32: How to Lose Weight & Hop Off The Blood Sugar Rollercoaster with Dr. Mariza Snyder
Dr. Mariza Snyder 00:01
You know, we’ve got to get back to whole real foods, not about how many calories are in there. That’s not what matters. You need to look at that level and say to yourself, oh, this is gonna light up my blood sugar, it’s gonna cause an inflammatory cascade, and I am not for it. And it has a lot to do with, you know, is there any fiber in that? Is there any fiber in that product at all and it’s fiber, it’s got to be like four to one fiber to carbs ratio on that nutritional label. Which let me tell you how many nutritional labels meet this requirement. Very few. But you know, maybe you don’t even need necessarily to know that equation to just know that if it’s in a package, it’s most likely going to break down into simple sugars and Spike you.
Jackie Bowker 00:45
Hi, there. Welcome to the feel better now podcast. I’m your host, Jackie Bowker. And if you’ve arrived here, no, there is something in here to spark yourself to create a better future, in your health, in your career in your relationships, both yourself and for those around you. Just one small action step at a time. With so much love and gratitude to be your guide. Let’s get started. Jackie, Hey everyone, Jackie Bakker here today we have another amazing guest you are going to love her Dr. Marissa Schneider. Dr. Marissa is one of those really special angels. She has the most insane energy. I could seriously hang out with Dr. Marisa all day. We are so like minded. She cares so much about helping you live a beautiful, healthy and abundant life. Dr. Marisa is a functional practitioner, women’s hormone expert and the author of eight books amazing, including her newest the essential oils menopause solution, which focuses on women in perimenopause and menopause. We chat about balancing hormones. We all need a bit of that and a lot about the blood sugar rollercoaster. Dr. Marissa has some awesome tips on how to keep your blood sugar under control. So you can lose weight, have amazing energy, and so that you most importantly, can have massive impact in the world as you deserve and are so worthy to. I hope you love this meaningful chat with Dr. Marisa. As much as I did. She is a true gift to the world. Enjoy. Welcome Dr. Marissa, you are an incredible force to be reckoned with. And even with an unwell son. And without a nanny, you are here showing up today to serve others with your mission to help everyone be happy and healthy. Thank you for coming on the show today.
Dr. Mariza Snyder 02:52
Thank you so much for having me. Honestly, I’m so grateful for the reprieve to get to have this conversation.
Jackie Bowker 03:02
I know it’s so funny, isn’t it? You’ve got an 18 month old I’ve got a seven year old and a 10 year old and all they just so delicious. You know such little people. But yes, it is nice to move into your other life
Dr. Mariza Snyder 03:13
isn’t exactly exactly. Passions.
Jackie Bowker 03:17
Yeah, yes, exactly. Well, talking about your life, I want to dive straight in and talk about this nexus between or maybe even confusion between burnout or adrenal fatigue, adrenal depletion and blood sugar dysregulation. We’re having a great chat before we started recording about the difference between the two. Tell us a bit more about why you’re so passionate about this topic.
Dr. Mariza Snyder 03:42
Yeah, absolutely. You know, since I can remember from high school, you know, we had the five minute break between classes where we would go, and I always wore tennis shoes to school because I was the person doing the most I had multiple meetings, I had to go connect with administration, I had to go run to clubs. And I would probably run across campus two to three times before that five minute break was up to get to class. And so I learned from an early age that wear tennis shoes, so that you can run everywhere. I basically bolted through my 20s and so I slammed into a Mack truck at 30 years old. And I was just running I was running on fumes I was running in survival. I was leveraging cortisol like it was the new Starbucks coffee drink, you know to say and like I didn’t know that when you kick in to that cortisol and that adrenaline and that epinephrine that you are stealing from yourself. I thought it was my slight edge. And so for many years I operated like that I was just in pure survival mode. And in order to get by, because over time, you know I started seeing symptoms and migraines, digestive issues, irregular menstrual cycles, heavy bleeding, definitely indication of estrogen dominance, but the thing thing that I struggled with the most is that I would hit a wall at 11:30am After breakfast, that was when I crashed first and it was like I was going to slaughter the first person I saw because I was so starving. And I just figured everybody was hangry at 11 to 1130. In the morning, I was just waiting to get to lunch, and then lunch would happen. And then the worst of the two crashes was around 233 o’clock. And it felt like I was like gum on the floor, just like I could not get off the floor. And the only way that I was going to get out of that was I had to get a coffee beverage. And I would usually follow that up with what I thought was a healthy option, like a kind bar, or a lower bar, or a Clif Bar, like a protein bar, like I thought it was doing myself a favor. And honestly, if I didn’t have something at two or three, I was just trying to get to 630 or seven when I was out of work. And I remember being so starving, because I would sometimes I just shaved myself enough at three o’clock in the afternoon where I would just get the coffee, I wouldn’t get the treat to go with it. But by seven o’clock, I was devouring every refined carbohydrate I could get my hands on and best believe I was downing it with two glasses of wine. This was my 20s in a nutshell. And so what I didn’t realize until about a year ago, because of the first time I ever wore a continuous glucose monitor. And I was testing out a lot of foods. And there was no protein bar that didn’t spike my blood sugar, not one never. And I remember thinking about as I was testing all these foods one, how easy it was to spike my blood sugar. And we’re talking about like over 140 milligram per deciliter, which is definitely in the like diabetes worthy range. And more importantly, as I was kind of paying attention to this and really kind of figuring this out, I had realized that I had spent well over a decade of my life chasing blood sugar spikes and crashes. And that it had a huge part. I was still running like a banshee everywhere I was going and I could time my showers I could time how fast I went to the bathroom. I was like if you were ever in the bathroom line behind me, it was your lucky day, because I was the fastest person in another bathroom. So that was happening too. But what are the accolades? If ever, you were in line by me, still there, there’s still that programming, but I’m still pretty fast. But the thing I learned was that the my energy crashes were not so much, quote unquote, chronic fatigue or mitochondrial dysfunction. Definitely a little bit of that was happening. Don’t get it twisted, you can’t eat that much sugar for that long, and your mitochondria still be working properly. But the majority of what I was writing was the never ending dates close to the roller coaster for many, many, many years. I was just going around that sucker day after day after day after day and had no idea because it wasn’t the thing anyone ever even had me consider. Yes. And little did I know. I mean, I definitely had insulin resistance. At that point, I think I’ve gone back and reversed a lot of that damage, thank goodness. And that’s the silver lining of his whole story. But man, if I only knew then what I know today that I gosh, I wouldn’t have had such a massive, just oh, just struggling healing journey to get back to here.
