Monday, July 23, 2007

Well, Shoot!

Diet drinks are out! There really ought to be something one could imbibe that would quench one's thirst, be safe, would be relatively inexpensive, and, finally, refreshing. We should all pray that just what that is would be revealed to us.

UPDATE:

Yesterday's WSJ has a column by the Health Journal editor, Tara Parker-Pope, on this subject. It's balanced and worth reading. Here is an excerpt:

The new report from the Framingham study compared soft-drink consumption among nearly 9,000 middle-aged men and women. Overall, soda drinkers were at 48% higher risk for metabolic syndrome, a collection of health problems including being overweight, and having blood-sugar levels signaling diabetes risk. The risks of metabolic syndrome were about the same whether the soft drink was sugared or sugar-free. The study authors noted that the research doesn't prove sodas cause health problems.

What about trying this for four weeks:

1. Drink only water, natural juices (coffee and tea, of course, we are not a bunch of crazies, after all. Maybe some wine now and then. It's from the grape, after all), but no soft drinks of any sort. UPDATE: Add skim milk. UPDATE UPDATE: Add margaritas.

2. Eat nothing with refined sugar in it. Nothing. Nada!

3. Eat whole wheat and not white breads. Brown rice, not white rice. Sweet potatoes not white potatoes.

4. Eat no meat or, at the very least, no red meat.

That leaves mainly veggies and fruits. See what happens.

Who will do this? Let us know. Keep us up to date.

13 comments:

sweetpea said...

guess it's just vegetables for you! :)

Paul Stokes said...

Right! See the update. Go for it!

Lindsay said...

My refined sugar and I get along just fine, thanks! Maybe if I had a live-in chef this would be closer to the realm of possibility.

This is close to what you do, anyway, isn't it Sweetpea?

Macon said...

no Ice Cream?

no hamburgers?

no bacon & sausage breakfast burritos?

that's a sad, sad world.

Paul Stokes said...

Yep. That and the chewing tobacco.

;)

Paul Stokes said...

One correction. Add skim milk to no. 1.

But you doubters out there. We are talking 4 weeks here, just 4 weeks.

OK. How about 10 days?

Paul Stokes said...

And no sugar added ice cream works.

Macon said...

no sugar added ice cream works

That's like saying "all squares smell like lilacs."

It is an invalid sentence.

Lindsay said...

I would maybe do this for $1 million. Any backers?

sweetpea said...

you can add to the no-list for us: wheat and gluten, since we recently discovered my husband has a serious gluten/wheat issue.

it's getting harder and harder to cook around our house.

lindsay--yes, this is what we ideally do--no refined sugar, no refined anything, but we do eat lean beef. iron.

we've been cheating lately, and we are waiting til we get back from mexico before we hop back on the wagon. for what is mexico without margaritas on the beach???? i ask you.

paul, we will do it after the 7th of aug. ;) we are old pros, though. except we usually are tempted to cheat after a few weeks.

Paul Stokes said...

Please add to my skim milk correction the correction about the margaritas. Thank you.

Jana said...

ha!

this is sweetpea, signed in under my alias, "jana."

Paul Stokes said...

Neat photo, J!