I frequent a restaurant in town where I receive excellent service from my waiter, Marshall. We’ve talked many times about health and nutrition. I usually order a Caeser salad and Marshall tells me how much he loves meat. I warn him about it, but he doesn’t care. He’s young.
In the past few years I’ve been trying to give up coffee. For a time I limited myself to the coffee I drank at this restaurant. I haven’t made any coffee at home in over three years. Marshall doesn’t drink coffee, but I found out he drank a lot of Mountain Dew. He knew that was bad for him but he’s addicted to it.
We talked on Wednesday and Marshall told me he’d been off the Dew for six weeks! Amazing. He also confided that he had gotten up to consuming twelve cans a day. Now that’s a serious addiction, way worse than my six to eight cups of coffee.
So I asked what physical changes he’d noticed. He said that in the morning when he got out of bed his legs and feet didn’t have the pain and needle tingling he’d grown accustomed to. Also, at the end of the day his legs and feet no longer ached from waiting tables. I asked him how his sleep was, if he was sleeping sounder. He said that when he used to drink Dew he would wake up early in the morning, as usual, but would be able to go back to sleep. Now he doesn’t go back to sleep. He’s apparently getting better sleep.
If Marshall had seen a doctor for the pain, the doctor probably would have offered a diagnosis and prescribed the drug recommended for his disease. If Marshall had followed the medical course, he would continue to drink his poisoned brew and then consume toxic drugs. By the time he was forty-five, diabetic, and decrepid, the doctors could tell him, “We don’t know why this happens. You’re just getting old. You have bad genetics. Here’s another drug.”
Marshall’s pain wasn’t faulty genetics or a mystery illness. He was drinking a toxic concoction of water, high fructose corn syrup and massive amounts of caffeine ensured to make him feel energetic and addict him to the product.
Folks, there’s nothing good in soft drinks. Nothing. Well, maybe the water, because they filter the water for quality control, but that’s it. You have been sold a “thirst quencher” that is designed with toxic chemicals–sugar and caffeine–that ensure you become an addict and repeat customer.
Please try whatever you can to begin decreasing your consumption of soft drinks and eventually giving them up. Water is a fabulous thirst quencher designed by nature, the one nature uses to fill all your fruits and vegetables. Thirsty? Have a glass of filtered water. Eat a watermelon.
