It doesn’t matter how healthy or thin you are, reaching for a sugary drink is still dangerous for your heart. Four times as dangerous as not drinking one.
New research presented at the annual meeting of the American Heart Association finds that women who drank only two sugary drinks a day were nearly four times as likely to have high triglycerides, the best predictor of heart risk for women.
They were also significantly more likely to have impaired blood sugar levels even when not eating or drinking.1
Sugary drinks increase triglycerides because they are almost pure carbohydrate. Drinking flavored water, sweetened tea, soda, or those dessert-like coffees send a rush of sugar straight into your bloodstream.
When your body gets too much of this kind of carbohydrate, it wants to store it as fat. How does it do this? It turns the carbs into triglycerides. Then it transports them through the blood from the liver where they’re made to the adipose cells where they’re stored.
 Make your own naturally sweetened drink by adding your favorite fruit to a large pitcher of water and letting it sit overnight. |
Problem is, even if you’re outwardly thin, this fat can accumulate around your organs without your ever knowing it. It’s called visceral fat. It causes inflammation, and can lead to the inflammatory diseases diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity.
And sugary drinks are bad for that reason, but diet drinks may actually be worse.
Researchers were shocked when looking at results from the San Antonio Longitudinal Study of Aging. They followed 474 people for nearly 10 years. They compared the change in waist size for diet soda users versus non-users (both sugary drink drinkers and non-drinkers).
People who drank diet sodas had a 70 percent greater increase in waist size. And for those who said they drank two or more diet sodas a day, their bellies grew by 500 percent more.2
That’s five times bigger waists for people drinking diet sodas.
On average, for each diet soft drink you have each day, you’re 65 percent more likely to become overweight during the next seven to eight years, and 41 percent more likely to become obese.
And it’s not just soda. All juices are just as bad when packaged.
You just can’t package things without ruining them. Because they’re either going to be homogenized, pasteurized or from concentrate, and all of those ruin the vitamins and increase the glycemic index.
Unless you’re going to pick the fruit and drink the juice fresh, don’t drink juice.
So what should you drink?
Tea is a very good alternative. Use lemon and lime for flavoring, and if you want a bit of sweetness, use honey. Agave nectar is not too bad, either.
My grandmother made a wonderful natural juice drink. She called it “summer lemonade” but you can drink it any time of year. She made it from fresh squeezed lemons, water and a splash of apple juice. She served it over ice with a slice of orange and a slice of lime.
Another option is to sweeten your water with just a little bit of fresh squeezed juice or raw sugar.
I love cucumber water, too. You can add a bunch of slices of cucumber to some ice water, let it sit for a couple of hours and you’ll have a tasty drink in no time.
You can also take whatever fruits you like the best – watermelon, pineapple or even strawberries – and add them to a large pitcher of water the night before. The next day, you’ll have a perfectly naturally sweetened fruit-flavored drink.
To Your Good Health,
Al Sears, MD
1 Shay, C., et. al. “Sugar-sweetened beverages may increase cardiovascular risk in women.” American Heart Assoc. heart.org. Scientific Sessions. Nov. 13, 2011..
2 Sansom, W. “New analysis suggests ‘diet soda paradox’ – less sugar, more weight.” Univ Tex SA Health Sci Ctr. uthscsa.edu. June, 2005. Retrieved Dec 1, 2011.