Do It For You
This section isn't about Coca-Cola- it's about the serious health problems that have wormed their way into the mainstream food system.
Everything in excess causes problems, right? Right. That's a no-brainer.
Our problem is we're encouraged to consume excess sugars, fats and processed foods every day. Our media endorses it, society accepts it (so much so that healthy eaters are considered finicky), it's all but in the water. So what is the effect of all this on you? A fight to understand what's in the foods you eat. Read on to get a brief description and links. . .and a short health lesson you may have never wanted. People are turned off of candy with this stuff.
(Here's a handy link to a beginner's guide to understanding what you're eating)
Excess Sugar
First: Refined Sugar vs Natural Sugar
Refined sugars are sugars that have been processed to contain purely sugar with no minerals or range in different types of sugar. These are the sugars we're concerned with, not the sugars you get from eating an apple.
Sugar, when consumed in high amounts, has a negative impact on your health. That much information is widely known. Soda, candies and other things sweetened with lots of sugar contain empty calories (have a high-calorie content and very low nutritional value). While sugar is vital to the human body, the amounts and ways in which we consume it cause a number of health complications. Excess sugar in a person's diet can lead to diabetes, tooth decay and troubles with obesity to name a few of the almost innumerable potential problems.
So how much refined sugar should you actually be getting?
Though the amount varies from source to source, no more than 40 grams a day (less than ten teaspoons) is the general consensus, with many folks opting thirty or even less. However, we get sugar from a myriad of choices that seem like healthy options. Even yogurt, with roughly 27 grams to a serving of sweetened/flavored and 13 grams in a serving of 'plain' yogurt, is no exception. If you had a container of yogurt for breakfast, you would already be over half way done with your daily allowance of sugars, and over it if you had another for lunch with nothing else that contains extra sugars, not even bread, for the rest of the day.
Brominated Vegetable Oil:
Now we're getting into the toxic, disgusting, for-the-love-of-gods-why-is-that-in-my-food!? stuff. How shall we begin? The fact that brominated vegetable oil, or BVO, has been outlawed in 100+ counties sounds like a good place. That's right, folks, this additive that prevents the drink from separating and looking nasty, and gives it a foggy look to it, is banned in over a hundred countries due to health concerns. What about this ingredient found in many sugary drinks such as Mountain Dew is so concerning?
Bromine itself is quite toxic. A short government fact-sheet about bromine:
http://www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/bromine/basics/pdf/factsheet.pdf
That's right. Nothing I can say will make this any more logical or okay. It only gets worse.
http://sci-toys.com/ingredients/brominated_vegetable_oil.html
Aspartame:
Aspartame is a sweetener commonly substituted for sugar in diet sodas and over 5000 other food products. Phenylalanine, aspartic acid and methanol are what it's made of. The combination results in a sweetener far sketchier than any of the doodles in my notebook with a list of red flags longer than I am tall (only a feat when you realize that the list is written in eight point font with commas instead of bullet points). Repeated exposure to it can cause short-term effects in sensitive individuals such as headaches from mild to severe (I can attest to that personally), dizziness, attention difficulties, memory loss, throat swelling and so on.
It also has been correlated with long-term effects on the body including blood sugar problems, insomnia, and other brain and hormonal issues. In fact, symptoms derived from excessive exposure often mimic those of alzheimers, lupus, multiple sclerosis, panic disorder, depression, Parkinson's disease and fibromyalgia.
It's often a component in "sugar free" products that, in theory, give you sweet taste without the vice of, well, sugar. The reality is that there's no easy way out of anything, and eating healthy is no exception.
"America's Deadliest Sweetener Betrays Millions, Then Hoodwinks You With a Name Change."
http://www.mercola.com/article/aspartame/dangers.htm
http://www.healingdaily.com/detoxification-diet/aspartame.htm
Artificial Food Coloring:
"Toxic chemicals that cause disorders, diseases and mutations-"
Whoa, whoa, whoa. What? I thought we were talking about artificial food coloring, not the premise of a comic book plot.
Unfortunately, we are. Food dyes can be highly toxic, and are in everything from Skittles to canned baked beans. Many of them have already been banned, and recently others may be put up on the chopping block. They make food look more appetizing, but is it worth the risk to eat food that isn't appetizing without color alterations? They aren't simply make up on the pig that is junk food but are used to prevent us from the crushing reality that food isn't naturally uniform and its color is no exception.
http://science-news.org/artificial-food-coloring/artificial-food-coloring-dangers/
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1259228/artificial_food_coloring_dangers_should_pg2.html?cat=51
http://www.ehow.com/how_4791445_dangers-of-artificial-food-coloring.html
http://www.inhabitots.com/2010/07/08/synthetic-food-dyes-equal-a-rainbow-of-risks/
Everything in excess causes problems, right? Right. That's a no-brainer.
