I inadvertently did a little "health" experiment over the last year that I won't be repeating.
It kind of just "happened"—an experience born out of being exceedingly busy and a preoccupation with writing at Barnes & Noble or local coffee shops. I started indulging in daily drinks of decaffeinated lattes—flavored AND sweetened! UGH! I knew better than to succumb to them. But once I passed the one month hurdle, I was committed.
Here's the truth about what happened to my body.
1) Hair loss. My hair started falling out. At first I didn't notice how much. Then suddenly, as hair dropped all over my bathroom floor, I knew that something was going down (yes, it was my hair going down—the drain, clogging the pipes, getting caught in my bottles. EW!)
2) Zits. Let me just say it like it is. All that sugar wreaked havoc on my body. My hair knew it and so did my skin. It looked worse than it had in years!
3) Sluggishness. There's not much appealing about a slug (no offense to them at all, but I've never seen a pet slug. Just saying.) Likewise, a body that feels sluggish isn't appealing either. The energy plummets at inopportune times during the day. It completely runs dry.
4) Heart palpitations. It's as disturbing as it sounds. Sugar floods the body with a surge of energy that burns like a brush fire. When the body can't assimilate all that glucose, it pumps harder and faster potentially leading to a slew of sugar-related problems (diabetes, etc.).
5) BIG headaches. My monthly headaches got so much worse. I used to be able to sleep them off without taking painkillers. They turned into migraines where I took to my bed and couldn't get up.
6) Weight gain. Empty calories lead to a fuller waist—among other body parts.
7) Unceasing sugar cravings. You feed the little critters in your body a bit of sugar, and they clamor for more. Do you remember the way Gremlins multiplied? It's that gross and that insidious. The only way to wipe them out is to stop feeding them.
8) Wrinkles. Yes. Wrinkles are a natural sign of maturing skin and life experience. But this change felt more drastic and seemed tied to the high sugar content too. Sugar has been shown to age the skin due to advanced glycation end products.
As skin care expert Julie Lindh says in this post: "Excess sugar attaches itself to collagen which will cause wrinkles and make your skin lose its natural resilience."
9) Dehydration. Decaffeinated drinks deceive you into thinking they're better for you. They're not. Most caffeine removal requires washing the coffee beans with chemicals. YUCK! Plus, drinking leads to the false belief that you just hydrated your body. Coffee does the opposite, even when it's decaffeinated.
10) Hard on the wallet. A $.25 drink that costs about $4.65 + $.60 for soy milk adds up over time. That's $139.50 per month without the soy milk, if it's a daily indulgence. It goes up to $157.50 with soy milk, and more for extra shots and add-ons.
Excess sugar attaches itself to collagen which will cause wrinkles and
makes your skin lose its natural resilience. - See more at:
http://jlskinfitness.com/magento/index.php/blog/why-your-diet-is-making-you-look-older/#sthash.DWqUToIp.dpuf
Excess
sugar attaches itself to collagen which will cause wrinkles and makes
your skin lose its natural resilience. - See more at:
http://jlskinfitness.com/magento/index.php/blog/why-your-diet-is-making-you-look-older/#sthash.DWqUToIp.dpuf
Excess
sugar attaches itself to collagen which will cause wrinkles and makes
your skin lose its natural resilience. - See more at:
http://jlskinfitness.com/magento/index.php/blog/why-your-diet-is-making-you-look-older/#sthash.DWqUToIp.dpuf
Are you wondering what's in these lattes that's so awful?
Just as an example—ahem—here is the label that a VERY BIG coffee chain offers for a Grande (mid-size at 16 fl. oz.) Iced White Mocha with Soy Milk (though generally I brought my own unsweetened Almond Milk) and no whipped cream:
| Calories 340 | Calories from Fat 70 | ||||||||
| % Daily Value* | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Fat 8g | 12% | ||||||||
| Saturated Fat 4.5g | 22% | ||||||||
| Trans Fat 0g | |||||||||
| Cholesterol 0mg | 0% | ||||||||
| Sodium 180mg | 8% | ||||||||
| Total Carbohydrate 58g | 20% | ||||||||
| Dietary Fiber 1g | 4% | ||||||||
| Sugars 53g | |||||||||
| Protein 10g | |||||||||
|
|||||||||
| Caffeine 150mg** | |||||||||
| *Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. | |||||||||
| **Each caffeine value is an approximate value. | |||||||||
As you can see, it doesn't list ingredients, but look at the WHOPPING sugar content at 53 grams and Caffeine at 150 mg! But wait! This same drink served hot increases the sugar level to 58 grams with total carbs at 61 grams.
Soy milk is hardly a healthy replacement for dairy. It congests the body plus has an estrogenic effect that creates its own health issues.
This is no benign, five dollar drink! In fact, it started costing me my health.
By the end of my stint, a Grande no longer cut it—I wanted a Venti (20 oz. and 74 grams sugar). I knew it was time to get off the treadmill and take back my health! So I did, and I'm already feeling better.
For a lovely chai latte recipe that's organic and environmentally-friendly, head over to this post on the Green Beauty Team website.
Do you have a latte addiction? Maybe it's time to consider brewing your own alternative or asking for unsweetened tea, if you must indulge.
XO
Photo credits: Ralph Loesche/photos.com, Starbucks.com
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