Soda, Diet Soda and Your Health

Some of you call it soda. Others call it pop and still others call it coke, but whatever you call it, we all know that it is delicious and that whether it is full-sugar or diet, it is simply NOT good for you. 

When I was very young, us kids seldom had pop. On occasions, my mom would splurge a bit and buy Shasta (if you didn't drink Shasta as a kid, then you were missing out), but other than that, we really didn't drink pop. Mom though, being forever on one diet or another, would drink Fresca. In fact, when she was pregnant with my brother, she craved the stuff. That and parsnips. It certainly explains a lot about my brother. 

Later on in my childhood, we were allowed to drink some pop. Mom always kept Coke on hand as when I would get one of my horrid headaches, she would make me chew aspirin and then drink a Coke. The aspirin mixed with the caffeine often helped get the headaches under control. To this day, if my headache gets bad enough, I will be sending someone to the store for a Coke. Mom still liked her Fresca though,  and although I liked it too, I became a TAB girl. Probably mostly because it was cooler to drink TAB than Fresca according to magazine advertisements. 

By the mid-'70s Pepsi had come out with diet Pepsi and Mom gave up her beloved Fresca for this new kid on the block. By this time, we had all become diet pop drinkers which pretty much ruined regular pop for us,  because it was now too sweet. We were pretty much addicted to all the artificial sweeteners that were killing lab rats by the dozens and apparently, we didn't care. 

As the '80s rolled in, Coke, A&W, and Dr. Pepper all had their own diet versions. In the early to mid-'80s, I  found diet Orange Crush which mixed famously with cherry vodka and tasted like Hawaiian Punch. That was my very favorite until it wasn't...if you get my drift. After that, I  was pretty fond of diet Dr. Pepper. I think I pretty much lived on diet DP until the early '90s. But then, something life-changing happened. I found.....diet Mt. Dew!!!! It was like liquid meth to me. After one glass, I was full-on addicted and stayed that way until about five years ago.

When a friend got me interested in the Trim Healthy Mama eating program, this was really the first time I even thought about tossing diet Dew out of my life. Up until then, this lime green elixir had gotten me through many a tough time, and frankly, I couldn't imagine my life without it. Then I actually started reading about diet pop and pop in general. By this time, I was no longer calling it pop like every other loyal Kansan. I was now calling it soda after living with a Missourian all those years. Whatever it was called though, my research was telling me that the best word for it was.....unhealthy. 

The lovely ladies of THM went into details about the ingredients in both soda and diet soda and how bad they all were for you. Then there was article after article about diet soda being linked to muscle issues, cancer, and diabetes. Yes, diabetes. It seems that diet soda can actually trigger sugar cravings which are not good for diabetics or really anyone for that matter. The most interesting thing I read though, was how there had been some correlation between diet soda and.....wait for it.....migraines. Lawdy, what had I been putting in my body all these years....and more importantly....what had it done to my body?

You may have snickered a bit when I made the comment about diet Mt. Dew being like liquid meth, but to me, it really was an addiction, and going off of it took me about a year and I literally had to detox from it. Coming off of it the first time, I got sick, because I am pretty sure that rather than water, my body was about 70% diet, Mt. Dew. I got the shakes, was dizzy and I was a royal b!tch as I went through withdrawals. It was not a fun time had by anyone. 

Thanks to THM though, I found my way off of it when I found their drink...Good Girl Moonshine.  Yeah, I laughed too the first time I heard the name, but it really was what got me off all soda. When I realized that they had a version that tasted very much like diet Mt. Dew, I was sold. 

Good Girl Moonshine or GGMS is a homemade drink recipe from THM. In mine, I mix lime juice and lemon juice with some orange extract. I add liquid stevia to taste with a splash of vanilla and about a tsp of apple cider vinegar. To that, I add about 20 oz of  Soda Stream water (yes I have to have my fizzy fix) and ice. It comes very close to the taste of diet Mt. Dew and if anyone should know what diet Mt. Dew tastes like....it is me. 

Once I started full-on replacing diet Mt. Dew with GGMS, I found myself sleeping better, less headaches, and a whole lot fewer sugar cravings. The great thing about GGMS is, that you can play around with flavors and come up with whatever your tastebuds like. I have made ginger ale, strawberry flavored, cherry-flavored, and rootbeer flavored. They are 100 times healthier and there are no side effects. It is also a lot cheaper too. 

