Episode #15: The Truth About Flour and Sugar

Priyanka: [00:00:00] Hey, I'm Dr. Priyanka Venugopal and you're listening to Weight Loss for Unstoppable Moms Episode 15- The Truth About Flour and Sugar. Today's episode is diving into the topic of flour and sugar. It plays an important role in how your body holds onto and loses weight. Yet, sometimes it feels like a real challenge. Today's episode is getting into all of it. 

If you want to reach your ideal weight and create lightness for your body, you need to have simplicity, joy, and strategic decisions infused into your life. I'm a physician turned life and weight loss coach for ambitious working moms. I've lost over 60 pounds without counting points, calories or crazy exercise plans. Most importantly, I feel calm and light on the scale and in my life. There's some delicious magic when you learn this work and the skills I'm going to be teaching you. 

Ready? Let's get to it.

Hey guys, welcome back. [00:01:00] Before we get into today's literally delicious topic I have to shout out my amazing client, Hope, from The Unstoppable Group. She sent me a screenshot last week of the definition of a "goose egg." Now, before I actually even give you this, let me just tell you some background. A few episodes ago, I think it was episode 12, I hid a secret link for you. It's still there so you can go back and listen to that episode. And in the episode, I hid this link, which was basically a video that I've recorded from me to my Unstoppable clients. And it's something that I call a Coach Letter, which they get from me every single month.

Now the message was so good and so important that I decided to make it available to all of you, but I wanted to have fun with it. So I decided to do something called, I guess it's not called a golden goose egg. My son had mentioned it to me a while ago and he was telling me if you hide things in plain sight, it's called- and I thought he said goose egg, but [00:02:00] I think it's really called an Easter egg. So, so I've been going on run about this goose egg and my client, Hope, sends me a message with some screenshots. And apparently when you hide it in plain site, it's called an Easter egg. Whereas a goose egg actually refers to-- a whole lot of nothing. 

So we had a solid laugh about it, and I'm still kind of laughing about it because I was like talking about this golden goose egg and you have to find it and listen, by the way, you can go still find it. But regardless, I wanted to come back and say, it is not a goose egg. It is an Easter egg, and it's still hidden there for you and.... I had to thank my lovely client, Hope for sharing that with me and having like a solid laugh about it, afterwards. 

Anyways, on to today's topic, flour and sugar. I'd call this a hot button topic, mostly because I think that the topic of flour and sugar and eliminating it and taking a break from it and never having it again, I think it brings up [00:03:00] a lot of thoughts for many, many people.

And the foods that we're really talking about when I talk about flour and sugar is really the highly processed stuff. Before we even get into the topic today, I want to be really clear about something. In this episode, I'm going to be sharing with you the truth about flour and sugar. So there are facts that are supported by science and research. And on top of that, there is my perspective and experience as a physician, a coach, and as a working mom who has lost 60 pounds. 

I'm going to be sharing a lot, but I don't ever, ever label flour and sugar as "bad." And I think that labeling foods as "good" or "bad" can sometimes lead to a distorted perspective of food and eating and even our bodies.

I think it's way more effective to understand, through the lens of curiosity, not criticism, what the effect of these foods have on our body, on our mind and on our [00:04:00] life. So inside the Unstoppable bubble, while you're listening to this podcast, I want you to know that rarely do I refer to things as purely good or purely bad.

There's no real, such thing as a good food or a bad food.

A good weight, or a bad weight. 

A good way or a bad way. 

There is simply the foods that feel good for your body at the weight, that feels good for you. And I think that that distinction is so important. I do wanna start with what Stephan Guyenet describes in The Hungry Brain as highly palatable and low satiety indexed foods, which so many highly processed foods are.

And this is what happens with flour and sugar. 

There are highly palatable and often have low satiety indexes, which means it is so incredibly easy to over eat. It's like the Pringle slogan: "once you pop, you just can't stop." It's not because you are weak or incapable or not able to stop eating the food.

