Blog

Nov 6

We're there, folks... It's that time of year again. As it does, the sugar tsunami of Halloween has kick-started the season when many of us try to balance the richness of being festive with the knowledge that it probably doesn't do great things to our health. 

While it would be easy to focus on known villains like "pumpkin spice" or (one of my personal favorites) "peppermint mocha", which undoubtedly played a role in the 40% rise that has driven modern coffee to become a caloric catastrophe, the risk doesn't end with the potential of adding a few pounds. Artificial sweeteners have also recently been linked with both cancer and our rate of cognitive decline - a whopping 63% faster in those who consume the most when compared to those who consume the least. If we're anything like the kids in this study, our brains are likely being rewired in the (ultra)process. However, there is good news on this front. In a randomized controlled trial performed in Canada, more than half of participants who combined calorie restriction with exercise three times per week for six months achieved "remission" of Type 2 Diabetes. For perspective, this is about 13X more than those who achieved the same result with "usual care". However, if sugar is top of mind but that seems like too steep a hill to climb just yet, one promising new study suggests that blood sugar spikes can be slowed by going "fat first" - meaning, changing meal sequencing to ingest healthy fats (e.g. olive oil) before carbs. While this most recent study was done on mice, it adds promise to an effect we've seen firsthand: eating a salad first, preferably with olive oil and vinegar, can blunt the spike. Of course, sweets are not the only risks that spike this time of year. If sales are any indication of consumption, alcohol has spiked this time of year, every year, for at least the last thirty. 

Alcohol consumption is a tricky topic. People have consumed fermented drinks for ages, in theory as long as 100,000 years, which is enough time to make it a cultural phenomenon with deep roots. And we're not the only ones - as outlined in this 2025 journal article, several species are known to ingest (and some even seek out) naturally occurring ethanol. Of course, common doesn't mean risk-free. Those of us who want to fully weigh the pros and cons when deciding which risks are worth taking need to go deeper. That is what a recent and massive study attempted to do regarding the risk threshold associated with alcohol consumption. The authors hoped to fill in gaps left by new US guidelines, which take a "less is best" tone but don't specify a threshold. 

When researchers zoomed all the way out to look at total risk - injury and illness and disease - they hoped to quantify the risks and any potential benefits. After analyzing more than 7,000 papers on the subject, they found that, contrary to some small isolated findings, the risks start at a lower dosage than most realize, but there are no real benefits. Specifically, while the authors acknowledge the potential for a small benefit associated with certain types of heart disease and stroke at very low levels of consumption, that benefit was more than lost once risk across all disease and injury types was combined. Even more surprisingly, the threshold dosage was quite low. Once consumption rose above an average of one drink per day, risks started increasing. At two drinks per day, which is often considered “moderate“, risks rose substantially.

You are now entering indulgence season - know the risks and have a plan.

Have a great weekend,

Mike E.