Our problem is we're encouraged to consume excess sugars, fats and processed foods every day. Our media endorses it, society accepts it (so much so that healthy eaters are considered finicky), it's all but in the water. So what is the effect of all this on you? A fight to understand what's in the foods you eat. Read on to get a brief description and links. . .and a short health lesson you may have never wanted. People are turned off of candy with this stuff.
(Here's a handy link to a beginner's guide to understanding what you're eating)
Excess Sugar
First: Refined Sugar vs Natural Sugar
Refined sugars are sugars that have been processed to contain purely sugar with no minerals or range in different types of sugar. These are the sugars we're concerned with, not the sugars you get from eating an apple.
Sugar, when consumed in high amounts, has a negative impact on your health. That much information is widely known. Soda, candies and other things sweetened with lots of sugar contain empty calories (have a high-calorie content and very low nutritional value). While sugar is vital to the human body, the amounts and ways in which we consume it cause a number of health complications. Excess sugar in a person's diet can lead to diabetes, tooth decay and troubles with obesity to name a few of the almost innumerable potential problems.
So how much refined sugar should you actually be getting?
Though the amount varies from source to source, no more than 40 grams a day (less than ten teaspoons) is the general consensus, with many folks opting thirty or even less. However, we get sugar from a myriad of choices that seem like healthy options. Even yogurt, with roughly 27 grams to a serving of sweetened/flavored and 13 grams in a serving of 'plain' yogurt, is no exception. If you had a container of yogurt for breakfast, you would already be over half way done with your daily allowance of sugars, and over it if you had another for lunch with nothing else that contains extra sugars, not even bread, for the rest of the day.
Brominated Vegetable Oil:
Now we're getting into the toxic, disgusting, for-the-love-of-gods-why-is-that-in-my-food!? stuff. How shall we begin? The fact that brominated vegetable oil, or BVO, has been outlawed in 100+ counties sounds like a good place. That's right, folks, this additive that prevents the drink from separating and looking nasty, and gives it a foggy look to it, is banned in over a hundred countries due to health concerns. What about this ingredient found in many sugary drinks such as Mountain Dew is so concerning?
Bromine itself is quite toxic. A short government fact-sheet about bromine:
http://www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/bromine/basics/pdf/factsheet.pdf
That's right. Nothing I can say will make this any more logical or okay. It only gets worse.
http://sci-toys.com/ingredients/brominated_vegetable_oil.html
Aspartame:
Aspartame is a sweetener commonly substituted for sugar in diet sodas and over 5000 other food products. Phenylalanine, aspartic acid and methanol are what it's made of. The combination results in a sweetener far sketchier than any of the doodles in my notebook with a list of red flags longer than I am tall (only a feat when you realize that the list is written in eight point font with commas instead of bullet points). Repeated exposure to it can cause short-term effects in sensitive individuals such as headaches from mild to severe (I can attest to that personally), dizziness, attention difficulties, memory loss, throat swelling and so on.
It also has been correlated with long-term effects on the body including blood sugar problems, insomnia, and other brain and hormonal issues. In fact, symptoms derived from excessive exposure often mimic those of alzheimers, lupus, multiple sclerosis, panic disorder, depression, Parkinson's disease and fibromyalgia.
It's often a component in "sugar free" products that, in theory, give you sweet taste without the vice of, well, sugar. The reality is that there's no easy way out of anything, and eating healthy is no exception.
"America's Deadliest Sweetener Betrays Millions, Then Hoodwinks You With a Name Change."
http://www.mercola.com/article/aspartame/dangers.htm
http://www.healingdaily.com/detoxification-diet/aspartame.htm
Artificial Food Coloring:
"Toxic chemicals that cause disorders, diseases and mutations-"
Whoa, whoa, whoa. What? I thought we were talking about artificial food coloring, not the premise of a comic book plot.
Unfortunately, we are. Food dyes can be highly toxic, and are in everything from Skittles to canned baked beans. Many of them have already been banned, and recently others may be put up on the chopping block. They make food look more appetizing, but is it worth the risk to eat food that isn't appetizing without color alterations? They aren't simply make up on the pig that is junk food but are used to prevent us from the crushing reality that food isn't naturally uniform and its color is no exception.
http://science-news.org/artificial-food-coloring/artificial-food-coloring-dangers/
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1259228/artificial_food_coloring_dangers_should_pg2.html?cat=51
http://www.ehow.com/how_4791445_dangers-of-artificial-food-coloring.html
http://www.inhabitots.com/2010/07/08/synthetic-food-dyes-equal-a-rainbow-of-risks/