Squats & Séances

The Sugar Trap: Why Carbs Aren't Your Enemy

• Venessa Krentz • Season 1 • Episode 7

Share episode

Ready to uncover the biggest nutrition myth that's keeping you from achieving your health goals? Prepare to have your assumptions challenged as we dive deep into the truth about carbohydrates and sugar in this eye-opening episode.

As a dual-certified nutritionist with years of research experience, I've personally tested countless nutrition protocols and observed a troubling trend: most people believe carbohydrates are the enemy. 

Want to improve your nutrition without extreme restriction? Discover the freedom that comes with understanding what truly nourishes your body and finding an approach that works for your individual needs.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14672862/

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/15416-carbohydrates

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/facts-about-sugar-and-sugar-substitutes

https://www.healthline.com/health/alcohol-and-weight-loss#alcohol-and-weight-loss

Send us a text

HELP contribute to this growing community. Email topic ideas, suggestions for interviews, and feedback to venessa@squatsandseances.com.

FIND new episodes of Squats & Séances on all major podcast platforms and the vlogcast on our YouTube channel - Squats & Séances.

SUBSCRIBE so you never miss an episode. SEASON 1 ENDS OCTOBER 31ST!

VISIT us at www.squatsandseances.com to subscribe to our newsletter.

FOLLOW us on social media @squatsandseances (IG, FB, TT, LinkedIn).

Until the next time - stay gritty you badass!



Speaker 1:

Welcome to Episode 7. We just crossed the halfway point of Season 1, which will wrap up on October 31st of 2025. This initial season is all about exploration is all about exploration Like spices in a pantry. We are exploring the limitless combinations of body, mind and spirit. We are now in September and the days are going to begin to shorten and darken. There's a little bit of the chill in the air each morning before the late summer sunshine cuts through. It is approaching my favorite time of year, the fall, and in the weeks that follow you can expect more introspective content, more spirituality-based discussions and a heavy sprinkle of the mystical and non-materialistic. But before we head down the fall paths to Halloween, I want to present the first of what will be several episodes on nutrition. I'm going to disperse these throughout the season as the demand and need arises.

Speaker 1:

I touched on this in episode one, but I am a dual certified nutritionist and I'm someone that has always been fascinated by how the body works. I have invested years into research and development of different nutrition protocols. I often put myself as the guinea pig when researching and exploring a new nutritional approach and fact testing its health claims. I set my research up in the format of a scientific method with as limited and well-defined variables as possible. I like to collect data at the onset of each experiment and after as well. Some examples might include in-body scans, caliper readings, circumference measurements, blood pressure rating, sometimes even a complete blood cell differential and a chemistry panel, especially where hormones and nutrition are concerned. I also record non-tangibles during these experiences, such as how I was feeling, sleeping and my emotional state. I track biometric feedback data from my training sessions, recording PRs, deficits and training capacities.

Speaker 1:

In this initial nutrition-focused episode, I feel that it's important to cover one of the most common myths that I have researched and I have experienced for myself, as well as something that routinely comes up with nutrition and fitness clients. Many of the misconceptions surrounding this myth that I'm about to address are actively propagated by those who stand to profit in the health and fitness industry. Propagated by those who stand to profit in the health and fitness industry and, of course, there's influence from social media and others without credentials or accountability for the advice they supply. So bear with me. It's time to gear up for a little exploration into the world of nutrition. If you learn one thing, and one thing only, from this episode, it is that carbs are not your enemy. Sugar is Hands down. The biggest false belief that I run into when discussing nutrition with clients is the belief that carbs are public enemy number one is the belief that carbs are public enemy number one. Ie carbs are making us miserable, overweight and unhealthy, and of course, the follow-up to that statement is that aggressive carb restriction is the answer to fast and efficient weight loss. So let's really get into this and discuss and see what the research shows and then circle back and see what we think after we're done. I want to start off with this potent quote from an article in the Asia-Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Speaker 1:

Evidence abounds that low-carbohydrate diets present no significant advantage over more traditional energy-restricted, nutritionally balanced diets, both in terms of weight loss and weight maintenance. Studies examining the efficacy of using low-carbohydrate diets for long-term weight loss are few in number. However, a few positive benefits exist to promote the adoption of carbohydrate restriction as a realistic and, more importantly, safe means of dieting. While short-term carbohydrate restriction over a period of a week can result in a significant loss of weight, albeit mostly from water and glycogen stores, of serious concern is what potential exists for the following of this type of eating plan for longer periods of months to years.

