cup of jojo

Risks: Diet Soft Drinks Linked to Heart Disease

NYTimes: “Some studies have suggested that consumption of diet soft drinks may be associated with Type 2 diabetes and development of the condition known as metabolic syndrome — high blood pressure, abdominal obesity and other risk factors. Now a 10-year epidemiological study has found a link between diet soft drinks and cardiovascular disease.”

Woke up exhausted this morning…power protein breakfast helped to get me going. Whole wheat english muffin with natural peanut butter and a drizzle of honey; hard-boiled egg; coffee with cinnamon. Goal was to prevent a big blood sugar spike that would cause me to really crash in a couple hours…higher protein & lower carb is the obvious answer, but did you know cinnamon also helps keep blood sugar down? True story.

Turns out a large majority of store-bought honey has been ultra-filtered to remove the pollen, or worse, comes from China and is contaminated with illegal antibiotics. (You want pollen in your honey, that’s what makes it good for you.) Those cute little honey bears from Safeway, Giant, Target, Wal-mart, CVS, even Harris Teeter? yup, basically sugar water.

Trader Joe’s honey made the grade, as did most brands labeled “organic” at any stores, and of course local honey from farmer’s markets wins every time. 

a candid “myplate”, courtesy of https://twitter.com/#!/jl_guti  …

curious about the difference between the uber popular Greek yogurt vs regular yogurt? Here’s an awesome summary plus a neat nutritional breakdown chart:

The Truth Behind the Greek Yogurt Craze

In my opinion, as long as you are buying PLAIN yogurt and adding your own honey, jam or fresh fruit if you need some sweetener, Greek or regular yogurt are equally fantastic snacks. I personally buy the 32oz containers of 2% plain organic yogurt (Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s brand—$2.99 for the whole thing, lasts us a full week and I eat it every day). Cost effective and SO GOOD when you add your own honey/nuts/fruit. Bonus: having plain yogurt in the house comes in super handy for cooking—it can often be used as a substitute in recipes that call for sour cream, mayo, cheese, etc.

from the article:

Diet soft drink users, as a group, experienced 70 percent greater increases in waist circumference compared with non-users. Frequent users, who said they consumed two or more diet sodas a day, experienced waist circumference increases that were 500 percent greater than those of non-users.

Abdominal fat is a major risk factor for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer and other chronic conditions. “These results suggest that, amidst the national drive to reduce consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks, policies that would promote the consumption of diet soft drinks may have unintended deleterious effects,” the authors wrote.

What the average American consumes in added sugars.