Ehhh. I have not been a soda drinker for like a decade, so I don't get the Coke Zero uproar. Once you don't drink them for a while, they no longer taste that great - so sweet, it kills. Ginger ale is still ok to me, less sweet than say a Coke/Pepsi, and I will have a ginger ale with my father maybe once a year. That is really the only soda that I ever have. Water, coffee, occasionally tea. I know juice is high sugar, but I still love most juices.....an occassional treat. V8 is YES.
Ok. But, sugar isn't what makes people fat, either. I know lots of "not fat" people that consume sugar. Eating too much sugar, sure, that will make you fat. But, again, Coke Zero didn't have sugar in it, and Coke Zero wasn't making 'nerds's coworkers fat.
Its amazing how much denial people will go through to take the responsibility off themselves. Often people try to study obesity by having study participants keep food logs, not surprisingly these food logs are notoriously unreliable, almost inevitably people will understate what they've consumed. Weight has a relatively simple formula but people are either in denial, unwilling to make the behavioral changes, or simply don't want to change despite saying otherwise. It'd almost be like asking a hardcore alcoholic how many drinks they have a week while at the doctor. They are going to lie, either do downplay how things are, or they simply believe that to be true.
What? sugar absolutely makes people fat. Its a primary contributor in tipping the "calories in vs. calories out" scale. Your body turns sugar into fat via insulin. When your body takes in too much over a period of time, that system breaks down. Thats what diabetes is. Most people with high sugar diets usually arent also consuming fiber, protein and complex carbohydrates in equivalent amounts.
I agree with everything you wrote, except the statement that sugar makes people fat. Actually, agree is the wrong word, because it implies that everything you wrote after that is an opinion. It's not, what you wrote after that is all fact, and I have no dispute for those facts. But, I stand by my comment: sugar does not make people fat; eating too much sugar makes people fat. One beer won't make you drunk, but 15 beers will.
I quit drinking all soda 3-4 years ago. I did so during the great paleo push on this board, because people said it would make me feel better. It did not make me feel any different. It did make me save $2-3 per meal when I eat out. So that's cool. But people also said paleo would make me feel better. Those people were retarded liars. Is all it did was stress me out and make me depressed. No more beer. No more dinner parties. I had to bring my own food everywhere. No more going out at lunch with co-workers. I now spent extraordinary amounts of time prepping my food. It killed my social life. I suppose if I was at a point in my life where I didn't have time for friends it would have been great. I did stick with the no soda thing. But that was more of a cost saving measure. Also it was the only thing I've ever been able to quit successfully. So I stick to it as a matter of principle. I'm coming up on two months of being nicotine free (no smokes, chew, dip, gum, lozenge, patch or vape). I'm finally to the stage where I can recognize a nicotine craving and head it off. Before I thought I was just hungry, and I'd eat until I got sick trying to make myself feel better. Or else I would cry for no reason. Addiction is a serious thing. I can't believe what nicotine did to me. I'm sticking to that because my son will never know me as an addict. I also don't want to have him watch me die of the cancer that came from that addiction.
Agreed, moderation is everything. Sugar is a hard thing to moderate for many people. Joe Rogan had a guest on his podcast (forget who it was, maybe Rhonda Patrick) that suggested that humans are hard-wired to derive pleasure from sugar for evolutionary reasons required by early humans. Just that evolution has not caught up with the development and progress of modern society.
I used to drink a can of soda every night with dinner, then a couple years ago decided it would be an easy enough change towards being healthier if I kicked that habit. I didn't want to just switch to diet sodas because I was also working on further reducing chemically/processed/corn syrupy foods from my diet and also just don't like the taste. So I've been drinking flavored seltzers instead and it was a very easy switch: still a flavorful beverage, still bubbly, still has that satisfying cracking open of a can that I didn't realize was such a big part of why I'd had trouble stopping other times before. Seltzer's gotten all trendy so I don't get bored cycling through three flavors like I used to. It's also cheaper. It's more refreshing. No bad stuff in it. People always talk like stopping a soda a day habit would lead to me instantly dropping 100pounds in a day, though, and that did not happen, but I'm sure I'm healthier than I was before. So if you're trying to stop drinking soda in general, I suggest that. Related: my most coastal elite opinion is that it should be pronounced "luh kwah" and that anyone who pronounces it "luh kroy" is a hillbilly, THE ENTIRE POPULATION OF THE TOWN THAT PRONOUNCES IT THAT WAY INCLUDED.
