No More Soda!!!

Whatever brand you drink, soda is bad news for your health. The average US citizen drinks around 18 ounces of sugary soda every day. According to a 2005 study by the US department of health soda drinks have become the biggest source of empty calories in the United States.

Some people think they are being healthy by consuming 'energy drinks' or 'sports drinks' but unless you are running a marathon these drinks will still make you fat as they have plenty of empty calories in them (even though the models selling them may be sleek and athletic)

If you drink a 12 ounce can of coke, that's roughly a cup full of simple sugar. Since processed sugars break down very quickly, your blood sugar spikes, which in turn tells your body to stop burning fat for energy. And since there's no nutrition in a can of coke, all you get are these "empty calories".

Soda Does More Than Just Make You Fat

Drinking too much soda causes:

• Energy dips and symptoms of depression
• Massive dehydration with all the problems that causes.
• Addictive like binging and craving linked to the come down after having a sugar high and craving to take on more sugar again.
• High blood pressure
• Inability to focus and concentrate
• Rotting of the teeth
• Cola confuses the appetite regulating systems in the body leading to increased appetite and weight gain (above and beyond the fat encouraging sugars in the soda itself)
• Regular soda drinking attacks the marrow in the bones making them weaker and encourages organ breakdown leading to potentially life threatening diabetes.
• Weakening of the bones in a study of 460 high schoolers in 2000, research at the Harvard School of Public Health found that girls who drank carbonated soft drinks were three times as likely to break their arms and legs as those who consumed other drinks.
• Rapid aging of the skin and body generally.

So drinking soda is not a good idea, whether it's Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Dr pepper's, 7up or one of the many so called 'sports drinks' it's bad news.

All the advertising and ritual all play their part to keep you hooked. Advertisers subtly imply that by drinking their soda you'll get a certain lifestyle. They do this by having great looking models, like Jessica Simpson, drinking their sodas. But what they don't tell you is that even celebrities experience the "negative" side effects of caffeinated drinks.

Then there is the ritual element. You get a craving you go to the fridge and you see a container with certain colors and logos on it. This becomes ritualistic and if you do anything enough times it starts to feel natural and right-even though it is anything but natural and right.

Bottom Line: Drink More Water!!!

Without water, your body would stop working properly. Water makes up more than half of your body weight and a person can't survive for more than a few days without it. Why? Your body has lots of important jobs and it needs water to do many of them. For instance, your blood, which contains a lot of water, carries oxygen to all the cells of your body. Without oxygen, those tiny cells would die and your body would stop working.

In addition to being an important part of the fluids in your body, each cell depends on water to function normally.

Your body can help you stay properly hydrated by regulating the amount of water in your system. The body can hold on to water when you don't have enough or get rid of it if you have too much. For example, if your urine has ever been very light yellow, your body might have been getting rid of excess water. On the other hand, when your urine is very dark yellow, it is holding on to water, so it's probably time to drink up!

You can help your body by drinking when you're thirsty and drinking extra water when it's warm out. Your body will be able to do all of its wonderful, "Waterful" jobs and you'll feel great!