The Health Dangers of Diet Soda
By Susan McQuillan
Reviewed by QualityHealth's Medical Advisory Board
I cut the article down to get out some of the main points, but you can read the entire article HERE.
Diet sodas have long been encouraged as a "free food" on many weight loss plans and are a staple for many people with diabetes. Now researchers are saying this sweet treat may be hurting some of the same people it's supposed to help.
Since 1976, more than 200,000 female nurses have volunteered to participate in the Nurses' Health Study (NHS) at Brigham and Women's University in Massachusetts.
A look at the diet soda habits of more than 3,000 older women...revealed a link between artificially sweetened sodas and a weakening of kidney function over the course of a decade [about 10yrs]. These findings...revealed that women who drank two or more glasses, cans or bottles of diet soda every day were twice as likely to experience a significant decline.
Kidney function--how well the kidneys perform their job of filtering blood, excreting waste and maintaining the body's fluid balance-normally declines slightly with age.
Interestingly, a study present earlier in 2009...suggested that diet soda might be good for kidneys because they...helps dissolve and prevent the formation of calcium kidney stones. Since kidney stones result...from dehydration, however, the recommendation for people who form stones is to drink more water, not more diet soda.
Nor is the answer to turn back to sugar-sweetened sodas. In addition to an excess of "empty" calories (calories with no accompanying nutrients) from sugar, previous studies have linked regular sodas with increased protein in the urine, which can be an early indicator of kidney disease.
While health experts have never said "never" when it comes to drinking either sugar-sweetened or artificially sweetened sodas, most agree that both types [either sugar-sweetened or artificially sweetened sodas] are consumed in excess. And that, they say, is the real problem.
But since diet sodas are known to be higher in sodium than sodas made with sugar, and excess sodium has long been associated with kidney disease, sodium is certainly suspect, along with artificial sweeteners.
Consider these findings a jumping off point for further research to reveal what, specifically, we need to know about the effects of drinking too much diet soda.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sources:
Science Daily: Diets High in Sodium and Artificially Sweetened Soda Linked to Kidney Function Decline:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091101132543.htm
Science Daily: Drinking Diet Soda May Reduce Risk of Forming Kidney Stones:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090426075452.htm
Brigham and Women's Hospital: Nurses' Health Study
http://www.brighamandwomens.org/publicaffairs/NursesHealthStudy.aspx
Updated: March 3, 2010
Copyright © 2010 QualityHealth.com. All rights reserved.
"Who can find a virtuous woman? For her worth is far above rubies." ~Proverbs 31:10
Monday, May 10, 2010
Monday, May 3, 2010
Quote for the day (Money Doesn't Grow on Trees)
“Money doesn’t grow on trees.” If you’ve heard that phrase once from Mom and Dad, you’ve probably heard it a million times. And sure, you know it’s true. But how do you feel when you realize you’ve spent a bundle on an item that’s not worth nearly what you paid?
(Taken from Susie Magazine)
(Taken from Susie Magazine)
Gelatin
Gelatin is...
Wikipedia--is a translucent, colorless, brittle (when dry), nearly tasteless solid substance, derived from the collagen inside animals' skin and bones. It is commonly used as a gelling agent in food, pharmaceuticals, photography, and cosmetic manufacturing. It is found in some "gummy" candies as well as other products such as marshmallows, gelatin dessert, and some low-fat yogurt. Some dietary or religious customs forbid the use of gelatin from certain animal sources, and medical issues may limit or prevent its consumption by certain people. It is extracted from the boiled bones, connective tissues, organs and some intestines of animals such as domesticated cattle, pigs, and horses. Gelatin melts to a liquid when heated and solidifies when cooled again.
Uses--a gelling agent in cooking, in a wide range of food and non-food products: Common examples are gelatin desserts, trifles, aspic, marshmallows, and confectioneries (such as Peeps, gummy bears and jelly babies). Gelatin may be used...in foods such as jams, yoghurt, cream cheese, and margarine; it is used, as well, in fat-reduced foods to simulate the mouthfeel of fat and to create volume without adding calories.
Gelatin is used for the clarification of juices, such as apple juice, and of vinegar. Isinglass, from the swim bladders of fish, is still used as a fining agent for wine and beer. Beside hartshorn jelly, from deer antlers (hence the name "hartshorn"), isinglass was one of the oldest sources of gelatin. Gelatine was used for hardening paper in Colonial times.
I hope this has educated you well. If there's a food you want to know more about, just ask!