Jackie Bowker 08:28
i So relate, you know, your story is so familiar. We used to live in New York. Now we’re in Australia. And I would walk around with food in my bag because I would have a reaction every now and then never really knew why. But my body would be covered in sweat. And I’d have to sit down if an incident I’d faint. And so I knew that in my bag. I’d carry a diet, a sprite, so lemonade and a banana. And I knew that as soon as that happened instead of trying to fix the problem because I’d go to the doctor, and the doctor would prick my finger and say you’re not diabetic, you’re fine. It’s your time to leave. There’s no ill there’s no pill. And so it wasn’t until years and years later, we’ve had a similar journey that I learned what was really going on with such you know, debilitating blood sugar dysregulation.
Dr. Mariza Snyder 09:14
The thing is, is that it really hijacks us and hijacks our mood, and hijacks our brain, and most importantly, probably the thing that is the most disruptive, especially for us as women but all people you know, I speak to the ladies, because we are doing all the things all the time. Like if you were wondering if you work or not, just get out your phone and look at your schedule, you know, we are doing all the things and it was the energy deficit. It was the depletion it was me dragging it was me thinking to myself, like I gotta fix this like I have stuff to do. I got work left, I got patients to see I got things I got to do right now. Like I need a fix to get myself back in the game here to feel productive and so Yeah, I was chasing that. And so anytime we we have this massive energy depletion or we’re dragging or we feel foggy or we’re not productive, like, yeah, we’re going to try to figure out a way to solve that problem in the short term interim, you know, it’s just so we can get through the day. And so especially if we don’t really know what’s going on, at least for me, that was like, I’m in survival mode, like, I need to address this with some type of carbohydrate, starch, sugar type thing. Again, I always thought those were the healthier of the options. But let me tell you, it don’t matter. It all breaks down the same. It all breaks down to mono and saccharides. And it’s going to spike that blood sugar. And then you may find yourself just riding that roller coaster for a very long time because you’re chasing that energy.
Jackie Bowker 10:47
I have an exciting announcement to make. We are launching an impact accelerator seminar August 23, August 26. It is a live event 10 minutes from Byron Bay in Australia if you would like to apply and join our exclusive in my only attempt and you are an ambitious, heart centered human looking to accelerate and grow your impact and performance and you have an abundance mindset. Please apply now the web address is feel better institute.com/health-retreat at feel better institute.com/health-retreat It is being held at the most incredible luxury venue, the same venue that Nicole Kidman filmed at nine Perfect Strangers it is going to be phenomenal. If you can join us please apply now. We can’t wait to talk to you. But I couldn’t agree more. And I think it’s so fast forward. You know you mentioned if you knew then what you know now, let’s help these people we know from our energy quiz, we’ve got point 3% of people that are always thriving that leaves the rest of people to be just surviving or with their energy diving, and which just broke my heart when I saw their scores. This is over nearly 15,000 people have completed our energy quiz. So let’s give our busy people out there some really practical tips of what you can do if you are feeling these symptoms of being on that infamous blood sugar rollercoaster. What are your top easy hacks to just get you from where you are now to the next step of the journey?
