Say No to Sugar and Yes to Optimal Health!

Sugary drinks are the number one source of refined sugars in our diet, amounting to almost half of all sugars we consume, and which are a major culprit in the obesity and diabetes epidemics.

Unfortunately, consumption of sugary drinks has increased dramatically. Over the last 60 years, carbonated soft-drink guzzling has tripled. In fact, in 2019 Americans drank over 25 million gallons of soda.

And in the “bad news for dieters” department, people who drink sugary beverages “do not feel as full as if they had eaten the same calories from solid food, and research indicates they also don’t compensate for the high caloric content of these beverages by eating less food,” according to Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Soda and Sugar

Soda, itself, is a big part of the problem of poor nutrition, representing, as it does, hundreds of empty calories per day that contribute to obesity, diabetes and heart disease.

For soda-consuming folks, these beverages provide from nine to 18 percent of total calorie intake and displace more-nutritious foods and beverages from the diet.

Teenagers, for example, drink twice as much soda as they do milk, a nearly reverse relationship from the consumption patterns of 20 years ago. For each additional can or bottle of soda consumed per day, over time, the risk of obesity and related health conditions increases by 160 percent.

In addition, soda consumption also contributes to poor bone health. Because most girls, for example, have inadequate calcium intakes, they are more likely to suffer from osteoporosis (brittle bones) as they age and have an increased risk for broken bones while they are still young. Those who drink soda have a three-to-four times higher risk of bone fracture that do those who don’t drink soda.

Soda Makers’ Gain Is Our Loss (in Health)

According to a story run on CBS News, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill studied national beverage consumption patterns for more than 73,000 Americans between and found the following:

overall calories from sweetened beverageshave goneup 135 percent;
Americans took in 38 percent fewer calories frommilk;
Americans get an average of 144 calories a day from sugary sodas and only 99 calories from milk; and for young people aged 2 to 18 years, milk consumptionnose-divedfrom 13.2 percent of total calories to 8.3 percent, plus soda consumption doubled.

What’s even worse, in a study that appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) researchers found that “greater consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages is associated with greater weight gain and an increased risk for development of type 2 diabetes in women, potentially by providing excessive calories and large amounts of rapidly absorbable sugars.”

Bottom line: we all need less sugar, and more healthy nutrients, such as protein.

Say Yes to Metabolic Health!

Protein is the most critical nutrient for weight loss and metabolic health. In fact, a high-protein diet enhances metabolism, lowers appetite and supports healthy levels of hunger hormones. “Weighing in” at 27 grams of protein per serving, supplementing with low-glycemic Almased is an ideal way to make sure you’re getting the nutrients you need for a healthy metabolism. In fact, a landmark 2020 study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition proved that Almased can help people lose more weight and burn more calories than with regular diets. Researchers at the University of Alberta carried out a study in a group of healthy, normal-weight adults. One group took Almased in place of meals; the other group had a standard North American diet.

The Almased group experienced increased thermogenesis, better absorption of nutrients, improved fat burning, healthier appetite and use of carbs, and a reduced tendency to gain fat. This provides additional evidence, said the researchers, that “a calorie is not just a calorie,” and that a low-glycemic high-protein diet, one with the exact same number of calories as a regular diet, can provide more benefits for energy metabolism, fat burning and weight loss.

The authors added that Almased provides a “metabolic advantage” compared to a regular diet. One way to take advantage of a metabolically healthy diet is to support it with some exercise.

Say Yes to Sensible Physical Activity

According to the National Center for Health Statistics, nearly 73 percent of Americans don’t meet national guidelines for physical activity.

Although current guidelines call for 30 to 60 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity a day could scare off many, fortunately the following activities also qualify: light gardening, yard work and walking.

And, believe it or not, light gardening (330 calories an hour) burns even more calories an hour than bicycling (290) or weightlifting (220). Hey, break out those gardening gloves!

Protein-packed and amino-acid-rich Almased helps you say “yes” to the healthiest “you” ever!