"Every day of our lives, we are on the verge of making those slight changes that would make all the difference."
- Mignon McLaughlin
"Longevity is a compounding issue. Making small but consistent changes which lead to seemingly small improvements over the short run, then lead to amazing results over the long run."
- Peter Attia, M.D.
Wellness SNiPs are designed to help kickstart your "well-style" by helping you change one small habit at a time, culminating in perfect health.
The SNiPs are written as short-format, but if you're REALLY pressed for time just read the headers (TL;DR style) which will give you the what, why, and how of today's particular habit shift.
What? Reduce or Eliminate Your Intake of Soft Drinks.
Whether it be the full sugar version or the 'diet' version, soft drinks are damaging your health in a number of ways.
Why? Decreasing Sugar Intake and Cravings for Sweets Improves Health.
Eliminating soft drinks is a 'low-hanging fruit', meaning this one small habit change will reap large paybacks to your health.
While sugar itself is not the cause of diabetes, eating too much sugar can contribute to the onset of this disease. Sugar has also been named in the onset or exacerbation of many diseases and ailments including inflammation, obesity heart disease, decreased immune function, accelerated aging, tooth decay, and gum disease. (1)
One can of Coke contains 138 calories - if you drink three cans a day that's an additional 414 calories per day which equates to about a one pound weight gain every week. Just eliminating this one thing would allow you to lose approximately one pound every week.
But what about 'diet' soft drinks? Artificial sweeteners have been proven safe for human consumption, but, in recent years with the focus on the microbiome, it has come to light that these sweeteners are not so safe for the little guys hanging out in our guts who have a big influence on the state of our health. In addition, studies have shown that even the artificial sweeteners contribute to glucose intolerance. (2)
Lastly, these drinks, whether they are sweetened with high fructose corn syrup (a topic for another day), sugar or artificial sweeteners, are hyper-sweet. These drinks have trained our palates to crave sweets to the point where a piece of fruit no longer tastes sweet to us, thus fueling our desire for more and more unhealthy treats. Once you have eliminated these sickly sweet treats your palate can once again appreciate the natural sweetness in a health-giving strawberry.
How? Eliminate One Soft Drink Per Day Each Week Until You've Hit ZERO.
Unless you're an all or nothing type of personality start by eliminating one soft drink per day for a week. The next week take your new baseline and eliminate another soft drink.
If the thought of never having another soft drink sends you into a state of stress, never fear. You can eliminate all the way down to just one per week as a reward for a job well done! Eventually, you'll forget to have that one and realize you didn't really miss it and you'll have conquered the soda monster.
Here's an example if you drink three cans per day of (Coke, Sprite, Pepsi, Red Bull, Diet Coke - you get the idea):
- Week 1: Limit intake to 2 cans per day.
- Week 2: Limit intake to 1 can per day.
- Week 3: Limit intake to 3 cans per week.
- Week 4: Limit intake to 2 cans per week.
- Week 5: Limit intake to 1 can per week.
- Sometime in the future: Oops forgot the soda....didn't care....you win!
So, what do I drink instead?
- Water - Want the deep dive on water? Click here. This should be your mainstay, so use the following sparingly to add interest to your day.
- Sparkling water (add a dash of lemon or lime for some flavor).
- Coffee (hot or iced - not after 12 noon) unsweetened or with erythritol or stevia.
- Tea (hot or cold)unsweetened or with erythritol or stevia.
- Kombucha (limit 1 per day).
- Bai Bubbles or other soft drinks sweetened with erythritol or stevia (limit).
Pitfalls
Substituting one sugary drink for the next i.e. fruit juice - but hey! it's fruit - that's healthy right? Not exactly - it's again a concentrated form of liquid sugar, stick with a piece of whole fruit and a glass of water.
Using too much of the 'healthy' sweeteners. Remember, we are training the sweet-tooth to ramp down and subside. If you're replacing coke for coke with bai bubbles you're still feeding the sweet-tooth and the sugar cravings will continue. Water should be your #1 go-to for hydration.
Remember!
Building health and wellness happens one habit at a time. Choose one habit and practice it until it's automatic and then move on to the next.
Maybe this isn't the habit you choose to start with. That's ok, we'll be presenting many more, but file this one away for future action.
As stated at the beginning this is a 'low-hanging fruit', and changing this one thing will cause health ripples throughout your entire life, from dropping a few pounds to finally getting that sweet-tooth under control.
Comments: What do you think? Will you start with this Wellness habit? Copy/paste your answer into a reply
If you care to elaborate further PLEASE do!
