Stolen from the North!!

Those awesome peeps up north in Chico at Norcal Strength and Conditioning wrote a pretty good article: check it out (if you still visit this site. And if you do please let me know)

Soda....Are you STILL drinking it?!?!

By Katie

I have watched so many people come through the gym who are completely hooked/addicted to soda. After all of the diet changes that we implement I feel soda is one of the last things that people actually ditch.

They hold onto it for dear life and even lie quite frequently about its consumption. I’ve found that the reason for this is that there is just no substitute for it! At some point most folks think they are doing fine if they choose diet over regular....but after that...they just can’t make the break because there’s nothing else as satisfying!

So here are few things to consider---if you are still having a daily dose of soda: Even if it is sugar free, it is pumped full of chemically derived artificial sweeteners, which have been proven to have the same effect on your blood glucose as regular sugar. But that’s ok, because they’re calorie free, right? Wrong! Even if they may have no calories, the artificial sweeteners still illicit a response from your body the same as you eating regular sugar. This drives your blood sugar up, creating an insulin spike, creating a blood sugar crash!

I can think of some other uppers and downers that are way more fun, then having a can of soda ! So, once your blood sugar crashes, what happens? Oh, that’s right, you crave more sugar. Your body receives a message that you are low on carbohydrate--and hungry or not--you decide to eat more carbs to fill the void. It is a vicious cycle that ultimately leads to you never getting off the sugar! This cycle is a hard one to break, so get on board and do something about the sugar attacks and ditch the soda! Cold turkey it, and substitute for mineral water, tea or black coffee! As if the constant roller coaster effect isn’t enough for you to end your soda habit...here are a few more interesting tidbits I found in the post on blisstree.com:

Below you will find what soda does to your body in the first sixty minutes of consumption.

* In The First 10 minutes: 10 teaspoons of sugar hit your system. (100% of your recommended daily intake.) You don’t immediately vomit from the overwhelming sweetness because phosphoric acid cuts the flavor allowing you to keep it down.

* 20 minutes: Your blood sugar spikes, causing an insulin burst. Your liver responds to this by turning any sugar it can get its hands on into fat. (There’s plenty of that at this particular moment)

* 40 minutes: Caffeine absorption is complete. Your pupils dilate, your blood pressure rises, as a response your liver dumps more sugar into your bloodstream. The adenosine receptors in your brain are now blocked preventing drowsiness.

* 45 minutes: Your body ups your dopamine production stimulating the pleasure centers of your brain. This is physically the same way heroin works, by the way.

* >60 minutes: The phosphoric acid binds calcium, magnesium and zinc in your lower intestine, providing a further boost in metabolism. This is compounded by high doses of sugar and artificial sweeteners also increasing the urinary excretion of calcium.

* >60 Minutes: The caffeine’s diuretic properties come into play. (It makes you have to pee.) It is now assured that you’ll evacuate the bonded calcium, magnesium and zinc that was headed to your bones as well as sodium, electrolyte and water.

* >60 minutes: As the rave inside of you dies down you’ll start to have a sugar crash. You may become irritable and/or sluggish. You’ve also now, literally, pissed away all the water that was in the Coke. But not before infusing it with valuable nutrients your body could have used for things like even having the ability to hydrate your system or build strong bones and teeth.

This will all be followed by a caffeine crash in the next few hours. (As little as two if you’re a smoker.) But, hey, have another Coke, it’ll make you feel better.
*FYI: The Coke itself is not the enemy, here. It’s the dynamic combo of massive sugar doses combined with caffeine and phosphoric acid. Things which are found in almost all soda.