Soda
Soda has the delicious and highly addictive mixture of caffeine and sugar. Toss a diet soda in and you get the lovely addition of artificial sweeteners. Sipping on this liquid candy can be a tasty treat every once and a while but making it a part of your daily routine can have a very negative impact on your health. Regular soda intake may cause weight gain, low energy, dental cavities, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.
The impact of one can of soda-
One 12 oz can of Coca-Cola Classic has 40.5 grams of sugar. This amounts to 10 sugar cubes! Can you imagine eating ten raw sugar cubes in one sitting? Drinking one can of soda a day causes you to consume 32 pounds of sugar a year and can add up to 18 pounds of weight gain! So cut empty calories to shrink your waistline.
This fast mega dose of high-fructose corn syrup spikes your blood sugar creating strain on your pancreas to keep up with insulin production. Over time your insulin becomes desensitized to this overwhelming blood sugar. This is causing the epidemic Syndrome X and type II Diabetes.
High fructose corn syrup vs. Cane sugar
They are not the same! High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) significantly increases abdominal obesity and circulating triglycerides in studies. We see this effect not only in the lab but also in our population, since the cheaper HFCS has been substituted for cane sugar in most products. In 1970, around 15 percent of the U.S. population met the definition for obesity; today, roughly one-third of the American adults are considered obese, the CDC reported. High-fructose corn syrup is found in a wide range of foods and beverages, including fruit juice, soda, cereal, bread, yogurt, ketchup and mayonnaise. On average, Americans consume 60 pounds of the sweetener per person every year.” 1
Start today to lose weight and protect your health by not getting that refill of soda, asking for a smaller size, or avoid it all together. For more information on sugar cravings and weight loss contact Dr. Bridget @ HEAL.
References:
1. http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S26/91/22K07/ A sweet problem: Princeton researchers find that high-fructose corn syrup prompts considerably more weight gain.
2. http://biology.clc.uc.edu/scripts/popreslt.pl