{"id":21905,"date":"2011-11-16T09:57:46","date_gmt":"2011-11-16T14:57:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=21905"},"modified":"2015-12-27T15:45:36","modified_gmt":"2015-12-27T20:45:36","slug":"water-cant-beat-the-real-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=21905","title":{"rendered":"Water, Can’t Beat the Real Thing"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I was eighteen-years-old and left America to travel the world, I learned something truly fascinating about human beings: they drink water.\u00a0 Plain water.\u00a0 The very same stuff my dog drank, and that we used to wash dishes and cars and ourselves was\u00a0 consumed in its natural form by billions of people around the world.\u00a0 No added sugar necessary.<\/p>\n

You think I’m exaggerating now, but I’m not.\u00a0 As a child, I never drank water, other than the occasional desperate sip from a water fountain at school after recess.\u00a0 My primary home was my father’s house, where we weren’t allowed to have sodas, and instead drank pink lemonade which he made from a powdered mix.\u00a0 I also spent a great deal of time at my paternal grandmother’s house, and there I usually drank Ginger Ale, which she said was good for the stomach because it made the food settle.\u00a0 If I wasn’t trying to digest one her of heavy, oily meals and getting food to settle was not an issue, there was Coke, which was also good for the stomach because it made you greps<\/em> (burp).\u00a0 And then there was my mother’s apartment.\u00a0 My mother was incapacitated and had a caregiver for several years, Susan, who was addicted to Coke and cigarettes.\u00a0 You’re going to think I’m exaggerating again, but I kid you not when I tell you that three times each week my brother and I went to 7-Eleven with Susan where we picked up a grocery bag full of Coke, Sprite, Kit-Kats, Snickers, and cigarettes (for Susan) to get us through the afternoon.\u00a0 (In my mind now, I’m going back in time and trying to protect my little girl lungs from the second-hand smoke.)<\/p>\n

For school lunches I brought juice boxes or Capri Sun.\u00a0 At summer camp I drank bug juice, even though I didn’t like it.\u00a0 At birthday parties I skipped the Kool-aid, because I really didn’t like it.\u00a0 When we went out for pizza I ordered Dr. Pepper or root beer.\u00a0 Sometimes I got lucky and found a vending machine with Grape Soda or Orange Crush. \u00a0I took Gatorade to the park.\u00a0 In high school \u00a0I took juice boxes to school or bought Diet Coke from the vending machine. \u00a0\u00a0When it was cold I drank Ovaltine.\u00a0 Before I went to bed I drank milk or, oddly, Postum<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jump forward in time now to the kitchen of my adulthood.\u00a0 Guess what you won’t find?<\/p>\n

You live and learn, right?\u00a0 Or you get diabetes and learn.*\u00a0 Either way, the only beverages in my home are water, soda water, milk, coffee, and herbal teas. Oh, and wine, of course.<\/p>\n

So, yes, I’m not in favor of any sugary drinks, and I’m pretty much anti-soda.\u00a0 I make exceptions for a person who is hypoglycemic, or needs to settle the stomach.\u00a0 Otherwise, my motto is just say no<\/em>.\u00a0 There are probably hundreds of scientific papers which back up my feeling that sodas are bad.\u00a0 Here’s a post about a recent one, Sugary Drinks May Increase Heart Disease, Diabetes, Even in Women of Normal Weight.<\/em><\/p>\n

Just after I saw the article about sugary drinks, I saw Karmel Allison’s pictures<\/a> of her very first JDRF Walk<\/a>.\u00a0 This picture caught my eye:<\/p>\n

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I’m going to quote my two-year-old son now and use the line he uses for just about everything I suggest to him, “I can’t like it.”\u00a0 Can you like this?\u00a0 Should Coca-Cola be advertising at JDRF events?\u00a0<\/p>\n

A while ago I wrote a fairly harsh critique<\/a> of a local JDRF walk sponsored by Krispy Kreme Doughnuts.\u00a0 I’m not writing this now to go after JDRF or Coke, or anyone else.\u00a0 Believe me, if Coke offered me a lot of money to do something, I’d have a much easier time wearing a hat that says hypocrite<\/em> than I would saying no.\u00a0 But couldn’t, at the very least, someone at JDRF say maybe we should have a big sign that says Dasani Water (owned by Coca-Cola) instead?\u00a0<\/p>\n

I hope this post is coming across gently, because, as I said before, I’m not trying to attack JDRF here or anyone who thinks Coke is the best drink ever.\u00a0 I really just don’t get it.\u00a0 Someone please explain.<\/p>\n

In another of Karmel’s photos, the one of the Pediatric Diabetes Research Center’s<\/a> table, there appears to be a bag of green apples on the table.\u00a0 If those are apples then way to go PDRC<\/em>!\u00a0 That’s something I can get behind.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0*The author is not implying that her diabetes was caused by Coke or any other beverage.\u00a0 The author is stating that having diabetes forces a person to pay attention to sugar intake.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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