These [00:05:00] foods are designed at a chemical level, through the secretion of dopamine and endorphins to keep your brain going. I mean, even ketchup has sugar in it. And when you're not aware or really conscious of the ingredients that you're consuming, you're likely ingesting flour and sugar in some form like a constant drip all the time.

And here's the thing, it creates this crazy world where we start constantly pursuing that rush of dopamine and endorphins and pleasure at a level that's numbing our discomfort day to day, week after week, year after year. 

The trouble with this is we start to think that it's just normal to need and have this level of pleasure and numbing.

It's not, and that's really what I think that taking a break from flour and sugar is designed to do. It's a huge wake up call because really our brains weren't designed to consume these kinds of foods. Yet, here we are, which is why we are talking about it today. I'm going to be [00:06:00] sharing my personal perspectives on flour and sugar, and really taking you through my trials and tribulations in my journey to lose 60 pounds.

The purpose of this episode, isn't at all to convince you to not eat flour and sugar. You have free reign over what you eat, always. But I do want to share with you the real life effects that flour and sugar are having on your brain, your body and of course the scale. And as this episode progresses, I'm going to be sharing with you how I do actually still incorporate flour and sugar in my life.

I'm not an eliminst, not really. 

I would say I'm a huge advocate of taking a break from highly processed foods specifically when it comes to flour and sugar. So though I'm not an eliminst, I would call myself a minimalist., In my personal discovery of understanding my weight struggle, learning about the role that flour and sugar played was huge from a neuroscience perspective, but also from a [00:07:00] real life perspective.

I could never really understand how I could be such a driven, hardworking mom, yet struggle with this, like desire to eat the flour, eat the sugar and not stay on plan and then not reach my ideal weight. So for the purposes of this episode, I'm going to take you through some of the science of flour and sugar, why we hold onto it, and then of course, some practical and tangible skills that you can incorporate starting today. 

For the purpose of today's episode, when I refer to flour and sugar, I'm referring to any food that's been milled into a powder or any food that's been turned into a sweetener. So this includes things like oat flour and almond flour and Stevia and artificial sweeteners, because at a chemical level, they all have very similar responses in your body.

Now what no flour, no sugar is not, it is not low carb. Taking a break from flour and sugar is not taking a break from complex carbohydrates, like potatoes and whole rolled [00:08:00] oats and brown rice. They don't fall under the same categories. So if you decide to take a break from flour and sugar, like I'm going to be talking you through this episode, you aren't taking a break from necessary complex carbohydrates. There is a stark difference, and it's really important to understand the difference.

I already shared with you the science of weight gain in episode three of this podcast, but I wanted to give you a brief summary here because I think it ties in really well with flour and sugar, specifically. 

Our brains have an internal fat meter called the lipostat. It's like your body living at its ideal temperature measured by a thermostat, but your body also has a fat set point, which is determined by your internal lipostat. And while we might have millions of regulatory mechanisms for all parts of our body like temperature and heart rate and blood pressure, our lipostat has not evolved sophisticated backup mechanisms that can compete with what we are dealing with in the food industry today.

Over time, your internal body set point can [00:09:00] start to increase. At a chemical level, the physiology of your brain, which is driving you to overeat slowly, starts to bump up your internal meter. So maybe at some point many decades ago, your body set point might have been 130 pounds. And then over time it became 140 and then 160 and then 190 and on and on, it goes. 

The three things that most broadly contribute to your increasing body set point is stress, fatigue, and what we are talking about today, the consumption of highly processed foods like flour and sugar. 

At a chemical level in your body consuming these highly processed foods causes a spike of your blood sugar, which drives your body to release more insulin, eventually leading to insulin and leptin resistance. And it's this piece that drives up your fat meter and keeps you over eating. The trouble with highly processed foods like flour and sugars that they're specially designed to optimize and light up [00:10:00] the pleasure centers of your brain, the release of dopamine and endorphins and lighting up the pleasure centers of your brain compels you to keep desiring the foods that create it.

