Heart to Heart with Hads

Your "Healthy" Choices Aren't Actually Healthy

• Hadlea Shaw

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Our bodies need real, nutrient-dense foods rather than artificial sweeteners and protein-focused snacks that damage gut health and hormone balance. Protein products with artificial ingredients can cause bloating, inflammation, and dysregulated hunger while actually stalling fat loss goals.

• Artificial sweeteners (sucralose, aspartame, acesulfame potassium) damage gut lining and kill beneficial bacteria
• 60% of women with gut issues consume 3+ sugar-free items daily
• Artificial sweeteners trick the brain, causing insulin release and blood sugar drops
• 85% of protein bars contain less than 15 grams of complete protein
• Protein bars and artificial sweeteners create a false sense of "eating healthy" while not providing real nutrition
• Your body craves nutrients, not just macros
• Better protein sources include Greek yogurt without gums, cottage cheese, eggs, and grass-fed meats
• Natural sweeteners like stevia, monk fruit, honey and maple syrup are preferable alternatives

DM me on Instagram @healthwithhads for a free PDF of clean, digestible food sources that will support your overall health journey.


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Speaker 1:

Hello everybody and welcome back to another episode of Heart to Heart with Heads. I'm glad to have you here. It's a couple weeks off. I had a rough couple of weeks. I just wanted to share a little bit about my cycle.

Speaker 1:

So, yes, I've had four consecutive menstrual cycles now and, if you're new here, this has been a goal of mine to have and I'm extremely grateful that I've had them. But my PMS like the whole week before insomnia absurd, just like sleeping so poorly. So we're kind of just trialing and airing different things with my training, only training every other day, keeping intensity 70, 60 to 70%. I feel like that has been helping me tremendously. So we're going to keep on this. Every other day trek for me. So it'll either be three days a week or four days a week when I train, just depending. So stay tuned with how that's working for me. Yesterday I had the best sleep of my life, like literally the best sleep I've had in weeks.

Speaker 1:

So the podcast kind of went on the back burner because I was like that is not priority right now. Priority is my clients and taking care of myself. But we're back, we're back, we're back. So I know I keep saying this but honestly this is just going to become whatever. I feel like I need to rant, and I know I love consistency, I love it, but sometimes there are just certain things that I can't fully give a hundred percent, and if I can't give it a hundred percent, I'm just not going to do it, just just because I need to do it. So, anyways, let's get into today's topic, episode topic, episode, episode topic.

Speaker 1:

So we're going to be talking about artificial sweeteners and kind of how they're not helping your body, they're actually hurting you, and how your protein bars, your protein powders, all of your protein filled quote unquote snacks are helping you hit your protein goals. Because, yes, protein is important, but there's just such this freaking wrap around. Oh, my gosh, I need to get my protein. And the thing is is I'd rather you get in more fiber than I would you get in protein, because fiber is so much more important for gut health and gut health is literally the most important thing ever. So that's just my opinion. Anyways, we'll just. We'll just dive in. Um, obviously, marketing has made like protein. Marketing has made women think that they're nourishing their body, whenever really they're just stressing their gut and it's causing you to stall in your fat loss and just tricking your body into a uh survival mode.

Speaker 1:

So we're going to break down kind of break, maybe some limiting beliefs you may have or some beliefs that you have around protein, and then exactly what to look for, what to avoid and how to actually fuel your body, like a woman who lifts and wants to get lean and not just hit a protein goal just because you need a protein goal. So first things first. If you've ever told yourself I eat clean but I still feel bloated, this one is going to definitely be for you. So you can say that you eat clean because you know you hit your macros, you're super healthy. But if those foods that you're putting inside of your body are not fueling in a way that's conducive to your goals, then you're going to feel like crap, your guts going to be inflamed, you're not going to be able to lose body fat as easily and you definitely aren't going to get that muscle tone that you're after. And so this is why I say primarily whole foods. I do have protein powder. I'm not going to lie. I keep that on hand only in a crunch, only when I don't have groceries, only when I need something very quick. And I'm going to do protein powder. But other than that, I'm going to eat real foods and everyone's like, oh, it's just so much cheaper to you know, eat or get some like protein powder and that's going to help me get my protein in for the day. The reality is, is it is there for convenience, it's there for a tool, it's there as a supplement. It's not there to provide nutrients that you would get from real whole foods.

Speaker 1:

And thing two is a lot of these bars and chips and whatever else you're consuming, they have a lot of artificial ingredients that are made, that are put in there so that the shelf life for the product is longer, when in reality it's just disrupting a lot of things going on inside of your gut. There's this whole protein bar, chip, treat, whatever trend, because it's quick and it's convenient and it tastes good and it kind of gives you the illusion that you're eating a candy bar or you're eating something that is like, not essentially healthy for you, but they've made it into something that is healthy. So you think it's like oh, like this, is this is good for you because it's replacing something that's technically, you know, not very nutritiously dense or quote unquote bad for you? And the reality is, is that's just dumb, like this, just hitting this protein goal, protein goal, protein goal I get that, but at the same time, like we've kind of lost our touch on just eating real food, and so that's why we're going to kind of break this um down today.

