Day 11

I had a rather frustrating moment with myself last night.

I am learning a lot about nutrition and how our bodies work and keys to staying healthy, all rather coincidentally, it seems. Last night I was (again) learning about the damage that fructose has on our bodies. Soda in general. Did you know (and you might, but I didn’t) that if you drink one can of Coke per day for a year, and you never burn off those excess calories, that by the end of the year you will have gained 15.6 pounds of fat? That explains what happened to me last year…

Anyway, most recent revelation—an endocrinologist explained the “secret formula” that keeps people so addicted to soda. Did you know that soda has a diuretic in it? Makes you pee fluid water. Have you also noticed how much sodium soda has in it? Tell me, what happens when your body expels much of its fluid water and then you consume large quantities of salt? You are thirsty.

Do you see how this is all adding up? Diuretic to make you pee. Sodium to make you thirsty. HFCS to cover up the taste of salt. Caffeine to provide you a subtle stimulant. It’s a recipe concocted to keep you drinking. The companies that produce these drinks aren’t ignorant of this.

Doesn’t that sound horrible? It does.

So why, oh why, do I seem to be Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? There is one (intelligent) part of me that realized the horror of what’s going on, the fact that I am allowing myself to be victimized by a greedy, money-making scheme invented by a company that obviously cares nothing about the obesity epidemic in our country. I see the terrible consequences of consuming so much fructose and how it could potentially rob me of my health. And yet… there is still this (very strong, insistent) side of me that doesn’t care. That side cares about taste, and enjoyment, and pleasure. That side can block out all of the facts and revel in the fizzy bubbles and sweet, satisfying taste.

Hence my frustrating moment with myself last night. Really, it was anger. I don’t understand how I can have such head knowledge about things and still desire to make harmful choices. Joshua pointed out that this equates to spirituality as well… and life in general. Addictions to toxicity.

I think, as far as diet is concerned, I am going to strive for balance. For instance, I can guarantee you that after the Challenge is up, I will be eating butter again. (Didn’t anyone ever tell these people that the “secret to life is butter”? Name that movie.) But I hope that I can look at food differently. Every meal is not my last. There will be ample opportunities to enjoy x, y, and z. I don’t need to eat them all this week.