Tag: soda

My Most Popular Blog Posts: What Did I Forget?

Here’s a list of my some of my most popular posts on this Sugar Shock Blog. Please check back, because I’m still adding to this list. (It’s taking a while to compile all the hot posts since I founded this Sugar Shock Blog in early June 2005,.
Weight Loss Assistance
CLS May Reduce Stubborn Fat Around the Middle
How Not to Pig Out on Thanksgiving;
Musings and Commentary
Shame on Reporters Critical of Cookie Monster’s New Moderate Habits
Holiday Help
7 Tips to Squash Your Sugar Cravings this Holiday Season
5 Ways to Indulge Over the Holidays Without Gaining Weight
‘Tis the Season to be Stressed: 7 tips to Relieve Holiday Stress
Relieve Holiday Stress: Holiday Gift to You from Debra Berndt and Me (Audio Program)
5 Tips to Soften Halloween Sugar Shock
The Sour Scoop About Sugar
Sugar at “Safe” Levels Can be Deadly;
The Inside Scooop about Agave (I don’t recommend it)
iHigh Fructose corn Syrup: Some Scary Facts to Consider Before You Gulp Down Soda & Other Foods (with 3-minute video)
146 Reasons Why Sugar is Ruining Your Health (Guest column from Nancy Appleton)
Reformed Sugar Addict Alec Baldwin Interviews Dr. Robert Lustig;
The Fallacy of Diet Foods
Study Shows Diet Sodas Are Linked to Weight Gain
Tips to Let Go of Sugar or Pile off the Pounds
Delay Away Your Sugar Cravings (Creatively Procrastinate)
7 Tips to Help You Squash Your Sugar Addiction
Slipped? Destroyed Your Diet? 7 Tips to Get Back on Track
Humorous Takes on the News
Michelangelo’s David Returns to Italy After Touring the U.S.
Help to Shop
Stumped when Shopping? Some Sugar-Free Foods By Brand
Social Media
The best time(s) to post on social media
Get Social Media Secrets with Mitch Meyerson
Woo-Hoo, Feel-Good Tunes
Listen to Woo-Hoo, Feel-Good Tunes
Listen to Guests on My Gab with the Gurus Shows
Lose Weight with Best-Selling Author & Spiritual Activitist Marianne Williamson (she spoke about her then-new book, A Course in Weight Loss; she wasn’t running for Congress yet;
Anita Moorjani: On Cancer, Near Death & Treasuring Our Magnificence
Other Health Posts
Hypoglycemia (Low Blood Sugar): Do You Have It?
Anita Moorjani: On Cancer, Near Death & Treasuring Our Magnificence;
Hyperactivity and Mental Woes Linked to Soda Consumption
Take Charge of Your Stress & Sleep: Two Keys to Live Life Well
Salt: The Forgotten Killer: — The AMA & CSPI Urge Crackdown On the White Powder, But What About The-More-Dangerous Substance, Sugar?
Other
Are You Among the 85 % of People With Low Self-Esteem? It Can Lead to Weight Gain & More
My Sweet, But Stringent Standards & Disclosures
Did I leave out your favorite posts? Let me know which one(s) to include.
Connie Bennett is a former sugar-addicted journalist and the author of two bestselling books, Beyond Sugar Shock and Sugar Shock, Connie’s sour-to-sweet story began in 1998, when she quit sugar on doctor’s orders. Her doctor blamed all 44 of her strange ailments (baffling brain fog, ferocious fatigue, horrible headaches, embarrassing mood swings, severe PMS, etc.) on her habit of eating hard candies, red licorice, refined crackers, and other quickie carbs. While releasing her sugar and carb addiction, Connie created many simple tactics to make letting go of sweets an easy, exciting adventure.
Since 2001, Connie has been helping thousands of sugar addicts worldwide through her Sugar Freedom Now Course, speaking, and coaching (she is a certified life coach, certified health coach and EFT practitioner). She founded this Sugar Shock Blog on June 7, 2005.
Subscribe now to this Sugar Shock Blog to get juicy tidbits, tips, and musings on healh, wellness, personal empowerment, social media, and more.

