How Soda Pop Affects Your Health

I've always wondered how drinking a colored brown beverage was in any way benefiting my health.

Recently there has been lots of chatter about how Coca-Cola causes Cancer. So I went searching to see if pop had any benefit to our health. Guess what I found, pretty easy to guess... it has no benefit at all. So why do we drink it? Maybe because it's convenient, tastes good (I'll admit), and we just might be addicted to pop.

Regular pop contains loads of sugar and the diet-pop contains aspertame which makes you crave sugar. This leads to you wanting more pop, another sugar high. Pop also contains sodium (ie. salt) which leaves you thirsty, wanting more pop. They cycle continues on and on. A majority of people create a habit out of drinking pop which is hard to break. For instance: grabbing a pop when you walk in the door from work or grabbing a pop when you have dinner.

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So how do we break this habit?

I have 5 Tips to Break the Diet Pop or Regular Pop Habit:

1. Flavor your water with lemon. This is great in the summer time when you are looking for something tart and refreshing
2. Cut up a small amount of fruit and let is soak in a jug of water in the fridge. I like to use strawberries or oranges.
3. Freeze fruit into ice cubes. Then you drop the ice cubes into your water. I usually choose to muddle some kiwi to make fruit ice cubes.
4. Add a shot of fresh or low sugar juice into a glass of water. Make sure to avoid drinking juice by itself as it contains a large amount of sugar which can spike blood sugar levels (causing you to want to eat).
5. If your on the run and really need something totally different, I've found that the Vitamin Water ZERO drinks can quench my thirst without spiking sugar levels or leave me thirsty again.

Have you beat the Soda Pop cycle? Leave me a comment below or tweet me your healthy alternatives to pop.

-Michelle