- I've already got this! No sugary drinks for me!
- Change is hard, but I'm going to give this a try!
- Nope! You're going to have to pry this Coke from my cold dead hands...Next!
Cover & Footer Photo from pxhere.com
"Free of copyrights under CC0. Do whatever you want."
(The Full Monty - I am not a doctor nor do not play one on TV or the interwebs. The above content is not intended as medical diagnosis or treatment. Links to Amazon products in this post are "Affiliate Links" meaning you won't pay a penny more for the product but I may get a small commission for pointing you in the right direction.)
Thanks to @penderis for helping me flesh out the idea for this series and create graphics that don't suck.
I also owe special appreciation to the awesome people over at Steemit Creators' Guild especially @ravenruis for proofreading and @jrswab for running such an awesome discord.
I think cutting out soft drinks is vital. I sometimes cave of course and give into a carving. But i start regretting this decision an hour later when i feel that crash coming on. I might not agree on the gluten bit but we definitely on the same page when it comes to softdrinks!! Very well written piece!
Posted using Partiko Android
I'll get you on the gluten-free train yet @mimismarty pants! Mark my words 😂!
Thanks for stopping by and confirming that regret stage of the after soft drink glow (aka sugar crash).
XXXOOO
~T
Lol these threats hey. They never end!!
The sugar crash is real! I actually made it to no sugar in tea and coffee before i fell preggers. I was using xylotol replacement. And then nothing. Now im back on 1 teaspoon. Shameful i know!!
Posted using Partiko Android
Not shameful at all, quite reasonable in fact!
A can of soda has about 8 tsp of sugar so that 1 in your tea is perfectly good!
See? I’m not a total sugar Nazi.
XXXOOO
~T
Lol suprise, suprise!!
Posted using Partiko Android
Ok @tamala... I have already taken steps to lessen my intake of this sugary deliciousness. I drink a lot of coffee and tea and now a ton of water.
What is erythritol?? I've never of this.. I know I could google it but I would rather just ask you. (It's Labor Day and I'm being lazy) lol
And let me get your opinion on this... as a southerner I am always making sweet tea. To a gallon of tea, I add 1 1/2 cups of sugar.... My husband will never quit his tea and 1 1/2 cups to a gallon doesn't seem too bad to me. He doesn't like the taste of Stevia... he says it tastes like the artificial sweeteners... is this erythritol an option? Or are there other options that don't add its own flavour or aftertaste??
@monchhichi23 Thanks for a great question!
First, erythritol is a sugar alcohol like Xylitol - therefore it is not absorbed by us humans, doesn't cause an insulin spike and has zero calories. While sugar alcohols can cause GI effects (mainly diarrhea) when used to excess erythritol is the best tolerated of these sugar alcohols.
Always make sure you use non-GMO erythritol - I use Anthony's Premium Erythritol or Lakanto Monkfruit Sweetener which is a blend of erythritol and Monkfruit.
Now, let's break down this iced tea issue. 1 1/2 cups of sugar is 1,209 calories with 303 grams of carbohydrates in 1 gallon of tea (16 cups) = 75 calories per cup with 19 grams of carbs.
Down here in the South 1 cup of iced tea would be .... confusing. Iced tea is served Super Big Gulp-style, but to be conservative, let's say 1 glass of tea is 2 cups or 16oz. That's 150 calories and 38 grams of carbs. Next question will of course be, how many glasses per day? Let's go with 3 (Like the post example) and now we are at an extra 450 calories per day. Pretty much the same as having 3 cans of soft drinks.
So let's re-work the recipe in stages using erythritol. First, let's cut back the sugar to 1 cup per gallon. Personally, I use 2/3 cups per gallon but that's personal preference. We are going to step the sugar down and the erythritol up for two reasons.
Let's cut the amount of sweetness and sugar in stages.
Obviously, at any point, you can stop the step-down process and use a mix of erythritol and sugar which will still be better than where you began.
Give it a try and let me know!
XXXOOO
~T
Sometime in the future: Oops forgot the erythritol and sugar....didn't care....you win!
😂😂😂 Exactly!
Woo! Love your post - we've given you a wee upvote with a chance to be in the weekly celebration of awesomeness. We hope this helps you continue to write such amazing posts. We encourage you to use the #naturalmedicine tag so we can easily find you.
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**Agreed! Sugar sucks! We'd also be chuffed if you used our natural medicine banner - your posts are always worthy of flying the NM flag!
**
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