And the modern industrialized food industry has gotten this down to a science. They have perfected the perfect sweet and savory combination with the optimal crunch and crumble in your mouth. And so when you consume these highly processed foods, the pleasure centers of your brain light up and they start to learn.... and so it learns and then practices how these delectable foods are creating pleasure in your brain. 

This is how flour and sugar can have almost a drug like quality. And I don't say this lightly because I don't believe you can actually become addicted to food because we do need it to survive. So unlike things like alcohol and online- shopping and scrolling and all of the other things that give us pleasure in our brains, I don't think that food can be always categorized in the exact same way. [00:11:00] But flour and sugar specifically, the highly processed foods do have a drug like quality and the influence that it has over the pleasure centers of our brain. 

And it's so good to know that we can become highly influenced to keep over consuming these foods when we are under the influence.

And so the consumption of these foods all the time, literally drives up your urges to walk into the pantry. It literally intensifies your hunger, every time you walk by the cookie jar. 

Because at a chemical level, you're being driven compelled. I mean, I might even say hoodwinked by the modern industrialized food industry to eat more than your body wants or needs.

And this is why counting points and calories and excess exercise isn't a permanent solution if you want to create lasting weight loss. Because at a chemical level, your brain is still being hoodwinked into wanting more and more pleasure. It's like you're counting and exercising while under the influence.

It might work for a minute until it stops working. [00:12:00] 

Let me just share about my personal journey, navigating my own 60 pound weight loss. To cut to the chase when I started my personal weight loss journey, I really did take a complete break from flour and sugar for quite a long period of time. I would say at least a few months.

This allowed my hunger and satiety hormones to recalibrate. I got to teach my body to become a fat burner. And now what I've learned how to do over trial and experimentation is how to incorporate flour and sugar from time to time, if I really do want it. But because of the process we're talking about today and what I'm teaching you about flour and sugar, I've gotten to the point where I don't crave it anymore.

I don't miss it really. I don't think of it much at. 

It's that piece, not thinking of it much at all, that has led my 60 pound weight loss to be maintained with more simplicity and ease. 

If past me from a few years ago could listen to me right now as I'm the one delivering this podcast- the pizza lover, the FIO and Oreo [00:13:00] lover, the cheese crackers, and wine lover... I would literally have thought you're out of your mind. Because I was so steeped and deeply under the influence of these highly processed foods. I had a constant and heavy dose of, "I want it" running through my brain all the time and I didn't even realize it. 

It was my answer to a busy day at the hospital.

It was my answer to fatigue after a sleepless night. 

It was my answer to squabbles with my husband or the bickering kids. 

But the struggle came because I also knew that I wanted to lose weight. So what I would try to do under the influence of flour and sugar is I kept trying to make these strategic decisions to lose weight, but this couldn't work lastingly.

Let me repeat: that while under the influence of highly processed foods, where my brain and pleasure centers were lighting up and I had an immense amount of over desire, I was trying to make strategic decisions... and this cannot work for permanent lasting change. 

So you [00:14:00] might be saying, "Okay, Priyanka, I hear you. Highly processed foods is preventing my body from burning its fat. It's leading me to have hunger and more desire and eat more than my body actually wants. It's keeping me stuck on the scale and my hunger hormones are out of whack. I can see that it's lighting up my pleasure centers and I'm under the influence."

"Okay, Priyanka. I hear you, but tell me this once I take a break, how and when do I get to bring it back?" 

Is that you? 

Here's what I want to lovingly tell you even that question or a flavor of that question is coming because you're still under the influence. I know... this is kind of one of those kind of what comes first, the chicken or the egg.

But what I want to tell you is that it's hard and I would even say borderline impossible to truly decide how much and how little and when to reincorporate flour and sugar, while you're still under its influence. 

I'm going to share some of my strategy with you in [00:15:00] just a few moments, but first let's talk about your mindset.

