The Doc's Kitchen

Evidence Based Eating For Every day People

sugar

Can People with Diabetes Eat Fruit?

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Yes, they can!

It’s a shame that this question needs an answer. Luckily, an evidence-based answer exists.

I have the privilege of dispelling myths about nutrition. Sometimes addressing these myths feels like a full-time job. “Fake news” isn’t limited to the world of politics. It’s also running rampant in the world of nutrition. I hate to say it, but the lack of physicians with training in nutrition contributes to the problem. Further, the average person’s lack of access to qualified dietitians also isn’t helping anything.

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5 Evidence-Based Foods that Lead to Weight Loss or Weight Gain

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Doc, what should I eat? I hear this question every day. Some people pose this question because they are trying to identify how foods can improve or worsen gastrointestinal symptoms. However, in my weight management clinic, people mostly want to know what’s going to help or hurt their weight loss efforts.

The answer to the question is tough because there is no “one size fits all” solution—but the internet is filled with millions of sites claiming they have the answer. Figuring out what to eat for losing weight is more confusing than curling in the winter Olympics (I must be missing something).

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Taming Your Sweet Tooth: How Much Sugar Should We Eat Per Day?

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Taming your sweet tooth: How much sugar should we eat per day

I recently saw someone rocking a T-shirt that said “Sugar over Everything.” That’s a catchy slogan—you may catch some health problems if you run with it (or if you don’t run with it). The health concerns associated with sugar are well established. Diabetes, weight gain, cavities, heart disease, et cetera—the list goes on like the beat does.

Solely knowing the health risks associated with sugar isn’t enough to make us eat less of it. Most people know what uncontrolled diabetes can do, so writing an exhaustive list of all the bad things sugar can cause won’t scare people straight.

The pen may be mightier than a sword, but a pound cake will destroy my pen every time—no contest. Ultimately when we see sweets, the parts of the brain that correspond to fear aren’t activated; sugar perks up the brain’s pleasure centers. When we see a donut, we don’t think about a stroke 20 years from now; we think happy thoughts about rainbows, unicorns, sprinkles, and how delicious our donut will be. Ok, I may have exaggerated about the rainbows and unicorns, but as a card-carrying grown a** man, sprinkles are amazing.

Sugar is also addictive. So what do we do?

Do we abstain from sugar and avoid it altogether? Do we eat it in moderation? Moderation is typically the most realistic answer, but that begs the question, “What’s moderation?” Let me tackle that question by highlighting some guidelines regarding sugar and illustrating a few visual tools for identifying how much sugar you might be eating.

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