Recently I was watching a special on 20/20 about poor families in Appalachia. Now I've always known that there is an abundance of poor families in this area so I was happy that 20/20 was drawing more attention to the poor people we have in our own country. Then, I saw something I wasn't expecting. Apparently these families drink a lot of Mountain Dew. They come home from work or school and drink Mountain Dew all day until their teeth rot out of their mouths. The dentists who work in the area call it Mountain Dew mouth. Im not saying I blame them. Its like one of their only luxuries you might say.
Not only that but, as some might know-I drink a whole lot of soda myself. That is a lot of sugar, a lot of calories, and a lot of extraneous bad material going into my mouth and body.
Anyway-onto my major point, and that is: I decided to try to stop and or drastically reduce my soda intake. I dont want my teeth to rot away, and besides that there are many healthier things I could be putting into my body.
I havent had a Dr. Pepper in almost three days now and so far its been pretty hard! Im so JONESIN even right now. Just to clarify-I didnt cut caffeine cold turkey-that wouldve been a compounded difficulty and I dont think I could survive that at the moment. We're starting small for now. But I really do think I was hooked on all that sugar and high fructose corn syrup I was ingesting. Even though I do get caffeine from other sources now I still crave soda! I know its nothing like kicking cigarettes or anything but mind you-ever since I was about 12 Ive been drinking Dr Pepper on a regular basis. Thats 14 years non stop! There were times I couldnt drink it-for example when I was in other countries. But even then I drank Coke regularly.
My goal right now is to try 40 days without soda-or having at least drastically reduced my intake. I figure one every now and then wont hurt-besides I dont want to set myself up for too much failure.
So anyway, I will keep you all updated on everything if you're interested!
btw the following is a link to a really good ministry to folks in appalachia: www.christianapp.org
Eleventh Race in 2012
14 years ago
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2 comments:
another point about mountain dew, and all soda containing "yellow 5", it is dangerous to men and their sperm count. weird, huh
I know I have tried to kick soda.. It was at bootcamp where I was most successful in that feat -we weren't allowed pop..just water, juice milk and powerade. although I drink Diet Coke mostly (Im going to get a brain tumor, I just know it ), but there is something about it, the carbonation maybe, that provides a strange satisfaction, that juice nor energy drink can fulfill. Kudos to you and I hope you keep going strong. You should know, I am marrying an avid Dr.Pepper drinker. But he is also an avid milk drinker, so maybe it balances out in some weird universe.
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