
Water vs. Soda.
Is the summer heat making you
thirsty? Do you automatically reach for a soda? Read the
stories below about the benefits of water and the dangers of
soda.
Liquid Candy
Source: Smartmouth.org
Soda pop is liquid candy. It's a sweet treat to be enjoyed occasionally,
but most people cannot fit it into a healthy diet every day.
Soft drinks (soda, "fruit" drinks, sweetened teas,
sports drinks, etc.) are the largest source of refined sugars
in Americans' diets. Would you ever sit down and eat 16 teaspoons
of sugar? That's how much sugar is in a 20-ounce bottle of soda.
That's more refined sugar than you should eat in a day (for a
typical kid eating about 2,350 calories, health experts recommend
eating no more than 13 teaspoons of refined sugar a day).
Kids who drink more sodas and other soft drinks eat more calories
and are more likely to be overweight. The calories you drink
don't seem to register as well as the calories you eat from solid
food. So when you add a 20-ounce soda to your lunch, you probably
won't make up for it later by eating 250 fewer calories of solid
food.
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Why Drink Water?
Source: Night
Thunder International
A client at Night-Thunder
International recently asked why
we had her drinking water after her session, rather then drinking
soda, diet soda, coffee or a sports drink for the reason that
she did not like to drink water. Here are some facts:
WATER
- 75% of Americans are chronically
dehydrated. (Likely applies to half the world population)
- In 37% of Americans, the thirst mechanism is so weak that
it is often mistaken for hunger.
- Even mild dehydration will slow down one's metabolism as much as 3%.
- One glass of water will shut down midnight hunger pangs for almost 100%
of the dieters studied in a U-Washington study.
- Lack of water is the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue.
- Preliminary research indicates that 8-10 glasses of water a day is capable
of significantly easing back and joint pain for up to 80% of sufferers.
- A mere 2% drop in body water is capable triggering fuzzy short-term
memory trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on the computer
screen or on a printed page.
- Drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the risk of colon cancer
by 45%, plus it is capable of slashing the risk of breast cancer by 79%,
and one is 50% less likely to develop bladder cancer.
- Water is free. Unlike a daily 20-ounce bottle of soda that will cost
you $10.00 a week, tap water costs you nothing. That's $520.00 in savings
per year!
- Water assists to prevent bladder infections. Studies indicate that
men who consume more than 10 glasses of water per day are less likely to
develop bladder infections than those that did not.
- Water helps keep your heart functioning. You have most likely heard
that your bodies are not capable of lasting more than two to three days
without water, though that you would be capable of going weeks without
food. Water is required for very basic physiologic functions such as regulating
blood pressure and body temperature, hydration and digestion (The body
requires about 1.5 milliliters of water to absorb every calorie ingested).
Humans all require to drink more water. Here are some other
facts not in Water vs Coke. The human body is about 60% water.
Your muscles and your brain are about 75% water. Your blood is
about 82% water. And your bones are about 25% water. The caffeine
is a diuretic, which makes the body rid itself of water. So,
your body requires water to survive and function properly.
One requires water to sustain one's physical and the physical
body's many vital chemical reactions and maintain correct body
temperature. Water also rehydrates you for the reason that during
a workout, water is lost as perspiration (and expired air), and
this is capable of leading to dehydration if fluids are not replaced.
Another plus, drinking water before and during physical activity
is capable of enhancing your athletic performance. It also assists
the body to eliminate waste, which in turn is capable of reducing
long-term risk of colon cancer.
According to a survey, nearly three quarters of Americans are
aware of the recommendation of drinking eight 8-ounces servings
a day, though only 34% actually drink this amount of water each
day. Most humans consume only about 6 servings of water a day
and nearly 10% declared that they do not drink water at all.
SODAS
All types of soft drinks are very acidic, especially colas,
in order to neutralise a glass of cola, it takes 32 glasses of
high pH alkaline water. It is clearly known by the medical profession
that dis-ease loves acid. In fact, a physician from Loma Linda
University declared in a speech that if we were capable of getting
our cells to maintain a normal pH (slightly alkaline), cancer
would not be capable of growing in the human body.
Active girls who drink cola drinks are five times more likely
to have had bone fractures than girls who do not drink soda,
according to a study published by Grace Wyshak of the Harvard
School of Public Health (HSPH) and Harvard Medical School (HMS)
in the June issue of the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent
Medicine.
A survey of 460 ninth and tenth grade girls found a correlation
between drinking soft drinks and having broken bones. Girls drinking
carbonated beverages were three times more likely to have a broken
bone than girls not drinking them. Prior research has found that
caffeine leaches calcium out of bones, leading to increased incidences
of osteoporosis in the long term. This study attributes immediate
damage to the phosphoric acid in colas. For more than a century
your scientists have known that workers exposed to phosphorus
suffered more broken bones. Sixteen-year-old girls currently
consume an average or two-plus 12-ounce soft drinks daily. For
boys, intake tops three 12-ounce soft drinks daily.
Francisco Contraries, M.D., of the Contraries Cancer Clinic
in Tijuana, Mexico stated, "Cancer is like a plant cell;
it can't live in an oxygen-rich environment. Cola drinks make
our bodies poor in oxygen. Cancer is the second cause of death
in America. The average American is consuming 800 or more soft
drinks annually". Be more responsible for your own life.
Doctors have no responsibility for another's health."
A three-year study of over 1,000 men with a history of kidney
stones showed: "There was a clear-cut difference in the
group's experiences, with much less renal colic in the men who
had avoided soft drinks. Of those who continued to use soft drinks,
there was also a big difference in outcome depending upon the
nature of the soft drink consumed. Soft drinks acidified with
phosphoric acid were the worst offenders. Colas of all kinds,
of course, are well known for their high phosphoric acid content."
