods can be really hyperpalatable and that can make it difficult to stop eating them. But oftentimes, like, sugar and fats are what are kind of deemed as bad. But we need both of those nutrients to survive. We need both fat and sugar to survive. And so we cannot just say that we're addicted to nutrients that we are supposed to eat or definitely not, quote, unquote, like actually supposed to eat. Yes. And also we can over consume foods that aren't high in carbs or fats. We can over consume any types of foods. I think that sugar addiction is one of the biggest ones we often hear. But because it is very easy to over consume sugary and fatty foods, too, I'm thinking, like potato chips, for example, are high in carbs, high in fat, so they're very easy to eat. But we can definitely overdo anything. So it's not to say that, again, that's an addiction
Participant #1:
going to our next one. I don't really have anything to add it that just lays it out very well. It is a normal evolutionary response. Our eating habits are very different than thousands of years ago. It's normal for us to like food and enjoy eating because if we didn't, we wouldn't have the drive to eat and we likely wouldn't survive because like we talked about before, we need food and sugar to survive. Our brain runs off of glucose. It loves that stuff. Yeah, loves that stuff. It needs that to survive. So if it's okay to feel like you want to eat and whatnot this is just going to be a reoccurring theme of foods are demonized feel like you have to restrict them, you binge them because you feel bad about it, and then you're like, this is the last time I'll eat it. I'll be good after this, and then you feel out of control. I know we talked about there were essential nutrients that might be associated, but I feel that in more case it's a mental thing. Definitely an example I like to give with this is like, I forget who I heard this from. But like, imagine like you're swimming. Like you're going really, really fast. I don't swim. So I know exactly how it works in terms of like breath work. But if you're swimming and you have to hold your breath for a long time, eventually it's like come up for air and you probably don't just do a cute little like, okay, I'm good. You probably like really try to get a big breath of air. It's kind of the same thing with this. Like if you say, no, I can't have jelly beans, I can't have jelly beans, I can't have jelly beans. Eventually your body's going to be like, I want some Dang jelly beans. And you're going to likely overeat those jelly beans and feel like, again, like you're addicted to it even though you're not. You were just restricting for so long. It's exactly that. I hear that we've talked about this before and I tried to give metaphor and I know it went really poorly, but it was that exact thing. It's any type of strong restriction, your body is going to go the other way and be like, give it to me. It increases the motivation. Like when it finally gets the jelly beans, it's like, oh, I'm so naughty, what have I done? It makes you want to eat it more. I love how we're personifying our brain so much. It's like I was imagine like give me all the glucose and it's like freaking out. Jelly beans. No, you go. I have one more thing I want to say about that. I love talking about this so much because it's something I talk about every day. Another big thing is when we diet and just under fuel in general. Like if we're on this 1000 calorie diet, our body just like once something fast to help get that energy. And so what we usually do crave is like simple sugars because our body can use that very, very quickly for energy. So if our body is low on energy, it was a very quick, simple fix. And so what do we crave? Jelly beans. What are other simple sugars? I don't know. Sour Patch Kids fruit. Fruit is normally something when my goose. Yeah. So our bud just wants something that knows it can break down really quick. It's why we don't crave. Like, I don't know what would break down really. So like a chicken breast. You probably don't crave that very often because there's like no sugar in that. So your body, it would use it for energy, but take a little while. So that kind of explains that if you are just chronically under fueling, your body just looking for a very quick source of energy because it's not getting the energy it needs. Yeah, I feel like that's a really good point to bring up because your blood sugar is dropping so much. And I've actually personally experienced this where I'm like, I've gone too long without eating. I need something to get my glucose stores up or else I'm about to have like a raging headache really soon. And I'll go for like fruit or sometimes it'll be just something really easy that I don't know what it is. I eat it. I don't have a go to neither. Whatever is around it sounds good. Yeah. But yeah, if you're going a long time, your body wants energy stores and it wants quick energy stores, energy sources more. So yeah, even if it's like unintentional, I'm talking about intentional dieting where you're making yourself not eat enough. But even if it's like kind of what Emily would maybe