Wikipedia--is a translucent, colorless, brittle (when dry), nearly tasteless solid substance, derived from the collagen inside animals' skin and bones. It is commonly used as a gelling agent in food, pharmaceuticals, photography, and cosmetic manufacturing. It is found in some "gummy" candies as well as other products such as marshmallows, gelatin dessert, and some low-fat yogurt. Some dietary or religious customs forbid the use of gelatin from certain animal sources, and medical issues may limit or prevent its consumption by certain people. It is extracted from the boiled bones, connective tissues, organs and some intestines of animals such as domesticated cattle, pigs, and horses. Gelatin melts to a liquid when heated and solidifies when cooled again.
Uses--a gelling agent in cooking, in a wide range of food and non-food products: Common examples are gelatin desserts, trifles, aspic, marshmallows, and confectioneries (such as Peeps, gummy bears and jelly babies). Gelatin may be used...in foods such as jams, yoghurt, cream cheese, and margarine; it is used, as well, in fat-reduced foods to simulate the mouthfeel of fat and to create volume without adding calories.
Gelatin is used for the clarification of juices, such as apple juice, and of vinegar. Isinglass, from the swim bladders of fish, is still used as a fining agent for wine and beer. Beside hartshorn jelly, from deer antlers (hence the name "hartshorn"), isinglass was one of the oldest sources of gelatin. Gelatine was used for hardening paper in Colonial times.
I hope this has educated you well. If there's a food you want to know more about, just ask!
How to Reuse Empty Water Bottles
How to Reuse Empty Water Bottles
1) Make funnels. These funnels can be used for cooking, crafts, and whatever else you can think of!
2) Make plastic wire. This wire can be used to make stems for fake flowers, as well as bracelets and other jewelry.
3) Make vases. While this creation looks like a delicate glass or crystal vase, it is unbreakable and can still be recycled later if desired! Use these vases for flowers, pens/pencils, and give them away as gifts.
4) Use the caps to make pincushions. You can even wear this pincushion like a ring. How convenient!
5) Turn the caps into pill or jewelry cases. It's possible to make a pretty pill case with 2 plastic bottle caps. It can also make a good gift box or storage case for earrings.
6) Make candy dishes!
7) Do some science experiments:
8) Make wasp traps. This is a simple, inexpensive and environmentally-friendly way to discourage wasps from hanging around your neck of the woods.
9) Make a trash can. You can build one with only 54 bottles. For a great community project, collect 6,000 and build a school room!
10) Refill it. You can, of course, put tap-water in it and use it again. This is massively cheap compared to buying bottled water; and some people might prefer the taste of tapwater, depending on where they live.
1) Make funnels. These funnels can be used for cooking, crafts, and whatever else you can think of!
2) Make plastic wire. This wire can be used to make stems for fake flowers, as well as bracelets and other jewelry.
3) Make vases. While this creation looks like a delicate glass or crystal vase, it is unbreakable and can still be recycled later if desired! Use these vases for flowers, pens/pencils, and give them away as gifts.
4) Use the caps to make pincushions. You can even wear this pincushion like a ring. How convenient!
5) Turn the caps into pill or jewelry cases. It's possible to make a pretty pill case with 2 plastic bottle caps. It can also make a good gift box or storage case for earrings.
6) Make candy dishes!
7) Do some science experiments:
8) Make wasp traps. This is a simple, inexpensive and environmentally-friendly way to discourage wasps from hanging around your neck of the woods.
9) Make a trash can. You can build one with only 54 bottles. For a great community project, collect 6,000 and build a school room!
10) Refill it. You can, of course, put tap-water in it and use it again. This is massively cheap compared to buying bottled water; and some people might prefer the taste of tapwater, depending on where they live.
My Testimony of Love pt. 3
If you've not yet read part 1 and part 2, you can read them HERE and HERE.
By the time I was 16yrs old and had been through a couple heart-breaks, I decided it was time to get serious about what I was looking for when I looked for "love" and companionship. I read an article in what was the Focus on the Family's BRIO & BEYOND magazine (now online HERE) about a woman who made a list of things she wated in a future husband. The young woman talked about how she prayed for the things on her list and prayed about the things that were important to her. Then while in college, I met a woman who was married and had done the same thing a teenager. At the time she was doing it for her youth leaders pleasure--putting down all the "good" things. Little did she know that the man she married would fill her list of 10 things until her old youth leader read it out loud at her wedding, surprising everyone, including her. So, when I was 16, I made my list. I added to it over the next couple years and prayed over it. I decided that I was going to really put my faith in God and not compromise my list--except for 2 that were compromisable to me: drinks coffee and can fix and build things. Those were not as important to me as a man's character.
In college I met boys I liked, staying guarded of my heart, until I got to know them better and realized they didn't value me for me or purity. It was my desire and heart to remain a virgin and pure until I was married. I recall once telling some guys that I was a virgin and proud of it after they made comments about me being a "party" girl. They were assuming I was nice on the outside and "wild" in secret. I was proud to tell them that was far from true. There was one guy I met in college who shared a mutual "crush" with me, but that didn't go beyond friends. I was sad, but kept praying. I settled for the idea that meeting "Mr. Right" wasn't going to happen at the junior college and would have to wait until I transferred to a Christian college for my B.A. degree. At least that's what I thought...
