Skip the soda to stay at a healthy weight

How much harm can one little soda do?

Turns out, it’s the little things that add up to a wider waistline. A new Harvard study shows that small habits add up to big weight gains over the long term. The study draws on data from over 100,000 people collected over a 20 year period.

The news from this massive study is really that there is no news. The big culprits for gradual weight gain aren’t surprising. Drinking soda every day will pack on the pounds. Ditto eating potato chips. Watching TV makes you gain weight, increasing your physical activity prompts you to lose it. Getting enough sleep is paramount.

Continue reading »

Tweet

1

Pin It

What happened to using the drinking fountain?

Healthy foods taking on the guise of junk foods seems to be a trend these days.  First baby carrots got wrapped in chip packaging and are being sold in school vending machines.  Now plain old H2O is filling slick plastic bottles with bright neon colors so that kids will think arecool.  (Yeah, cuz grown-ups are so above clever branding.  Ahem.)

Peter H. Gleick, founder of the Pacific Institute, has written an expose on the bottled water industry for the Huffington Post, and in it he claims bottled water is being marketed to kids ”through an advertising campaign masquerading as a “health” program.”  He says Wat-aah! brand bottled water is “being pushed as an anti-obesity alternative” with it’s tagline “Healthy Hydration in the Nation.”  It’s true that schools are trying to cut down on the availability of high-calorie drinks like soda and chocolate milk, but at what expense?  Gleick says tap water is “far, far cheaper and equally clean” as bottled water, and notes that as a nation, despite Mrs. Obama’s and Jamie Oliver’s best efforts, “we’re NOT drinking less soda and sugar — we’re drinking less tap water and MORE bottled water and soda.” Continue reading »

Tweet

0

Pin It

Recently, my mother quit soda cold turkey. This may sound like no big deal, but to those who know her, it was the biggest of deals.  What made her finally give up the bottle for good was a neighbor with car trouble.  When he borrowed a can of her beloved Coke to clean the his corroded battery cables, she had an epiphany:  Anything strong enough to eat through that gunk cannot be good for the human body.

She’s right, of course. Most of us know that soda isn’t good for us or our children.  But do you have any idea just how bad it really is?  Ashely M. Jones, of Pharmacy Technician Certification, does.  On her blog, she’s written what she calls “10 Seriously Disturbing Facts About Soda.”  Amazing battery-cleaning powers did not make the list, but here’s what did: Continue reading »

Tweet

8

Pin It

Two proposals released by a federal working group earlier this week could lead to curbs on the marketing of unhealthy foods to children.

The group issued the proposals, which are not binding, in response to growing concerns that the marketing of junk food to children is contributing to the obesity epdemic and increasing health care costs.

According to a 2008 Federal Trade Commission report, Continue reading »

Tweet

4

Pin It

Add choking hazard to the long list of reasons to keep your kids away from soda.  According to Dr. Lane F. Donnelly, radiologist in chief at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, those supposedly safe stay-tabs on soda cans aren’t s0 safe after all.

First introduced in 1975, stay-tabs were intended to prevent the accidental swallowing that can occur with removable can pull tabs.  Because they stay attached to the can when opened, these stay-tabs not only can’t be swallowed, they also can’t become roadside litter.  But those tabs aren’t really permanently attached to the cans.  Wiggle one around and it will come off.  And this, says Dr. Donnelly, is how the tabs are ending up inside the bodies of children. Continue reading »

Tweet

3

Pin It

If you think you are making a better choice for your kids by serving fruit juice instead of soda, you are only partially right.  Drinks such as orange juice, apple juice and grape juice may offer more vitamins, minerals and other nutrients than soda, but they also contain a lot of fructose, high levels of which have been linked to heart disease and Type 2 diabetes.  In fact, a single glass of apple juice contains the fructose equivalent of six apples.

What’s more, juice contains more calories than soda: A cup of orange juice has 112 calories, apple juice has 114 and grape has 152.  A same-sized serving of Coke or Pepsi has only about 100 calories. Continue reading »

Tweet

17

Pin It

A six-figure deal between the Coca-Cola company and the American Academy of Family Physicians has patients and some doctors in an uproar.

The AP reports the soft drink (and water and juice, etc.) company has paid a sum in the six-figure range to fund a portion of the AAFP’s patient resource site, FamilyDoctor.org. Continue reading »

Tweet

0

Pin It