In this episode of Food, Freedom, and Fertility, Caitlin and Sophia discuss the importance of sugar and its affects on fertility by breaking down sugar’s role in our hormonal system through insulin, the role it plays in ovarian health, and identify the characteristics of sugar addiction as it is often debated in the world of dietitians. Posing questions to help listeners determine for themselves if they have a healthy relationship to sugar.
Blood sugar is directly related to fertility as it affects a hormone called insulin. Insulin is the key that opens up the door allowing sugar fuel to come into the cells of your body so that you can blink your eyes, breathe thru your lungs, basically anything relating to body functions. The issue comes to play when there is too much insulin caused by eating too much sugar. In the context of fertility, sugar is especially important for your ovaries as they include your follicles that become the eggs you ovulate and other tissues that create hormones in your body. Like any substance, our bodies can build a resistance to sugar making them insulin resistant. Issues arise due to your ovaries inability to adjust, causing damage over time. Big influxes of sugar, followed by big spikes of insulin can result in over-stimulated ovulation, leading to egg quality problems and general ovarian stress. In this episode, Caitlin & Sophia also discuss Follicle Arrestment; the term used to describe how excess insulin creates more testosterone, which can lead to higher testosterone levels in the female body causing ovulation to halt.
Caitlin & Sophia also discuss the hierarchy of sugars, explaining the difference in natural versus processed and artificial sugars, drinking versus eating sugars, in an effort to help listeners understand the difference in healthy fruits and vegetables versus less than ideal sugars found in high fructose corn syrup (usually in soda’s or sugary beverages). While there’s an importance of a well balanced diet including fruits and vegetables, Caitlin & Sophia encourage listeners to decipher their need for sugar by reviewing their impulses consciously as they happen, gauging one’s need for unwanted sugars found in many food and beverage products. While sugar addiction isn’t necessarily an addiction Psychology DSM would diagnose, you can certainly have an unhealthy relationship with it if you’re consistently struggling to abandon the thought of consuming it or get shakiness when cutting it out of your diet. In an effort to help listeners determine the role sugar plays in their lives, Caitlin & Sophia pose questions to help listeners critically think about their diet, the ways in which they can substitute sugar, and the ways in which they can help their body with the urge for sugar on a daily basis. In discussing the importance of portion control, Caitlin & Sophia aim to help listeners gain an attainable sense of what makes a diet healthy in order to set achievable goals for themselves, and their fertility in 2021.