When I met Brandon he was new and shy. It was move-in day for the new residents on-campus and I was an R.A. (Resident Assistant) on the 3rd floor of one building. I was welcoming students on my own floor and those on the second floor. I was looking out over the balcony of my floor and saw a young man with a baseball hat on, a vest (or jacket...don't recall now), and shorts. When I asked him his name and where he was from he peered at me just enough to see me past the brim of his hat, "Brandon...New Hampshire." Shocked he'd come to a small school so far from home, I asked him "how did you find out about MVCC?" He told me he'd have to tell me later and that he had to go. With that, he left quickly; leaving me intrigued of him.
I randomly saw him around campus. There was a week that seemed like everywhere I was, he was. I recall choosing to go a different direction across campus one day just because I had already passed him once and was afraid he'd think I was stalking him. Towards the end of that first semester in 2004, I began to spend more time out on the floor with residents and had more of a chance to talk to him. I think I did most of the talking!! Trust me when I say that I can talk! (Side note: Brandon has helped me learn to listen more)
We spent a lot of time talking late at night on the second floor lounge. When the semester was over I recall going to look for him, but he had already gone home on winter break. I was really sad because I didn't get to say good-bye. Please know that at this time I had no desire to be more than friends with him. I was just so excited to have met another believer on-campus; even better was that he was in my building.
When he returned for the spring semester, we started spending a lot more time together. We would meet up at the cafeteria or dininghall (sometimes on purpose and other times by chance). I started going to his lacrosse games and holding up signs to cheer him and the team on. I recall the first practice I went to watch. He must have dropped the first 5 passes after I got there. I could tell he was nervous. Suddenly this quiet guy was talking to me, showing interest in me, and interest in the possibility of a future. We talked about marriage & knew we both liked the idea. We spent the next year getting to know one another more and spending as much time together as we could. We prayed together, went to church together, and worked out together. It wasn't until we'd spent some time together that I found out he had no intentions of getting married until he met me. Even his family will testify to that. It's quite profound to me.
Meeting Brandon was unexpected and I was at a place that I had grown tired of seeking out potential husbands. I was at a low place in my Christian walk and was so hurt inside that I didn't know what to do with myself. Brandon was a friend, an ear, an encouragement to me in a way that only God knew I needed. As my relationship with God grew, so did my relationship with Brandon.
After asking for my father's permission for my hand in marriage, on the day before Memorial Day 2006, Brandon asked me to marry him by my parents pond. The funniest part about it was that my mother kept calling while he was trying to ask me! Yes, we turned the cell phone off. We prayed with our parents after I accepted his proposal and my parents announced it to everyone who was there for the cook-out.
We were married by a Justice of the Peace in November 2006. With numerous changes in details and the influence of the Army, we moved our ceremony from June '07 to Dec '06. We moved to Texas in February 2007 to start our new marriage and our journey in the Army. I was so glad to have married the man that I did. Before getting married, I went back to re-read my list of things I desired in a man (about 42-45 of them) and realized that Brandon was all of them except the one's I was willing to compromise on (see above). God had truly given me the desires of my heart in a husband. I was so grateful!
He can do it for you too! Make your list, pray, and give it to God. He knows what you need more than you do. A list is a great way to keep yourself focused an not to just settle for something or for anyone. I shared about my list with a friend in college, who then went and made a list of her own. She is no engaged to be married within the next year to a man who filled everything on her list that she made, prayed over, and stayed faithful to. God is good & he is faithful. He knows what we need and what we want. If you are faithful to Him, He will be faithful to you.
For any help or suggestions about what things to put, just ask your mom, grandmother, other women you look up to, or myself. I would be glad to share some of the things on my list to you. Put the most important things first, be specific (don't just write "kind", write what you mean by "kind")!!
Romans 12:12 (KJV) "Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;"
Romans 12:12 (NIV) "Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer."
By the time I was 16yrs old and had been through a couple heart-breaks, I decided it was time to get serious about what I was looking for when I looked for "love" and companionship. I read an article in what was the Focus on the Family's BRIO & BEYOND magazine (now online HERE) about a woman who made a list of things she wated in a future husband. The young woman talked about how she prayed for the things on her list and prayed about the things that were important to her. Then while in college, I met a woman who was married and had done the same thing a teenager. At the time she was doing it for her youth leaders pleasure--putting down all the "good" things. Little did she know that the man she married would fill her list of 10 things until her old youth leader read it out loud at her wedding, surprising everyone, including her. So, when I was 16, I made my list. I added to it over the next couple years and prayed over it. I decided that I was going to really put my faith in God and not compromise my list--except for 2 that were compromisable to me: drinks coffee and can fix and build things. Those were not as important to me as a man's character.