East coast elitism at its finest. Why don't you go back to Brooklyn while wearing skinny jeans in your urban garden on top of an apartment while listening to cassette tapes.
This kind of thing fascinates me. Dr. Davis, the guy who wrote Wheat Belly, went into this sort of thing about the wheat we grow and use today. He talked about how the agricultural science has modified wheat in the last 50-60 years. It was done to help feed the world - shorter stalks with bigger heads that produce twice a year instead of once. But, we haven't evolved to digest and process it properly.
I pronounce it "la kroyks" on purpose. It's also owned by the same company that owns Faygo, so you can be an elitist juggalo. And if you drink more than one soda a day, switching to seltzer is not super easy. It's like cracking open the worst tasting soda in the world, because you're expecting all the sugar. It takes a few days to appreciate the subtle (very subtle) flavor.
One good way to help appreciate the subtle flavor is to add Vodka to it. In addition to the vodka, you can add a scoop of strawberry sorbet. Of course, at that point, you've consumed as many calories as a regular sugar soda, but you can keep drinking them until you don't care.
Even the company that makes it thinks you're wrong. I stopped drinking all soda at the same time that I quit smoking, about 10 years ago. I've never had much of any inclination towards sweet things in general, but I was drinking about a 2 liter of Mountain Dew every day. I can't say that it had a huge impact on my overall health (I'm sure if I were regularly tracking my bloodwork numbers I would have seen more evidence) but even now I almost get sick at the overly sweet taste of just about any soda, energy drink, fruit juice, etc.
I started eating "primal" about a year and a half ago. I like cooking my own meals anyway and don't beat myself up if I go out and get a bite with friends, if their is a more protien based option on the menu I go for that. Like always alcohol consumption on the weekend spikes the carbs and negates any will power for delicously shitty drunk food. If I gave up booze (HAH!), I think I could maintain a weight 15-20 pounds lower than Im at right now. Reading Mark Sisson's book, eating clean as he recommends is just not economically feasable for me. Trying to maintain a gram of protein per lean body weight daily with grass fed animal meat is retarded. You find tilapia at a decent price per pound and in comes Mark saying it's basically putting a shotgun in your mouth because it's farm raised and has some of the wrong Omega Fatty Acids. Best go with the wild caught Alaska Salmon at 13.49 per pound.
I also read that book because I heard him on Rogan's podcast. I gave it a good faith shot and I lost 20 pounds in about 4 months. It worked really well but it destroyed my food-based social life. I try to stick to the 80/20 rule like Zisson says. Even though the book is a bit elitist(organic everything, grass-fed this and that), I tried to stick with it as best I can. No processed sugars, breads, pastas, fruits and I upped my healthy fats and veggies with quality meats. I paid really close attention to my portions(most effective IMO) and the weight fell off. The first week sucked hard. But once you adjusted, it works well. Now, when I cheat, I self loathe really hard for about a day until I have a good couple days of clean eating and exercising.
I just ran across an article about Tesla's new solar roof. I have to say, it's hard to tell this is a solar roof: According to Elon, this isn't a fancy photoshoot or any photoshopping... this is a home owner taking a pic with their iPhone and sending it to them. Colour me impressed. Story here: https://www.inverse.com/article/35022-elon-musk-tesla-solar-roof-photos-amazing
Yep... it looks so much better than something like this: It's reaping all that solar energy but doesn't have the eyesore.