Is Soda Truly That Bad For You?
As people….or I should say as human beings, we cannot go on one day without our soda, energy drinks, sports drinks, or our coffees. This just isn’t possible. We drink them every day so we can get through our crazy & hectic days.
But if you think about it, do all these drinks really have big effect on our diets? Let’s run down the facts, it has come to my attention that a regular bottle of cola can carry as much as 200 calories! This is equivalent to you drinking a cup of water with 13 packets of sugar in it! When you make these claims people say, “Well…that why there’s diet soda!” Wrong! Although diet sodas are low in calories, research has shown that actually drinking these artificially sweetened drinks may lead the person to crave more sweets. The reason behind this is that the sweetener in diet sodas contain the chemical Aspartame. This is the low calorie chemical used to give diet soda their flavor and Aspartame is said to be 180x sweeter than sugar itself. There were also animal research done on this chemical and it’s shown that high consumption of the sweetener may lead to brain tumors and lymphoma in rodents. I cannot imagine what it can do to us!
The basic concept of weight loss is very easy to grasp. In order to lose weight you need to consume fewer calories than your body burns. We gain fat by taking in more calories than our body can get rid of. The same goes for losing weight. We lose weight by consuming fewer calories than our body burns. One pound of body fat is equal to 3500 calories. This is the basis behind any weight loss program. As you know food contains calories. The reason eating too much food leads to weight gain is because you are consuming more calories than your body is able to burn.
You heard the universal recommendation to warm up before you work out. But if you’re like many people, you may pass over this step because you feel pressed for time, or think that it’s not really that important. So why don’t more of us warm up? Good question!