Soda destroys your health. Regular soda is terrible, diet soda is worse. Juice is bad, too. Are you addicted to soda? Do you have several sodas a day?
The average American consumes 45 gallons of sugary drinks a year1-about a gallon a week-including soda, juice, “sport” drinks. See how you can quickly run into trouble?
Regular soda is liquid calories. Piling on calories. The usual sweetener, high fructose corn syrup, wreaks more havoc in your body than regular sugar. Fructose is processed by the liver, causing liver damage and fatty liver2. Fructose does not provoke an insulin response-lower insulin response means no satisfaction (reduction in hunger), so when it is mealtime, you eat the same amount. When you drink regular soda, you and your children are piling on calories, and you don’t even know it, until you have weight problems with increased health risks (heart disease, cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s dementia).
Diet soda may be worse than regular soda. Data shows that fake sweeteners are not helping people lose weight; dozens of studies conclude diet soda is linked to many of the diseases that regular soda are3 (heart disease, cancer, diabetes, etc.). In addition, the chemical sweeteners are known neurotoxins, meaning, they can kill brain cells. DIEt soda causes brain cells to DIE.
Don’t drink juice, either. Juice is concentrated sugar. Eat the fruit, don’t drink the juice4. When you eat a piece of fruit, say an apple, the small amount of sugar is slower to digest due to the fiber in the apple. Apple juice has the sugar of many apples, but no fiber. Absorption is fast, quick insulin spike, and presto, belly fat.
If you like water, your problem is solved; just drink water. However, many patients have told me they don’t like drinking water. Need help breaking your soda (or juice) habit? Try this drink.
The Soda Eliminator5
- Glass full of soda water (no flavor, only water with bubbles), some ice if you want
- Add an ounce of 100% pomegranate juice, organic if available
- Squeeze in a lemon, lime, or both
That’s it!
Patients have used it successfully to break their soda habit. If you don’t like carbonation, make the above with plain water. Sure, there is a little juice in it with sugar, but only 4 grams/oz (compared to 33 grams of sugar in a can of soda). If you want, skip the pomegranate juice and simply put lemon and/or lime in water to break your soda habit.
Another variation is to soak your favorite fruits and vegetables in water, just like Martha Stewart6 does. Mint leaves too!
P.S. Need some extra motivation? Put some rusty nails in soda for a few days and check results. Want to subject your body to that?
1. KickTheCan.info.
2. Dr. Mark Hyman. Link here.
3. Business Insider.com. Link here.
4. Fat Chance, Robert Lustig. A link to his book here.
5. Thanks to Doug Fuller for the recipe.
6. MarthaStewart.com. Link here.