Start Slaying your Sweet-tooth and Save the Planet
In my previous post, my hope was to give you some inspiration to improve your health while moving beyond plastics. You’ll be healthier, the earth will be healthier, and thus you’ll be even healthier — a great example of healthy you > healthy earth > healthy you!
But if your sweet tooth is your constant buddy, it may be challenging to go cold turkey on sugar. As a throwback to an effort from the 2010’s called Soda Free Sundays, I’d like to recommend trying Sweet-Drink Free Sunday.
Drinks with sugars — sodas, sports drinks, energy drinks, sweetened fruit drinks, vitamin drinks, sweet and chai teas, and lattes — are a main contributor to obesity, particularly in kids. In the US nearly 1 in 3 adults are overweight and 2 in 5 are obese.
According to 2017–2018 data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES):
- Nearly 1 in 3 adults (30.7%) are overweight.
- More than 2 in 5 adults (42.4%) have obesity.
- About 1 in 11 adults (9.2%) have severe obesity.
- About 1 in 6 children and adolescents ages 2 to 19 (16.1%) are overweight.
- Almost 1 in 5 children and adolescents ages 2 to 19 (19.3%) have obesity.
- About 1 in 16 children and adolescents ages 2 to 19 (6.1%) have severe obesity.
Many of us, do not realize how much sugar is in these drinks. For example, a 20 oz. soda has an average of 16 teaspoons of sugar and 240 calories, which is double the amount of added sugar recommended for a daily diet. Tap water has zero!
“You can’t just eat 16 teaspoons of sugar so why would you drink 16 teaspoons’ worth of sugar?”
If you can’t eliminate sweet drinks from your life entirely, consider Sweet-Drink Free Sunday. Keep track of how many fewer plastic bottles you use on Sundays versus other days of the week. Who knows, maybe we can start a movement!? #sweetdrinkfreesunday
Healthy You • Healthy Earth • Healthy You 
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