Josh Perez Fitness

Thanks Mark for the article and thanks to Dr. Mao and his team for the research!

Soda, pop, cola, soft drink — whatever you call it, it is one of the worst beverages that you could be drinking for your health. As the debate for whether to put a tax on the sale of soft drinks continues, you should know how they affect your body so that you can make an informed choice on your own.

Soft drinks are hard on your health
Soft drinks contain little to no vitamins or other essential nutrients. However, it is what they do contain that is the problem: caffeine, carbonation, simple sugars — or worse, sugar substitutes — and often food additives such as artificial coloring, flavoring, and preservatives. A lot of research has found that consumption of soft drinks in high quantity, especially by children, is responsible for many health problems that include tooth decay, nutritional depletion, obesity, type-2 diabetes, and heart disease.

Why the sugar in soft drinks isn’t so sweet
Most soft drinks contain a high amount of simple sugars. The USDA recommendation of sugar consumption for a 2,000-calorie diet is a daily allotment of 10 teaspoons of added sugars. Many soft drinks contain more than this amount!

Just why is too much sugar so unhealthy? Well, to start, let’s talk about what happens to you as sugar enters your body. When you drink sodas that are packed with simple sugars, the pancreas is called upon to produce and release insulin, a hormone that empties the sugar in your blood stream into all the tissues and cells for usage. The result of overindulging in simple sugar is raised insulin levels. Raised blood insulin levels beyond the norm can lead to depression of the immune system, which in turn weakens your ability to fight disease.

Something else to consider is that most of the excess sugar ends up being stored as fat in your body, which results in weight gain and elevates risk for heart disease and cancer. One study found that when subjects were given refined sugar, their white blood cell count decreased significantly for several hours afterwards. Another study discovered that rats fed a high-sugar diet had a substantially elevated rate of breast cancer when compared to rats on a regular diet.

The health effects of diet soda
You may come to the conclusion that diet or sugar-free soda is a better choice. However, one study discovered that drinking one or more soft drinks a day — and it didn’t matter whether it was diet or regular — led to a 30% greater chance of weight gain around the belly. Diet soda is filled with artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, sucralose, or saccharin. These artificial sweeteners pose a threat to your health. Saccharin, for instance, has been found to be carcinogenic, and studies have found that it produced bladder cancer in rats.

Aspartame, commonly known as nutrasweet, is a chemical that stimulates the brain to think the food is sweet. It breaks down into acpartic acid, phenylalanine, and methanol at a temperature of 86 degrees. (Remember, your stomach is somewhere around 98 degrees.) An article put out by the University of Texas found that aspartame has been linked to obesity. The process of stimulating the brain causes more cravings for sweets and leads to carbohydrate loading.

Carbonation depletes calcium
Beverages with bubbles contain phosphoric acid, which can severely deplete the blood calcium levels; calcium is a key component of the bone matrix. With less concentration of calcium over a long time, it can lower deposition rates so that bone mass and density suffer. This means that drinking sodas and carbonated water increases your risk of osteoporosis.

Add in the caffeine usually present in soft drinks, and you are in for even more trouble. Caffeine can deplete the body’s calcium, in addition to stimulating your central nervous system and contributing to stress, a racing mind, and insomnia.

Skip the soda and go for:

Fresh water
Water is a vital beverage for good health. Each and every cell needs water to perform its essential functions. Since studies show that tap water is filled with contaminants, antibiotics, and a number of other unhealthy substances, consider investing in a quality carbon-based filter for your tap water. To find out more about a high-performance filtration system, click here.

On the go? Try using a stainless steel thermos or glass bottle, filled with filtered water. Enhance the flavor of your water with a refreshing infusion of basil, mint leaves, and a drop of honey.

Fruit Juice
If you are a juice drinker, try watering down your juice to cut back on the sugar content. Buy a jar of organic 100% juice, especially cranberry, acai, pomegranate, and then dilute three parts filtered water to one part juice. You will get a subtle sweet taste and the benefit of antioxidants. After a couple of weeks, you will no longer miss the sweetness of sugary concentrated juices.

Tea

Tea gently lifts your energy and has numerous health benefits. Black, green, white, and oolong teas all contain antioxidant polyphenols. In fact, tea ranks as high or higher than many fruits and vegetables on the ORAC scale, the score that measures antioxidant potential of plant-based foods. Herbal tea does not have the same antioxidant properties, though it is still a great beverage choice with other health benefits, such as inducing calming and relaxing effects.

