| THE BEST MEDICINEf- LAUGH! FIRST DOSE There are always two ways to look at everything, I guess. My wife and I were sitting at a table at my high school reunion last October, and I kept staring at a drunken lady swigging her drink as she sat alone at a nearby table. My wife noticed me staring and asked me, "Do you know her?". "Yes", I sighed, "She's my old girlfriend. I understand she took to drinking right after we split up those many years ago, and I hear she hasn't been sober since." "My God!" says my wife, "Who would think a person could go on celebrating that long?" Got a Joke? E-mail it to us: frontpage@collectivewizdom .com |
| THE BEST MEDICINE- LAUGH! SECOND DOSE Last night, my friend and I were sitting in the living room and I said to her, "I never want to live in a vegetative state, dependent on some machine and fluids from a bottle. If that ever happens, just pull the plug." She got up, unplugged the TV, and threw out my wine |
Diet Sodas--Are They Bad for Your
Health?
Related Links:
Diet Sodas --Bad For You?
Ideal Breakfast for Diabetics
Ideal Dinner for Diabetics
Directory of Sugar Content in Foods
Why Americans Read In Bathrooms-The Hidden Epidemic of Constipation
Bowels -3 Keys to Normal Bowels
Break Through Your Diet Plateau
How Many Calories Do I Burn
Fiber Rich Foods
Quinoa-The New Superfood?
Fish Oil Benefits-Let Me Count the Ways
A Chuckle After a Meal Lowers Blood Sugar
My Heart Attack
Fat-It's Alive!
Foods That Reduce Your Blood Pressure
Dry Mouth -Causes and Cures
Waist Size Matters
Six Pack Abs Step by Step
Americans Are Dangerously Sleep Deprived
March 7, 2009,updated July 4, 2009
By Allison Burgess, Contributing Columnist
Zero calories?! Wow! “This diet version of my favorite soft
drink is harmless,” you say to yourself. Diet sodas have become
a staple beverage for an estimated 59% of the U.S. population
according to the Calorie Control Council. Those soda tabs get
popped open time and time again in order to tame that sweet
tooth without adding the extra calories. But is that really what’
s happening?
Technically, yes. The Food and Drug Administration allows any
product with less than 5 calories per serving to be labeled as a
zero calorie product. For example, a 12 oz. Diet Coke has just
over 1 calorie. The minimal calories you consume when
drinking a diet soda are not a cause for alarm. But there are
other side effects that come along with enjoying your “calorie-
free” beverage, and consumers should learn to read between
the lines.
Artificial sweeteners are no stranger in the news. They have
been tested and retested and used in hundreds of studies, but
sufficient evidence does not exist in order to claim that any are
directly harmful to your health. You can read the latest on
artificial sweeteners in another of collectivewizdom’s articles
here.
Two major recent studies performed by Purdue University and
The University of Texas Health Science Center have shed light
on indirect effects of diet soft drinks. While Purdue focused on
rats and the University of Texas focused on humans, both
studies turned out results showing diets rich in artificial
sweeteners can lead to weight gain. Why?
Turns out it’s much harder to trick your body than you might
have believed. When you give your body a sweet fix that it
registers as sugar, it assumes that calories are part of the
package. When those calories do not appear, the body craves
even more calories than before. Therefore, these new studies
suggest that diet sodas can stimulate your appetite, causing
you to eat more and gain weight.
Let’s look at some other ingredients in diet soft drinks:
• Sodium: Few diet drinks have more than 50mg of sodium
(a little over 2% of your nutritional daily value), but that can
be just enough to worsen your thirst craving even after having
downed an entire soda. Keep in mind that no soft drink will
quench your thirst as well as water.
• Caffeine: You may feel as though the caffeine has given
you a little push in the middle of your day, but it is actually
more likely to cause fatigue once you sink down from the
expected “sugar high.” Fatigue leads to less energy which will
in turn lead to less exercise.
• Carbonation: The gas in diet sodas can cause more than
unattractive belching. When drinking a soda, carbon dioxide is
released into your intestines and stomach and can result in
painful and uncomfortable bloating. Gas in sodas has also been
linked in studies with increased bone loss, osteoporosis and
arthritis pain due to de-mineralization of your bones.
• Caramel Coloring: Past studies have shown that the
caramel coloring used in soft drinks such as Diet Coke and Diet
Pepsi can weaken the function of the immune system. Even if
there is not enough evidence to ban food coloring, it should be
understood that there is absolutely zero nutritional value in the
additives used in diet soft drinks.
So, are diet sodas bad for you? Perhaps we should end with
another question: Are they good for you? This question can be
answered with an absolute, bold NO.
Diet soft drinks contain zero nutritional value and have been
linked to only negative side effects. However, switching back to
the original Coca-Cola or Pepsi is not the answer. Try to
incorporate other beverages in your diet: water, real fruit juice,
and low-fat milk to name a few. If the change is too drastic to
make in own big swoop, then work on decreasing the number
of diet sodas in your daily diet. Studies show you will notice a
difference…for the better.
Learn more about sugar and its health effects: Sugar The
Disease Connection/ Ideal Breakfast for Diabetics/ Foods That
Lower Your Blood Sugar/ More from this Author
Break Through Your Diet Plateau
How Many Calories Do I Burn
Quinoa-The New Superfood?
Break Through Your Diet Plateau
How Many Calories Do I Burn
All material on this site (c) copyright 2007-2008 collectivewizdom.com All rights reserved.
Home > Healing Foods > You Are Here |
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| COLLECTIVE WIZDOM.COM Healthy Body, Healthy Mind, Healthy Life |