Speaker 1:

And another part of it, too, is the protein bars chip. The protein brands itself are profiting so much off of it. Um, like these big brands you know you've probably seen, like Quest and Barebells and all of these different brands, because it's like oh, it's quick, it's not a candy bar, it's healthy, yada, yada yada. But these things don't take into account your overall health. And I'm not saying like, oh my gosh, you should stop eating all artificial swingers. I just think they should be used in moderation. Like I can't remember the last time I even bought a protein bar. It's more for when I'm traveling, but most of most people are not traveling a lot on a day to day basis and they think that they're either their commute to work or their busy job, like that they can, just that they should eat these foods.

Speaker 1:

And the reality is you should have your food meal prepped and you should have a little cooler and you should eat out of that and I don't really care if that happens, even if like, oh, that's just too restrictive and hard and it's just like no, because I'd rather feel my body with real food than from a junk protein bar. That's literally not going to make me full. I'm going to be hungry within one hour of eating it, because it just has no nutritional value other than giving me a little bit of protein. So the protein itself is usually like 20 grams, which is a moderate amount, but most meals that I have are 30 to 40 grams, and that's how it should be, and these foods should be more balanced and we're not eating a bar as a way to make it a meal.

Speaker 1:

So most of the protein products have a lot of artificial sweeteners in there. Sweeteners, golly, golly, sweeteners in there, sweeteners, golly, golly, sweeteners in them, and so I'm going to talk about what some of those look like. So sucralose, aspartame, ass, sulfame, potassium, ace K all of these things are going to mess with your gut lining. So whenever you eat foods that are poor quality, your gut like goes berserk, like it is like what the F literally is going on, and it doesn't like when things enter in there that don't make it feel good. So whenever you're constantly entering those types of foods in there, it's like, oh, it can't handle it, and then it just causes your barrier to be more and more permeable, which can cause the leaky gut and things like IBS and all of these different things.

Speaker 1:

Another thing, too, is these artificial sweeteners can make you crave more artificial things, and so that's why, too and this is not on the protein topic but they can make you like foods like Oreos and I don't know why Oreos always comes to my head but, like you know, snacks and ultra processed foods these foods are designed to make you want more, and that's the same thing with these, like they have similar ingredients that are going to make you think the same thing. And another thing, too, is these artificial sweeteners that are low calorie and zero calorie. Like they make it, they advertise it as being healthy for you, and I'm not saying that zero calorie things are bad for you, but I am saying that they have their time and their place, and if you abuse them like I used to eat a Quest bar all the time I would do those premier protein ready to drink drinks with my coffee, with iced coffee, and I thought that that was literally the shit because I was getting in so much protein and the thing is is like drinking a nitro cold brew with freaking a premier protein. That's not breakfast. That's literally not breakfast. There's nothing nutritious about that besides the fact that it's protein, high protein, but the freaking caffeine with that and nothing else. You feel like fact that it's protein, high protein, but the freaking caffeine with that and nothing else. You feel like buzzing and it's just, it's not cool. So highly recommend against that. But where was I going with the artificial sweeteners? Yeah, they think that companies think that because they're marketing to you as like this is high protein, there's zero sugar. Well, there's zero sugar, but the sweeteners inside of them are going to cause long term health effects. It's just something that you abuse on daily, on the daily, like we don't need to be consuming the premier protein drinks every single day. We don't need to be.

Speaker 1:

Just check your ingredients. I mean, that's such a big thing that you can do is literally check the ingredients, and 85% of protein bars contain less than 15 grams of complete protein. So, like I said, most of them are not even giving you that much protein anyways, and they they dysregulate your hunger, your insulin. Another thing, too is 60% of women with gut issues consume three plus sugar-free items daily. This is coming from the Functional Medicine Institute. 60% of women with gut issues consume three sugar-free items daily. This is coming from the Functional Medicine Institute. 60% of women with gut issues consume three sugar-free items daily. This could be gum, like sugar-free gum. This could be, you know, your sugar-free coffee sweetener. This could be your Gatorade whatever it is, your Gatorade Zero. There's so many different little things, and so a lot of these gut issues can easily be resolved if we just eat better foods.

Speaker 1:

So another thing, too, is just talking about hormones. When it comes to your hormones and your gut, your hormones and your gut are connected. So actually, whenever you're eating artificial sweeteners, your brain thinks it's getting sugar, which it's not getting sugar, and when it thinks it's getting sugar, your pancreas secretes insulin and then your blood sugar drops and then you're craving spikes. Blood sugar is going to drop. That's inevitable. When you eat something, it's going to spike and then it's going to drop or even back out. But when we get those big drops in those big spikes, that's usually when we're having something that's high in sugar, when it is not paired with any protein or fat, or whenever you're just eating something that's high carb, like things that are not balanced and when I say balanced I mean protein, carbs and fat.