describing where you just unintentionally go too long without eating because you're busy at work or you just forgot or whatever, that same thing can happen where, say, for example, you eat breakfast, but then you skip lunch, you got busy at work, you're going to get home from work and probably be so hungry. And that can sometimes feel like you're addicted to snacking when you get home. But you're not. You just sit for 8 hours. And so your body wants a very quick source of energy. I feel that everyone can relate. At one point where you come home from a long shift, whether it's at your desk job, you're working an eight hour week serving shift, wherever it is, and then you come home and you just demolish everything because you were going 8 hours without eating or potentially like 6 hours, depending on when they gave you a break. If they even gave you a break. Yeah. I have tons of patients who are nurses, and it's so hard because their job is so hard and they don't always get to take regular breaks. And also water is a big one, too. I can't pee more than like once a shift, so I can't drink water throughout the day, which isn't the same thing as this, but it's tough, right? Yeah, it's crazy. But I think the only other thing we kind of very much alluded to this multiple times. We'll say it's straight up. The majority of your cells in the body use sugar. That glucose, and our brains depend on glucose a lot loves that stuff. So we can't be addicted to something our body depends on to survive and function. Sugar is less calorically dense than fat. It's four calories per gram of sugar, and it's quickly converted into energy for us. And this is part of the reason why it can be very easy to overeat sugar because we're consuming it so quickly. It's not filling us up. It's not as satiating as fat. It's not metabolized as slowly or even like proteins like that chicken breast not going to give you that quick energy, maybe an hour or so, but the immediate relief won't be there. Yeah. The example I always give here is like, I could eat an entire bag of Doritos, no problem, and not feel full at all. And because those Doritos break down to simple sugars in our body for quick energy. But there's no way I could eat like a pound of chicken breast. I get stuffed after 4oz because it's like straight up protein and our body uses that protein very differently than it does the sugar and the Doritos. Yeah, I love Doritos. Oh my gosh, I love Doritos so much. Are you cool Ranch or Nacho cheese? It depends on my mood. It's a big bonus question, actually. Yeah, don't answer that. You can tell me answer, but we'll save both. I do not discriminate against any Dorito types, but yeah, another time you'll have to be back in front of the episode to find Doritos. We know you're dying to know. Yeah. Okay. And I think final section on our argument on why food addiction likely isn't really a thing. Again, we've kind of really alluded to this already big time. But oftentimes the feeling of sugar or food addiction is just a result of you restricting. And this restriction can look different in many different ways. It could be chronic dieting or just like random food rules, like sugar is bad, I'm going to crave sugar or whatever. But as we talked about having this rule around sugar, whatever food you feel addicted to only makes you want to have it more. But like I already said with the Oreo example, how I threw them away, I know I can have Oreos whenever the heck I want to have Oreos. And so while they still taste good, I like to get the new ones. They're fun. I like them like the appeal or the vanity. Like the sexiness of Oreos is not really there all the time. And I don't have a struggle with eating a whole row and not being able to stop because I know again, I can have them whenever I want to have them. It kind of makes me sad. I think that you throw out all those Oreos. I know, but I always tell my patients and clients this, I know, you know, assembly, but your body is not a trash can. So whether you throw in the trash or just eat them because you feel like you have to eat them, it's going to be wasteful either way. And how I view it as I'd rather throw them in the trash can than make myself feel like crap by shoving down a whole thing of expired Oreos just to not throw them away. Yeah, I think I'm just personifying them just like the brain today. I'm personifying everything the Lord's like. No. Well, they were my cabinet for like two years, so they were probably ready to go on their next journey. Let me be free. Let us out of this dark room. Let some raccoon find me. Yeah. Then raccoon can enjoy it. The biggest thing with this next one is those who have a food or sugar addiction often do have a history of disordered eating behaviors or like chronic dieting or whatever. And this kind of led me to think when I was doing some research to make our outlines, this episode, like, is it food addiction or should you actually go see a specialist and maybe be diagnosed with binge eating disorder? Now, preface here, this is necessary that everyone who feel like they have a food addiction has binge eating disorder as a diagnosable eating disorder. But