Taking a break from flour and sugar, or as many have coined in the industry: no flour, no sugar isn't for everyone. Before you decide to take a break, check in with your thoughts about it first. This speaks a little bit to last week's episode. So if you have any seeds of, "I don't want to, and I have to", or you notice a feeling of Resistance, I highly recommend that you take a pause. 

Don't ever go into any game plan with that mindset, because inevitably, if you don't want to, but think you have to, you're going to feel resistance and then you're gonna start tapping into willpower to try to muscle your way through an action plan.... and eventually that will stop working. 

If you didn't listen to last week's episode on willpower, I highly recommend it after this one. 

So let's just remember, you don't have to do anything ever. But if today's episode and the science and research of permanent weight loss is compelling to you, [00:16:00] you might hear yourself thinking "I want to do this."

And if you do then listen up: taking a break from flour and sugar starts with first going through a period of discomfort before you ever get to comfortable. This is why your mindset going into the process needs to be clean. Because when you take a break, you will absolutely experience withdrawal. 

Seriously, like you're detoxing off of a drug and it will not feel good. You'll notice irritability, more hunger rumblings, and maybe even bigger emotions. But this withdrawal is normal and it's limited. 

So are you still on board? Are you sure you still wanna do this? 

This is where I am personally, a little bit of a purist.

I recommend to help you really go through this detox period without prolonging it, to really take a total break from flour and sugar for four to six weeks. It gives your hunger hormones time to recalibrate and lets your body start burning its fat. You can expect [00:17:00] that the first two weeks are usually the most challenging, but remember why you're choosing this on a daily basis.

Make sure you're supporting yourself by eating foods you do love, getting plenty of rest and plenty of water. 

Here's the best part. After you go through the first two weeks, the first initial detox period that does feel uncomfortable you are going to start to feel so much better. And if you pay attention to this, you'll start to see in real time, how much your body might love taking a break from flour and sugar.

You'll feel clearer in your head. 

Seriously, you'll have more steady energy rather than the crash and burn, high and low you experience right now while you're consuming flour and sugar. 

You'll experience less lethargy. 

You might notice your skin clearing up. 

Your body will feel less bloated and heavy and your clothes will fit more comfortably.

And of course you will see the number on the scale go [00:18:00] down. 

Overall, you'll notice massive changes physically and mentally just after the first two to three weeks of implementing this process. And then once you get to that four to six week point, you're going to notice that you have very little hunger. Your energy is even more even, and your desire is incredibly reduced.

And the reason for this is because you aren't under the influence anymore. 

Here's a couple of things that I do think are important to look out for if you decide to implement this and go through this detox period. If you find yourself, lustfully counting down the four to six weeks, like with eager delight, we've taken a wrong turn.

So I'd want you to pause and go back. If you find yourself counting down the four to six weeks, it's because you still have an old, familiar, patterned thought. I want it. And if this is you it's okay. Just catch it and notice that sentence I want it is optional... and it's the thing that's creating over desire. [00:19:00] Remind yourself why you chose this plan to begin with. 

Now after this detox period, after you've gone through that four to six weeks where you've taken a break from flour and sugar, when you feel clear headed and not under the influence is the time to ask yourself a really important question. 

Here's the question: I wonder how I might want to incorporate flour and sugar into my life. 

Only you can answer this. 

And here's what I have found as I have tried lots of permutations.

It's absolutely true for some people that complete abstinence, which is elimination of flour and sugar is in fact better for them. They feel better. Their body feels lighter. They feel mentally more clear and they don't wanna deal with the effects that flour and sugar have. They're more sensitive to being under the influence and the detox period just isn't worth it. 

Maybe that's you, there is no right and wrong way. So it's possible that abstinence from flour and sugar might be [00:20:00] the best way. 