Dr. Mariza Snyder 12:26
Absolutely. As we mentioned, yeah, if you’re feeling depleted, cravings, you’re hungry or hangry. You don’t need to you don’t need a CGM you don’t need I mean, if you would love to get one, get one. But you don’t need to invest in one, at least in the US, they are not cheap to get your hands on. So it’s not necessary. So if you’re thinking yourself two or three of those, yes, then, you know, I want to just preface to that getting off of that energy depletion blood sugar roller coaster, it may feel a little bit uncomfortable that first week because again, if you’ve got blood sugar variability that is all over the place, crashing and biking and crashing and spiking, that it’s going to feel a little turbulent. But how I always started, I always start with your morning, right. So in your morning, it really sets the tone for what’s going to happen and hence why I got on the blood sugar roller coaster every single morning with my coffee and sugar and my whatever it was that just set the tone for the rest of the day. So just know that your breakfast is going to set the tone for the rest of the day. So swap out that sugar for cinnamon, or just go straight black when it comes to coffee or tea. Next, you want to make sure that you’re having a savory breakfast and we’re talking about protein, fats fiber, that’s going to be the key. So if you’re going to have dessert or you’re going to want dessert breakfast is not the time to do it. There’s going to be other opportunities if that’s got to go down. Next, my recommendation is that you always want to be eating protein, fiber and fat before you eat any carbs or starches, refined carbs or starches. And ideally start with the veggie starter start with the salad. Start with the roasted broccoli, roasted vegetables and then move into your protein and fats and then finish the meal with those carbs. Now if indeed you have dessert, or you have an amazing amount of carbs that day as well with that meal, then take a walk I always recommend walking after every single meal. And you could do jump squats, you could do you could run upstairs, there’s a lot of different things that you can do but walking I think it’s such a really gentle way to still be in that rest and digest. And I recommend walking anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes and that’s going to help to lower that blood sugar spike as well. And then the other things that I recommend are going to be apple cider vinegar. So a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar and water a couple of minutes before you have something starts here Harvey or desserty. And if you’re not a fan of that then Berberine 500 milligrams of Berberine is a great super herb that will help to curb that blood sugar spike as well. And then the other thing is if ever you are going to have carbs or dessert, don’t have them as a standalone So don’t have that like that was my snack, I was literally doing a carb snack with coffee at two or three o’clock in the afternoon. And it was no wonder I had a blood sugar spike, because there was nothing helping to dress up those carbs to help blunt that blood sugar response. So let’s say you do want the potato chips or the tortilla chips, pair that with some meat of some kind paired with some veggies of some kind, or paired with some nuts, do something that’s going to help to lessen that blood sugar spike. And the reason why veggies are so important is that they decrease the amount of blood going from the intestine into the bloodstream. And then when it comes to fats and proteins, they actually slow down the gastric release of those carbs and sugars into the intestine, so that they slow down to the bloodstream. So these are all and the beautiful thing is any of these hacks, you can incorporate them, you can stack them, you could dress up your carbs with fat and fiber and protein, and then take a walk, you could do apple cider vinegar, have your dessert after a meal and then take a walk, you know all of these things you can really play with so that you are helping to stabilize your blood sugar. But at the end of the day, one of the biggest things I recommend is just to cut as many refined carbs and sugars as possible at the end of the day, especially if they come in liquid form that will hit you faster than anything. And I tested it. I remember wearing a CGM and my husband and I got like a vanilla latte at Starbucks. Because we both wanted to see, we were like, Let’s see what happens when we do this. Yeah, and I think we drank it was they were both smalls and I don’t even think we drink even half of them. And we watched our blood sugar go up to 80 points, 80 milligrams per deciliter in 15 minutes, 15 minutes like that is insane. So just know that that Coca Cola that Frappuccino that icy drink, ice cream milkshake within sweet tea, whatever it is that you’re drinking, that if it’s got sugar in it, guaranteed a blood sugar spike and then guaranteed crash. And the other thing I really wanted to emphasize is that, that crash that you experience that you get, it’s going to just want you eating more, it’s going to, it’s going to set the tone for you to want to eat more, but also when you have a blood sugar spike and crash that big, it takes not hours, not a day, but sometimes two to three days to recover your normal fasting blood glucose from that crash. And so just note that a lot of us we don’t say, oh, you know, we had that dessert last night, let’s take three days off, you know, let’s just get our blood sugar back to normal, and then we can get back to it. So many of us don’t even know that we’re just chasing the tail of these blood sugar spikes and crashes. And so I just want you to know that if you choose if you’re like, I’m gonna eat that gelato, I’m gonna take a walk, but I’m gonna eat that gelato that it is going to take two days or so depending on your unique chemistry to recover blood sugar wise from that gelato.
Jackie Bowker 17:57
Oh, my goodness, so many truth bombs, in what you just talked about, like, I love all of it so much. And I think what is important for people to know because we talk about blood sugar dysregulation in the blood sugar rollercoaster. But what I find so fascinating is its connection to hormone dysregulation its connection to weight. And if people can see and be empowered by Oh, um, you know, I’m actually being prevented from eating into my fat stores. If I’m just like, if I’m keeping them locked. Can you talk a bit more about that concept of blood sugar dysregulation preventing weight loss?
Dr. Mariza Snyder 18:34
Absolutely. It’s kind of like when you’ve got, let’s say, you’ve got $100 in your wallet at all times, there’s just no reason to ever go to the ATM, right? There’s no reason to pull money from the ATM. And so think of the cash in that wallet of yours as your glucose stores, right? And you just replenishing those glucose stores. It’s just magic money going back into your wallet, but that you never need to go to the ATM to actually get into the your fat stores. Right? This is where your deeper energy stores are at. And that’s where most of us are at, if we are eating refined carbs or starches, you know, every two to three hours all day long. There’s never a break. There’s never a reprieve from having this massive glucose and glycogen store that we get to pull from. And I would I would venture to say that there are many of us that have never tapped into into fat stores because we always have enough sugar supply forever. And so how it works is that you know you decide you want to eat a big bowl full of cherries, let’s just say cherries are in season right now for at least for us and they are in season. And what ends up happening with those cherries that breaks down into fructose and glucose. That fructose gets broken down in the liver. Glucose hits the bloodstream and that signals the pancreas to release insulin because your body’s like there’s a lot of sugar here because cherries as amazing and delicious as they are they got some sugar in them. And so then and your muscles are going to do their best to bring up some of that, especially if you’re moving around. But for the most part, it’s going to be insulin, insulin is going to signal your adipose cells, your fat cells and your liver and your muscle cells to bring up all that glucose. And then your liver, like you said, stores it for glycogen store down the line. And ultimately, what the liver is doing, it’s kind of like your last resource of glucose before we can tap into the fat stores. But if your liver never gets that opportunity to ever get rid of its glycogen, it’s going into de novo Lippo lysis, which is breaking down glucose into triglycerides. And so, you know, it’s the reason why we see so many people with non alcoholic fatty liver disease. I remember this was the most shocking thing I saw when I was in practice, I was having 29 and 28 year olds with high levels, you know, have fatty liver disease and high levels of triglyceride as still the connection wasn’t being made by their other doctors, their primaries, that this is an issue with insulin resistance, it was just like, Oh, you’ve got fatty liver disease. And it’s not alcohol related. I don’t know what’s going on here. But ultimately, that ends up what’s happening is our liver if it’s having to deal if it can’t move the glycogen out into triglycerides fast enough, it ends up having to stored inside of our liver, and then also within our visceral organs. And that was when we start to see kind of that dangerous inflammatory fat that leads to a lot of issues like metabolic syndrome. And so I would have to argue or wager that most of us are kind of in that zone where we are eating more sugar, and our bodies are having to deal with it by storing it as fat, then we are ever getting to a place where we are burning off those fat stores.
