Why would I recommend this as my number one thing to remove from your diet, because it is nothing more than empty calories coming in the form of high fructose corn syrup, i.e. liquid sugar.  The soda industry has capitalized on our primordial need for sugar and has attributed to a societal problem of health issues.  And if you have not heard, studies show that sugar targets the same part of the brain as heroin.  So maybe this is why some or most people have a very hard time removing soda from their daily diet.  I believe this may be the hardest step, weaning yourself off sodas or just going cold turkey.  It’s a big challenge for most people and thinking it’s easy is not the right attitude.

My wife and I decided a few years back to never drink soda again and I can say, “I’ve been clean for at least  5 years”, but my wife fell of the wagon 3 years ago, she regretted that.  She felt sick to her stomach, had heart burn, and vowed never to drink soda again.  She has been clean since then.  Kicking soda out of our diet took a few months of work.  It’s not easy and it took us at least a year before we no longer had that “craving”.  You know what that craving feels like, the moment you say to yourself, I need a soda.  What should you do?  You have to learn to resist and make sure you do not substitute with something else as sugary or worse.

So how should you go about quitting?  First of all, you need to stop buying soda for your household, meaning you and everyone else in your immediate family also needs to quit.  Having it a home just makes it that much easier to grab that soda and enter into a sugar induced coma.  Second, stop buying soda at the vending machine at work or school.  By taking something good for you to drink to work or school you are less prone to make bad choices.  Take a healthier alternative, such as water, water with lemon, ice tea without sugar, club soda, or anything else without sugar.  And that does not mean diet drinks, those are far worse than you think.  And if you go to a restaurant make a smart decision about what you are going to drink and stop buying things at the gas station unless it is gasoline for your car.

The great thing about quitting soda is that you might drop a few pounds.  If you are a heavy user (one soda a day) and have over the years gained a few pounds from poor decision, this may help you not only lose weight but begin to make better lifestyle choices.  The other added benefit of relinquishing your body of soda is getting rid of all the other chemical ingredients that soda has, you will feel healthier, sleep better, function more clearly during the day, and live a longer life.  Who knows about the long term health affects these drinks have on our bodies? Later on I will discuss some of the scientifically documented health problems our science community has and is discovering.   For more information on the negative impact sugar has on your health, check out http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57407294/is-sugar-toxic/?tag=contentMain;cbsCarousel