For me, I've incorporated and experimented with it in many ways. Here's what my experimentation has revealed. When I have reincorporated flour and sugar often, and I've particularly noticed this on family trips and vacations, where I wasn't paying attention to my daily croissant, egg and cheese, the nightly pizzas and ice creams, not only would I feel heavier and gain the weight back I also notice that my hunger and my desire were ramped up as well. 

But when I've reincorporated flour and sugar in small doses on occasion, this has been way less of an issue. 

Now I don't have flour and sugar daily and sometimes not even weekly. 

Why? Because my body feels better without it. So I'm pretty clear on what is actually better for my mind and my body, because it just feels better.

It's for me, like the compass that drives my decision making week after week. 

I'm still a pizza lover and I'm [00:21:00] still froyo and Oreo lover. ...and I still love a good croissant- egg and cheese, but I'm not fawning and lusting over it. I'll have it every now and then and if I notice I have it day after day, simply because I haven't thought about it, I will notice without a doubt after a few days in a row, the heaviness will return the fatigue, the over desire and the overhunger will naturally make their way back. 

And seriously, this is so fascinating only because I've been able to stay completely curious over my experimentation. 

And now I know I always have the cure in my back pocket.

Whenever I notice this, I just take a break again and it's no big deal.

So here's how, you know, when you're not under the influence anymore, when you're not fawning and lusting over the food, when you're fighting more for the food than you are for what your body actually wants, you are under the influence.

It's a pretty simple distinction. And some of this is happening at a chemical level in your brain because of your pleasure [00:22:00] centers, lighting up.... And some of it is happening because of the thoughts you have around the food you're eating. 

Now you might decide to take a break from flour and sugar, and then maybe you have some. That's okay. This will happen because there's going to be times that you'll want it and have it. Maybe you didn't plan on it, but you had it anyway. 

So if you're a perfectionist, I want you to be on the lookout for some critical or judgey thoughts. It's okay, just remember the cure and stay curious, not critical with yourself. When you stay curious and not critical, you are so much less likely to forever throw in the towel.

You're never back sliding and you're not undoing last week's work. 

I promise.

Instead, when you notice this, when you notice yourself slip into an old pattern, being curious is the cure. Remember that you always have this tool in your back pocket. You get to start again in this moment, with calm. It literally works every single time.

The other thing that I think that's important [00:23:00] to highlight. If you take a break from flour and sugar, particularly if you have been using it to avoid or distract from your day to day stresses, annoyances and worry, you might notice more emotions come up for you. 

This is normal because you're not using food to distract or numb your emotions. And now we get to be in the practice of being with yourself. I want to really encourage you here to not numb your brain with another replacement. So when you take a break from flour and sugar, don't start over scrolling or over buying or over drinking. 

Just expect it it's normal. It's a part of the detox process and it's okay.

And I have earlier episodes in this podcast to talk you through experiencing uncomfortable emotions, if they come up. I think one of the biggest issues I've seen in people that attempt to lose weight after hearing about no flour, no sugar online is that they go into it almost as though it is a fad diet.

They do some personal research, they read about it online, and then they go into it [00:24:00] with a mindset that doesn't actually serve long term application. 

And it's because they keep thinking, "But I want it. I want it. I want it. When can I have it?" And this is the unfortunate effect of decades, old diet brain.

It's when we haven't really managed our mindset before we implement the strategy that we add on an additional layer of difficulty. Because when we have that over desire from our thoughts and our mindset, we're forced to tap into willpower. And as we talked about last week, it just cannot work permanently.

And it's that mindset that turns a no flour, no sugar, or taking a break from flour and sugar into another fad diet. It's what I was touching on a few moments ago. 

If you notice yourself going into this work with the countdown in mind, I suggest you pause and really get curious about the thoughts you're having first. 

Taking a break from flour and sugar isn't a diet. I actually hate that word seriously because it kind of implies that it's going to end at some point, [00:25:00] really taking a break from flour and sugar is just a way of eating that your body already wants. Your body wants to eat in this way and the way we know this is when we take a break, our bodies feel so much better.