Mayor Bloomberg’s Soda Ban

While I was knee-deep planning and working many hours to launch of new book, Sugar Shock, New York City came up with a controversial plan to ban jumbo-sized sugary larger than 16 ounces in restaurants, movie theaters, concession stands, and food carts.
I’ll share by thoughts shortly about this much-talked about plan. (Unfortunately, I couldn’t post earlier, because I was busy spreading the word about Beyond Sugar Shock.)
For now, I urge you to watch this TV interview with Bloomberg.
Then, make sure to tell us your thoughts about his plan.
But before you watch, you need to know that a 20-ounce bottle — which people guzzle in one sitting — contains nearly 17 teaspoons of sugar.
Also, your soda addiction can put you at risk for obesity, as well as the Big Preventable Big Killers such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, cancer, stroke, and Alzheimer’s Disease.
Weigh in now with your thoughts about Mayor Bloomberg’s Soda Ban.

High Fructose Consumption Linked to High Blood Pressure

The evidence keeps pouring in pointing to the dangers of fructose, which are found in soft drinks and most processed foods, from breads to cookies to crackers.
The latest study, which finds that people who consume the amount of fructose found in two-and-a-half soft drinks a day appear to have a higher risk of hypertension, appears in the current issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology
People who took in at least 74 grams (about 18.5 tsp.) per day had 26% to 77% greater odds of crossing various thresholds of elevated blood pressure (P<0.05 for all), compared with lower levels of consumption, according to Diana Jalal, MD, of the University of Colorado Denver, and colleagues. "Limiting fructose intake is readily feasible, and, in light of our results, prospective studies are needed to assess whether decreased intake of fructose from added sugars will reduce the incidence of hypertension and the burden of cardiovascular disease in the U.S. adult population," they wrote online in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. One of the best ways to reduce your consumption of high fructose corn syrup is to just eliminate soft drinks. There is no human requirement for soda! To get a flavor for how soft drinks can pack on the pounds -- one that will make your stomach turn -- watch this "Pouring on the Pounds" ad from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

Michelle Obama Gets Food Companies to Act

Thank to Michelle Obama’s crusade to combat children’s obesity, major food companies such as PepsiCo and Kraft Foods are changing their products.
She is, in fact, “defining defining her role as first lady by taking on the $600 billion food and beverage industries in a quest to end childhood obesity within a generation,” observes Kate Andersen Brower of Bloomberg Business Week, in an artticle entitled, “Michelle Obama’s ‘Spotlight’ on Obesity Enlists Kraft, PepsiCo.”
“Her lobbying of companies to make products healthier, labels easier to read and limit marketing of unhealthy foods to kids is paying off,” Brower observes.
A month after she began her campaign, “PepsiCo Inc., the world’s second-largest food and beverage company, pledged to stop selling full-sugar soft drinks in schools by 2012.” In addition, Kraft Foods Inc., the maker of Oreo cookies and Oscar Mayer lunch meats, jumped on board, announcing that it would further reduce the sodium content of its products..
Reporter Brower points out that the first lady’s efforts are part of a “movement to recast what the food industry is selling,” according to David Kessler, who was Food and Drug Administration commissioner from 1990 to 1997. “She puts the spotlight on the issue like few others can,” Kessler told Brower.
The American Beverage Association — which represents soda companies — has now joined Michelle Obama’s effort by running a national ad, which claims that the industry is committed to reducing beverage calories in schools by 88 percent.
Things started happening after a well-publicized meeting in Washington on March 16 when the first lady addressed members of the Grocery Manufacturers Association, which represents major food companies such as Kraft and PepsiCo. At that GMA meeting, Obama urged the companies to reduce sugar, fat and salt in their products and “to move faster and to go farther” to make them healthier.
The first lady has “accelerated our focus,” Kraft’s president of health and wellness, Rhonda Jordan, told the Bloomberg Business Week reporter Brower, who then quotes Patrick Basham, an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, a Washington-based research group that promotes libertarian policies.
Basham believes that the first lady’s anti-obesity efforts are “in sync with public skepticism about `the motives of big business’ in the wake of the deepest economic crisis since the Great Depression.” He also believes that the recent moves by the companies may be an effort to prevent government crackdown.
“The food industry is terrified of being either legislated out of business or so regulated they won’t be able to do what they want,” Basham told Brower.
What’s intriguing is that Michelle Obama became concerned about child nutrition for personal reasons.
She told audiences at a National PTA Conference in Arlington, Virginia, on March 10, that she got a “wakeup call” when her pediatrician voiced concern about her family’s eating habits.
While I applaud the first lady’s efforts, as always, no matter what changes the large food companies institute, I encourage people to reduce or even eliminate their consumption of processed foods.
Vegetables and fruits that come courtesy of Mother Nature are best for our bodies. Plus, they taste better — something you’ll discover after you cut back on processed carbs.
We just don’t need to consume large quantities of packaged foods that usually have

