Dr. Martin reviews some new research on sugar alcohols. Years ago, studies showed how erythritol was one of the better sugar alcohols because it didn't elevate insulin almost at all. Other sugar alcohols like xylitol and maltitol also had similar benefits.
This study is showing how erythritol in particular seems to have a connection with cardiovascular events. It can be hard on your heart. Dr. Martin used to caution people about sugar alcohols. The thing is they're not really sugar and they're not really alcohol. Your body doesn't really know what to do with it, so it has a hard time digesting it.
Dr. Martin’s takeaway for sugar alcohols is to be careful with them. Don’t live on them. Join Dr. Martin in today’s episode to learn more!
TRANSCRIPT OF TODAY'S EPISODE
Announcer: You're listening to The Doctor Is In Podcast, brought to you by MartinClinic.com. During the episode, the doctors share a lot of information. As awesome as the info may be, it is not intended to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent any disease. It's strictly for informational purposes.
Dr. Martin: Well, good morning everyone. How you doing? Hope you're having a great start to your day. And welcome to another live. The Doctor Is In Podcast. We're happy to have you on with us. Gonna comment on a study that came out yesterday. New research on sugar alcohols. Okay? And they were talking in that study specifically about erythritol. Okay? Now, studies years ago showed that erythritol was probably one of the better sugar alcohols. And in terms of what it did with your insulin, it didn't elevate insulin almost at all. Like sugar alcohols, guys, they're not sugar and they're not alcohol <laugh>, okay? But they call 'em sugar alcohol. And you'll see xylitol, maltitol, erythritol, they're sugars like that. They're, they're called sugar alcohol. And for the last, I don't know how long they've been used in food products.
Now, we're all familiar with aspartame and sucralose and whatever. Those are real artificial sugars. And guys, I've always told you, they mess up your microbiome. And I don't like them. I never liked them. But they're popular like in Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi and anything that's sugar free, they usually put an artificial sugar in. And then years ago, I, I'm talking maybe 30, they started to discover sugar alcohols like erythritol, xylitol. You'll see it in toothpaste. You'll see xylitol is supposed to be good for your teeth, but they're starting to find out now that there seems to be some side effect. I always used to caution people with sugar alcohols, especially one like maltitol. Your body didn't really know what that is. So it has a hard time digesting it. And for a lot of people, I used to caution them on the digestive side effects of sugar alcohol.
There was a study recently on xylitol, which they use in gum and I, I'm trying to think of some other products that they use xylitol in. And xylitol elevates your uric acid according to this study done recently that I read. And then yesterday they came out with erythritol seems to have some connection to cardiovascular event. It can be hard on your heart. So I read the study, look, here's my takeaway. Use anything like that, erythritol, xylitol, any of those OLs, those ‘ols, okay? Sugar alcohols. Be careful with them. Limit them. Okay? So I'm not big on it. I've never been really big on it. I tell people when they're doing the reset, they ask me this all the time, can I use some kind? I can't drink coffee without doing something with it. I'm on your side. Okay guys, I want you to get through the reset. If you have to put a little bit of erythritol or whatever in your coffee to make you drink coffee, I guess. I'm huge on the reset because it's a 30 day program and I really want people to bear down for 30 days and not use anything artificial just because it's a reset. I'm trying to get people to be healthy.
So when I read the study, I go, okay, it's just another reason to be very careful and limit these things. It's not perfection, but that's one of the reasons that you get these keto foods that you can buy and they substitute any sugar with them and often they use sugar alcohols. I don't like keto foods. I really don't. Because to me, yeah, they're low in terms of sugar. They're low in terms of carbohydrates, but I find them to be very artificial foods. I'm big on eggs, meat and cheese. Okay? Nutrient dense foods. Keto foods are not necessarily, I know it's a big industry today, but in order to make them eatable, they often put garbage in there like foods that are, eh, they're not really foods. They're not full of nutrients. Anyways, all I want to say is this. Okay, guys? Form habits. Form habits. One of the habits you'll form, and I think you can do it, is getting rid of anything artificial. Okay? Anything artificial, you can do it. It's amazing how people form habits.
