Soda Pop

       While grocery shopping the other day, I found a collection of “old time” sodas. Some of the labels were familiar and some were new to me and since I’ve been doing really well with losing weight, I decided to treat myself to a sugary drink. Later that evening, after only drinking half of it, I got an upset stomach. I gave the rest to my son because I obviously don’t care if he gets diabetes and dies. The next morning I was tired and depressed, much like I felt before I started this journey. I’m sure it was the soda and it amazed me that such a small amount of sugar could have such a huge effect on me.

         According to the American Diabetes Association, 25.8 million Americans have diabetes. That includes type 1, which I don’t have. 8.3% of all Americans are sick and take a chance of further damage if they don’t watch themselves. That’s a lot of sick people who are risking their lives each day if they continue to consume sugar. I ate a bag of chips once (BBQ flavored) and they raised my sugar levels to over 250. It took a whole day to get them back down and I felt sick the whole time. You’d think I would’ve learned from that and not had the soda; unless you know me and know that I’m not completely in control of myself.

         I don’t like diet drinks either because the artificial sweeteners used in most of them are neurotoxins (I’ll write about that later). That pretty much leaves me with expensive stevia sweetened things or water. I love water, but sometimes I just need a little bit more. What I need to do is drink more of the different teas that are available. The reason I haven’t done it earlier has an awful lot to do with living in the desert and it being just too dang hot to think about drinking a hot drink like chamomile tea.

         That leaves me, once again, with my friend, water. Don’t feel too bad for me, though, water was good enough for most people throughout the ages (except for the Europeans who kept excreting in their own water supply). If my body is over 70% water anyway, I might as well keep it filled up.