Jackie Bowker 21:39
Totally agree and I love the analogy of the $100 in the wallet, I might have to swap it with my analogy of you know, the fuel in the engine, you know if you’re running off a petrol, but you want to be running off the diesel and so but we need both systems like you need to be able to switch between one than the other. And that’s how we were designed as ancestors to run off both our sugar stores and our fat stores. But if you can only run a few sugar stores and then once they run out, you can’t access your fat stores like what happens then.
Dr. Mariza Snyder 22:06
This gets particularly dangerous for us as women as we step into perimenopause and beyond. And without an ability to have that metabolic flexibility heading into our mid to late 40s 50s. and beyond. We start to see issues like brain fog, we start to see major energy issues we start to see cardiovascular concerns come up. But most importantly, when it comes to our brain is where I see the biggest concern and issue where if our brains aren’t able to flip energy stores energy sources, we just start to see, you know, early signs of fogginess, forgetfulness, that word recall issues around just feeling productive and being able to fire on all cylinders, and be alert. And so especially as we start to lose those sex hormones, progesterone and estrogen, which are estrogen in particular are very, very protective of keeping us insulin sensitive. When we lose those, the wheels can feel like they fall off and the more so it is definitely because we lose those sex hormones. They are major players and I give them all the love and all the respect that they deserve. But when we lose those sex hormones we are now we’re really reliant on that metabolic system. And if that metabolic system is not healthy, if we’re seeing, you know, metabolic dysfunction in terms of insulin resistance and high levels of triglycerides and Unhealthy cholesterol levels, we’re going to start to see some of that some of those chronic conditions come to life for us. I
Jackie Bowker 23:33
couldn’t agree more Dr. Marissa and I think as well I always say to my perimenopause, you know, mamas out there, like you’ve got a window and you’ve got the window, do it now, like correct it now in your 40s before because as you enter menopause, as you know, like, that window becomes so much smaller and it’s you know, it’s much more difficult to make the adjustments. I just want to talk about one thing it reminded me of my daughter a couple of weeks ago, she was broke down in tears because she wanted a Glee I don’t do you have Glee over there, I had to actually learn what Glee was. Glee is like a, it’s like a soft drink, but it’s just made of fruit juice. Okay, so reconstituted fruit juice, whatever that even means. So it means sugar. Yeah, right. So she said, Mommy, I want you know, can I order something from the tuckshop and I want it automatically all my friends get glee. And I was like, I just I can’t I can’t have you drink. You know, from the old diet days when people would say don’t drink your calories. And now it’s like, I wish people made the connection. It’s like it’s not about the calories it’s about the sugar dump. And we looked up this glue together and it had other notes that I can’t actually remember something like 40 grams of sugar in the cup 250 mil in the can. I was like I I just can’t I just can’t do it. I can’t do it and she had a monumental breakdown. And it’s so sad because literally the clock US orders this drink. So what can we do to? I mean, this seems like a massive paradigm shift. But what can we do to try and change behaviors and empower people with more knowledge around this?
Dr. Mariza Snyder 25:12
It’s such a great question. I remember I mean, I grew up with corn Frosted Flakes, and you know, Kool Aid, which was literally just sugar and dye and water. You know, and I think that’s really in the early like, 70s 80s was where it all just went to hell in a handbasket, like, all of a sudden, like McDonald’s was totally okay. And yeah, I mean, I think you’re absolutely right. I think it’s got to be the number one thing that we’re educating on, I really do believe, you know, of all the years that I’ve been educating on women’s hormone health and thinking, Oh, my gosh, we’re missing the boat. Like, yes, it’s important that we balance out estrogen and progesterone. Yes, it’s important that testosterone levels are great. And yes, it’s important that we manage the stress response system, because goodness knows, cortisol can drive insulin resistance in its own right, when we are running and fleeing from all those perceived threats, you know, all over the place. And so I all of these are important, but at the end of the day, you think about how our cells in our body functions. And it is through metabolic processes, that is literally the name of the game. And so I think we do got to really debunk a lot of this whole calorie conversation of like, if this calories versus that calories were good calories just don’t matter. We’ve we’ve got to be educating on the insidiousness of sugar, and the insidiousness of sugar and drinks, the insidiousness of sugar inside of processed refined carbohydrates, you know how easy they break down, and really give people tool sets on how I’m not trying to demonize sugar entirely here, and I’m not trying to tell you that you should never ever, ever, ever have sugar again, you just we’ve got to get so much smarter about how we feel our bodies, and there’s just, you know, sugar is hidden everywhere, anywhere. You know, I’m sure that your daughter argued that, well, it’s just a fruit drink, Mama, it’s not Coca Cola, it’s not Sprite or whatever it is. But you and I, we all know listening to this, that there’s no fiber in that, like you said it was some level of processing. That didn’t even make sense. You know, we’ve got to get back to whole real foods, not about how many calories are in there? Yeah, that’s not what matters, you need to look at that level and say to yourself, oh, this is gonna light up my blood sugar, it’s gonna cause an inflammatory cascade. And I am not for it. And it has a lot to do with, you know, is there any fiber in that? Is there any fiber in that product at all? And it’s fiber, it’s got to be like four to one fiber to carbs ratio on that nutritional label, which let me tell you how many nutritional labels meet this requirement? Very few. But you know, maybe you don’t even need necessarily to know that equation to just know that if it’s in a package, it’s most likely going to break down into simple sugars and Spike you. Yeah. Well, I
Jackie Bowker 27:54
love the fiber conversation documentaries, because I think it is important for people to know that there are alternatives to short, like, you know, we we live in a technology revolution. So I have this role. Yeah,
Dr. Mariza Snyder 28:06
I clean water with mint. Yes,
Jackie Bowker 28:09
exactly. And, you know, I just have a rule I don’t consume. And I know I’m sort of more a little more anal than the rest, but I don’t consume sugars that spike my blood sugar. So I don’t know about you, but I’m a fan of stevia. I’ve been playing around with monk fruit and erythritol, the other ones that come out. So let’s talk more about what people can do. Instead, you mentioned cinnamon, which is great. But what about all these things like the stevia is in the monk fruits?
Dr. Mariza Snyder 28:36
So I’m a little I’m being very, very, very easygoing. today. I’m pretty hardcore in the world in real life. And, you know, I struggle with some of these as well. I mean, I think stevia can be great. I think monkfruit can be great, to some degree, but I have rarely found a gay healthy dessert that’s got some of these ingredients, maybe has almond flour and whatnot, but can still raise your blood sugar to some degree. I mean, you really have to know your body. But then when we look at sugar alcohols, like a withdrawal, just check in with your gut because my two rules is protect your gut love and protect your gut and protect your liver. And I’m not sure how I don’t feel like a withdrawal is protecting anybody’s gut. You might even find if you ever consume or withdrawal even monk fruit in a desert or whatever, like a Keto desert. You know, check in with how your gut feels if you get gassy and bloated and you’re not feeling super great. That’s your gut telling you. Hell no. Don’t put that in my body again.
Jackie Bowker 29:38
Yeah, no, no, I saw great and you know, I think it’s actually really really good that we deep dive into this because I binary through a toll from my health food store and I only use it in a couple of my recipes. Though stevia doesn’t bake well, it loses its sweetness and then my marshmallows actually take me through trial. So so I’ll put my hand up and say that I found a quality array through hole that we all do really well from that same recipe. I’ve had a client come to me and she said, a major marshmallows. And I was guessing and I was like, right. The first thing is one, you may not be able to tolerate erythritol at all. But the second thing is I’ve actually bought I just got back from a trip in the US. And my gut went crazy. I didn’t eat any sugar, but I was going to Whole Foods, and I was trying to find, you know, clean bars and things. And my colleagues, Dr. Anna, who’s a friend of ours, she’s like, it’s the food Jackie, it’s the food here. Like you can’t tolerate the food here. And it was all organic, but maybe it’s the mold or the you know, whatever. But I think a wreath fatale is a great, what you said is so beautiful, because we have to listen to our bodies. And if your body is putting his hand up with that message, like don’t eat
Dr. Mariza Snyder 30:52
it. Don’t eat it. Yeah, exactly. Well, the thing that I would recommend. So as I’ve looked at all of this, I’ve looked at CGM reports from so many people, these are my recommendations. Like if you still want something sweet, I hear you, I always recommend like 75% or more dark chocolate. One of the companies that I absolutely love doesn’t use any of withdrawal doesn’t use any emulsifiers. Any of it is huge chocolate. And there are other love to chocolate. Yeah. And so I’ve tested you a couple squares, three o’clock. This is like the witching hour for me is 233 o’clock in the afternoon, right because it’s right where I haven’t eaten on the other side for many hours. So everything’s normal. And basically, there’s nothing that’s blunting these couple pieces of chocolate. And because always my goal is to stay within that sweet spot of 70 milligrams per deciliter to 110 milligrams per deciliter, and ideally under 100. And I have never, I’ve never gotten past the 110 milligrams per deciliter. And this is from a woman who I you know, as sexy as my blood sugar curve looks, it is not hard to to get a rise out of my blood sugar. Because of all the damage I had done all of those years, I still feel and it’d be almost 43 You know, I’m just doing my best to ensure it. I’m staying as insulin sensitive as possible. But I just know I don’t personally have a lot of wiggle room. So I gotta keep it super clean. But even that little bit of chocolate from you chocolates, it’s over 75% or 75% doesn’t mess in with me doesn’t mess with my guts. That’s something to consider, like really dark, dark, pure chocolate. A couple squares may not do it to you. Again, I don’t know. That’s just me. And then the other thing that we do is we eat a lot of berries. So eat a lot of berries. We pair berries with my husband makes the most incredible organic whipped coconut whip that he just has a little bit of cinnamon, a little bit of vanilla extract. And sometimes he grades a little bit of, of orange peel into it. Oh wow, this is my son’s only dessert. Let’s be honest. My toddlers only dessert. He’s never had sugar before, except for berries. And so he just loves his berries and cream. That’s dessert in our house a little bit of sprinkled cinnamon, and then some dark chocolate occasionally with a little bit of almond butter. And that’s that’s about it. But what I can tell you is someone who I love sugar. I’m not going to pretend like I don’t I could easily have a sugar addiction at any given time. Those work for me. And those don’t they don’t spike. They don’t spike our blood sugars. My husband has a CGM and I’ll throw him under the bus. His blood sugar is is well isn’t mine is good. His not so much. We’ve been working on his blood sugar. And these things haven’t spiked him either. And so
Jackie Bowker 33:34
I love that. Yeah, that’s helpful.
