's motd Wed July 14, 2010 - Soda

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THIRSTY?

Wednesday, 14 July 2010

I'm still in beach mode from yesterday's message. You know, when it gets this hot, besides going to the beach, everyone runs to grab a cold, soft drink. But you know what? They're really not that "soft". Hey, I loved sodas! I grew up on soft drinks when I was a kid back in New Orleans. Our refrigerator always had a supply of Coca-Cola and 7-Up.Back in the "old days," sodas only came in bottles. And I'm telling you, I could turn up a bottle of soda and polish the whole thing off in about a 45-second long, giant swig! And I know I'm not alone, we were all raised drinking those bottles of soda pop! Did you know that the average American drinks a gallon of soda per week? And some people drink a lot more than that! (Are you one of them?)Have you been to a 7-Eleven convenience store? They have a fountain soda they call the Big Gulp. And oh how appropriate that name is. The Big Gulp contains 64 ounces of soda. That's a half-gallon all by itself!So, do you know what's in that soda you're drinking? Have you ever read the ingredients listed on that container of soda pop? You'll see corn syrup, sugar, or some other sweetener listed among the top ingredients. So let's just face it, these sodas are simply carbonated water and whatever ingredient they decided to sweeten it with. Hey, it's really like drinking a liquid candy bar if you really think about it.If you drink a gallon of soda a week, you're drinking over 1000 calories. And those calories are adding absolutely nothing in the way of nutritional value to your body. Nothing...zip! It's just a sugary sweet drink that adds pounds to your body.A lot of doctors believe there's a relationship between soda consumption and obesity in this country. And I agree with that assessment. When I talk to someone who drinks lots of sodas everyday, I ask them to try and cut their soda consumption to just one a day. And I ask them to make their ultimate goal drinking no sodas at all. By cutting back on those thousands of calories you're consuming by drinking all of those sodas, you will lose weight. But are you ready for this? Many government officials want to tax sugary beverages. As a matter of fact, 20 state and city governments are considering adding a sugar tax to sodas in an effort to get consumers to buy and drink fewer of them. As you might imagine, the major soft drink manufacturers are up in arms about this proposal. Here's how it would work.The tax would add one cent per teaspoon of sugar contained in every soft drink. Now there are ten teaspoons of sugar in every can of soft drink. That means, this tax would add 10 cents per can to the cost of that soda pop so many Americans guzzle each day. Boy, that would add up, wouldn't it?Do I think this tax would stop people from buying and drinking so much soda? Absolutely not! That's because many people are simply unwilling to give up their soda sipping habits. So, how much soda do you drink a day? I've talked to people who say they drink four or five sodas...every day! If you drink two cans of soda a day, that's 14 cans a week or about 60 cans per month. Boy, stack those sodas one on top of the other and you've got yourself a little soda can skyscraper! And if you're drinking them all, that's a lot of soda, calories and sugar.And you know your body doesn't need that much sugar either. In fact, your body needs hardly any! Too much sugar can destroy the body. It can lead to serious illnesses like diabetes or cause kidney problems. Come on, you know what you should be drinking instead of all those soft drinks. You should be drinking eight, 8-ounce glasses of water, that's what. It's a great thirst quencher and it's what your body needs when the mercury shoots up on the thermometer the way it's been doing this summer. And if you're outside a lot these days, you really need to drink more water because the heat is causing your body to lose more of it with there hot, hot, hot temps!Thirsty? Then a toast to you and your summer with a glass of ice-cold H20!Love,