Well, I can’t use this this as an excuse for my rotundness. I’ve been drinking (hint, hint: subtle plug to get a free, year’s supply) Diet Pepsi for decades.
Soda Targeted in Fight Against Obesity – Yahoo! News
Low-fat, low-cal, low-carb. Atkins, South Beach, The Zone. Food fads may be distracting attention from something more insidiously piling on pounds: beverages.
One of every five calories in the American diet is liquid. The nation’s single biggest “food” is soda, and nutrition experts have long demonized it.
Now they are escalating the fight.
In reports to be published in science journals this week, two groups of researchers hope to add evidence to the theory that soda and other sugar-sweetened drinks don’t just go hand-in-hand with obesity, but actually cause it. Not that these drinks are the only cause — genetics, exercise and other factors are involved — but that they are one cause, perhaps the leading cause.
Biologically, the calories from sugar-sweetened beverages are fundamentally different in the body than those from food.
The main sweetener in soda — high-fructose corn syrup — can increase fats in the blood called triglycerides, which raises the risk of heart problems, diabetes and other health woes.
When my kid was about seven months old I gave him his first sip of Coke at a shopping mall. He drank the rest of the cup which was about a quarter filled (with ice) when I gave it to him. When he sipped more but got none out of the straw he let out a wale I had never heard him do before since he was born. I mean this kid cried like if the mall was crashing down. Holy shit! I had no other choice but to get another cola drink before this kid died in his own screaming.
That’s one helluva formula they invented. I’m still drinking it. My kid probably will too. Actually, if I were on death row, that would be my last request: a coke and fry.
Fine. Let’s ban soft drinks. If we can’t buy it, we can’t drink it. More healthy drinks for everyone! Access is certainly part of the problem. I can buy a soda on every floor of this 12 story building I work in, but if I want bottled water or fruit juice, the closest vendor is two blocks away. I don’t mind the walk but it does take a chunk of time out of the day.
One could wonder why anyone would care all that much about drinking soft drinks. And then we read:
“In reality, proving this would be a scientific leap that could help make the case for higher taxes on soda….”
“Scientific leaps” to promote agendas.. always a dangerous mix.
Here’s what the researchers aren’t telling you: triglyceride is just another name for fat. So they’re saying that the corn syrup , which is made up of mostly fructose and glucose, creates more glucose and fructose in our bodies, and glucose and fructose are what make up fat, along with glycerin. So, really, what they’re saying is that consuming glucose and fructose increase the levels of glucose and fructose in the blood system.
Absolute genius. I’m so glad they have graced us with their superior knowlege…
Oh.. and what do you want to bet that Diet Soda will be taxed too… as a “gateway” to the hard stuff.
Personally I’m thiniing of experimenting with putting meat through a juicer and adding carbonated water.
This is one of those ‘no duh’ things. You mean a beverage that is 200 calories with no nutritional value is bad for me? I, for one, am shocked.
As far as I can tell, this is another one of those upbringing things. If you don’t give your kids soda pop, they won’t think it’s part of a ‘healthy diet’. Is it really such a chore to keep water in the fridge instead? Think of it as economizing.
(Obviously when they grow up they can get it at school, but never seeing it around the house, and never seeing their parents drinking it, really does have an effect.)
(Juice, by the way, is not much better, particularly because most ‘juice’ people consume is fruit-flavored sugar-water.)
bah, I can’t drink sugared soda anymore….my taste-buds have aclimated to diet cola now. No way could I ever go back. I can’t even drink those Pepsi One’s because they’re too sweet.
Also, remind me never to post something without sending it through the spell checker. Ignore the totally slaughtered spellings of my post above.
As you were….
I was raised with a diabetic mother, so I am very used to diet sodas. Now that I no longer have the metabolism of a 17 year old, I choose to eat my calories, not drink them. (a can of Coke has 110 calories. Even at a bar, I tend to use diet mixers or soda water. That being said, regulation, banning, or even lawsuits against these products is ridiculous. While I try to be healthy in general, I feel I have the absolute RIGHT to go out and eat a double whopper with cheese if I so desire.
Scott, I’m with you. Can’t stand the sweetness of the new splenda diet coke. Give me nutrisweet baby!!! And coke just puts that sugar coating on your teeth. eeew
Actually, I didn’t know about other beverages, but I knew about the soda, until I talked to a nutritionist.
I drink a lot of liquids, and didn’t really think too much about calorie counting in fruit drinks after I quit drinking soda. But I was drinking apple juice and orange juice with my meals — even the natural marketed stuff was bad for me. I was working out, and eating proper — but I wasn’t dropping calories because I wasn’t factoring in all that ‘healthy’ liquids. Once I stopped that stuff, was back to my normal weight in a month or so, and haven’t had a problem since. It’s my own stupid fault, but no one ever said they’d be an area of so much calorie intake, and I never thought about it.
How about we just cut the subsidies off?
“You wouldn’t give heroin to a four-year-old. (At least, we assume so, you sick fuck.) But you don’t hesitate to jack that kid up with heroic doses of the most successful recreational drug in the history of mankind, sugar — a highly addictive, mood-altering, health-threatening substance that encourages antisocial behavior. (And after you get that kid hopped up on sugar, you have to give him Ritalin to get him to sit still. You sick fuck.)”
“If you are not convinced of that sugar is a drug, we suggest you eat several tablespoons of the substance on an empty stomach.”
http://www.rotten.com/library/crime/drugs/sugar/
“The U.S. corn industry (easily the world leader) gets $5.5 BILLION in federal subsidies, an ample amount of which is kicked back to politicians in the form of campaign contributions, thus perpetuating a system in which the national interest is heavily invested in creating more and more and MORE avenues through which to feed corn to an unsuspecting public.”
http://www.rotten.com/library/medicine/corn/
As usual evil begats evil.
Thank you Steve! Actually Rotten Library is chock full of great information.
http://www.rotten.com/library/
As to the rest… I don’t go there.
J. #10
Yes, people should have the right to eat and drink whatever they wish to. But they don’t have the right to make me pay for their healthcare costs brought on by those poor nutritional habits.
This is just like smokers crying because somebody would dare charge them more for health insurance than a non-smoker.
Meat, beer and chocolate. That’s all you need. Who needs soda?
I am totally a Diet Pepsi junkie. and I was not raised on the sugared stuff. In my house, soda (6 packs of those glass deposit bottles) was only for “special” occasions – i.e. Mom and Dad were leaving us with a babysitter for the evening. so, as soon as I had my own money, I was buying soda. switched to the diet stuff as soon as it became palatable, since there was no way I was going to guzzle down 1600 calories a day in high-fructose corn syrup!
Reefer, women and a bottle of wine with those things you do not need anymore.
tilde (no squiggly accent on my keyboard), I agree, kids learn mostly by watching. My kid’s mother does not have soda in the refrigerator, and does not give it to him outside either (I’m the culprit–though if I have to, I’ll get him a non-caffeine soda). She makes a “healthy” soda by mixing seltzer with 100% juice (orange, grape, cranberry, pomegranate,etc.). Though the calories are still there, the corn is out. Hope that doesn’t sound corny.
What in the world kind of keyboard doesn’t have a tilde?
oh shoot, you’re right Me… never used it and when I glanced at my keyboard I didn’t see it. After you mentioned it, I saw it!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
🙂