Health-e-Wise
Where Natural Health Meets Longevity and Laughter

Double Gulps, Sugar and Diabetes

by Jim Lynn

I was addicted and knew it. Yet no matter how hard I
tried going cold turkey, it never worked. What was my
addiction? Carbonated soft drinks: More specifically,
the sugar in soft drinks!

On average I consumed three 12 ounce cans of regular Pepsi every day. Aside from substance abuse, the really big issue was all the refined sugar I was putting into my body. It not only made me fat, it could later cause my body to be diabetic.

When I say fat, my Body Mass Index (BMI) placed me squarely in the obese column. If you are obese yourself, you know how scary that is, especially if you are weight conscious. My waist in the mirror looked more like a 50 pound sagging sack of flour than the washboard I had known so many years. My first words were, "Oh, Dear God...take me now."

But God spared me and led me to Banaba. Banaba is a safe, natural substance known for its ability to stop sugar craving, and keep glucose in the bloodstream at normal levels.

BanabaTrim did what I could not do for myself. The first two BanabaTrim capsules I took stopped my sugar addiction dead in its tracks. Since adding BanabaTrim to my daily diet, I have not had or even desired a single sip of Pepsi. BanabaTrim also stopped my desire for pastries and sweets of any kind. Best of all, I have lost 25 pounds of weight, and feel back in control over my body. My goal is to lose another 30 pounds.

Some Sweet Ugly Facts:

Too much sugar consumption is one of the leading causes of obesity and disease. In fact, nearly two of every three Americans are either obese or overweight. (1)

Among children and teens ages 6-19, 15% (almost 9 million) are overweight according to 1999-2000 data, or triple what the proportion was in 1980. More than 10% of children between two and five years old are overweight, up from 7% in 1994. (2)

Obesity claims more than 300,000 lives each year, and is linked to at least five of the 10 leading causes of death. It costs Americans an estimated $100 billion annually, and affects all age groups, ethnicities, income an education levels. (3)

Not surprisingly, 16 million Americans have been diagnosed with type II diabetes, with another 15 million testing positive for pre-type II diabetes. Diabetes has increased sixfold in the United States since 1958. (4)

Diabetes is becoming an epidemic largely due to the shift in our food choices. And that's where soft drinks come into play. Sugar laden soft drinks now account for a full third of all sugar consumed in the U.S.A. (5)

According to government and other studies, soft drinks are currently the leading source of added sugars in the daily diet of young Americans.  David Ludwig, Director of the Optimal Weight for Life Program at Children’s Hospital Boston said, "It is not uncommon for teenagers to receive 500 to 1000 calories per day from sugar sweetened drinks. (6)

Consider this:

A 12 ounce can of regular Pepsi contains 41 grams of sugar. Those 41 grams of sugar are equal to to 9.19 teaspoons of refined sugar (Each teaspoon equals 16 calories). That's a lot of sugar. I mean, would you add that much sugar to the same amount of coffee or tea? Most people would not, yet many of us think nothing of drinking two three or more large servings of soft drinks a day. To put those numbers into everyday language, here's a formula to figure sugar consumption:

Look on the product label where it says sugars. Multiply the number of grams of sugar by 0.22433. For instance, a regular Pepsi has 41 grams of sugar. Using the formula above, 41 grams x 0.22322 = 9.19 teaspoons.

So how much sugar does soft drink consumption add to your diet? Multiply the number of teaspoons in one can of soda, times the number of cans you consume per day, times 365.

Let's assume you drink two 12 ounce cans of soda per day with 9.19 teaspoons of suger in each can. Multiply 9.19 x 2 x 365  = 6,708.7 teaspoons of sugar.

48 teaspoons =one cup. 1 lb. of sugar = two cups

6,708.7 teaspoons divided by 48 = 140 cups of sugar. 140 cups of sugar weighs 70 lbs. So if you drink two Pepsi's a day, you will have consumed 70 pounds in one year.

Said another way, 6,708.7 teaspoons of sugar equals 419,293 calories. Since 3,500 calories are needed to create one pound of fat, 419,293 calories will add 119 pounds. Now you can see the importance of reducing large amounts of sugar intake.

To insure we get our share, soft drink manufacturers have over the years increased a serving size from 6 ounces to 20 ounces. Convenience stores, like Seven-Eleven, promote "Big Gulps" which weigh in at an astounding 68 ounces. The net result is that we are raising a generation who believe these over sized servings are normal.

Conclusion:

Americans are rapidly becoming obese and dying from disease related illnesses, caused by high sugar intake. The good news is that many people are using a safe, natural substance to beat sugar addiction, a contributor to weight and disease.

BanabaTrim is a safe, all natural answer to sugar addiction. BanabaTrim worked for me, and most everyone who tries it. If you know of someone addicted to soft drinks, the best thing you can do is introduce them to BanabaTrim.

Reference:

1. National Center for Health Statistics.

2. National Center for Health Statistics.
    www.cdc.gov/nchs/releases/02news/obesityonrise.htm

3. Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
    www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/obesity-epidemic.htm
    www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/usphs/pdfs/army.pdf

4.  "Diabetes Reaches Record Levels," AP, 10/31/97.

5.  Guest, Donna K. 1998. Test yourself: natural sweeteners.
     Better Nutrition. 60(7): 62.

6. www.hsph.harvard.edu/press/releases/press02152001.html