Sugary Soft Drinks Linked to Pancreatic Cancer

More and more these days, we hear about medical studies, which point to the massive dangers — sometimes potentially deadly — of consuming empty-calorie, sugar-filled soft drinks.
Yet another new medical study now points to excess sugar as the likely reason for potentially deadly pancreatic cancer.
This study — published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention — found, upon studying 60,524 Chinese adults, that those who drank at least two sugary sodas a week had an increased risk of developing cancer of the pancreas, as Yahoo News reports.
This study was the first time researchers studied Asians to learn how soda and juice may play a role in developing pancreatic cancer. It make sense to look at Asians, because they are increasingly adopting Western-like, processed-filled diets and sedentary lifestyles. Previous studies examined Europeans or Americans.
As for the new study, researchers believe the sweet stuff is to blame for the pancreatic cancer.

Soft Drinks: Do you REALLY Need Them?

Soda drinkers, beware! You may want to kick your habit immediately after watching this pretty graphic Mercola.com video!
I challenge you! The next time those sugary, bubbly beverages call out to you, ask yourself, “What does my dear body really need?”

Are You Drinking Yourself Fat? New Yorkers Urged to Quit “Pouring on the Pounds”

The next time you think of grabbing a soda, sports drink, fruit-flavored beverage, lemonade, punch, Snapple or other sugary drink, just imagine lards of fat spewing out.
If “Yuck!” is your response to this disgusting, fatty image, then the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene will have accomplished its mission.
Indeed, thanks to a brilliant, new “Are you pouring on the pounds?” campaign from the city’s health department, many subway riders are being confronted via posters (some 1,500 in all), which alert them to the consequences of their sugary beverage consumption.
I’m thrilled by this bold move to shock New Yorkers — especially overweight and obese ones — to action by spreading the message, “Don’t drink yourself fat.”
As more and more New Yorkers are becoming obese, a hard-hitting, in-your face approach is exactly what’s needed to wake people up to sugar’s dangers.
“Just trying to be positive and encouraging doesn’t always get people’s attention,” New York Associate Commissioner Geoff Cowley told the Daily News. “If you get in people’s faces a bit, that does get people’s attention.”
It’s also smart, I believe, for York health leaders to state what’s so patently obvious to those of us who are sugar experts.

Soda Drinkers: Are You Trapped in a Soft-Drink Habit That Could Trigger Weight Gain, Cancer, Heart Disease & More?

Are you one of millions hooked on sugary soda?
Are you lured by the taste, convenience and cost?
Do you “need” a sugar buzz to give you “energy”?
Or do you turn to soda when life isn’t quite going your way?
No matter what your reasons, I invite you to ask yourself why you turn to these sugary, often-caffeine-laced beverages. What drives you to drink soft drinks, especially when the dangers are so many?
Before you swig another soda, think about what could happen if you keep up this horrible habit.
As this post, “10 Dieases Linked to Soda,” reveals, you could:
* Gain weight
* Get liver damage
* Develop kidney stones or kidney disease
* Get tooth decay
* Develop type 2 diabetes
* Get heartburn and acid reflux
* Develop osteoporosis
* Get High blood pressure (hypertension)
* Develop Heart disease
* Get impaired digestion