Dr. Mariza Snyder 33:37
But yeah, what keeps us in the safe zone?
Jackie Bowker 33:40
Well, I think it’s good. So two things I loved about what you said. The first is huge chocolate and I know Q and I know the there’s coconut sugar in that chocolate so I’m I’m actually very fascinated being a scientist I’m I’m fascinated by. Because I haven’t tried a glucose monitor, I’m very aware of my blood sugar and that how stable it is and how it throws out being a sugar addict in remission. So I love that you have tested a product with coconut sugar I love and you know, my kids eat so much chocolate, we eat 95%. And it tastes sweet to us. It tastes really sweet to us. So I graduate clients. So another tip that I could advise is your very generous allowing 75 Like I’ve moved them from 75 to 8585 Doesn’t taste great, actually, 90 tastes better. And then if they can get to 95 and I actually really also enjoy 100 The second thing that I loved about what you said and now I’m going to lose my train of thought. So I’ll have to move on from that. But I love that you are training your son to you know, because we don’t they you know they came out of the womb and we wouldn’t give our kids sugar straight away. And so it’s interesting how that changes over time. Just I find the whole thing really fascinating.
Dr. Mariza Snyder 34:55
It’s so fascinating like why I mean it’s so funny to like fend off my grandparents. I’m like, do not want to get cut to feed my child sugar like, see what happens? Well, what a really interesting area of focus that we haven’t really focused on at all is like, you know, what is an indicator, like when should we be mindful about sugar? When should we be mindful about what we eat. And it’s actually when we are in the womb, when your mom was pregnant with you, that is that really sets us up for success or, or not so much, you know, if you’ve got a mama who’s eating a lot of sugar, while you’re in a fetus, like that lends to a higher propensity of metabolic dysfunction, and childhood obesity, then if your mom ate super clean, like without a lot of sugar, and so I knew that stopped going in. And I was so so mindful about maintaining a, I was on a paleo autoimmune protocol when I was pregnant during that whole pregnancy. And then obviously, I’m still breastfeeding. And so I’m so mindful about what I’m consuming. This, gosh, it’s been like, almost a three year journey. Now we’re just like, keeping everything so clean, because you’re my son is getting all of these nutrients. And I’m the epigenetics of it all. Like, I’m setting the tone for what his body is going to do later in life. And so I think, if we, if we could educate, you know, mamas who are women who are trying to get pregnant about what that looks like, you know, we all tell women, they get a hall pass when they’re pregnant. And it’s, you know, we just, there’s just a lot of concerns there. I always think of pregnancy as a as a major stress tests, you know, we see that when, when you’re pregnant, and you get gestational diabetes, there’s a greater propensity for type two diabetes later on, if you get preeclampsia, there’s a greater propensity for a stroke or heart attack later on, you know, we really get to see what the body is made of, during pregnancy, because it is it is the ultimate stress test for our bodies on a physiological level. And so but we also don’t realize how that is setting up our children moving forward to it, there’s so much happening there. And so if there was any place to start, you know, hopefully your parents and your mama was like, super good on that. And then, you know, the more that we can keep sugar out of our children’s lives for as long as possible. And I’m talking about processed sugar, right? And so I think that’s the name of the game. And, man, it’s a hard, I can’t tell you how many times I lecture my parents and all the people who try to give my son sugar. I’m like, Do you know the numbers of child obesity? Do you would like Lucky? Well, let me I just start and no one wants to hear me talk about it. Because it’s just the bad news bears, you know, and so, but I’m like, do not do that. Like we’re, he’s gonna see it. Peers are gonna have it later in life. We’re gonna cross that bridge when we get to it. But do not try to give my child ice cream or something right now, you know, several when he hasn’t, he doesn’t know nothing about nothing. Yeah, he doesn’t. He just eats. He eats the things he Yeah. Yeah. So
Jackie Bowker 37:58
yeah, totally a great start that I know. And it’s so crazy. They don’t even want it. They’re very hard. So they want us to fat because the fat from the breast milk.
Dr. Mariza Snyder 38:07
Exactly. He had got an allergy free cake for his first birthday. And it was applesauce. The whole thing. It was like the most crunchy. You know? No, it was dense because it was gluten free. Not free. All the things free, dairy free, sugar free. And he didn’t know what to do with this thing. He didn’t eat it at all. He just sat there. He kind of pulled it apart. But he had no interest in it. He was my you should have seen the disappointment on everyone’s face. Oh. Oh, one seemed to tear into it. And he was just like, I have no desire to eat this. Like, I don’t know what this is. You’ve never given me this before. I’m good.
