Drinking Soda-Very Interesting!

Let me preface this by saying that I quit drinking Soda in January, 2010.  I remember drinking some sort of soda-usually Coke, since I can remember.  As a young child it was a staple in my house-sadly my parents made sure we had Coca Cola on hand pretty much all of the time, but Milk on the other hand, we could go without....  As a teenager, I would happily enjoy a bottomless cup -usually a "suicide," for those of you unfamiliar with this, it is where you put equal parts of each soda into your cup until it is full.  This bottomless delight was available for a mere $0.55 cents during both breakfast and lunch mind you-and yes I took advantage of that, every day, 5 days a week, for 4 years).  We used it in our pubescence to stay up all night during slumber parties(Mountain Dew runs to Circle K at 2 am were a blast)!  Yes, I have very fond memories of this sugary elixir.  Now fast forward to my present non soda drinking status.  About 2 weeks ago, Chris went to Sonic and bought me an iced tea and a coke for himself.  I was happily Facebooking away, enjoying my tea.  Well, Chris had set his coke next to my tea on the desk, anticipating his turn at the keyboard.  I-not paying attention as I was so engrossed in my own little Facebook world, reached over and grabbed what I thought was my drink and took a big swig-Blech!  I literally gagged!  It was so sweet and pungeant and it actually took me a few seconds to register what this vile stuff was that I was choking down!  I absolutely cannot believe I ever like this stuff and believe you me, it did not taste anything like the memory.  So all of that being said, the following is an article I found on "Eat This, Not That."  Happy Drinking my friends.......

Drinking Soda

Researchers say you can measure a person’s risk of obesity by measuring his or her soda intake. Versus people who don’t drink sweetened sodas, here’s what your daily intake means:

½ can = 26 percent increased risk of being overweight or obese

½ to 1 can = 30.4 percent increased risk

1 to 2 cans = 32.8 percent increased risk

More than 2 cans = 47.2 percent increased risk

That’s a pretty remarkable set of stats. You don’t have to guzzle Double Gulps from 7-Eleven to put yourself at risk—you just need to indulge in one or two cans a day. Wow. And because high-fructose corn syrup is so cheap, food marketers keep making serving sizes bigger (even the “small” at most movie theaters is enough to drown a raccoon). That means we’re drinking more than ever and don’t even realize it: In the 1950s, the average person drank 11 gallons of soda a year. By the mid-2000s, we were drinking 46 gallons a year. A Center for Science in the Public Interest report contained this shocking sentence: “Carbonated soft drinks are the single biggest source of calories in the American diet.”