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Eating for Energy

Lose Weight With Water!

Part 2

Amy Coates, BSc, RHN

Here's the second part to last month's article Lose Weight with Water...

(Click here if you missed Part 1)

Before learning about the effects of aspartame, I drank about 4 cans of diet coke per day. