Pass On the Pop
The average American now drinks 18 ounces of soft drinks a day. Sugar sweetened drinks have become the highest source of calories in the American diet, replacing white bread, the former king of fat.
Some people have begun turning to sports drinks instead, thinking they have found a healthy alternative, but they may not realize that it's very little different than glugging a coke. Powerade hits you with 10 calories an ounce, only two behind coke's 12 calories an ounce.
Back to that 18 ounces a day. If that's the pattern of your pop habit, you should know that would add about 7,000 calories a month to your intake, which could mean a two pound a month weight gain.
Need another figure or two before you pass on the pop? David S. Ludwig can supply you with some. He and his colleagues at the Harvard School of Public Health have conducted studies and found the odds of becoming obese increase by 60% for each can a day of sweetened soft drinks.
Soda drinkers also run a higher risk of developing diabetes. Ludwig explains that people who drink lots of fruit juices don't run the same risk because of the difference between the naturally occurring sugars and the man-made high fructose corn syrup used so much in soft drinks.
Another little nugget to be aware of in the soft drink world is its effect on bone strength. Because it is often consumed instead of milk, especially by teenaged girls, data is now emerging that shows a startling trend. Teen girls who imbibe pop regularly, especially dark pops like coke Pepsi and Dr. Pepper, are five times as likely to break arms and legs in their teen years as girls who are not pop drinkers. Picture these young ladies a few decades from now, entering the osteoporosis years. Ever growing public health care costs, here we come.
Passing up on the soft drinks and opting for a glass of juice or water instead, or maybe even a little old fashioned moo-juice might be one heck of a good idea.
The question is how do we get that idea past the advertising campaigns and into the public consciousness?
Some people have begun turning to sports drinks instead, thinking they have found a healthy alternative, but they may not realize that it's very little different than glugging a coke. Powerade hits you with 10 calories an ounce, only two behind coke's 12 calories an ounce.
Back to that 18 ounces a day. If that's the pattern of your pop habit, you should know that would add about 7,000 calories a month to your intake, which could mean a two pound a month weight gain.
Need another figure or two before you pass on the pop? David S. Ludwig can supply you with some. He and his colleagues at the Harvard School of Public Health have conducted studies and found the odds of becoming obese increase by 60% for each can a day of sweetened soft drinks.
Soda drinkers also run a higher risk of developing diabetes. Ludwig explains that people who drink lots of fruit juices don't run the same risk because of the difference between the naturally occurring sugars and the man-made high fructose corn syrup used so much in soft drinks.
Another little nugget to be aware of in the soft drink world is its effect on bone strength. Because it is often consumed instead of milk, especially by teenaged girls, data is now emerging that shows a startling trend. Teen girls who imbibe pop regularly, especially dark pops like coke Pepsi and Dr. Pepper, are five times as likely to break arms and legs in their teen years as girls who are not pop drinkers. Picture these young ladies a few decades from now, entering the osteoporosis years. Ever growing public health care costs, here we come.
Passing up on the soft drinks and opting for a glass of juice or water instead, or maybe even a little old fashioned moo-juice might be one heck of a good idea.
The question is how do we get that idea past the advertising campaigns and into the public consciousness?
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