What to Drink?

I just saw another article about what we should be drinking. I have said this before, but it is still worth repeating. Get rid of those sodas. If you're drinking regular sodas or diet sodas, it does not matter. The regular sodas cause weight gain and are definitely linked with Type 2 Diabetes and heart disease as well as any other disease that is a result of obesity.

Diet soda really do not help you lose weight. In fact you may gain weight drinking diet sodas because they increase your appetite, so you end up eating more. Not to mention the fact that you are putting artificial sweeteners, flavors and other chemicals into your body.

You best bet - good old water.

Give up the Soda Pop

I was just at the store and watching what people were buying in preparation for the fourth of July. I almost got sick when I saw people buying case of soda pop. I was reminded how so many people who are trying to lose weight say to me "but I drink diet soda." My question to them is why? What is the nutrient value of soda pop - zilch, zero, none, nada. It doesn't matter whether it's diet or regular. What you're getting is either sugar or chemicals that taste like sugar, carbonated water which leaches the calcium out of your bones setting you up for osteoporosis later in life, more than a healthy dose of caffeine depending upon what brand you are drinking and oh yes, you get that other chemical artificial flavor!

Why or why would you put that stuff into your body?? The other thing that dieters may not be aware of is that diet soda can actually increase your appetite, so that you eat more. Go back to the basics - water, it's good for you!

Carbs and Athletes

Someone asked me the other day about why athletes eat so many carbs. They do this to fuel the body for the intense exercise that they are doing. The carbs for an athlete fuel the muscles and the brain. So the day before a race or the day before we ride 75-80 miles, we have a carbo rich meal so that we would have fuel for the muscles as we peddled our way up and down mountains. Included in these meals are high fiber sugars and starches like fruit, vegetables and whole grains.

During the ride time or race time, the athlete now needs low fiber sugars that can be easily digested. Especially with runners, they need to have things that are quickly and easily digested because the stomach is really jostled around as they run. You'll often see these folks drinking smoothies, sports drinks, sports gels and bars.

The other thing that is really important for athletes is to keep hydrated. Drinking 1-2 hours before the event and then more about 15 minutes before the event helps keep them going. If you run for more than 90 consecutive minutes, you need to refuel the muscles and brain with carbs. Cyclists usually have a rest stop about every 10 miles for refueling with carbs and drinking liquids. Cyclists have the advantage unless they are racing in that they often have water with them in the form of bottles on the bike or a camel pack of water on their back.

Little Things That Can Imporve Heart Health #8

I've discussed eating over the past few days and just have one other comment on what you put into your mouth. The most important thing you can drink is water. Caffeine definitely has an effect on the heart, so you want to be aware of how much caffeine you are taking in, whether it is in the form of coffee, lattes, or sodas. Both sodas and lattes have increased detriment as far as the heart goes because of the sugar/calorie load. Even "no calorie" sodas are not good for the heart because they often contain caffeine.

Don't try to go cold turkey, this will not go well. Cut out 1 of these and go at it gradually over several weeks until you are no longer drinking the sodas and lattes. Having 1-2 cups of coffee per day is OK, but get it dow to that much.

Drink the water - filtered water is best. You don't have to buy bottled water, filter it yourself. It is more economical and you will be helping to save the planet.

Bottled Water - Good or Bad

Bottled water is not likely to disappear. The issue is the plastic bottles and disposable of those millions of plastic bottles. While bottled water has it's good features and it is convenient, it would be better if you filtered your water at home and put it in a BPA-free reusable bottle. This cuts down on the amount of plastic bottles that need to be disposed of and gets you what you really want which is filtered water.

More Cheating on Your Diet

One of the biggest stumbling blocks for many people who are on "diets" is the abstinence from alcohol. I say, drink wisely. If you really want an alcoholic beverage, try sipping one after you have eaten a healthy and filling meal. It can be your dessert. Happy Hours can be lethal to your diet as you are more likely to overindulge and crave junk food. So make Happy Hour an occasion that doesn't occur every day.

Sipping water between bites of an indulgence or between sips of an alcoholic beverage will help make the indulgence or drink last longer and you will eat or drink less.

Water Quality Continued

The last category for assessing the quality of your water is Taste. Von Wiesenberger likes water that is a perfect balance of minerals such as calcium, magnesium and potassium with just a touch of sodium. This gives the water a clean, refreshing finish.

So how is your water. I'm not sure I could tell the exact perfect balance of minerals, but I do know when a glass of water is refreshing!