Oh....and who saw the "apple cider vinegar" and went...NOPE!? Trust me, I did too when I first started drinking it. It is an acquired taste, and to start with, less is best. ACV though, is very healthy and good for you, and believe it or not, I can't imagine my drink without it now. 

I know there are those out there reading this and thinking, I AM NOT GIVING UP MY DR. PEPPER! That is fine, but if on occasion you want to replace a soda with something a bit healthier, then I think GGMS might be the way to go. There are absolutely tons of recipes online and once you have tried a couple, you will find it really easy to play around with ingredients and find your own favorite drink. Plus it is really fun to walk around drinking out of one of those big mason jars with a straw, a lid, and a handle. Okay....maybe that's just me. 

Let's face it, we are only given one body and one life and it would be kind of tragic if we messed that up over a stupid soda addiction. Instead, let's be good to ourselves, treat our bodies with respect, and keep this one body in as good a shape as possible. I know I am trying...how about you? 

Until next time, stay healthy, stay hydrated, and don't forget.....water is good too! 

This Girl Loves Her Moonshine!

So if you are on Facebook, then I am sure you have at least seen one of the many, many, many Trim Healthy Mama (THM) pages. There are beginner pages, over fifty pages and budget friendly THM pages, just to name a few. In the last two years, the THM phenomenon has grown beyond belief. In fact, some of the items that most of us had previously never heard of before THM, are now normal local fare at our grocery stores. I mean come on...if someone had ever told me that I would get to the point that I couldn't drink a drink without apple cider vinegar(ACV) in it, I would have laughed in their face.

Pinterest is another site that has literally blossomed with THM products, idea and recipes. Bloggers too, have gotten on the band wagon. There are several amazing blogs out there where domestic goddesses with many more skills than I have, spend their days taking recipes and making them THM on plan friendly. Then they blog and put them out there so those of us less culinarily fortunate can gain from their wisdom. God bless them as they have literally expanded my weekly menus a thousand fold. My family thanks you too.

And speaking of THM Facebook pages, I'll admit that I too got on the bandwagon and started one. It was a while back when I was just beginning to scratch the surface of the benefits of a THM life. Even then with my minuscule bit of knowledge, I knew that this food style could and would change a lot of lives, so I started THM for US 2015. It was basically for those close to me personally and geographically. I felt that by keeping it small and framilial (get it...friend and familial....yeah I'm good with words like that) that those of us involved might have each other to learn from and stay on this plan with. It has stayed fairly small, growing with just a few people here and there and even a bit outside my friends and family since I started it back in Jan. of 2015. It is a cozy, comfortable place to share recipes, ideas, goals, victories and yes.....questions. It has also become a bigger part of my life in 2016 than I ever dreamed it would be. In the last few months, two of my children have developed food related health issues. It just so happens that THM is the answer to their issues with high protein, good fats and gluten free foods. You can say that in my house....THM is now a family affair.

I think the biggest and scariest (yes....scariest) thing about THM is that everything you thought you knew about weight loss, food and health are pretty much thrown out the window. You have to learn a whole new set of rules, which come to find out, aren't so new. Many of the THM precepts are things our parents, grandparents and great grandparents lived by. Unfortunately, society has taught us that fat free is healthier than butter, coconut oil or olive oil, that fake sweeteners are healthy and that prepackaged is better than home made. Trust me, I could go on for days about all of this, and at some point I probably will.

Today though, I want to get back to the Facebook page and questions. The question that people ask not only me, but I see it on other pages too, is about Good Girl Moonshine (GGMS). What a name....right?! I know the first time I heard it, I couldn't imagine what it might be and then, after I heard what was in it.....my first thought, which I may or may not have said out loud was"Oh HELL NO!"

The issue was that I was drinking way too much diet soda and I and everyone else knew it. A friend approached me and told me I really needed to stop drinking so much and then she talked about GGMS. She was lucky we were really good friends, because with anyone else, a conversation like that could have ended badly. However, I did start reading up on this apple cider vinegar (ACV) based concoction and what I was reading was that people that were making no other change than just drinking GGMS, were losing weight and feeling better.

So.....I knew I needed to cut back and actually cut out the diet soda, but I didn't want to! I continued to fight the change, until I ran across a GGMS recipe that said it tasted just like Mt. Dew. I tried it and you know what.....it did! I had a soda replacement that had no chemicals, no chemically enhanced artificial sweeteners and was healthy. Okay....maybe I would cut back after all. I found that the more I drank of this ACV laced faux-soda, the more ACV I wanted to add.

