STOP Drinking Pop!

HA! This seems a bit funny to me, because I have to take this advice myself. I am addicted to coke. I admit it. Now, in saying that, I haven’t had a coke in over three months, but I am addicted. Just like self-professed alcoholics that attend AA are told to NEVER EVER touch a drop of alcohol again, I need to keep away from coke. I drink one, and suddenly I’m on my fifth. I love it! That delicious, wonderful brown sugar, oops, I mean fizzy beverage feels SooOooOoOOoOooOooOoo good swishing around in my mouth, that I simply cannot stop drinking it. But only once I start. I can go cold turkey for years. Seriously. One year I decided to make it a New Year’s resolution that I would not drink any coke for a year. I did it, easily. I have to admit that I had other pop though, (usually 7-up) but I wasn’t addicted, it was just an occasional one at parties (in punch) or different picnics or outings.

MY NEW YEARS RESOLUTION ABOUT POP

The following year, I decided that I would make it another New Year’s resolution to not have ANY pop for a whole year. And I succeeded. If you know anything about me at all, it’s that I mean what I say. If I say I’m going to do something, I do it. If you don’t have integrity, what do you have? So – I do not make frivolous random resolutions about stuff. I ONLY say what I mean.

The year came and went, so the following New Year’s eve I made another resolution – NO pop for another year. Seriously, I didn’t have a drop of ANY pop for another whole year. Pretty good huh! Well, I have to admit those years of amazing willpower came to an end. I decided that I really wanted to have pop once in a while, and I didn’t want to break my word, so I just stopped making the resolution.

DO YOU HAVE SELF CONTROL?

I probably have less than 30 cans per year. That’s less than 3 pops per month. Hardly anything, really. The same goes for alcohol. I rarely drink. Do I really need to consume all those liquid calories? No. However, sometimes you WANT to have something that you enjoy, and really, is there anthing nicer than an ICE cold coke, especially while gulping down your favorite pizza? (steak and mushroom melt from Panago) MmMmMMmMM, I have to admit, even writing about coke right now makes me want to go buy one and gulp it down. Must.Resist.Must.Resist.Must.Resist.Must.Resist. AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

(Don’t worry, I resisted)

DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH SUGAR IS IN POP?

Pop has so much sugar in it, it’s insane. I once had a recipe book that listed all the major soft drinks, and then a picture of how much sugar was in each. I was floored. Did you know, that a child drinking a Mountain Dew is the equivalent of a CHILD drinking twelve cups of coffee? INSANE! Now, would any reasonable parent let their child drink 12 cups of coffee? I don’t think so! But yet they let their child drink a whole can of pop! (I’m guilty of this – but thankfully it was never Mountain Dew)

So, the point of this post is to tell you to STOP drinking pop. Stop your kids from having pop. Or at least, if you let them have it as a treat once in a while, pour out a teeny tiny little bit, and for the love of God, do NOT let them drink a whole can. It’s just so unhealthy to eat that much sugar. Do you know what happens to your body when you consume a pop? I bet you don’t know, so check out this picture below. Of course I had to use a coke illustration, because I LOVE COKE, and I want the WORLD TO KNOW! Ah ha ha, oh sorry, let me get ahold of myself here. Um ya, STOP DRINKING POP I tell you! (donna forces herself to stop thinking about an ice-cold can of Coke)

WHAT HAPPENS TO YOUR BODY AFTER DRINKING COKE

As you can see, pop is so unhealthy for you. Now, I know there aren’t very many people out there with an iron-clad grip on their willpower, and some of you are going to drink pop regardless of what I’ve written, or what this picture shows. But hey – you COULD limit how much pop you drink. Try to make it less than one a week. That’s a start! And once you lose your craving for the sugary stuff, you will be able to limit it to even less. Try to drink healthier today!

SPORTS DRINKS ARE UNHEALHTY TOO

But – there is a caveat in here too. Not only is pop unhealthy, so are sports drinks, energy drinks, and some juices. They have far more sugar than pop. So, let’s just sum it up and say AVOID drinks that have an insane amount of sugar in them. I need to also share some bad news right now. Did you know that there are 56 different names for sugar? FIFTY SIX people! That’s also completely insane.