Water Quality Continued

The next category to assess the quality of water is Texture. Similar to wine tasters who swirl the wine in the glass and then look at it sideways to evaluate the "legs", so can water be swirled in the glass. The difference is that with water the streaks that form with wine when it is swirled should not be there with water.

Von Wiesenberger says that the water should smooth, soft or even slippery in the mouth.

Water Quality Continued

The second category for assessing the quality of your water is Aroma. Tap water often has a chemical scent. This can be very strong or mild. If you can smell the chlorine, then the treatment is too strong and more on the order of that that you would use for a swimming pool, not for something you would drink.

Metallic smells to the water can be there as a result of copper pipes used to transport the water. Most bottled waters don't have this problem, but they sometimes can take on the smell of the plastic if a cheaper grade of plastic is used for for packaging.

Water

I recently ran across an article about water tasting. When I thought about that for a minute, I remembered that the water in the town where my mother lives is actually quite bad. We always filter it because it tastes so bad otherwise. Interestingly, 30 miles away at her cabin in the north woods, the water is from a well and tastes very refreshing.

Arthur von Wiesenberger is an expert in water tasting and there is even an international competition! Von Wiesenberger assesses water quality via four categories Which I'll cover over the next couple of days.

The first is appearance. Obviously, the clearer the better. I have been places where the water out of the tap was cloudy. Needless to say we didn't drink it. If the color is brownish-red, it may mean there is a lot of iron in the water. If the color is green, it may mean there is algae in the water.

You can look at different waters in clear drinking glasses by holding them up to a light. The light should come through as if there is nothing in the glass.

Nighttime Eating

Here are some more tips to curb nighttime eating.

Get your hands busy. Often times we turn to food if we are bored or lonely. There are a couple things you can do here. Take a walk, sign up for an evening class, take a bubble bath, or call a friend. Find a hobby. Something that will keep the hands busy, like knitting, journaling, puzzles, or sewing.

Go for liquids like a glass of water or a cup of tea instead of food. If you have to chew something, try some gum.

Clean out the pantry. Get rid of the chips and cookies and have fresh fruit and vegetables on hand.

Eat dinner later. Watch portion sizes and keep it healthy.

Go to bed early. You won't be eating if you're sleeping!!

How The Nutrients Work When Your Engine Is Running #4

The fourth major output when your body is functioning well is the waste and recycling. The fiber you eat helps you eliminate the solid waste. Yes, we have our own internal recycling plant in the form of our kidneys. Once cells have grabbed the nutrients from the food we eat to nourish themselves, they send the rest back into the blood stream to get filtered and recycled.

Basically the blood carries the waste to your kidneys (your own person recycling center). The kidneys filter about 45 thousand gallons of fluid every 24 hours. In the filtering process, they return needed water and chemicals to the blood. Only about 1% of filtered fluids gets turned into urine.

How The Nutrients Work When Your Engine Is Running #3

In addition to the blood vessels dilating and bringing blood to the surface to cool the body, your body also begins to sweat. This is the body's most effective way of cooling itself. The sweat evaporates and results in cooling of the body.

There is a downside to this and that is if you sweat a lot, you can become dehydrated for two reasons. First, if you are sweating you are usually doing some activity that is going to require more oxygen, so you may have an increased respiratory rate. Usually, as you begin to breath faster you will open your mouth and breath through both nose and mouth. This will begin to dry the membranes of the air passages and hence begin the dehydration process. Secondly, as you sweat, you are not only losing water through the skin. If you lick your skin after you have been sweating, it will taste salty, because you lose sodium, chloride and potassium through the skin as well with the sweat. These elements stay on the skin while the water evaporates. Beware that you are replacing what you are losting.

Nutrients That Make Your Body Work #7

The last of the 7 essential nutrients for your body to run smoothly is water. We don't always think of water as a nutrient, but it is vital to the human body. It doesn't have any caloric value and is not a source of energy.

What water does do is transport nutrients and waste in and out of cells. Water is a necessary part of all digestive, circulatory, and excretory functions of the body. In addition, water helps maintain the body temperature.

If you have every been really dehydrated, none of your body functions works properly including your brain. I once got very dehydrated while doing a lot of physical activity on a very hot day. At one point I could not speak except for a word here and there. As they got me cooled down and I started drinking water, after about 15 minutes they asked me to recite the alphabet. I could not do it. It astounded me that I was totally unable to recite the alphabet, but then I knew just hoe dehydrated I had gotten.

Another Word About Sodium

Recently I wrote about how much salt you should intake in a day. One of my readers wrote and asked about what happens when you exercise very vigorously and you sweat, don't you lose more than just water? The answer is yes, you do lose sodium as well.