Okay, so if you are not a THM convert, possible convert or if you have been in a social media blackout, then you maybe wondering.....just what is GGMS? Well let me tell you.

GGMS starts with ACV. I suggest if you are just trying it out, only add about a tsp. Ginger is also an ingredient in most GGMS as well as your favorite on plan sweetener. My favorite is Skinny Girl Stevia. It is liquid and you can squirt to your desired taste. Here is where I suggest you go slow. Use a few squirts and test it. Not sweet enough? Then add a little more. You don't want to over power your drink and make it too sweet. After that,  you can add any flavor you like.

Now when I say "flavor" I mean extracts that you buy in the baking section of your grocery store. Add caramel and you have a more coke/pepsi like flavor, lemon and lime juice give you you a Mt. Dew flavor and ginger powder or root, gives you a ginger ale type drink. You can also add orange, strawberry, raspberry or a mixture of flavors. Pinterest is full of GGMS recipes and I eventually plan to try them all.

After you have flavored it to your liking, then you add your water. Now you can add just plain flat or tap water and ice and it tastes just fine. In fact some people prefer it that way. However......in order for me to kick soda......I had to have something that was more than just fine, so I started out adding calorie free bottled carbonated water. It had zero everything...BUT, it was also anywhere from $1-$2 for a 24 oz bottle. As much of this stuff as a I drink, I was going broke. Luckily, I found a Soda Stream at a garage sale for $5 and I never looked back. Yes, the carbonation refill is $30, but it lasts about 6 weeks. It is well worth the money. It is truly one of my favorite kitchen  devices.

So GGMS? Does it work? Well you decide. If you are a reg. soda drinker and it helps you kick that habit, then think of all the sugar and additives that you are cleansing your body of....not to mention calories. In a 12 oz can of soda you are drinking 140 empty calories and ingesting 39 g of carbs, 39 g of sugar, high fructose corn syrup and "natural flavors" which is code for more crap your body doesn't need and likely shouldn't have. Now that is just one can. Who stops at one 12 oz can per day?

If you are trading say a Diet Mt. Dew for GGMS, then no, there are no calories, but there is 50 mg of sodium along with things like: Aspartame, Potassium Benzoate, Potassium Citrate, Sucralose and Bromated Vegetable Oil. Vegetable oil? Really? Also you have more of those hidden "natural flavors" too. Diet sodas have also been proven to cause sugar cravings instead of curb them and Aspartame is known to cause headaches and other physical reactions because it is a chemically enhanced sweetener. 

Now GGMS. It has no calories, no carbs, it has natural stevia which has no chemical fillers and won't mess with blood sugar and best of all.....you know exactly what "natural flavors" are in it because you add them yourself. So....losing at least 140 empty sugary calories per day, unhealthy chemicals and sugar cravings, all while you are adding good and healthful things to your body such as  ACV and ginger? You tell me....does it work? It does. 

So I challenge you soda drinkers who just can't quite kick the habit. For one week, try adding one GGMS to your day and getting rid of one soda/diet soda. Play around with different flavors and find a flavor you can make your own. I bet that by the end of the week, you will start wanting to drink more GGMS and a whole lot less soda. What's the worst that can happen? Your jeans fit a little looser? You feel a little better? Maybe you have less headaches? Trust me, you will see a difference. 

Again....I could go on and on, but instead....I think I will leave you with my current favorite GGMS recipe. Til next time.....Happy Drinking!

GGMS Lemon Ginger Ale

2 inch piece of Ginger Root (grated)
1-2 cups water
2 T ACV (use less until you get used to it)
2 T lemon juice
Skinny Girl Stevia to your taste
Carbonated water

Take your grated ginger root and add it to the 1-2 cups of water. Bring it to a boil and then turn it down to simmer for 3-5 min. Let it cool. Once cool use a fine mesh strainer and strain the liquid into a mason jar with a lid and keep it in the fridge. This is your "ginger juice" concentrate. When you are ready to make your GGMS: 

Pour 1/4 to 1/2 c of ginger juice into a glass 32 oz mason jar. The ginger has a spicey bite so you may want to start out with 1/4 c. Add everything but the carbonated water and stir. Then fill to the top with the carbonated water and ice! Mmmmm....Enjoy!