How To Kick The “Pop” Habit

One of the most important things you can do for your health is to get as much sugar out of your diet as possible.

I don’t mean natural sugar that is in food, I mean the added sugars, including honey, syrup and organic evaporated cane juice.

It’s all the same to your body. It breaks down as sugar, no matter what it’s shape, color or name.

Here are the top 10 reasons why sugar is so unhealthy:

1. Added sugar contains no essential nutrients and is bad for your teeth.
2. Sugar is high in Fructose, which overloads your liver
3. Overloading the Liver causes Non-Alcoholic fatty liver disease
4. Sugar can cause insulin resistance which leads to Metabolic Syndrome and Diabetes
5. Insulin Resistance can cause Type 2 Diabetes
6. Sugar can cause cancer
7. Sugar promotes weight gain
8. Because it causes major Dopamine release in the brain, it is highly addictive
9. Sugar is the leading cause of obesity in adults and children
10. Sugar is the one that raises cholesterol and causes heart disease, not fat!

Here’s your first step toward breaking the sugar habit in your life. Your brain will be clearer, your sleep will be sweeter and your energy will go up when you eliminate sugar from your diet.
When I was growing up my mom made a version of this drink for us, because she didn’t buy soft drinks either. I’m glad she got me started with this one early.

Here’s my version of her healthy “pop” that we loved, and now my kids love it, too! I get no complaints at my house because they love to drink this and it’s good for them. Kids really do like to be healthy.

We use two different sugar alternatives, pure stevia powder and Monk Fruit. Both of them are made from plants, have zero calories and have many health benefits. They are also easy on the body.

Most of the other sugar alternatives have a plethora of side effects, some of which we’ve experienced. For instance, erythritol, a sugar alcohol in Truvia, gave 3 of the 5 of us migraines. Other sugar alcohols like mannitol and xylitol gave 3 of the 5 of us cramps and diarrhea.

I also tried Lucuma, which is made from fruit, but it made my blood pressure drop too much. So, stevia and Monk Fruit are the sweeteners we choose.

Now for those of you that hate the after taste of stevia, you won’t get that taste with Monk Fruit. But remember, if you use Stevia with fruit you usually won’t get that after taste either.  Stevia is like MSG on fruit. It really amps up the flavor and makes fruit like crack. Not that I would know, just sayin’!
Our Two Favorite Flavors are Blueberry and Peach. We also do lemonade.