Healthify your supermarket choices.
2 Newsworthy [Soda] Pop Stories
Longtime Fooducate readers know that one our first recommendations for nutrition newbies is to cut down on soda and juice consumption. These are useless, empty calories that cost families loads of money and provide only negative nutritional value. Here are two trending stories on this subject matter.
1. Soda tax directly linked to improved health. The Archives of Internal Medicine published a study by leading obesity researcher Barry Popkin that shows how price changes in various foods affect purchase decisions and ultimately personal health. Raising the price of pizzas and sodas led to a decrease in consumption. But lowering the price of healthy foods had an interesting effect – people used the money they saved on the healthy foods to buy more junk.
2. Sugar is back in vogue. Respected and independent nutrition experts such as Marion Nestle and Michael Jacobson point out that there is no scientific evidence of differences between the way our bodies metabolize high fructose corn syrup and sugar. (Both are equally BAD in the huge quantities we consume). The Corn Refiners Association has repeatedly tried to assuage consumer fears that HFCS is safe.
And yet, HFCS remains the villain ingredient de-jour.
Brand marketers are quick to respond to consumer phobias, whether justified or not, and an ever growing number of products have now switched to sugar:
Hunt’s ketchup, Gatorade and Wheat Thins are all permanently ditching corn syrup for sugar. Heinz has created a sugar-sweetened version of its iconic ketchup, while Pepsi and Mtn Dew launched limited-time, sugar-sweetened versions of their colas. read more at Ad-Age…
Some brands, like Pepsi and its Mountain Dew, are building entire marketing campaigns around the switch. Others are keeping quiet. It’s a double edged sword – if a brand boasts “real sugar” in some of its products, but the others still contain HFCS, the manufacturer could be hurting its own overall sales.
What you need to know:
Whether sugar, HFCS, or honey – the calorie count is the same. Sweet is fine when you control how much is added. But getting 6-12 teaspoons just by drinking a soda pop is ridiculous. Think about it – would you ever add more than 2-3 teaspoons of sugar to a beverage you manually prepare?
What to do at the supermarket:
Go easy on the soft drinks and save the sweet calories for real candy and desserts. The simplest way to do this is by getting used to skipping the beverage aisles in the supermarket. in 12 months, you’ll save $500 for a family of four.
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Why is everyone trying to put down Coke and Pepsi products? The fruit juice industry is probably behind most of the hipe that cola is bad. So is fruit juice, if you want to get down to it. Caffine Diet Colas have so little of anything in them, none of which have been shown harmful short of a few hundred gallons a day for the last ten years type study, or some other far fetched study. To me the truth is, cola is no more harmful, or maybe less than fruit juice or worse power drinks to give you energy! I’ve been drinking colas nearly every day of my life and prefer them to any other drink, so far I have made 61 years with no problems. If I come down with something in the future I am sure it will be because of to much cola, at lest that will be what they all say!
Yeah, diet mt dew & diet vanilla pepsi are great. I long ago stopped drinking regular soda the vast majority of the time. (I still eat lots of other junk though.)
I’ve found that most cola’s and similar soda’s aren’t agreeable for my stomach. However, every now and again, an IBC root beer is tame in comparison; pretty good compared to the other rb’s.
I mostly drink water, tea, etc. for thirst.
Bob
Hello! I just found your blog, via your comment on Appetite for Profit’s blog. I love what you are doing here, and am eager to include your blog in my list.
Will look around some more when I have the time.
Diet sodas are extremely unhealthy for the body because of the artificial sweeteners
that are used instead of sugar. They can cause cancer. It’s quite well known now, and researched. Check it out. I would say–extreme moderation with sodas, no artificial sweeteners and no high fructose corn syrup. Sodas without this can be found at health food stores or get carbonated water and add fruit juice.