So here is the answer. If you are going to be doing vigorous exercise where you will be sweating, keep hydrated. You don't need any fancy vitamin water or gatorade. Just keep drinking plain old water. I recommend that you drink filtered water, but if you don't have filtered water then plain water from the tap will do.

To replenish the sodium, do it with organic foods like fruits and vegetables or nuts. If you go for the electrolyte drinks, you will likely over shoot and you will end up raising your blood pressure.

Ten Things To Do To Decrease Stress #3

How much water have you had to drink today? One of the causes of stress in our bodies is to become dehydrated. This stresses all of the muscle cells as well as our brain cells. We tend to take hydration for granted, but it is something we have to work at each day.

The average person does not drink enough water each day. Coffee and tea do not count. These both contain caffeine which actually dehydrates you more. Herbal teas are Ok because they do not contain caffeine.

How much to drink? Se my blog post on 3/05/09 to find out exactly how much water you minimally need each day.

Ice Water to Lose Weight

Dose drinking ice water help you lose weight? While drinking ice water does increase your metabolism in order to maintain a normal temperature, the amount of calories burned in this process are not going to be significant for you to lose a great deal of weight. Remember a few days ago I mentioned that you had to burn 3500 calories more than your intake to burn a pound of fat. Drinking a half gallon of ice water a day will burn about 70 calories. So it does burn some, but really it is a "drop in the bucket" as far as burning enough calories for weight loss.

I'm not advocating to not drink water here, or even ice water for that matter. The bigger problem that most of us suffer from is we are slightly dehydrated most of the time because we do not drink enough water or we think we're doing OK with liquids because we're drinking soda, tea or coffee. Remember that most of these contain caffeine which make you even more dehydrated. Water is the best thing for you to be drinking.

Cheating on Your Diet with Drink

There are a couple of things about drink. First is the one that probably came to mind when you read the title. alcohol. If your treat is to have an alcoholic drink, then have it after you have eaten a good meal or while you are eating a good meal. Then just sip at it. If you drink it afterward, you can think of it as your dessert. It is better not to combine drinking with happy hour as you are likely to overindulge in alcohol and in junk snack foods.

The second kind of drinking I want to talk about is water. Sipping water between bites of your "cheating" food will help it last longer and let you savor it. In addition, you will be giving your body some much needed water.

Not related to drink, but often goes along with drink are munchies. Be smart about which munchies you choose. Pretzels and baked potato chips are 2 of the better munchies. I would recommend that you put a limit on how much you munch. In other words, only put out a small bowl. Better yet, use raw nuts as munchies!

Energy Drinks or Water

There has been a huge rise in the number of energy drinks available these days. Along with this has come an increase in tooth decay. Dental studies have shown that these energy drinks actually erode tooth enamel more than soda does. Rather than drinking an energy drink, find a good protein bar that you can eat if you're needing fuel for the system for a workout. To just drink the energy drinks during the day because you're feeling like you need to is not a good idea.

Far better is to drink water. It always boggles my mind when I hear people say they don't like the taste of water. Water should be tasteless, although I know there are some places where the chemical additives to water do give it a pretty yucky taste. So drink purified water. It's refreshing and tasteless. Try to avid the flavored waters as you're just getting useless sugar in those.

Cleansing the Kidney

Since the kidneys are the other way in which you get rid of wastes and toxins, it makes sense that you would want to cleanse them at the same time that you're cleansing the bowel. Cleansing the kidneys is pretty easy.

Since the kidneys are a filtering unit, the best way to help clean them out is to drink lots of water. I've already spoken about water in the September of 08, and in the dieting tips #6. I do in fact mean water here and not coffee, tea, sodas, juices or other liquids.

Our bodies are 50% water, so the minimum amount of water you should be drinking each day is to take your weight, divide by 2 and that's how many ounces of water you should be drinking. Here's an example: if you weight 160 pounds, divide by 2 you get 80 - 80 ounces of water is the minimum you should be drinking.

Now if you want to cleanse the kidneys, you will need to drink more than the minimum amount of water. Also keep in mind if you are doing heavy physical activity or exercise, you will need even more water to not only replace what you are losing with activity/exercise but to cleanse the kidney. If you don't replace what you're losing, the kidneys are challenged with more toxins to filter out with less volume. Think of the kidney's as a sifter. The more water through the sifter, the easier it is to filter out the particles. If the particles become too big, they clog up the tiny filtering units in the kidney.