You Deserve To Have A Healthy Heart and Optimal Health

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I was recently reading an article from the August 15, 2011 Bottom Line magazine. While the article covered a lot of different health related tips, it also included some great advice for those people who are looking to follow heart disease prevention tips. The title was “Don’t Drink That! Fruit Juices and Soft Drinks Can Lead to Arthritis, Bone Fractures, and Cancer.” by Dr. Nancy Appleton, Ph.D, a nutritional consultant in San Diego.

The article discussed how everybody knows soda isn’t good for you, but many of us may not realize just how bad they truly are. To make matters worse, fruit juice is almost as bad.

The American Heart Association has concluded that the safe upper limit of daily added sugar, which includes all of the sugar that isn’t naturally present in foods, is 6 teaspoons for women and 9 for men. Most soft drinks, like a 12 ounce can of Pepsi has about 10 teaspoons of sugar. Bottled teas, sports drinks contain almost the same amount. Fruit juice, including fresh apple, grape, and orange juice, contains about 10 teaspoons of sugar in a 12 ounce bottle. Even though it is natural, it still will upset your body chemistry.

Diet sodas doesn’t fare much better. When it comes to heart disease, a presentation at the International Stroke Conference in Los Angeles looked at information from more than 2,500 participants. The researchers found that those who drank a diet soda daily were 61% more likely to suffer a cardio-vascular event, such as a heart attack or stroke, that those who didn’t drink such beverages.

While the researchers were not sure of the reasons for this, there is enough information about sugar substitutes (such as aspartame and saccharin) to make them a good guess. The phosphoric acid ( which disrupts mineral balance) could be a likely candidate cause, too.

The bottom line is this: if you want to have a healthy heart and prevent heart disease, one of the ways to do so is to avoid sodas, diet sodas, fruit juices, and sports drinks. Instead, consume lemon water, coconut water, and use plant-based stevia as a non-caloric sweetner.

To Your Optimal Health,
Monique Hawkins

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• Put Down That Can: Diet Soda May Increase Stroke Risk (fitsugar.com)
• Sweet Substitute: Eat Fruit Instead of Drinking Fruit Juice (fitsugar.com)
• Heart Patient Diet Plan-5 Things You Should Know (moniquerhawkins.com)
• 5 Healthy Foods That Are Actually Killing You (losethattyre.co.uk)