Sugar, Sugar, Sugar
Happy Halloween!
I'm dressing up as Napoleon Dynamite because
if any of you have seen my freshman year picture from high
school, you'd think that they modeled Napoleon after me!
Sometimes I get questions sent in from
out there in the cyberworld and so instead of answering them
for just one person to read, I figured I'd give you all the
privilege of getting the answers!
This week, Francisca writes:
"I used to drink a lot of sodas but I switched
to juices and water. Will drinking a lot of juice effect my
ability to lose weight? I see that they're higher in calories
and carbs than diet sodas."
Francisca, I'm glad you've stopped drinking
soda.
A 20 oz bottle of Soda has at least 250
calories and ALL of them are from sugar. When you overload
your body with that much sugar your insulin levels get out
of whack and your blood sugar rises. This can cause inability
to focus, hyperactivity (yes, in adults as well) and eventually
can lead to obesity, diabetes, osteoporosis, and, of course,
cavities.
Sodas also have caffeine which is not only
addictive, but it also is a diuretic. This means if you are
drinking soda and not enough water, you are really asking
to be dehydrated.
Chronic dehydration is the cause of slow
body functioning and hundreds of ailments and illnesses. Many
of which could be cured by just drinking more clean, filtered
water to bring back your proper hydration levels... but don't
tell the FDA I said that!
Now on to juice...
The food industry has led us to believe
that juices that we find on the supermarket shelves are good
for us. They are not.
Juices on the shelves of the A & P, Piggly
Wiggly and local IGA are loaded with sugar, pasteurized, contain
pesticides and essentially are stripped of all their natural
nutrients.
Juice, soda... there's really no difference
here--minus the caffeine.
All the calories from the juice are from
sugars as well. So it is certainly not going to help you lose
weight.
So, should you drink juice at all?
Not from the supermarket...
Here are some of the things you'll read
on the juice label and how you should interpret them:
Sugar, High Fructose Corn Syrup: These
are sugars added directly to the juice to make it sweeter.
Plain and simple.
Pear Juice or Grape Juice from Concentrate:
These are natural sugars that are concentrated to pack an
extra sugary boost. Don't be fooled by the names... they are
still sugars in a concentrated form... which always is too
much sugar.
All Natural: Yes, "All Natural" sounds
good, but here's the issue. The "All Natural" apples in your
apple juice, could be loaded with pesticides and other chemicals
that are used in the production process. "All Natural" just
means that the ingredients have been grown... it's not by
any means an indication of how they were grown!
Pasteurized: This means the juice was heated
to destroy bacteria. Unfortunately, heating also destroys
many vitamins as well. Which is why they take the next step.
Enriched: Some juices are enriched... which
means that after they've been pasteurized and stripped of
all their vitamins, they add those vitamins back to the juice.
This is not necessarily a bad thing. What you need to be aware
of is three things:
(1) Fruits are perfectly harmonized, which
means that each nutrient in a fruit has its natural counterpart.
Any enriched juice is just a scientific guess as to what works
with what.
(2) The vitamins they add are likely to
be synthetic, which are created in a lab, not in the woods.
(3) Your body may not assimilate the vitamins
at all. That means you don't take any of it in... it just
goes in and, just as fast, goes out.
Yes, you can drink organic juice. This
will assure you that there is nothing funky in the juice,
but beware... they are still pasteurized and still loaded
with sugar. Organic pear juice concentrate and pear juice
concentrate are pretty much the same thing... sugar.
Is there any hope?!?! Yes.
The best type of juices to drink are freshly
juiced and organic.
These juices are packed with the vitamins
and minerals that you need. They are as close to the actually
composition of the fruit as possible.
If it's in your budget, buy a juicer and
start experimenting with different fruits--apples, pears,
watermelon, pineapple, etc. The taste of these are unbelievable.
You'll wonder why you ever bothered to buy juice from the
store in the first place!
Seems like a lot, so first before any of
you get overwhelmed... all I'm going to suggest to you is
that you start by getting familiar with the labels on what
you are buying. You'll begin to recognize some of the things
I'm talking about. Once you've seen them enough, then you
can start buying organic, or consider getting a juicer.
Take it slow and you'll get there! Believe
me, that's how I did it! Hope that makes sense...
Diet soda is a completely different beast
and I'll tackle that one in a week or so.
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