Speaker 1:

Complications such as heart arrhythmias, cardiac contractile function impairment, impairment, sudden death, osteoporosis, kidney damage, increased cancer risk, impairment of physical activity and lipid abnormalities can all be linked to long-term restriction of carbohydrates in the diet. The need to further explore and communicate the untold side effects of low-carbohydrate diets should be an important public health message from nutrition professionals. So let me pause, and I want that to settle for a minute. I'm going to read the list of complications once more. Complications such as heart arrhythmias, cardiac contractile function impairment, sudden death, osteoporosis, kidney damage, increased cancer risk, impairment of physical activity and lipid abnormalities can all be linked to long-term restriction of carbohydrates in the diet. That's a pretty extensive and quite frightening list of things that are proven to be side effects of adopting an nutrition protocol that embraces aggressive, long-term carbohydrate restriction. So I think the question we need to ask is why is that still the prevailing belief as a fast and effective means of weight loss? It is clearly scientifically documented that extreme carbohydrate cutting has severe long-term complications.

Speaker 1:

However, in the short term, a drastic reduction in carbohydrates will promote weight loss initially, and I think that's where a lot of people get hooked. This is, for a number of reasons, what most Americans call carbohydrates, they are essentially referring to packaged sugar Bread, especially white bread pasta chips, crackers, whole rice, corn products all grains that are heavily processed with added sugar to create satiety and they're often full of preservatives to make them shelf-stable satiety and they're often full of preservatives to make them shelf stable. The standard American diet is overrun with examples of this. If you are a habitual consumer of these types of foods and were suddenly to reduce your processed food intake, it stands to reason that, yes, your inflammation would reduce, bloating would reduce, glycogen stores would be reduced. All of these will create a reduction in water weight and you will physically weigh less on the scale and you will be creating a necessary swing in homeostasis towards your metabolic health. But here's the catch the catalyst for the weight loss is not actually the carbohydrate compound, it's the sugar molecules within it.

Speaker 1:

Carbs take the bad press for being the carrier of the source of the actual culprit, glucose in all of its many forms. So what is a carbohydrate then? Carbohydrates are one of three main types of nutrients that are found in food that the body uses for energy, and carbohydrates fall into a nutrient category that is defined as a macronutrient. Alongside protein and fat, carbs are organic compounds made of carbon hydrogen and oxygen, and the body converts carbohydrates into glucose, which then enters the bloodstream to be used by cells for energy. Carbohydrates are a necessary compound for body function. That is why your body cannot survive without them. As we documented in the opening quote, it is well researched that selectively reducing carbs does help with weight loss and preventing metabolic disease such as diabetes. Weight loss and preventing metabolic disease such as diabetes. However, extreme restriction creates a maladaptive survival response in the body, as the body needs these carbohydrates to support life. What does this mean for metabolic function, for weight loss, for long-term health? So many questions right? The answer is that not all carbs are created equally.

Speaker 1:

Carbohydrates are generally categorized based on their chemical structure and how quickly they are digested. I'm going to break down some of the different categories here for you. Simple carbohydrates are sugars that are digested quickly and cause a rapid rise in blood sugar levels. Examples include the sugars found in fruit, honey and refined sugar. Complex carbohydrates are starches, and these are digested more slowly, meaning that they release glucose into the bloodstream gradually. Examples here would include foods like whole grains, vegetables and legumes, or beans and fiber. Fiber is not digested by the body. Instead, it aids in digestion by providing bulk to the stool, promoting regularity and preventing certain types of sugars from crossing membranes. It also helps often with promoting satiety after eating. So the key here is that reducing your intake of those simple carbohydrates which again are fruit, honey, maple syrup and sugar will help reduce health markers for metabolic disease, and you will probably lose some weight in the process as well.

Speaker 1:

The biggest indicator to long-term success with managing your carbohydrate load is really in redefining what you think a carbohydrate is. Now remember how I mentioned vegetables as a complex carbohydrate example. That's what vegetables are. On a macronutrient level, they are carbohydrates. So let's pause and think about how often you may have eaten a theoretical meal like this A serving of meat, a serving of mashed potatoes, maybe some corn on the cob, a roll of bread and a side salad. That sounds pretty good, right, and a side salad that sounds pretty good, right. Essentially, if we break that down on a macronutrient level, that's one serving of protein and four servings of carbohydrates. Remember we have potatoes, corn on the cob, bread and salad. So of these four servings of carbohydrates, three are starches the mashed potatoes, the mashed potatoes and the corn and the roll, and only one is actually a vegetable serving, which would be the side salad. My mom still rolls her eyes at me when we make family dinners and she wants to serve corn as the vegetable. That's a starch mom, anyways, it takes takes a long, long time to rewrite the menus in our mind to view vegetables as carbohydrates. It was for me so indoctrinated in my upbringing that things like corn, beans and potatoes were vegetables and then when in fact a better descriptor would have been starches and legumes. That's one example of how we tend to overwhelm our nutritional intake with carbohydrates and not view things like vegetables as carbohydrates when really we're consuming primarily starches.