many of the diagnostic criteria for BD binge eating disorder sound a lot like those who say they have food addiction. Like, for example, a sense of lost control over eating during the episode. You can't stop eating very rapidly, eating until you're uncomfortably full, eating when you're not even really hungry, but just because you feel like you're addicted to it. So again, big thing here, I want to point out, is that you may not have Ved, but if you do really struggle with a lot of the diagnostic criteria, which we can share the link actually for the diagnostic criteria and what exactly it is. But you may or may not have been eating disorder. But there are a lot of similarities. And I think by simplifying it into just a food addiction is pretty bad when it could be an actual eating disorder, which goes way beyond just, like, wanting to be thin and cut out sugar. Like it's an actual eating disorder, which is a mental illness. Yes. We do not self diagnose here. So it could be something that would be good to just reach out to a medical professional or a specific eating disorder therapist just to kind of check in. If you really do feel out of control and it's something you want to seek help with, it could be actually, we very much encourage you to reach out for help. Definitely. And we'll share links on how to do that. So I guess to kind of like sum it up, I found this article. What's the title of it? I can't remember. I think it was like I forgot what kind of article it was. But anyway, it gave a really good summation of like, is food addiction a thing? And I'm going to read it directly by what it said. So they kind of concluded that, quote, we find little evidence to support sugar addiction in humans. And findings from the animal literature suggest that addiction like behavior such as binging occur only in the context of intermittent access to sugar. These behaviors likely arise from intermittent access to sweet tasting or highly palatable foods, not the neurochemical effects of sugar. End quote. So I thought it was a really good summation of all that we just said. Like, it's just because you restrict it, it's not because it has addictive qualities. Yes, it releases dopamine, but so does hugging and listening to music. Not quite the same thing. Definitely not the same thing. So let's talk about how to, quote, unquote cure a food or sugar addiction. So first and foremost, the mantra of this entire podcast, quit the diet mentality. We need to stop making the diet rules, stop viewing foods as good versus bad. And this isn't something that happens overnight. It's something that's going to take a lot of time and practice and challenging those thoughts and challenging the inner food police and those around you and what you see online and whatnot and kind of creating a space that you can recover from this. But in order to no longer feel like you don't have control of yourself around food, we start off by just stopping kind of dieting in general, because it's definitely not helping, potentially feeding into it even more. Yeah. And I think this can be really scary. It kind of goes back to that example we gave of getting rid of food. Just to not overeat it is not going to be a good solution. Oftentimes when I tell that to people, they're like, but if I have those jelly beans in the house, I'm going to overeat them. And that's the thing called last supper eating where yeah. As you're kind of getting used to having these foods regularly that were previously off limits, you are going to overeat them and maybe be a little bit uncomfortable. But as you kind of already mentioned, you'll get used to that and you'll remember and realize over time that you don't feel very good if you eat jelly beans all the time. And so you will kind of learn that you don't actually want to do that. The only reason you want to do that now and have them all the time is because they are, quote, unquote, forbidden, off limits, whatever. But again, as you allow those technically, whenever you want, that last supper eating will go away. Kind of fade away. Yeah, exactly. That. We're opening intuitive eating in here. You know how I do. Yeah. The next tidbit on how to cure this food addiction, sugar addiction, is to give yourself permission to eat foods without guilt, including sugar. This is very much correlated to that first bullet point where we're challenging those feelings of guilt after eating like, oh, I was so bad, I ate a hamburger. I was so bad, I ate half the bag of jelly beans. I'm going to heavily restrict that tomorrow. I'm going to only eat salads for the rest of the day. I'm not going to eat tomorrow. Stuff like that. It's a very slippery slope. And when we do challenge those feelings of guilt and like, be like, no, it's okay. It's okay. If I have this food, this food brings me happiness. It might not be the highest in protein or the highest in antioxidants, whatever it is, but it still makes you happy. This is a tangent, but I bet they have like antioxidant rich jelly beans out there these days that you can buy. Just knowing how diet culture is, it was like the blue and red and purple jelly beans. Yeah, that's it.