Like I said, when you're on the Titanic, don't worry about the deck chairs. Worry about if you're on a catastrophic journey. I talked to someone yesterday, I said, focus man, focus. You're on the Titanic, you're in trouble metabolically. This person was a diabetic. I said, well, that's been going on for years. Diabetes didn't come overnight. Blood sugar is a lagging indicator. It's one of the last things that happens in the body. It's because your body is so fearfully and wonderfully made. It is me to keep you away from diabetes. So for someone to become a diabetic, it had to be abuse of carbohydrates for years and years and years and years. Diabetes is never first. It's last.
Now I'm not talking about type one diabetes, which is an autoimmune disease. I'm talking about what we used to call adult onset diabetes. And my dad used to call it sugar diabetes. But my dad, when he announced that he was a diabetic, he called it what it really is. They changed the name of it. They call it type two adult onset diabetes. That's to throw you off. The food industry, you think they're not powerful? They changed sugar diabetes to type two diabetes. Oh, it's genetics. No, it's not. It's genetics they tell you. It's not genetics, it's food, it's sugar my friend and crappy carbohydrates that turn to sugar in nanoseconds. It's not genetics. Genetics, yah, it gives you a weakness, but it's not diabetes. So when you're on the Titanic, at first don't worry about the deck chairs. If you got to use some sugar alcohol, and I don't like artificial sweeteners don't.
I've been pretty consistent about that. And the more they research it now they're starting to catch up too. Because I remember saying this years ago on my radio show, the problem with aspartame, and because people used to call in all the time, doc, what do you think of that? I said, well, look, the research at the time wasn't conclusive, but I said, when your body doesn't know what it is, it's like margarine. Your body doesn't even know what that is. You think, oh, it's it's made up of plant oils and this and that. Your body goes, what is that? It doesn't get metabolized. Your body says, "Hey, you!" your body talks back and says, "why are you giving me that? What is that? Is it plastic? Why are you feeding me that?" There's no nutritional valve. "Oh, Dr. Martin, it's low in cholesterol." I know. And that's why it's so stupid. It's artificial. Margarine was made for your car, not for you. You can use synthetic in your car. As we speak, I have synthetic oil in my car.
I don't know anything about it. When I went for an oil change, the guy says, what do you want in there? Oil or synthetic? I said, what is my car call for <laugh>? And he said, well, if you don't want it to break down as fast, better for your engine, he says, here's the guy telling me I don't know anything about it. He said, you're better off for viscosity in your engine to use a fully synthetic or partially synthetic oil. Okay, what do I know? And I felt like giving him a lecture on canola oil or soy oil or grape seed oil or rape seed oil. Because I say, well, those are synthetic. I could bring it from the grocery store and you could put it in the car when it worked. I didn't do it because he probably wouldn't understand what I was talking about.
Your body doesn't know what these things are. Even sugar alcohols, your body doesn't know what it is. It's not nature. So your body goes, okay, I don't know what to do with this, but if you insist on using it, okay, and go back now with me, okay, go back 30 years I did from my radio show, people were calling in and saying, well doc, what about this? I said, well, the research is inconclusive yet, but I'm going to tell you it's probably going to be negative. And I was one of the first people to say, I think it disrupts your microbiome, those little bacteria in your gut, but they don't know what that is. And I think it's going to disrupt the microbiome. And people didn't even know what I was, what a microbiome. What are you talking about? Well, I said, your whole body is made up of bacteria, good, bad, and ugly guys. And I said, the more good guys you have, the more you win. And if you mess that up and you get what we call a dysbiosis, an imbalance between good and bad, I said, you're in trouble. Now, you might not sense it right away, but that's what I said years ago happens to your microbiome with artificial sweeteners. Okay?
