The Truth About Soda

-
When it comes to cleaning up your diet and/or losing weight, I usually start by making one suggestion. However, more often than not, I’m met with staunch resistance. It’s surprising to me because this one tweak alone could help you drop 26 pounds in a year. One change, 26 pounds—you gotta like that number.

If this one “food” is a staple in your diet, you’ll understand why people put up a fight. The simple truth is most people simply don’t want to part with their pop!
Check out these fizzy facts: Soda is 100 percent nutritionally void. That means that there is absolutely nothing redeeming about the beverage—no vitamins, no minerals, no nutrients that will help you in any way. The only thing it adds to your diet is calories—about 245 per 20 ounces. Oh, and don’t forget about the sugar. You’ll find about 65 grams of the sweet stuff in a 20-ounce bottle. So, at roughly 16 teaspoons, it’s basically liquid candy.

Wondering if diet soda is a better option? Sure, it’s calorie-free and doesn’t contain any real sugar, but it’s not necessarily a healthier choice. Some research suggests that people who consume artificially sweetened products are more likely to gainweight than lose weight. Scientists aren't quite sure why, but there is some evidence from animal studies that artificial sweeteners in diet drinks (like saccharin, aspartame, or sucralose/Splenda) can increase appetite and lead to weight gain.

Plus, certain people seem to make up for the calories saved from sipping diet drinks by consuming more calories from food throughout the day.
If you're drinking diet soda in place of regular and keeping track of your total calories, it can help with weight loss. Even still, I’d recommend limiting yourself to one can daily.

But ideally, try enjoying a better-for-you beverage (like one of the ones listed below) instead.
Still not convinced to drop that pop? Skipping the sugary sip can also help:

Speed Weight Loss

Many of the people I’ve helped over the years have been serious soda drinkers. Some of them guzzled down 2 to 3 liters a day. These empty liquid calories (all from sugar or high fructose corn syrup) may be partly responsible for fueling the obesity epidemic in our country. Not to mention, liquid calories don’t fill you up like the calories from foods do.
How’s this for a weight loss win: Cutting just one 20-ounce soda each day for a year would save you 108 cups of sugar and 91,000 calories, which could translate to a loss of 26 pounds. Nixing these liquid calories is often one of the first and most effective steps to losing weight.

Protect Your Pearly Whites

It should come as no surprise that soda can cause tooth decay. After all, it’s loaded with sugar. But the acid in the fizzy fix also does a number on your chompers.

Boost Bone Health

Some studies show cola may weaken your bones. Although experts had originally suspected that the caffeine and/or phosphoric acid in soda may be to blame, recent research suggests it may be as simple as the fact that the beverage has replaced calcium-rich milk in our diet.

Balance Blood Sugar

Soda can send your blood sugars soaring, increasing your risk for type 2 diabetes. One study found that people who drank a can or two daily were 26 percent more likely to develop the disease. 

Keep Your Heart Healthy

Studies show that a diet high in sugar is linked to high cholesterol and triglyceride levels, both of which are considered major risk factors for heart disease. In fact, a study indicates that drinking one can of a sugary beverage daily can increase your risk for heart disease by 20 percent.

If you really want to lose the extra flab you can get help, I write 4 blogs and I’ve written two E-books. Read some of my other blog posts.

gettingtoahealthyweight.blog

E-books are the easiest and cheapest way to learn about any subject without groping through hundreds of websites looking for the material you want.

My first e-book is “HowBadDoYouWantToLoseWeight” and it sells for $2.99 on most online bookstores like Amazon.com, BN.com, iBook, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, and Gardner books in the U.K.

My second e-book is available in the same stores. And on smashwords.com. If you use the Smashwords' promotional code You can get my second book for $1.99 (TL96R). Just type in the search line “getting to a healthy weight”.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What's the Mediterranean Diet?

-
Image
The Mediterranean diet is based on the traditional foods eaten by people living in the Mediterranean region, especially Greece. It's loaded with healthy foods and research findings suggest following this diet may help reduce some of the risk factors for heart disease.  According to the Oldways Preservation & Exchange Trust, the Mediterranean diet was introduced in 1993 by Oldways, Harvard School of Public Health and the World Health Organization.  The diet includes: Olives and olive oil Whole grains, mostly in bread and cereal rather than pasta Very little red meat Fish and seafood Some cheese, but less milk Lots of vegetables and fruit Plenty of legumes and nuts A little red wine The Mediterranean diet is high in fiber and antioxidants from vegetables, legumes and nuts, far greater than the typical Western diet, and low in saturated fat. Very little red meat is eaten in this region, and milk consumption is limited as well, exc...
Read more

Changing Your Life To Lose Weight

-
Image
I can let you in on the ultimate secret for successfully making a change in your life. A century’s worth of psychological research reveals an interesting paradox in who we are. On the one hand, once we reach adulthood our basic personalities remain unchanged for the rest of our lives. We keep doing the same things—and feeling the same ways—over and over. But, on the other hand, every day we change our behavior drastically in response to different environments. Most of us are one person at work, for example, and another person at home. It is easier to change our environment than to change ourselves. So, if you want to change yourself, change your environment. Said differently: Whenever possible, don’t try to fight temptations – avoid them! The easiest way to make a change in your life is to modify the world around you in ways that will naturally drive you toward making, and maintaining, the change you want. There are many ways to change your environment, but let’s focus...
Read more

Cancer and High Protein Diets

-
On the Fox TV Network the other night, one of the big stories was about high protein diets. A new study has shown a link between the over consumption of animal protein and how it can stimulate the growth of cancer cells. It seems we all have cancer cells but they don’t normally grow, unless we consume too much animal fat, dairy or fats from processed foods. Before I continue I want to explain about the link to cancer. After all, Man has been eating red meat for millions of years, right. That's true but todays red meat is not the same. Most red meat that we buy in the supermarket comes from Steers that have been raised in feed lots on a grain diet that is full of hormones and other chemicals that shorten the growing time and put more fat on the animal. These hormones and other chemicals stay in the meat and what you're buying will contain the chemicals that the animal ate. Normally a grass feed Steer that lives on the range in big herds will take 18 to 20 months to grow to ...
Read more