Did you know that one of the easiest ways to lower your risk
of osteoporosis is to stop drinking colas? Colas contain phosphoric
acid, which draws calcium from your bones. And, the sugar and
caffeine in colas also have sodium-leaching effects!
The soft-drink industry as a whole has consistently portrayed
its products as being "positively" healthful, saying
they are 90% water and contain sugars found in nature.
M. Douglas Ivester, Coca-Cola's chairman and CEO, said, "Actually,
our product is quite healthy. Fluid replenishment is a key to
health....Coca-Cola does a great service because it encourages
people to take in more and more liquids." New York Times.
26 May 1998
It is a fact that soft drinks pose health risks both for the
reason that what they contain (for example, sugar and various
additives) and what they replace in the diet (beverages and foods
that provide vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients).
Nutritionally, soft drinks are low in value. Their food energy
comes solely from refined sugar. Every element of nutritional
importance, except calories, is zero. "Soft drinks have
much in common with hard liquor", claimed the co-discoverer
of insulin, Dr. Charles Best.
COFFEE
Coffee has over 1000 chemicals per cup of coffee, and 500 of
them are known carcinogens. Caffeine is a "pesticide" given
off by the bean to keep the bugs from eating it. Each cup of
coffee contains about 120 mg of caffeine. Were that amount injected
directly into your veins, you would physically die. It is a lethal
dose. The rush you get from your coffee is your body speeding
up your metabolism to rid itself of this poison, and your body
steals water from everywhere to help flush the caffeine out.
Please note that the International Olympic Committee has outlawed
the use of caffeine for its events. Caffeine's harmful diuretic
effects appear to outweigh any potential performance benefits.
To protect themselves from the caffeine, women's bodies use calcium
to neutralise it. You lose about 5 milligrams of calcium for
every six ounces of coffee, or two cans of caffeinated soda.
SPORTS DRINKS
Sports drinks that contain a carbohydrate level greater than
8% or 2 gm/oz hinder the absorption of fluids into the body,
thus having a perceived negative effect on the human body. Gatorade
and 10-K are two sports drinks that do not exceed recommended
carbohydrate levels. Fruit juices have high levels of carbohydrates
varying from 10% to 17%, so if one prefers to use fruit juice
instead of water, than it ought to be diluted with water by 50%.
Though where to consume water or sports drinks really depends
on three things:
- The type
- The amount of exertion you are getting,
- The heat, and your
own body.
In general, water is unsurpassed. After all, humans and almost
all other land animals except a few rare desert species have
evolved to thrive on water, not sports drinks. However, in certain
situations, usually when doing prolonged and strenuous activity
in hot weather, you may sweat so much that your body's electrolyte
balance is compromised. That is when sports drinks come in.
Hyponatremia is a dangerous condition in which hikers sweat
so much that their electrolytes go out of whack. It usually occurs
when strenuous exercise takes place in extreme heat, and it is
more common among ultra-endurance athletes and high-mileage long-distance
hikers than among casual day hikers, although day hikers are
capable of being affected in places where it is common for people
to overextend themselves in severe heat. Drinking water alone
does not solve the problem. In fact, drinking too much water
after depleting your electrolytes actually makes things more
serious.
Caffeinated drinks (tea, coffee, some sodas) are definitely
an unclear idea in hot weather, for the reason that they are
diuretics. That means that they actually contribute to dehydration.
They are not such a hot idea in cold weather either, for the
reason that caffeine is capable of contributing to hypothermia.
The sports drinks vs. water debate rages on: Water will always
be an excellent fluid replacer for most recreational athletes
who exercise for less than 60 to 90 minutes. Water is inexpensive,
readily available, popular and what your body requires most.
It settles comfortably and does a fine job of replacing sweat
losses.
According to the Ohio State University Medical Center dietitian
Beth Miller, there is no advantage to drinking sports drinks
unless you are exercising for less than a solid hour.
Sports drinks are high in calories. Using them to "replenish" without
exercising sufficiently are capable of actually leading to weight
gain.
Obesity increases the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular dis-ease
and causes severe social and psychological problems in millions
of Americans. Between 1971-74 and 1988-94, obesity rates in teenage
boys soared from 5% to 12% and in teenage girls from 7% to 11%.
Among adults, between 1976-80 and 1988-94, the rate of obesity
jumped by one-third, from 25% to 35%.
Many beverages, including water, provide water for the body
to prevent dehydration. However, many substances in beverages
(as opposed to water) have a large effect on how well your body
retains this water as well as other side effects. Without listing
them all, there are obvious limitations to drinking alcoholic
beverages (due to ethanol), soda (due to sugar and synthetics),
etc. In addition, there are times due to hot weather or health
conditions that preclude the consumption of certain beverages.
When your body enters a state of ketosis it is extremely important
during this time to drink plenty of water to flush out the ketones
in your system.
Ketones are produced by the liver through metabolism of fatty
acids. They are produced to provide a ready energy source from
stored lipids at times of low carbohydrate availability. Though
ketone bodies are always present in your body, levels increase
to meet your extra energy requirements when you are fasting,
involved in prolonged exercise, or release of "JUNK." Drinking
water assists you to flush out the ketones from your system
Water also assists to flush other toxins out of your system,
especially in the beginning when your body is still detoxing.
Water assists to flush out your kidneys, which is especially
important part of healing.
Water also dilutes the bile in the gallbladder. After years
and years of low fat diets your gallbladder is not used to working
all that hard anymore.
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