Participant #1:
You have permission to eat any and all foods, and that will help us get rid of that diet mentality. Yeah. Okay. Kind of. Along with that, it's also important to remember that you can eat for more than just, like, physical. Nourishment. Like Emily kind of just said, I think it's almost Easter, so we have jelly beans on the brain. So we're going to use that example. But when you got Cheers. I love jelly beans so much. Do jelly beans provide us with the most protein and vitamins and minerals? Do they hydrate us? No. They're just like simple sugars that give us some energy. But even that, they still are giving a purpose, even physically, they are providing our body with carbs. They have essential macronutrient. But Besides the point, we are allowed to eat and we should eat for more than just that physical. Nourishment, like getting a macronutrient or micronutrient in it's okay to eat just because it tastes good or even like, if you're bored. I think we talked about emotional eating a few times on here, but nothing wrong with emotional eating. It shouldn't be shame. Like, you shouldn't feel shame if you do it, as long as you know it's not going to fix the problem. But anyway, it's okay to eat for other reasons Besides just nourishing your body. You can eat because you're celebrating a birthday or celebrating Easter if you celebrate that because it tastes good or whatever other reason. Like, do you need jelly beans to survive? No, but they taste good. They are a fun part of the Easter holiday if you celebrate that and it's okay just to eat them for that reason alone. I also want to give a shout out to Ramadan and Passover because I think they're also happening or they're coming up. But yeah, I'm sure there's celebration with that. Whatever it is, it's okay. Yes, we were talking about jelly beans, and I think I was unintentionally an anti diet culture student. I don't think I ever told you this, but I went to their expos for big races, so I went to one from the Chicago Half Marathon. They were giving out samples and they had, like, the sport jelly beans. And they're supposed to be like, QuickEnergy and me being the silly little dietary student I was. I walked up to the rep and I was like, what's different about these compared to normal jelly beans? Did you have an answer? She was so insulted. I mean, I get it. I would be insulted if you made some sports focused food and some, like, punk kid. How's that jump from candy? But I'm thinking about it now and I don't think they're that different. It's just supposed to be sugar. Like, jelly beans are actually a great preworkout or intro workout. Yeah. And the ones I ate gave me stomach pain. I think they had some weird. Maybe they had a lot of, like, sugar alcohols or something. That seems dumb if they're meant to give you energy. No, I was like, I'd rather go see normal jelly beans. Yeah, we were talking about that. I thought of that. So silly. Weird. But the last tip anyway, is if you think you have any disorder or you even just want to get help on this, you don't need to have an eating disorder. Reach out for help. Reach out to a healthcare professional. We're going to link different ways you can reach out to individuals to help you with this, but it's not something you need to live with for the rest of your life. There are people out there to help you and who aren't very good at helping people with eating disorders or even just disordered eating. And the first step, I always tell all my patients, is the first step in solving a problem is admitting you have a problem and then reaching out because there's a lot of people in this world and you're not alone. Yeah. It's actually a good segue. It's like our final submission. Like I said at the very beginning, your fee feelings that you feel that you have a food addiction are very valid and very, very common. Like we said, we hear stories with like, this all the time. I can't have this food, this did the student house, or I'm going to overeat it. I'm a sugar. Whatever. So those feelings are very valid and real. And us kind of saying that food addiction is not a real thing. It's not us saying that your feelings are not a real thing. No. Your feelings are very real, but it likely isn't actually about the food, the sugar, the carbs, whatever. And more so about your mindset around those foods. Yes, exactly. That. Yeah. We don't want to invalidate your feelings. They're very valid. Yeah. And common and normal. Unfortunately. Normal, yes. Something very drilled into a lot of our brains. But something else going on. It might not be potentially not a mental disorder. Like Emily said, if you identify that you do have these feelings, like that could be a problem. And that's the first step of figuring out what to do about the problem. Yeah. Like maybe you didn't even realize that you had these thoughts about it until you heard this episode, and then you're like, oh, wow. Maybe I do have these feelings of restrictions that lead to my feelings with addiction, and that can be the first step on getting help with that. Exactly. Not Yay. Okay. I picked today's bonus question because it kind of goes along with the episode. The question is, what is the best soda? And I know we've talked about, like, cans versus bottles versus what's it called when you go to a restaurant fountain I don't think, though, we talked about what the best soda is. I kind of want to guess yours. Wait, don't tell me. I'm feeling like it's like a cream soda or something. Or root beer. You just can't decide. Okay, my staple, my go to my all the time. Not all the time, but like most compared to others is a desktop. We even say the question, what's the best soda? Okay, we did say it. Okay, that's a question. And I was kind of tying it back to the episode because, like, Soda's a girl.