Jackie Bowker 38:47
Give me some chicken and veggies, Mama. You know, I think Marissa what you and I both have in common is we talk a lot about testo gas so test go work with your primary care physician and understand take responsibility and really be empowered to know what your blood sugar’s are and you know if you are that mom or you know I have my hat goes off to you doesn’t reset because you ate clean your pregnancy one of my pregnancies you know, I didn’t eat clean. I was like an Easter egg eating machine. I mean, this was like 11 years ago. So I think we can do whatever we need to do where we’re at. But one of the things I did like you was reverse my blood sugar dysregulation and we’re gonna talk about HPA when c is a blood test marker and I want to talk about fasting insulin. How can we have the conversation with our doctor to request these tests in a really respectful eloquent way?
Dr. Mariza Snyder 39:43
Yes. And I will say that between the two tests of fasting insulin and a hemoglobin a one see that you are probably going to get approval on the hemoglobin a one seat, yes, especially if you plead the case that there is a history of diabetes in your family and guess what there Probably is yes. You know, if it is, and you can, I mean, really, you know, when it comes to a primary practitioner, it’s all about the flags, you know, you could talk talk, like, I’m always hungry, I am dealing with these crazy cravings and crashes. And, you know, my, I think my pee is getting sweet like I’ve you know, just flag it up, like do it do what you can to flag it for me to
Jackie Bowker 40:23
pay getting sweet. Well,
Dr. Mariza Snyder 40:25
I have a, you know, for me, I think you know, what I had, one of the ways that I was able to get a hemoglobin a one C and my 30s was I talked a lot about getting pregnant. And you know, everyone, we don’t care a lot about women until they want to get pregnant. And so then we will run all the tests. So I was like, you know, I just want to make sure I’m okay, as I’m getting older, you know, I pulled the the older pregnancy card, you know, and clearly I could run my own hemoglobin, anyone see, but occasionally, if I want my primary, I’m like, Hey, I’ve got a history of diabetes in my family. These are the symptoms that I’m dealing with, I just want to know where I stand. Because I don’t want to be, I don’t want to know that I’m pre diabetic, and it’s too late, you know, and I’m in and here’s the thing about pre diabetes, too, is that I cannot tell you how many times people have come to me with hemoglobin a one C of a 5.7 5.8 5.9. And no one said anything to them. Nobody, their doctor didn’t say it. They didn’t say that they were prediabetes didn’t say anything, because for a lot of our medical system here in the US, it is just a warning sign towards type two, it doesn’t mean anything. But we know what the research is that if you’ve got a hemoglobin a one C above 5.5 or higher, that you’re already at greater risk for cardiovascular disease for type two diabetes, for inflammatory conditions. And so you know, if you do see a hemoglobin a one C of 5.5 or more on your labs, whether your doctor says anything or not, it is time that we start to walk that number back with some of the strategies that we talked about today. Yeah, but yeah, I would say that. So fasting insulin, that’s a whole that’s it, it’s hard to get that test, you know, here in the US, and I can get one a year here, you can get Yeah, we can’t get one a year here, we can get a hemoglobin a one C once a year here. And if you wanted to look at it every 90 days, or you’d have to really plead a case, like if you if your hemoglobin agency comes back at a 5.5 or 5.6, they’re going to say wait another year, unless you can say, hey, I made some massive modifications, I did a lot of big things. You know, now that my sister has got diabetes, or my uncle and my mom have got diabetes, I just need to know that I’m moving in the right direction. Most likely, you’ll probably be able to get that approval six months later, maybe 90 days later. It really depends with a fasting insulin test. Most likely here in the US, you’re going to have to find a functional practitioner to run that lab. Yeah, that’s going to be so if you really want to know we’re just not privy? Or do we really care about what people’s fasting insulin levels are here in this country? For the most part, I cannot tell you how many primary doctors and people I’ve asked had watched people through the conversation with their primaries, and it is so rare for them to say yes,
Jackie Bowker 43:18
yeah. Goodness. Well, I’m fortunate enough to work closely with a few doctors here in Australia. And I mean, we certainly do a lot of education, but I educate my clients with the comprehensive blood panel. And there is that limit on once a year. So I feel very fortunate that we can negotiate that always remember, I was in a lecture from Master of nutrition. And our lecturer said, I think he was talking just in Australia. I’m not sure if Australia Worldwide, there is no screening test for pre diabetes. And I was like, That makes no sense. We just need to run fasting into that. I mean, I I would love if I was the Health Minister, I would have, you know, screenings, just like we have COVID vaccination 10 set up, you know, like, it’s that important. And you know, what pains me doesn’t raise it is that this is reversible, like this disease is reversible.
Dr. Mariza Snyder 44:11
Yes, it absolutely is reversible, right, especially if we can catch it early, especially if it’s just signs of pre diabetes. And we know that we can reverse type two diabetes as well. There’s so much research to demonstrate that but if we could catch people before, you know if we were open to running hemoglobin, a onesies and even fasting blood glucose in our 20s like this should be annual every single year even in our 20s Because after seeing labs of 29 year olds, 28 year olds, 25 year olds and just trying to like picking my job back up trying to like be stoic in that moment, just not being so shocked. The sooner we can be looking at this, the better and we absolutely have that ability to release and it’s what he talked about today is just is just resetting not blood sugar deregulation is getting off of the spikes and the crashes that so many of us are on. And there’s so many simple hacks to do it, there’s so many simple ways. Now, mind you the whole metabolic scenario, you know, I’m a big fan of 30 different fruits and veggies every single week, you know, feeding the gut, you know, bone broth, and fermented foods. And, you know, lots and lots and lots of fiber. You know, I think about like creating diversity in the gut helping to support our metabolic function as well, you know, moving our body weight training, especially for us women, not only for our bones, but also for just we lose muscle mass, like that is a concern, we’ve got to look at it making sure that we’re getting adequate amounts of protein, like when we look at the full metabolic profile, yes, it’s great to have apple cider vinegar at your your way side, yes, it’s great to eat your food and order or to dress your carbs with fat and protein. But when we look at the full metabolic profile, it is about loving your gut, it’s about protecting your liver, it is about moving your body. And it is about adequate sleep and stress reduction, all of these things are going to move the needle. But yeah, I mean, most importantly, you know, thinking about what we’re putting in our body, how it’s going to nourish our gut, how it’s going to nourish ourselves, how it’s going to give us the right kind of energy to thrive. That’s how we really should be thinking. And when it comes to the full metabolic picture.