In college I met boys I liked, staying guarded of my heart, until I got to know them better and realized they didn't value me for me or purity. It was my desire and heart to remain a virgin and pure until I was married. I recall once telling some guys that I was a virgin and proud of it after they made comments about me being a "party" girl. They were assuming I was nice on the outside and "wild" in secret. I was proud to tell them that was far from true. There was one guy I met in college who shared a mutual "crush" with me, but that didn't go beyond friends. I was sad, but kept praying. I settled for the idea that meeting "Mr. Right" wasn't going to happen at the junior college and would have to wait until I transferred to a Christian college for my B.A. degree. At least that's what I thought...
When I met Brandon he was new and shy. It was move-in day for the new residents on-campus and I was an R.A. (Resident Assistant) on the 3rd floor of one building. I was welcoming students on my own floor and those on the second floor. I was looking out over the balcony of my floor and saw a young man with a baseball hat on, a vest (or jacket...don't recall now), and shorts. When I asked him his name and where he was from he peered at me just enough to see me past the brim of his hat, "Brandon...New Hampshire." Shocked he'd come to a small school so far from home, I asked him "how did you find out about MVCC?" He told me he'd have to tell me later and that he had to go. With that, he left quickly; leaving me intrigued of him.
I randomly saw him around campus. There was a week that seemed like everywhere I was, he was. I recall choosing to go a different direction across campus one day just because I had already passed him once and was afraid he'd think I was stalking him. Towards the end of that first semester in 2004, I began to spend more time out on the floor with residents and had more of a chance to talk to him. I think I did most of the talking!! Trust me when I say that I can talk! (Side note: Brandon has helped me learn to listen more)
We spent a lot of time talking late at night on the second floor lounge. When the semester was over I recall going to look for him, but he had already gone home on winter break. I was really sad because I didn't get to say good-bye. Please know that at this time I had no desire to be more than friends with him. I was just so excited to have met another believer on-campus; even better was that he was in my building.
When he returned for the spring semester, we started spending a lot more time together. We would meet up at the cafeteria or dininghall (sometimes on purpose and other times by chance). I started going to his lacrosse games and holding up signs to cheer him and the team on. I recall the first practice I went to watch. He must have dropped the first 5 passes after I got there. I could tell he was nervous. Suddenly this quiet guy was talking to me, showing interest in me, and interest in the possibility of a future. We talked about marriage & knew we both liked the idea. We spent the next year getting to know one another more and spending as much time together as we could. We prayed together, went to church together, and worked out together. It wasn't until we'd spent some time together that I found out he had no intentions of getting married until he met me. Even his family will testify to that. It's quite profound to me.
Meeting Brandon was unexpected and I was at a place that I had grown tired of seeking out potential husbands. I was at a low place in my Christian walk and was so hurt inside that I didn't know what to do with myself. Brandon was a friend, an ear, an encouragement to me in a way that only God knew I needed. As my relationship with God grew, so did my relationship with Brandon.
After asking for my father's permission for my hand in marriage, on the day before Memorial Day 2006, Brandon asked me to marry him by my parents pond. The funniest part about it was that my mother kept calling while he was trying to ask me! Yes, we turned the cell phone off. We prayed with our parents after I accepted his proposal and my parents announced it to everyone who was there for the cook-out.
We were married by a Justice of the Peace in November 2006. With numerous changes in details and the influence of the Army, we moved our ceremony from June '07 to Dec '06. We moved to Texas in February 2007 to start our new marriage and our journey in the Army. I was so glad to have married the man that I did. Before getting married, I went back to re-read my list of things I desired in a man (about 42-45 of them) and realized that Brandon was all of them except the one's I was willing to compromise on (see above). God had truly given me the desires of my heart in a husband. I was so grateful!
He can do it for you too! Make your list, pray, and give it to God. He knows what you need more than you do. A list is a great way to keep yourself focused an not to just settle for something or for anyone. I shared about my list with a friend in college, who then went and made a list of her own. She is no engaged to be married within the next year to a man who filled everything on her list that she made, prayed over, and stayed faithful to. God is good & he is faithful. He knows what we need and what we want. If you are faithful to Him, He will be faithful to you.
For any help or suggestions about what things to put, just ask your mom, grandmother, other women you look up to, or myself. I would be glad to share some of the things on my list to you. Put the most important things first, be specific (don't just write "kind", write what you mean by "kind")!!
Romans 12:12 (KJV) "Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;"
Romans 12:12 (NIV) "Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)