It's just that the modern industrialized food industry has hijacked our brain's pleasure centers to override our natural inclinations. That's all. 

So taking a break from flour and sugar, isn't meant to be a quick fix. But what I do want to share with you is when we untether from the flour and the sugar, as our main sources of food pleasure, we get to experience and become curious around all the other ways in our life that we get to incorporate pleasure, connection and relaxation into our life.

There are so many other foods that also serve our body well, that are pleasurable. There's so many other sources other than food itself to bring in pleasure, connection and relaxation. I think it's important to be really clear about that mindset going into the strategy [00:26:00] and to know why you're choosing it.

Then just know there will be periods of discomfort that will absolutely eventually get easier. Now, maybe you've tried this before, or you want to do this, but you find it really hard. I find that this is usually because you've been using food to fill a deeper want or need, and you might not know how to navigate the uncomfortable emotions that bubble up for you when you aren't numbing or distracting.

This is what we uncover together in coaching. 

Seriously, The Unstoppable Group is the best six month coaching experience for ambitious working moms who want to take this work into real life implementation. We get into all the nooks and crannies of your brain in the best way possible. And what we really do together is we start to uncover why we do things when we know it might not feel good for our bodies or for our mind. 

My next group is opening in September. And if you want to get any of the details or learn more about The Unstoppable Group you can do so at [00:27:00] theunstoppablemombrain.com/group. 

In summary today, I shared with you the mindset and the strategy that will make it simpler for you to lose weight by taking a break from flour and sugar.

There are actual chemical and physiologic effects that highly processed foods have on your brain that is putting you under the influence. 

You aren't weak. This is just normal brain chemistry. 

And if you want to undo this, if you want to not be under the influence anymore, it starts with first going in with a clean mindset.

This is not a fad diet, so if you notice resistance, don't do. But if you find yourself compelled, you hear that inner knowing, telling you, yes, we want to do this. Take a real break. Don't wing it and plan it with care. Know that the first couple of weeks will be uncomfortable because you're detoxing and remind yourself daily Why you're doing it.

Support yourself well by eating delicious whole foods, getting plenty of rest and [00:28:00] drinking plenty of water. 

This is one of my favorite pieces recognize in real time, the benefits that you experience when you take this break. Not just from the number on the scale. Give recognition to how much better you actually feel, how much better your body feels, how much clearer your thinking, the steady state of energy that you're noticing, the lightness of your body.

Start recognizing this in real time will start to rewire your brain. You're showing your brain, see, this is pretty good, right? This is so important. And the beauty of this is it's proving to yourself why you're doing this and the benefits of it in real time, not just some future lofty goal that you're waiting for.

You get to show yourself that you're feeling better now. 

This is how we rewire our brain and our bodies to make weight loss, permanent. 

I hope today's episode shared with you some of the science and some of my perspective around flour and sugar. Again, I think [00:29:00] it's so important to get away from labels such as good, bad, right, and wrong, and really allow ourselves to navigate the gray areas.

Taking a break just allows our body to recalibrate and feel lighter and takes us out of being under the influence of these highly processed foods at a chemical level. You get to decide whether you want to eliminate and abstain from flour and sugar forever. Whether you want to have it in small little doses, whether you want to have it more frequently. 

And then you just get to play as an experiment and see how your body feels when you do, knowing that you always have a tool in your back pocket. You can always take a break when you choose to. 

I hope you enjoy today's episode. I'll see you next week. 

If you wanna take this work from your ears into real life, I highly recommend checking out The Unstoppable Group. Our next group is going to be launching in September of 2022, if you're listening to this episode in real time.

You can get all of the [00:30:00] details and all of the features about the group at theunstoppablemombrain.com/group. 

Thanks for listening to Weight Loss for Unstoppable Moms. It's been an honor spending this time with you and your brilliant brain. If you want more information or resources from the show, visit theunstoppablemombrain.com.