Speaker 1:

Let's also segue here and tackle an obvious elephant in the room sugar in its liquid form. Sugary drinks are typically a huge obstacle to lasting nutrition change and strangely they seem to slip under the wire, unaccounted for, in most people's mental inventory of what they eat or drink. In a day that could be full of sugar A great example would be the latte from your favorite coffee house is likely full of sugar from added sources like flavored syrup to less obvious culprits such as dairy creamers or plant-based creamers with added sugars. Alcohol is another big offender in metabolic disease and it's also broken down into sugar in the body. When we consume alcohol, which is a neurotoxin and a confirmed neoplastic agent, our metabolism shunts other sources of fuel burning for later use and immediately gets to work trying to break down and dispose of the toxic agent. As the alcohol is digested and cleared by the body, the sugar byproducts are stored in the form of adipose tissue or fat. In this way, alcohol is unique as a triple threat. It's empty calories we consume that get stored as adipose tissue. It also distracts the body from processes such as burning through the fuel it already consumed that day, and so that fuel is also stored as adipose tissue for future use. And it is a well-correlated effect that it disinhibits our dietary discretion. Correlated effect that it disinhibits our dietary discretion.

Speaker 1:

When we drink, we crave and eat high sugar, high fat foods we would typically probably pass on. Another example that most people don't realize is fresh press juice. It's essentially pure sugar. It's a double offender masquerading as a health product, because juice has all the fiber removed from it. Remember that fiber helps blunt some, but not all, of the metabolic load on the pancreas when that fructose is ingested and needs to be digested. That when you have a health juice shot or smoothie. It's probably doing more to promote metabolic disease than it is to prevent it or improve your health.

Speaker 1:

This is also why energy drinks and workout supplements are the bane of nutritionists everywhere. They are always packed with copious amounts of sugar or sugar additives, caffeine, preservatives. Some of them have been linked to neoplasia or cancer. They often have food coloring and dyes in them, and I think it's worth pointing out that the average person under average training load stress unequivocally does not need to have a sugary workout drink pre intra and probably not even post-workout. In fact, consuming those sorts of substances will negate the effects of the training that that individual was working so hard to achieve. Individual was working so hard to achieve. I think that there are marked and important exceptions for the upper levels of fitness professionals. If you have a professional athlete Olympians, endurance competitors these are a few examples From that level of training. There are calculations that exist on how and when to replenish glucose stores as well as hydration protocols, but probably 98% of the population will rarely, if ever, fall into this category. If you think you do, I would definitely recommend consulting a professional nutritionist for guidance.

Speaker 1:

Circling back to what to do now with this information, when first exploring this concept and desiring to make a nutritional change, I always advise people to start with something small and actionable. In this case, try swapping your processed carbohydrates for starches, maybe just for one or two meals a day at the beginning. Ditch the white rice. Try to make some squash. Trial this new way of feeding yourself for a week or two and, when you feel ready, take it up a level. Maybe the next week try swapping some of your favorite mealtime starches for true veggies like dark leafy greens, the point here being to remember that carbs are not your enemy. It's the amount of sugar that results from the breakdown of the carbohydrate that you're trying to limit.

Speaker 1:

The aim is for smaller, infrequent servings of fruit and natural sugars, definitely trying to avoid refined sugars and lab-created artificial sweeteners. Some examples of natural sugars are fruit honey, molasses and maple syrup, which contain natural sugar, and they do have some nutritional benefits. For example, we discussed how fruit whole fruit has fiber, vitamins and antioxidants. Raw honey and maple syrup can contain antioxidants and minerals like iron, zinc, calcium and potassium, all of which your body does need. Use these options to sweeten food if it's imperative to your satiety and if you are miserable.

Speaker 1:

In your heightened state of awareness about your sugar consumption. Make no mistake, our bodies are hardwired to love and crave sugar. Even so, and especially to our detriment, when we pair mindless eating with high-value, high-sugar food, the goal here being to slowly reduce the overall intake of these in a safe ratio as compared with your overall nutrition. There are lots of tips and tricks available for those wanting to reduce their sugar intake. I won't have time to touch on all of them here today, but I always welcome these kinds of questions, so if you have any, send me an email. I'm happy to help you out. I will share that. One way to reduce your sugar intake is to substitute high-fiber starches like sweet potato or squash in place of high-glycemic, highly processed carbs such as bread, pasta or crackers. Then work to incrementally increase your true veggie intake with spinach, salads, kale, swiss chard, bok choy, any other kind of dark leafy green. With consistency and slow integration, you will safely create a state of long-term health, metabolic stability and body recomposition through a reduction in sugar intake by picking your carbohydrates wisely.

