Small Changes For Health

In 2008, Americans consumed 14 billion gallons of soft drinks (soft drinks include regular soda, energy drinks, sports drinks, fruit drinks, ready-to-drink teas, and vitamin waters).  That equals 506-12 ounce servings of soft drinks for every man, woman and child each year.  Soft drinks are nothing more than empty calories providing just a lot of sugar.

Although soft drinks can help keep you hydrated (critically important to one’s health), at more than 1 serving per day they also contribute up to 210 empty calories.  Empty calories are calories we consume but provide no nutritional value and do not satisfy us.   Consuming too many empty calories leads to obesity, which can lead to a slew of other health problems.

The best way to stay hydrated is by consuming plain old water.  Water provides no calories, no sugar, and is what the body really needs to stay hydrated.  It is recommended that everyone consume up to 8- 8 ounce glasses of water each day.

Your Small Change: For this week, drink at least 8- 8 ounce glasses of water each day.

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Maybe you think your two, three or four soda per day habit is okay and is not causing you to gain any weight.  But if you were to remove one, two or all those servings of soda, you would most likely see those numbers on the scale move downward.

The average regular 12-ounce serving of soda contains 150 calories.  In 2008, the average American consumed 1.4 12-ounce servings of soft drinks, including regular soda, each day.  That is roughly 210 calories each day.  Now you might not think that 210 calories is lot, but what you may not realize is that you can put on 10 pounds every year, by just consuming 100 extra calories each day over the course of a year. There are about 100 calories in 8 ounces of the average soda which is 4 ounces less than the standard 12-oz can of soda.

It is no secret. Americans are fat and frankly, getting fatter.  Though soft drink consumption is not solely to blame for the obesity epidemic, it certainly does have a contributing role.  Soft drinks provide only calories (in the form of sugar) and nothing else. They don’t provide any significant nutritional value and most importantly they are not satiating.  This last point is key.  Soft drinks are not filling.  People drink a soft drink, but then eat more food because their stomach feels empty and their brain feels unsatisfied.  This is what leads to significant calorie imbalance and ultimately excess weight.

Recently, the New York City Department of Health launched an advertising campaign aimed to get New Yorkers to stop drinking so many soft drinks and to consume more water or other nutritious beverages, like milk.  The advertising campaign is catching national attention for its tactics and more importantly its graphics.  If you are a big soft drink drinker, then you should click on the link below and see what effect your soft drinks may have on your body.  If you are not a big soft drink drinker, then you should click on the link to reaffirm your healthy behavior choice.   It remains to be seen if a campaign like this will effectively decrease people’s consumption of soft drinks, but it probably has a lot of people thinking.

As a forewarning, you may not want to be eating when you click on the link.

YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/drinkingfat

The subway ads: http://www.eatmedaily.com/2009/08/nyc-subway-ads-human-fat-pouring-out-of-bottles/