Health Views - Sodas

Every day we are all trying to live healthy lives.  One of the major issues in doing so is eating healthily.  Ever so often though, we decide to 'give ourselves a break' and eat or drink something that is not the best choice for our bodies.  Consuming sodas is a very unhealthy thing.  I must admit that I fall prey to the seduction of popcorn and soda when I go to the movies, or a slice of pizza and a pop for $5.99 from a favorite restaurant.

Since we do sometimes 'fall of the wagon', let's at least know what the scrapes and bruises are that we get when we do fall; here's a look at what happens when we drink sodas 

 * 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 (rust remover!) 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 in its way into fat.

* 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 (the same effects as heroin *blank stare*)

* 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.

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

*still at 60 minutes: As the rave inside of you dies down you will start to have a sugar crash. You may become irritable and/or sluggish. You’ve also now, literally, peed away all the water that was in the Coke. But not before infusing it with valuable nutrients your body could have used, for example, the ability to hydrate your system.

Scary, right? All we need is the information and then we can begin to make the right choices for ourselves and the people we love :)