Speaker 1:

Another warning that I'd like to offer is to avoid the carb-free, sugar-free trap, thinking it's a healthy option. Our industrial food processors are a sly bunch. They are incredibly good at marketing bad food to good people. Avoid grabbing a snack bar that's labeled as no sugar or low carb just because it seems safe or because it's hanging out in a health food aisle. This is important for two reasons. The first is that no sugar does not equate to no metabolic response from the body and secondly, according to research hospitals like Johns Hopkins University, most of the non-nutritive sweeteners are lacking beneficial things like vitamins, fiber, minerals or antioxidants. They are regulated by the US Food and Drug Administration as food additives, not food. The research is missing to fully understand the long-term effects that these analogs will pose. Some animal studies have indicated a strong correlation between artificial sweeteners and weight gain and even cancer. However, studies on people have shown these products to be generally safe as long as no more than the acceptable daily intake for each is not consumed, and some examples of these would include asulfamine, potassium or ACE-K, advantamine, aspartamine, neotene, saccharin and sucralose.

Speaker 1:

Next up, we have our non-nutritive sugar alcohols. Those include erythritol, isomalt, lactitol, malitol, sorbitol and xylitol. Sugar alcohols are used in many processed foods. They are not as sweet as the artificial sweeteners I first listed. They do add texture and taste to foods like chewing gum and hard candies and they have a strong association with gastrointestinal irritation, such as bloating gas or diarrhea. Good times. Then, lastly, we have the novel sweeteners, or the plant-derived non-caloric sweeteners Allulose, monk fruit, stevia and tangytose. These are generally considered safe by the FDA, but there's not a lot of long-term research available here either Of these, stevia and monk fruit are the two that are naturally derived and, as with all examples of the sweeteners listed above, a good rule of thumb is that if it didn't grow in the ground or on a plant or a tree, it's probably not the best option to put in your body.

Speaker 1:

These sugar substitutes abound in commercially marketed health foods. It takes discernment and a trained eye to read a food label and pick these ingredients out. Often, food marketers will put a no added sugar in big letters on the front of the package and then pump the product full of artificial sweeteners. In fact, one of the foundational tips that I provide to new nutrition clients is how to read a food label. It is vital to long-term nutrition success. I encourage you to turn over the box, bottle or canned good and read the fine print, not just the grams of sugar in the product, but the actual ingredient list. If you see sugar or a sugar analog in the first five ingredients. Set it down and move on.

Speaker 1:

When I first began practicing this exercise myself, I was mortified at how many products I had been purchasing and consuming my entire adult life, with no idea how much sugar and other crap was actually inside the food I was eating. If you don't believe me, do your own investigation, paying close attention to things like sauces, dressings, marinades and cereals, even something that would seem innocuous like a can of tomatoes. Try that one. What you can learn and avoid by doing this will help. You could help your kids. It'll help your family members, the elderly.

Speaker 1:

There is no point at which discernment around nutrition, especially around sugar, does not matter to metabolic health and longevity. What you will find is that the processing required to get the end product that you may be about to eat that is labeled as a health food is the furthest from nature that it could possibly be. It may be full of sugar or sugar additives and preservatives, things to make it taste good after it's been sitting on a shelf for months. Or perhaps the finished product is so heavily synthesized that it doesn't contain recognizable ingredients, in which case it probably isn't really recognizable as food in your body anymore. Either it probably isn't really recognizable as food in your body anymore, either. In that case, you're better off eating an apple fresh off the tree, full of fructose and fiber, than to eat a highly processed, shelf-stable serving of something that no longer looks, smells or tastes like food because it's not. It's really disease and a wrapper.

Speaker 1:

In closing, I want to add this caveat Do I occasionally eat sugar? Hell, yeah, if I'm out at a Michelin-starred restaurant, am I ordering dessert? Yes, if it's my son's birthday, am I eating some of his cake? Yes, my yeses are as important as when I choose no. The key is balance. I routinely opt out of sugar-filled nutrition so that I have more wiggle room for the times that I do want to participate.

Speaker 1:

If it's not sustainable, it's not going to be successful. Experiment with finding the balance of yes and no that works for you. I hope that this has helped shed some light on the real culprit behind carbohydrates getting the bad press for poor health, obesity and metabolic disease. I'd love to hear about what you discover when you start probing and looking at the things that are marketed as food. If you enjoyed this episode and you want more like it, send some feedback my way. You can email me at vanessa at squats and seances dot com that's Vanessa with an E, or find me on social media platforms such as Instagram, facebook and TikTok. You can check out my website at squatsandsayancescom and go there to subscribe for my newsletter. And until the next time, may you continue to live well, embrace authenticity, question everything and, of course, stay gritty.