So, – if you are going to keep an eye out on what you put into your body, and an eye out on what you’re going to let your children consume, this is the comprehensive list of what NOT to buy if it’s listed as an ingredient. Heck – just drink water, and then you don’t have anything to worry about at all!

THERE ARE 56 TYPES OF SUGAR5

1. Sugar/Sucrose

2. High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS)

3. Agave Nectar

4. Beet sugar

5. Blackstrap molasses

6. Brown sugar

7. Buttered Syrup

8. Cane Juice Crystals

9. Cane Juice

10. Caramel
11. Carob Syrup

12. Castor Sugar

13. Coconut Sugar

14. Confectioner’s Sugar (Icing Sugar)

15. Date Sugar

16. Demerara Sugar

17. Evaporated Cane Juice

18. Florida Crystals

19. Fruit Juice

20. Fruit Juice Concentrate

21. Golden Sugar (brown sugar)

22. Golden Syrup

23. Grape Sugar

24. Honey

25. Molasses

26. Muscovada Sugar

27. Panela Sugar

28. Raw Sugar

29. Refiner’s Sugar

30. Sorghum Syrup

31. Sucanat

32. Treacle Sugar

33. Turbinado Sugar

34. Yellow Sugar

35. Barley Malt

36. Brown Rice Syrup

37. Corn Syrup

38. Corn Syrup Solids

39. Dextrin

40. Dextrose

41. Diastatic Malt

42. Ethyl Maltol

43. Glucose

44. Glucose Solids

45. Lactose

46. Malt Syrup

47. Maltodextrin

48. Maltose

49. Rice Syrup

50. Crystalline Fructose

51. Fructose

52. D-ribose

53. Galactose

54. Icing Sugar

55. Invert Sugar

56. Maple Syrup

REDUCE YOUR SUGAR INTAKE

Wow huh. My head is spinning, how bout yours? I have been consciously avoiding sugar these last few months, and I have to say that I feel GREAT! I feel FANTASTIC! Every morning I feel like a MILLION BUCKS! I have lost the tired “head foggy” feeling in the morning, and I’m not so tired all the time. And that is all due to my reduced sugar intake. I would suggest that if you are struggling, and are always tired, try to eliminate sugar out of your diet and see if it makes a difference to you. I bet it will. Start with your high sugar beverages first, they do the most damage. Then start eliminating foods that are notoriously high in sugar, including a family staple: Ketchup. Seriously, it’s more than half sugar. Yes, yes, it tastes yummy, but that’s due to all the sugar in eat. Check out this picture!

Okay, I have to stop myself now. This is an article about stop drinking POP! So, there you have it. Sugar is yummy, sugar is nice, but ultimately, sugar is EVIL and bad for your body.

Now that I’ve inundated you with a sugar list – guess what else pop has in it, and guess what else it can cause in your body? Once you read this list, I’m sure you’ll want to stop drinking it:

THE DANGER OF DRINKING POP

It has toxic chemicals in it, (think artificial caramel colouring), it can lower fertility, it can increase your risk of stroke, it can boost your bad cholesterol, it can make you dependent on sugar, it could lead to diabetes, it creates belly fat, it increases your blood pressure, it erodes your teeth enamel, it’s high in calories, it can make you age faster, it can harm your kidneys, it can contribute to child obesity, it increases your heart disease risk, it can make you fatter, it’s a main source of calories, it makes muscles weaker, it can cause you to eat unhealthily, it can increase the risk of pancreatic cancer, it makes your organs fat, it increases hunger, in can increase your risk of gout, it can cause lung problems, it can shorten your life span, it can cause mental decline, it can spur periods (females) sooner, it’s sugar-laden, (DOH!) it can weaken your bones, it can make your cells age faster, and the FINAL thing is that it can cause issues for you in less than 2 weeks. That’s HORRIBLE! Now, even looking at what I just typed above, I want to avoid pop at all costs. It’s one thing to read about it, but when you realize the damage it could cause, do we really want to do that to our own bodies? I certainly don’t. Nope. I’d rather be healthy, thank you very much.

Slow down your pop consumption to a crawl, and gradually eliminate it. If you like fizzy, buy a soda stream (Bath, Bed and Beyond have them for sure) and fizz up your water. Add a slice of lemon or lime to flavor it, and drink away. Your body will love you for it!

And that’s the end of my pop rant for today.