Wow, it’s been a long day. Woke up this morning at 6 for a 10am flight. The roads were bad last night from the ice storm so we were trying to avoid any situation that would hinder getting to Costa Rica. Everything worked out perfectly; the roads were not so bad and we had so much time to spare… Yet somehow it’s 6pm and we are still traveling because we missed our 10am direct flight :-/
So on the flight from Dallas to Miami, I fell asleep and Ife was kind enough to get me a ginger ale and a cran-apple juice for himself when the hostess came by. I woke up with 2 unopened cans in front of me. I’ve been doing great with drinking just water but I had a taste in my mouth and wanted something to sweet so I grabbed the cran-apple juice. I figured it was juice so it had to be the better option. I looked at the nutritional, saw 220 calories and thought “Oh hell no! That’s like half a meal” lol. Then I grabbed the ginger ale and it said 140 calories so I figured I could live with that.
Just as I was about to pour myself some, I looked further down on the nutritional label and almost had a heart attack. Grams of sugar: 34. Wait, what??!! Many snacks that claim to be nutritious are at about 8g of sugar. When they hit 11g, to me they are pushing it. So 34g?? Whatttt?! I was appalled. Just out of curiosity, I picked up the can of cran-apple juice and low and behold 58g. I couldn’t help but picture the soda as some liquid sitting on a quarter can of sugar.
I still had the taste in my mouth, so I poured some ginger ale but had much less than I would have had otherwise. I have been more cautious of my sugar intake recently since I some history and research on how sugar(simple sugars) impact the body. Apparently, it is really toxic to the body especially in high quantities. See, it would not be so bad if our food supply wasn’t flooded with it. Sometimes it is called sugar, other times it’s called high fructose corn syrup, cane sugar and so many other forms. Turns out these actually cause an imbalance in the digestive system which results in a craving for even more even though it is not good for us. Pretty insane, I know!
As usual, I don’t encourage you to make a rash decision to cut out all simple sugars from your diet. Instead make better decisions wherever you can afford it and only make changes that make sense to you. Understanding how your body really works allows us to invest out efforts better and see actual results. Fitness may not be easy but it is simple and far less complicated than they all make it seem. Focus on you and your body and make your healthy lifestyle change. Let’s do this!
Ps. I am feeling cool cause I learned something in Costa Rica – what sugar is in spanish hence the title. hehe. Have a lovely day!
—- Natural mud bath from the Volcano behind us! Feeling on top of the world 😀
