"Pack Ready"

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Comment by Jennifer on July 22, 2010 at 4:33pm

Okay... if your serious about getting into shape... Whether you are over weight or just trying to maintain the weight you are currently... I've found a great new site to help with ALL of it. Thanks to our very own Eve here... she showed me the link ... and I've been having fun with it ever since! It is called sparkpeople.com Make sure to join and keep up with all they have to offer. You'll be surprised at how well it works! :)

Comment by Rebecca on December 31, 2009 at 9:00pm

LOL I'M WITH YA JEN- WE'RE GONNA TEAR THIS PLACE UP- Got great new stuff from Berkley Heart Institute and Mayo Clinic (thank Jake for that) We will be ready for that Tri run

Comment by Jennifer on December 31, 2009 at 7:11pm

Counting down the hours until this group is going to be my life line! I've got 6 months to work myself to a pulp! :)

Comment by Rebecca on November 2, 2009 at 7:46pm

Good find there Alpha, and it's the truth! Poor thing, I know it's hard to give up soda, but not only is the sugar bad for you, so is the sodium. The sodium causes people, especially women, to maintain fat around the waist. Drink beer ( just kidding) try bottled water with the Crystal Light on the go packs. Anything is better then soda

Comment by Jennifer on November 2, 2009 at 5:48pm

Okay... I'll never follow the advice of this... since I'm an obsessive soda drinker... I will pretty much need to be dead or dying to give it up... but... the article was good.

What Soft Drinks are Doing to Your Body

By Dr. Maoshing Ni - Posted on Fri, Oct 30, 2009, 12:29 pm PDT
Dr. Mao's Secrets of Longevity
by Dr. Maoshing Ni a Yahoo! Health Expert for Alternative Medicine
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Soda, pop, cola, soft drink — whatever you call it, it is one of the worst beverages that you could be drinking for your health. As the debate for whether to put a tax on the sale of soft drinks continues, you should know how they affect your body so that you can make an informed choice on your own.

Soft drinks are hard on your health
Soft drinks contain little to no vitamins or other essential nutrients. However, it is what they do contain that is the problem: caffeine, carbonation, simple sugars — or worse, sugar substitutes — and often food additives such as artificial coloring, flavoring, and preservatives.

A lot of research has found that consumption of soft drinks in high quantity, especially by children, is responsible for many health problems that include tooth decay, nutritional depletion, obesity, type-2 diabetes, and heart disease.

Why the sugar in soft drinks isn’t so sweet
Most soft drinks contain a high amount of simple sugars. The USDA recommendation of sugar consumption for a 2,000-calorie diet is a daily allotment of 10 teaspoons of added sugars. Many soft drinks contain more than this amount!

Just why is too much sugar so unhealthy? Well, to start, let's talk about what happens to you as sugar enters your body. When you drink sodas that are packed with simple sugars, the pancreas is called upon to produce and release insulin, a hormone that empties the sugar in your blood stream into all the tissues and cells for usage. The result of overindulging in simple sugar is raised insulin levels. Raised blood insulin levels beyond the norm can lead to depression of the immune system, which in turn weakens your ability to fight disease.

Something else to consider is that most of the excess sugar ends up being stored as fat in your body, which results in weight gain and elevates risk for heart disease and cancer. One study found that when subjects were given refined sugar, their white blood cell count decreased significantly for several hours afterwards. Another study discovered that rats fed a high-sugar diet had a substantially elevated rate of breast cancer when compared to rats on a regular diet.

The health effects of diet soda
You may come to the conclusion that diet or sugar-free soda is a better choice. However, one study discovered that drinking one or more soft drinks a day — and it didn’t matter whether it was diet or regular — led to a 30% greater chance of weight gain around the belly.

Diet soda is filled with artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, sucralose, or saccharin. These artificial sweeteners pose a threat to your health. Saccharin, for instance, has been found to be carcinogenic, and studies have found that it produced bladder cancer in rats.

Aspartame, commonly known as nutrasweet, is a chemical that stimulates the brain to think the food is sweet. It breaks down into acpartic acid, phenylalanine, and methanol at a temperature of 86 degrees. (Remember, your stomach is somewhere around 98 degrees.) An article put out by the University of Texas found that aspartame has been linked to obesity. The process of stimulating the brain causes more cravings for sweets and leads to carbohydrate loading.

Carbonation depletes calcium
Beverages with bubbles contain phosphoric acid, which can severely deplete the blood calcium levels; calcium is a key component of the bone matrix. With less concentration of calcium over a long time, it can lower deposition rates so that bone mass and density suffer. This means that drinking sodas and carbonated water increases your risk of osteoporosis.

Add in the caffeine usually present in soft drinks, and you are in for even more trouble. Caffeine can deplete the body’s calcium, in addition to stimulating your central nervous system and contributing to stress, a racing mind, and insomnia.

Skip the soda and go for:

• Fresh water
Water is a vital beverage for good health. Each and every cell needs water to perform its essential functions. Since studies show that tap water is filled with contaminants, antibiotics, and a number of other unhealthy substances, consider investing in a quality carbon-based filter for your tap water. To find out more about a high-performance filtration system, click here.

On the go? Try using a stainless steel thermos or glass bottle, filled with filtered water. Enhance the flavor of your water with a refreshing infusion of basil, mint leaves, and a drop of honey.

• Fruit Juice
If you are a juice drinker, try watering down your juice to cut back on the sugar content. Buy a jar of organic 100% juice, especially cranberry, acai, pomegranate, and then dilute three parts filtered water to one part juice. You will get a subtle sweet taste and the benefit of antioxidants. After a couple of weeks, you will no longer miss the sweetness of sugary concentrated juices.

• Tea
Tea gently lifts your energy and has numerous health benefits. Black, green, white, and oolong teas all contain antioxidant polyphenols. In fact, tea ranks as high or higher than many fruits and vegetables on the ORAC scale, the score that measures antioxidant potential of plant-based foods.

Herbal tea does not have the same antioxidant properties, though it is still a great beverage choice with other health benefits, such as inducing calming and relaxing effects.

If tea doesn’t satisfy your sweet tooth, try adding cinnamon or a little honey, which has important health benefits that refined sugar lacks. For a selection of healthy teas that promote total body wellness, click here. Drink up!

I hope you find the ways and means to avoid soft drinks. I invite you to visit often and share your own personal health and longevity tips with me.

May you live long, live strong, and live happy!

--Dr. Mao

Comment by Meg on November 1, 2009 at 5:42pm

I should of known that would be in the works! lol

Comment by Rebecca on November 1, 2009 at 5:04pm

That's to funny Meg- we should come up with our own theme songs. Lizzy is working on a flag for slore nation, now we need to get the pack a theme song, and individual theme song s for each member lol

Comment by Meg on November 1, 2009 at 1:36pm

That's awesome Rebecca! Speaking of... I say a costume literally of a Brick House! Roof w/ chimney and all!! haha Almost bought it...

Comment by Rebecca on October 31, 2009 at 4:31pm

LOL Brick House - that's good Meg that's the ringtone Jake has for me on his phone :) Great minds think alike

Comment by Meg on October 27, 2009 at 10:38pm

I would like to be what these lyrics state: http://www.elyrics.net/read/c/commodores-lyrics/brick-house-lyrics....
How can I make that happen? haha

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