Jackie Bowker 46:31
I couldn’t agree more. And you said it. So well, you actually answered my last two questions in that. But you know, what you just said is a quote that I had heard from you, which summarizes what you just said, which is so beautiful. At the end of the day, it really is your body, and nobody knows your body better than you. And I love that because it is personal. And we have to listen to our bodies to create our own personal plan and be guided by the people that know us and have our own best interests at heart.
Dr. Mariza Snyder 47:00
It’s so true, it is 100%. And nobody, nobody knows your body better than you. Nobody knows your non negotiables. And I when I was thinking about as I was stepping in the winter was a little messy we did. We got COVID Kingston was it heading in a toddler phase, we moved into a new house, there was a lot of things going on a lot of lot of wonderful ways that our life was just kind of up in the air. And I just felt like I had lost a little bit of my way. Like I was doing kind of more in a survival mode. And I remember it, we hit March. And I was like, Oh no, no, I’m not going into q2, like this. And I remember I got super clear on my non negotiables. Like, what were the things that were going to move the needle for me, one that was a lot of fiber every single day, like lots and lots of plants, like people don’t know that we need 50 grams of fiber every single day. And you know, I forget what the recommended amount is. It’s like 20 or 30. It’s like it’s such a low amount. But especially as women, we need over 40 Close to 50 grams of fiber every day. So I was one of my non negotiables. Next one was walking and walking by myself, not walking with my baby, not walking with my husband, walking by my self. That was a big one. And then the third was going to be just getting super into a gratitude meditation practice, even if it was five to 10 minutes a day where I could just recenter and get grounded so that I could show up for everybody. Those were my non negotiables for leading into March and beyond. And gosh, when you get so clear, and then you’re able to execute on those, you just feel like a different person.
Jackie Bowker 48:37
Oh, you do. And what I love is that you described three tiny action steps that you can take wherever you’re at, to feel better. And that’s what this is all about. We just want you to get better. We want you to understand how to take those small steps. Everybody’s on their own journey. So Dr. Marissa, what adventure Are you embarking on next is such a busy accomplished woman.
Dr. Mariza Snyder 49:01
The adventure that I’m embarking on next, you know, just in my work in my passion, my podcast is my favorite place to play. And I love it. I love and we’re launching because some of my I just go so deep sometimes in these episodes, and I just want people to walk away with some big wins just many wins. So I’m going to be launching two episodes a week of many episodes of just getting just cutting to the core, getting the answer getting out, make it actionable, so that people just feel like okay, I got what I need, and I can just go about my day. So that’s been a project that’s been in the docket for months now that we’re getting ready to release at the end of this month. So I’m super stoked.
Jackie Bowker 49:41
That is so awesome. And you’re essentially you with optimum Risa podcast is so good and you’re right you give so much and you would know the podcast is such a labor of love. It’s a way that we can serve our mission and speak from the soul and your podcast. I always walk away so happy feeling so with so much Let’s hope and so much joy about how to make myself feel even better than I already do. So thank you for serving us as you do. And your liver freebie, liver loving freebie is awesome. So we’ll put in the show notes. Dr. Murray’s has so much awesome free content, but her liver loving freebie is especially good if you just want some education, empowering information about how to love your liver and some awesome, easy recipes to go along with that.
Dr. Mariza Snyder 50:27
Yes, I’m so excited to give this to you guys. It’s such a fun gift. And we talked a lot about the liver today. And this is a great way to just support your liver, probably one of the hardest working organs in the body.
Jackie Bowker 50:39
Yes, I know. It will tell you about calories. Actually, I remember learning. It’s like people talk about how many calories and should I 1200 calories if I want to lose some weight. It’s like hang on, doesn’t liver burn 2000 calories just in one night.
Dr. Mariza Snyder 50:53
It’s like yeah, matter. I
Jackie Bowker 50:56
know. But it is the queen bee and we need to love and cherish our liver. Well Dr. Marisa, I want to let you get back to Kingston and your beautiful partner who’s looking after him. So I want to thank you for coming on the show today and devoting your time to our incredible mission. Thank you.
Dr. Mariza Snyder 51:13
Thank you so much for having me.
Jackie Bowker 51:16
If you made it to the end of this episode, celebrate yourself because it means you are truly dedicated to feeling better in your health, in your career in your relationships, and I am so proud of you. And if you want more of the feeling better now so tune in every Monday for new episodes and join our community on Instagram at Jackie bow for all the behind the scenes action and more. Hey, why don’t you sign up for a chance to have your question answered at feel better institute.com/sign up that’s feel better institute.com/sign up but most of all, please keep reaching to feel better because the world needs you to feel good. So you can share that very special gift that only you have. So with that said, See you soon here’s to feeling better. Now. Jackie
