Soda vending machines, a thing of the past?

This move is a good one from the standpoint of the “war on soda.” Governments are coming to realize that soda, when consumed excessively, are along the lines of cigarettes in that they are very unhealthy and lead to a shortened lifespan and decreased standard of living.

We applaud San Francisco’s ban on regular soda and restrictions on diet soda and hope to see other municipalities follow suit.

Read more: Sugary-drink ban starts to affect S.F. sites

Researchers studied over 59,000 Danish pregnant women from 1996 to 2002. The women were evaluated during their pregnancy via a written exam, one of the questions gauging their diet soda intake. The expectant mothers who consumed at least one diet soft drink per day were found to have an increased likelihood, 38% more likely, of pre-term birth than the non-diet soda drinking mothers. If they drank four or more drinks per day they were 78% more likely. Those are some pretty scary numbers.

The study was authored by Halldorsson TI, Strøm M, Petersen SB and Olsen SF and is titled Intake of artificially sweetened soft drinks and preterm delivery: a prospective cohort study of 59,334 Danish pregnant women. It was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2010.

Read more: Midwives Magazine

Zevia is being introduced in six flavors: ZEVIA Natural Cola, ZEVIA Natural Orange, ZEVIA Natural Twist, ZEVIA Natural Root Beer, ZEVIA Natural Black Cherry and ZEVIA Natural Ginger Ale.

The ingredient used to replace sugar, stevia, is an herb native to South and Central America. Stevia’s taste has a slower onset than sugar, which may put off some Zevia drinkers. Without actually trying some, it would be hard to say.

You can get Zevia at Whole Foods or many other locations.

Glad to see some soda alternatives out there made from natural substances!

More on Zevia Soda.

Interesting article over at The Wichita Eagle.

“I believe soda is the next tobacco,” said Barry Popkin, director of the University of North Carolina’s Interdisciplinary Obesity Center and author of “The World Is Fat,” published this year.

Soda drinkers haven’t achieved pariah status like smokers before them, but proposed sugar taxes and social pressure to be healthy can put a damper on doing the Dew — and even some in the growing ranks of diet pop drinkers are feeling soda shame.

Although I am NOT a proponent of taxing beverages of any kind, the article does raise a good question. When consumers drink soda excessively, which leads to obesity and other health problems, and do not have health insurance coverage, can the rest of the taxpayers be expected to foot the healthcare bill? Would it be wise to target a main source of obesity and spread the tax burden over those who are consuming soda?

These are all good questions that I think, from a tax perspective, go back to whether you think the government should have a hand in healthcare and what kind of ‘distribution of wealth’ should occur.

I recently drove past the Pottstown Memorial Medical Center and saw a group of 5 or 6 staff members smoking across the street (so they could be off hospital property), looking like total outcasts. Part of me said “Good, they should quit smoking anyway and get the message” but the other part felt bad for them.

Since soda doesn’t have “second hand effects”, I do not think that soda drinkers will go the way of the tobacco smoker, but there will probably be an increasing social stigma to consumers of the sugary beverage (and the diet aspartame replacement).

• Take baby steps. If you drink four sodas per day, replace two with an alternative today.
• Make alternatives slowly. Start with diet soda, then switch to flavored water.
• Once you’ve gotten comfortable with this routine, replace your other sodas with an alternative.
• Still alive? Great! Now switch those diet sodas or flavored water to plain water. Don’t like plain water? Try adding fresh fruit to them.
• Experiment with other beverages like teas, milk, soy milk, and seltzer – the goal here is to hydrate mostly with plain water.
• Don’t keep soda in the house. Make it a treat to be enjoyed now and then.

I am on the step where I have replaced soda with flavored water. Although the chemicals that make up the composition of these flavors (such as 4C “Energy Rush” drinks) doesn’t agree with me – it is a step in the right direction.

Never liked the taste of Diet Soda so I was able to skip that step!

Source: Diet Blog

A steady, litres-per-day diet of colas can cause serious muscle problems, doctors warned in a study Tuesday.

A review of clinical cases showed that super-sized doses of soft drinks loaded with processed sugars and caffeine can cause potassium levels in the blood to plummet, giving rise to a condition known as hypokalaemia.

Small changes in potassium levels can profoundly effect the functioning of the body’s cardiovascular and neuromuscular systems.

Typical symptoms of hypokalaemia are decreased muscle strength, cramping, palpitations and nausea.

In more extreme cases, potassium deficiency can lead to heart trouble and profound paralysis.

“We are consuming more soft drinks than ever before and a number of health issues have already been identified,” including tooth decay, loss of bone mass, and diabetes,  said Moses Elisaf, a doctor at the University of Ioannina in Greece and main architect of the study.

“Excessive cola consumption can also lead to hypokalaemia, causing an adverse effect on vital muscle functions,” he said in a statement. [emphasis added]

So in addition to making you fat, drinking soda excessively can also make you weak. Yet another reason why you should stop drinking soda!

Source: Canada.com

In The First 10 minutes: 10 teaspoons of sugar hit your system. (100% of your recommended daily intake.) You don’t immediately vomit from the overwhelming sweetness because phosphoric acid cuts the flavor allowing you to keep it down.

20 minutes: Your blood sugar spikes, causing an insulin burst. Your liver responds to this by turning any sugar it can get its hands on into fat. (There’splenty of that at this particular moment)

40 minutes: Caffeine absorption is complete. Your pupils dilate, your blood pressure rises, as a response your livers dumps more sugar into your bloodstream. The adenosine receptors in your brain are now blocked preventing drowsiness.

45 minutes: Your body ups your dopamine production stimulating the pleasure centers of your brain. This is physically the same way heroin works, by the way.

>60 minutes: The phosphoric acid binds calcium, magnesium and zinc in your lower intestine, providing a further boost in metabolism. This is compounded by high doses of sugar and artificial sweeteners also increasing the urinary excretion of calcium.

>60 Minutes: The caffeine’s diuretic properties come into play. (It makes you have to pee.) It is now assured that you’ll evacuate the bonded calcium, magnesium and zinc that was headed to your bones as well as sodium, electrolyte and water.

>60 minutes: As the rave inside of you dies down you’ll start to have a sugar crash. You may become irritable and/or sluggish. You’ve also now, literally, pissed away all the water that was in the Coke. But not before infusing it with valuable nutrients your body could have used for things like even having theability to hydrate your system or build strong bones and teeth.

As you can see, your body goes through some pretty drastic changes. Many valuable nutrients are lost; while the body converts much of the sugar into fat.

[ via healthbolt ]