Participant #1:
Yeah. My go to is that Coke? I think we talked about that too, Mikayla. Yeah, I definitely should know that. Well, I love a cream soda. I love a root beer. I even love a Sprite zero kind of thing. I think another part of this is diet versus regular, which I know your answer to that. I feel like you know mine. So I guess I'll try to say I'm definitely team diet. I just feel better. And I think that goes back to what was that earlier? Actually, can I drink a regular Cook without feeling guilty? Of course I can. I know that the sugar and that is going to have a very minimal effect on my life in the big picture, but I don't feel well if I eat or drink a lot of sugar at once. And that's why I choose diet sodas, because they don't have any sugar and so I don't get any kind of, like, blood sugar response to that. Or if I do have regular soda, I make sure I have it with a meal because if I just have, like, a regular soda, I feel not good. But anyway, that was the diet culture segue, as I always tend to make it. So again, I don't ever have an answer. But Diet Coke is my staple. But you are right about that. I do love, like, a cream soda, root beer kind of thing, too. I shouldn't know the diet soda I feel like, or the Diet Coke almost. I actually so many times I'm drinking it right now through social media or when we're recording, you're like, hey,
Participant #1:
my answer, I don't think you'll know this. I don't drink soda because the carbonation makes my stomach really bubbly and it makes me super bloated. And I hate feeling bloated more than like, I'll actively avoid eating things or drinking things if it'll make me bloated. Yeah, just partially why I hate drinking alcohol, because it makes me so bloated. But whatever. But I was actually talking to Bobby. I was like, I wish they made flat soda. I would drink all it doesn't hurt my stomach. You can make it flash, like, let it sit out for a while. That's what I do when I visit his house. I'll let it sit for a couple of hours.
Participant #1:
It doesn't hurt me. Get it? I love carbonation. I can't relate. But I get it. I think it's become one of those things like dairy, where the pleasure of it is no longer worth the pain that comes with it. Yeah. They need like a solution for that. Like a lactate for carbonation. Like some type of carbonation. That doesn't hurt me. I actually have it downstairs that you can grab it and show it. I didn't share on Instagram yet, actually. We got the Nitro Pepsi. Oh, my gosh, you did? Yes, I did. So they like merch. Yeah. So they use nitrogen instead of CO2 and so they're still like a little bubbly, but not a lot. Pretty flat. I think you like them and it's just kind of like coffee a little bit too. They're actually really good. That's the solution. I think it is because the flatness threw me off. But I think you would like that based on
Participant #1:
but my favorite Soda's, cherry Coke. Oh, my gosh, I forgot. You didn't even give your answer. Okay. Cherry Coke. I probably drink Cherry Coke like twice a year just because I don't drink soda because it hurts me. But it was like a huge part of my childhood where there was like this big water park near us and we somehow all of us are like little middle schoolers because it's okay if we apparently have memberships to water parks. We also have this membership and you have this huge cup. Those are like 32oz that you could constantly refill if you were there. And all my friends would just get Cherry Coke the entire time. I feel like it's more of a nostalgia thing. But second place is Sprite. Can never do me wrong. No. Sprite is so good. It's so refreshing. Oh, my gosh. Ginger ale. I love ginger ale. That's like probably my top three. I do love gingeriel. Yeah, we have that a lot. We always have. Not always, but we often have either diet Coke or diagandria in our house. Staples.