Now, all I'm saying guys, is look, start with a big picture first. When you look at your health, start with the big picture first. So if you're talking to your kids or your grandchildren, and if you say everything is bad, I wouldn't do it like that. I would say, look, let's cut back on sugar. Start there. Let's cut back on sugar. "But grandma, our mom, dad, I got to have some sugar, man." Well, here's an artificial one. I don't like them, but we're going to wean you off sugar. Okay? Look guys, people ask me this all the time, by the way, okay? I get asked this all the time. Am I a purist? You know what I mean by that? Everything has to be organic. Everybody got a go live on the farm. Well, that would be ideal. Somebody asked me last night, again, what I think of milk. Well, I said, depends. Do you have a cow in your backyard eating grass? You don't. Well, I wouldn't touch the milk in the grocery store. Okay? Now you guys know that I've been telling you that for years. Am I a purist? Well, I don't like kids drinking grocery store milk. I wish we could drink right out of the cow milk, right? But good luck with that. And good luck with that is against the law in most provinces and most states, you can't even get raw milk. Right?
Who did that? The dairy industry did that. They wanted you to go to the grocery store and buy their white Pepsi. They don't want no raw milk. And they always talk about salmonella, salmonella. Yeah, listen, I know there's some wonderful things we've done in our society today and things can be very much improved with things like killing bacteria and stuff. I get that guys, okay? I'm not silly. All I'm saying is they've really thrown out the baby with the bath water when it comes to raw milk. You think people just drop because they drank raw milk? Like raw milk's got all the enzymes. It's almost a perfect food. But good luck trying to get it where it hasn't been pasteurized. Good luck with that. I don't think there's ever going to be a turning back of that clock. That's me. Okay? I don't think I'll see it in my lifetime.
So am I a purist? No, I'm not a purist. I want people to succeed. I want people to get the big picture. If you're not doing well, you're on the Titanic. Turn the ship around or jump into a life boat. Don't worry about the furniture. We'll do that after you change course. We'll do that. We can get more specific. And sugar alcohol is one of them. Here's my takeaway. Let me just finish with this. Be careful, okay? Don't live on that stuff. Whether it's maltitol, xylitol, erythritol. Don't live on that stuff. If you can eliminate it, eliminate it, you don't need it, stay away from that stuff as you know as much as you can. Okay? Again, big picture. And then monk fruit, Stevia, those are better because they're nature, they're natural. But even then, I don't want you to live on that stuff. I don't want you to live on it. Learn to live without it if you can. Okay?
So that's my teaching on that this morning because you're going to see it. I think it was in the news. A lot of people were mentioning it. I noticed. I said I better talk about it. And I got a couple other studies I wanted to do with you, but we'll do those maybe tomorrow. Okay? Good news. You guys have voted on our new book, Sun, Steak and Steel and Sleep in paragraph. Okay? And we're just about ready to go to printers now, if you haven't voted, vote. Cause it'll be shut down in the next couple of days. Won't be able to vote anymore, okay? I'm not telling you the one that's leading right now. Okay? So we're going with our audience.
You guys are the greatest audience. And I mean it. Loyal, okay? Smart, <laugh>, and fun. How do you like that? You're loyal. You're smart, smarter than the average bear and fun. You allow me to have fun. Much appreciated. You have brought the Doctors Is In Podcast to one, the leading health podcast in Canada. And we're going, we're going to try and do that in the States. And our Facebook lives are number one in health by far. They just are. And that's you guys. Loyal. Okay, smart and fun. Can you think of anything else, <laugh>, because of you guys. Okay, so we love you more than you know, more than you know. Okay? And we'll talk to you soon.
Announcer: You've reached the end of another Doctor Is In Podcast, with your hosts, Doctor Martin Junior and Senior. Be sure to catch our next episode and thanks for listening!