The Live Lightly Podcast

Jessica Franklin (00:00)
Welcome back to Her Health Code. I'm Jess. And I'm Michelle. Welcome. today we are going to talk about all things that help reduce your sugar cravings. And so to get started, Jess is going to explain what she does to reduce those sugar cravings so she's not finding herself in the kitchen cabinet at 10 PM at night. Yes. And I will preface this by saying that it wasn't intentional how I stumbled upon a way to reduce my sweet tooth.

I've never had a huge sweet tooth, there's always moments where you have your weaknesses and when people are having, ice cream and cake and whatever, I never say no. Yeah, you're like, okay. And I'm kind of a morning sweet person. that's when I want my something sweet with my black coffee.

That's really the time where I have to decide, I going to put heavy cream in my coffee? Am I going to have something a little bit sweet with it? and never really at night. So that's kind of where I, I, I find myself. and by accident, I was doing, a protocol that somebody had recommended for me after doing an HTMA panel, which is you take a piece of hair and you get that analyzed for.

It's a hair tissue mineral analysis. And she was saying that, it looked like I needed to absorb more nutrients from my diet. And so she suggested I take some bitters. And I had heard of bitters before from a teacher of mine who always talks about, food should be bitter. It shouldn't be sweet. You don't want to eat sweet. You always want to eat bitter. And he would talk about bitter herbs, Swedish bitters.

and it was always on my awareness but I had never done it but I just decided you know what she's

recommending this. to be able to absorb nutrients better from my meals. So was like, okay, I'm going to give this a try. Why not? And inadvertently by doing this consistently, even just with my one meal, I could only remember to do it at night before dinner.

And so even just doing it before dinner for about a month, I noticed that my black coffee wasn't so bitter by itself in the morning, it tasted better by itself. And so I had less of that inkling to go grab something sweet to have with it. And then I noticed when everybody's having ice cream, I would usually be like, okay.

Let's do it. And I just wasn't wanting to even indulge in it to any anything like that because I didn't feel like I had the taste buds for it anymore. Okay. So it just inadvertently turned off basically all of my sweet taste. Now it doesn't mean I don't eat them. Yeah, there are some times where I make a conscious choice and I'm like, I'm gonna have that that was really good or I do want some ice cream. But that's

pretty amazing that it kind of like stunted that for you and you're not like having that voice in your head going eat that cookie. And when I do, I can stop so much quicker because it's like, it tastes nice, but there's no, like it doesn't taste as good as it used to. Okay. And so like the craving to have more isn't there because

Your taste buds literally do change to prefer bitter things and be able to tolerate them, but not only tolerate them, but actually choose them. them and want to eat them.

it's nice to, really enjoy eating them and not just be like, okay, I'm going to have some kale because I'm going to eat so it's charred and broccoli because it actually tastes better. Yeah. When your taste buds shift to more of a bitter palate. And I know that, you know, mine just kind of happened inadvertently, but there is some science out there to say

that it doesn't take long to shift your taste buds, So if you were to stop eating sweets for three or four days, it starts to shift as well.

I know that you have some hacks as well. I have a few hacks, but I will say I've never tried the bitters, which maybe I should because I will say I actually have a huge sweet tooth. I do have that voice in my head that calls me that says you need that cookie or have some more chocolate. when I'm having a bad day, it really is my comfort to have something sweet and it does call my name a lot.

I do allow myself to have some sweets over, especially like we just had the holidays. I had indulged in many of the different treats and stuff. But what I do to try to change my taste buds back from having all that sweet food is I start having arugula, like a little bit of arugula before my lunch and dinner.

And I know this sounds silly. It sounds crazy. My husband laughs at me when I do this, but it truly does work. And I only have to do it for like a day or two. And I really don't have those same cravings anymore. And it's really just taking like just a little bunch of cleaned arugula. And I just chew on that and eat that and before my meal, because I don't like it enough to make it.

part of my meal because I actually think it makes the rest of my meal taste yucky. So I use I actually eat it more like a supplement than I do as a food and maybe I'll be honest like hearing you talk about bitters again I'm thinking maybe I need to try bitters and I think the one you use you're gonna

put down in the show notes. think you said it was called Gaia bitters. Yeah. And so whether so whether you're a sweet tooth like me, or you know, occasionally like a sweet like Jess, there are different ways that do help change your taste buds. The other thing I do, and I'm not really sure if there's any science behind this one, but I it helps me, but I make sure to get my sauerkraut, my sauerkraut or kimchi and

a tablespoon before lunch and a tablespoon before dinner. And I really do notice a difference if I have those versus the days that I don't take them in my sugar cravings. And so for me, it does help my sugar cravings if I have my sauerkraut or my arugula. But that for me really, really does.

bring me back on track and not have that voice in my head like overpowering what I should be doing, which is like filling my body with nutritious food. Now do you notice on days that you don't do it, are those the days that the creep back in? heck yeah. The cookie monster just comes yelling like, yeah, I definitely have a very big sweet tooth.

And I know that I know that about myself. Definitely check back in on how you know with bitters and it might take a couple of weeks. They say it takes a couple of weeks to really shift I've read within three to five days. Okay. Not having sugar. It can change your taste buds.

who knows maybe I'll actually want to eat those foods like in my meal and not just like a quick yeah not just like a shove like get it in there kind of thing

I think that's a great test. And I think this is a perfect time of life to be doing these conscious experiments with your diet because blood sugar and glucose and insulin, all these things start really mattering right now in midlife with all of the changes happening with our hormones. And so it's a really good hormone health practice to bring in as well, I think. that you don't have to start

really worrying about becoming diabetic. it's not just about being fit or being thin, you know, and not putting on extra weight to eat sweets. It has to do with, not wanting to develop things like diabetes. But it also and a lot of people don't talk about this, Jess, but when I was indulging in these Christmas goodies, and I think I chatted with you about it afterward.

But I indulged so much that I kind of went into like a light depression, like I was feeling so low. And people don't talk about how sugar, it's it stimulates your system. And it's that huge dopamine hit. But what happens when you don't have it for a day or two, you're dropped down and you feel it the low mood, you feel really crappy. And you're just like, it's terrible.

And then of course all the emotional things and the thoughts that start coming with, I did this and I ate too much of You know there's a lot of things attached to eating sugar both physically for our health and mentally and emotionally. So it's better to just be bitter. I'm gonna get you a t-shirt that says just be bitter.

I love it. Yeah. All right. We're check back with you guys in 30 days and I'll let you know how I did So thank you again for joining us. Thank you for listening

And that's it, signing out. I'm Michelle and I'm Jess. Be well.