When we were kids, my brother was addicted to soda, just like my father. The only difference between them is that, while father could gulp down can after can of that sweet liquid, my brother was allowed to drink no more than one liter and-a-half per day.
However, when my brother realized that soda was responsible behind his ever increasing fat belly, he decided he would take no more of it.
Getting rid of soda wasn’t easy for him, but he got rid of it eventually. Now that he has come of age, my brother neither touches soda nor beer. If you look at him now, you won’t even believe that once upon a time soda used to be his friend. If your kid is also addicted to soda then it is time to put a stop to it.
How Much Sugar In Soda?
You probably know that soda is rich in sugar, but do you know how much sugar is contained in just 12 ounces of soda? 12 ounces of soda might look like a small amount, but it contains the equivalent of ten teaspoonfuls of sugar.
Now if I ask you to add the same amount of sugar to coffee or tea, imagine how awful would those beverages taste. Forget about tea or coffee; just imagine pouring ten tsps of sugar into plain cold water. Adding a little sugar in water may make it tasty, but add too much of it and its taste becomes awful.
Depending on the amount of soda your kids drink each day, they are consuming hundreds upon hundreds of empty, useless calories.
These calories don’t provide your kids with any kind of nutrition; if anything, they make your kids fatter. Now assuming that your kid consumes 12 ounces of soda per day, he is getting 140 useless calories everyday. That is almost 980 calories per week and more than four thousands calories per month – all empty, useless and zero-nutrition calories.
Sugar makes your kids fat in two ways: first by converting itself quickly into glucose and getting deposited in your body as fat, and second, by making them hungry.
You will notice that when you pop a sweet candy you would suddenly feel hungry even though you have eaten only a moment ago. Now that you understand how bad soda could be for your kids’ health, you are probably wondering about how to eliminate it from their life.
To be realistic, it is not at all possible to eliminate soda from the diet of your kids, especially if they have been addicted to it for months. Heck, even we adults take time to get rid of alcohol or cigarettes. However, you can surely control their soda intake in a number of ways.
How to Cut Your Kids Soda Intake
1. Pour one or two teaspoonfuls of sugar in water and make them drink it. Provide this drink to them as often as you can. I know that any amount of sugar is harmful for your kids, but if two teaspoonfuls of sugar could help them get rid of 10 teaspoonfuls of sugar, I would any day take that option.
2. Prepare fruit juices for them. Now I am not asking you to buy ready-made fruit juice packages from your local store; they are as bad as soda. I am talking of extracting the juices of organic fruits. This is yet another way to take their mind away from soda.
3. Limit your kids’ soda intake to no more than 1 can per week. Slowly you could teach them the advantages of avoiding it.