Participant #1:
Wow. I did not know that. I did not know much about your soda preferences. I don't really drink it. I only ever drink it. Really? If I have it as a mixer. Yeah. Normally that it's Sprite. Or if I'm at the rosters and they have stuff and I'll let it sit out for a couple of hours, bizarre put it in the fridge for a couple of hours. Yeah. Although I will notice my sodas has gotten thrown out because people think they're like. Well, yeah. Because no one else likes flat. Sometimes I'm like, no, that's so funny. I'm going to go try this Nitro Pepsi now. Yes. This could be a different question. I don't think we've done Pepsi versus Coke. I don't think we have. Although I feel like they already know our answers. Like Coke is our favorite soda. Yeah. We could like break it down to the taste profiles and that kind of stuff. That's true. Yeah. Okay. Well, we hope you guys enjoyed this episode. We have been excited to record this one because it is such a common question and complaints that we get I forgot how to talk about episodes. Hope you liked it. Thanks for listening. Thanks for listening. Hope you learn something new. We'll see you next week. We never promote what to do with us. We're on Instagram and TikTok. I don't know if we ever promote this. We're on Instagram at the apputians. We're on TikTok at the FP dietitians. I think in our outro it says these things. Who listens to the outro? I don't even listen to acros of other podcasts. I know. So now they have to listen to us talk about this or they've already. Peaced out. Oh, we have to go over our new thing, our tutbud. Yes. Okay, Emily, go ahead. We want to involve all of you of a lot more. And also, we love animals, so we are starting something soon, probably within the next when this comes out, we'll ask for your submissions within like two weeks or so. But it's going to be ongoing. It's not like this is the one time for it. We are going to be introducing Tudbuts. And what this is, if you don't know what toud is it's the upbeat dietitians and buds are going to be. We want to see your animals and learn about them because we love animals. We also love hearing about your animal and how you met them and kind of what their personality like and whatnot. And we also listing pictures of animals. So we're going to start implementing something. I think it's going to be on a monthly basis. But if anything changes, we'll announce it on Instagram or we'll talk about it in the next episode. And just be sure to tune into social media or our episodes for any updates on that. But we're going to have a Google form for you to fill out, just to kind of upload and keep pictures you want to share. Tell us kind of about your little bud. And once we share it, they'll become a tug bud. That'll be super cute. And I just saw this on the spot. If you have an animal account for them, tag the animals. And then we'll tag them some free promotion of your team and we'll tag them in like Instagram stories, too. Yeah. When we announce the winners. Yeah. It will be super exciting. And we all love to see pictures and your cute stories about animals. And we want to connect with you all a lot more. Yeah. But it's also so we can see cute. It's a selfish thing, but we also do want to build community. So definitely check that out. Submit all your cute pictures. And yes, it will be great. Every month will kind of nominate the Tide bet of the month and feature them. Yeah. And we'll share we'll have like a consistent link. We'll share it in probably the description on our link tree and social media too. We can share it in stories whenever we are accepting nominations. So like Emily kind of said be sure to follow us. I say Instagram especially is where we usually post most of our content and updates and all of that cool. We're so excited to see your animals. Any kind of animal. If you got an elephant, I want to see your elephant I probably win. Honestly, if you got an elephant, you're going to win. Just tell you right now those dogs. I love dogs but if it's a golden retriever versus an elephant, elephant is going to win that one. Yeah, okay. Anyway, chance to put it there. Thank you guys for listening and we will see you in the next one. Alright. Bye bye.