If tea doesn’t satisfy your sweet tooth, try adding cinnamon or a little honey, which has important health benefits that refined sugar lacks. For a selection of healthy teas that promote total body wellness, click here.

Refer to my Fitness Products – Deals and Fitness Products – Store for your savings on all major fitness brands.

How exercise affects glucose, while exercising consumes nutrients, including glucose, and forces cells to draw on the glucose stored in muscle. Once this is depleted, the body turns to sugar in the blood for energy. This would cause a drop in the blood glucose level were it not for your liver, which under normal circumstances produces enough glucose to replenish the blood’s supply. The demand for blood sugar can continue even when exercise has ended because muscles continue to remove glucose from the blood to restock their reserves.

For people with diabetes who use insulin, several factors can alter the usual balance between glucose supply and demand and cause hypoglycemia. If exercise occurs when there’s too much insulin for example, when insulin levels peak after an injection — the exercising muscle soaks in even more glucose than usual. And your liver’s ability to make glucose is diminished. This combination can result in hypoglycemia.

The reason why is because blood flow increases during physical exertion, absorption of insulin from injection sites may be accelerated, especially if it’s injected near the muscles being used. Certain medications for type 2 diabetes, especially sulfonylureas, can also cause blood sugar levels to drop too low during exercise.

Exercise is highly recommended, it can set the stage for low blood sugar, including severe hypoglycemia. To prevent this problem, you’ll need to check your blood sugar levels and adjust your diet, insulin doses, and injection sites accordingly.

One of the best diabetic diets to look for is a low glycemic impact diet, and a few great ones for that is the Medifast Diets’ Diet for Diabetics and the eDiets’ Glycemic Impact Diet which you can lose 10 Pounds in 5 weeks which makes them perfect for people with type 2 diabetes who looking to lose weight and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Diabetes is a common condition that can contribute to illness, disability and early death. Diabetes is on the rise worldwide. It has been estimated that over 1,000,000 Americans have diabetes and about half of those are not aware that they have the condition.

Medifast Plus for Diabetics provides the proper nutrition for people with diabetes, while allowing healthy weight loss. Researchers from a major medical center conducted an 86-week diabetic weight loss study comparing the Medifast weight loss program to the standard American Diabetes Association (ADA) diet plan. Participants randomized to receive Medifast lost twice as much weight and were twice as compliant with the diet as participants following a standard diet based on the dietary guidelines of the ADA.

Approximately 40% of the Medifast participants lost ≥5% of their initial weight compared with 12% of those on the standard ADA diet. Additionally, 24% of Medifast users decreased or eliminated their diabetes medication compared to 0% on the standard ADA diet. Participants in the Medifast group achieved significantly lower levels of fasting glucose, insulin and HbA1c, lipids and blood pressure after losing weight. This study affirms that people with type 2 diabetes are more likely to stick with the Medifast Program, lose more weight and improve their health. See the Diet for Diabetics.

For more information on the Medifast plan, please visit the Medifast Official Site and view the Medifast Specials!

Please refer to my Fitness Diets – Reviews on the top 2009 diet plans.

Up to 80 percent of those with diabetes go on to develop heart and blood-vessel diseases. Because of this strong link with heart disease, it’s important for those with diabetes to take extra steps to protect their health. If you already have diabetes, you can delay the progression of the disease.

You can prevent or slow the development of heart, blood vessel, and other complications by following a heart-healthy lifestyle and by knowing what type of foods to consume, in particular, the correct percentages of carbohydrates, protein, and fats. I recommend the eDiets Living with Diabetes Meal Plan program which is offering a get one FREE week of meals with your first eDiets order. Here is the following list of diabetes-specific steps to take:

1. Check with your doctor about physical activities that are best for you.
2. Eat your meals and snacks at around the same times each day.
3. Take your diabetes medicine at the same times each day.
4. Check your blood sugar every day. Each time you check your blood sugar, write the number in your record book.
5. Call your doctor is your numbers are too high or too low for 2 to 3 days.
6. Check your feet every day for cuts, blisters, sores, swelling, redness, or sore toenails.
7. Take any prescribed medication for other conditions, such as coronary heart disease.
8. Check with your doctor about taking aspirin each day if you have heart disease.
9. Brush and floss your teeth and gums every day.

In order to promote the awareness of diabetes, the America’s Diabetes Superstore.com is offering a free glucose monitor. Click here to receive a Free Glucose Monitor.. Also, you can recieve a Free Diabetes Self Management Subscription from American Diabetes Wholesale, to help promote the awareness of this disease.