Speaker 1:

So a lot of these chemicals and artificial sweeteners kill the beneficial bacteria inside of your gut. We have two different types of bacteria inside of our gut. We have good bacteria and we have bad bacteria and these artificial sweeteners are going to come in and kill off that good bacteria that we need and that's just not what we want and that definitely affects our ability to metabolize estrogen, to detox the liver, all these different body systems and it. They have their time, their place. Like I say, I'll go get a matcha or something you know once a week or whatever. That's not what I've made and it's sugar-free and that's totally fine, like one thing here and there, but it's when you're consuming three plus things on the daily just because it's sugar-free, because you're trying to curb your cravings or your appetite or your hunger or whatever.

Speaker 1:

That's when it becomes an issue. It confuses your body, your metabolism. Your body wants nutrients, it doesn't just want macros, your body craves nutrients. So when you're just trying to hit your macros and get all these things, your body, it keeps score and it doesn't care about the macros. It wants real food, vitamins, nutrients, all of the things was so good, like I ate my two protein bars, but then they're like I'm still bloated and I'm still hungry and then this sends you into like a shame spiral or you binge because it just doesn't keep you full and you're like but I did so good, like I hit my protein, I'm feeling good and the reality is, is you have to ditch this mindset of like, oh, I'm doing good, like. Mindset of like, oh, I'm doing good, like I'm hitting my protein, I am on point, but then not feel good because you didn't give your body the proper nutrients that it deserves.

Speaker 1:

Another thing, too, is the industry always will bank on addiction to the idea of health, not the actual results. They will trick you into thinking that protein bars and protein chips and these foods that are zero calories, all these things are so healthy for you, when in reality they're not. They don't, they don't care, but they think they want you to think that you're being healthy. They want you to fear the you know real sugar things, which is fine, like I get. There's so many things that have a lot of real added sugars and they both have their time in their place. And I'm someone too that is like I am not against sugar when sugar comes from natural products like food, and there's no added sugar from different products. So that's just my two cents on that. You know they don't really care. That's just my two cents on that, you know they don't really care. Another thing, too, is women think that they have this like false sense of achievement from checking off protein on MyFitnessPal without truly feeling their body properly, like, oh, I can hit my protein, I'm good, but like you still feel unfulfilled, like your body does not feel good, and that that's an issue. So something that I think that women can do specifically is go from tracking your macros to tracking your food sources.

Speaker 1:

There's so many different things that you can kind of swap out, especially when it comes to protein. Greek yogurt, nonfat Greek yogurt, look for things that have no gums. Carrageenan protein greek yogurt, non-fat greek yogurt, look for things that have no gums. Carrageenan, whatever it is. Cottage cheese I like the brand good culture. The greek yogurt, I like fig.

Speaker 1:

When you're getting protein, I would do high quality, I would do transparent labs. Um, grass-fed protein, not soy, and things like hard-boiled eggs, turkey, grass-fed meat sticks these things. Things are a lot better as far as when it comes to more like snack options. You want your protein to come from real, digestible, absorbable foods. This is going to give you so much better energy, better muscle retention, better gut function, which is just going to help your fat loss journey overall.

Speaker 1:

And when it comes to artificial sweeteners, too, those in moderation, whenever you're doing like zero calorie or zero sugar. Honestly, I love using things like stevia, because it is a natural sweetener and it doesn't cause gut disruption like the other sweeteners would. And then also two things like honey and maple syrup. These things taste so good too monk fruit and they are. Yes, they have carbs and things, but these are natural occurring sugars and, yes, they have calories and things. If you're trying to limit how much sugar and yada, yada, yada, I still would rather you do those in moderation than having so many artificial sweeteners.

Speaker 1:

So, just to wrap everything up, I kind of wanted to make this a short little episode, but if your body hasn't changed and if your digestion hasn't improved, if you're still bloated and you're still hungry, maybe it's not about what you're tracking and it's actually about the food sources that your body actually could use and could need.

Speaker 1:

So I have a full list of clean, digestible food sources that I recommend to all of my clients, and I have them. I have a whole pdf on them, and so if you've listened to this and you are interested in it, you can dm me on instagram at health with ads, um, at healthwithhads, and I will literally send it to you for free, and it's such a good nugget of information resources for you to have so that you know exactly what foods that you should be eating that are going to support you on your health journey and just support your overall lifestyle, because I feel like that's what's most important. You don't always have to have a specific physique goal or whatever to just be healthy. You can just want to feel good internally. Yes, externally that matters as well, but just internally, that's beyond important.

Speaker 1:

So I hope you guys enjoyed this episode. Please share it with someone that you think needs it. I wanted to just kind of debunk all of the things about protein bars and artificial sweeteners and yada, yada, yada, because they're not conducive to your health goals. So thank you guys for tuning in and I'll see you on the next episode. Bye.