Many of us are shedding foods (and people) that don’t serve us in the New Year, and according to leading obesity doctors, the #1 processed food you should jettison immediately is soda!
“Stop buying soda,” Craig Primack MD, FACP, FAAP, FOMA and Diplomate of the American Board of Obesity Medicine tells us.
When looking at the nutrition facts in a can or bottle of soda, Dr. Primack notes that 12 ounces of soda has about 140 calories and 39 grams of carbohydrate (carbs). “Most of the time, the sugar is high fructose corn syrup,” he warns.
High fructose corn syrup or “HFCS” contains 55% fructose and 45% glucose, versus regular sugar, or table sugar, which contains 50/50 ratio.
Additionally, fructose is a sugar that is only metabolized in the liver, and increases fat more than glucose, he notes.
And that’s just for the portion controlled amount of one small can–which Dr. Primack points out is becoming increasingly rare in these “supersize me” times. “The second problem, is that most servings are no longer 12 oz but 18, 24 or even 48 ounces giving many, many more calories than 140,” he warns.
But that’s not all. “The last problem is that with caloric beverages over sold food, the sugar is absorbed much faster than when the same amount of sugar is eaten as a solid food product,” he warns. Why is this a problem? With food, even fruit, there is fiber and possibly fat that slow down the sugar absorption. The slower the sugar is absorbed, the less it contributes to fat.
So–there you have it: more than enough reasons to kick your soda habit in 2022!
