"A Sip of Soda: How Soft Drinks Impact Your Health A little tid bit I have yet to share with you: my whole life I have been a ""diet soda drinker."" Who would have thought, right? Well even us nutrition nerds all have our shortcomings, and this was one of mine. Unfortunately, my parents didn't know much better either because that's what I was brought up on. That and of course my other essentials: crystal light, diet snapple, skim milk (see a trend?), capri sun, maybe toss in a starbucks contraption in there somewhere, and more soda…an abundance of diet (mostly) soda. I'm sure I took a couple sips out of the water fountain every other day or so in my school days. Of course now is a entirely different story; I haven't had soda since February 2011. (round of applause). Yea, it's been quite a while. I do, however, clearly remember the one day when I was working in the kitchen at A Voce and I went back to my station to take a sip of my diet coke and I saw something scribbled on it in big red sharpie, messy chef handwriting: This Shit Will Kill You. The shocker wasn't that someone vandalized my property (one of two girls in a kitchen dominated by dudes, vandalizing property was the least of my annoyances), it was that they - he - was, in a way, right. This 16oz soft drink I was indulging in once, if not twice, a day was loaded with aspartame, preservatives (citric acid, phosphoric acid and potassium benzoate) and of course caramel color (FDA-approved, whatever that means). But it tasted sooooooooooooo marvelous, what did I care? Well a few months later (I was pretty stubborn so it took me a bit) I came around to doing some extensive research and elected to say farewell to my nutrient lacking soft drink. I'm not sure that I can really tell you that I feel ""different"" in any way what-so-ever, but I do know that it has been one of the healthiest decisions I have ever made. That and parting with splenda. (gasp). I'll save that for another ""revealing of my imperfections"" post. For now, my nutritious readers, I encourage you to take a good look at this chart and at least limit your soda intake. I normally tell those willing to listen: everything in moderation. But, I think we can all agree that some things in life just need to be nixed all together."
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