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Wednesday, August 01, 2007

8 reasons not to drink soda

As a young adult, I drank a lot of soda. My Mom didn't let us have much because of all the caffeine, but I wasn't worried about that, I went to bed late anyway. Caffeine didn't bother me. So I thought nothing of all the soda I consumed. I had no idea it was so bad for you aside from the caffeine thing.

When I got pregnant with Leanna I drastically cut my intake-I either drank soda with no caffeine or water. I switched to decaf coffee. Sometimes on busy Fri. or Sat. nights at work I would treat myself to a cherry coke or Pepsi (my favorite). Cutting back on soda actually made it taste less appealing and after she was born I pretty much stopped drinking soda-substituting giant bottles of water when I was at work.
While pregnant with Jacob I started craving it again, especially Cherry Pepsi with lemon squeezed into it. I have to watch because Justin and Timothy will drink ANYTHING that I have in a cup. Just because it's Mommy's.
I know many people think it's silly to try so hard to keep the kids away from soda. People think that it'll make them become fascinated with it because it's forbidden. But I think it's especially important while they're young and their bones are forming to keep them away from it. You only have a certain window of time to store calcium in your body. At my age that time is past. Later when it's out of my control they may choose to drink it, but at least I'll have kept them away from it up until then. There are so many reasons not to drink soda! I'm trying not to make it a habit with my kids because I'm used to having it at family gatherings and such. That makes it harder not to drink for me.

Today in the WIC office as we walked into the room Justin exclaimed, "He's drinking soda!" and pointed at a little boy (had to be two or younger). I heard chuckles around the room and I had to reassure Justin that it was ok, just to get him to stop yelling that the boy had soda. I'll have to try to explain that one to him later. At least I know Justin has the idea that soda isn't for kids!

1 comment:

ADP said...

What I didn't know then.....sure wish I did. But also, soda isn't the only calcium robber, when you eat sugar & meat (yes meat), it robs your bones of calcium in order to digest that food. Both meat & sugar are acidic foods, so the calcium helps to alkalanize it (I know I spelled that wrong) so it can be used by the body.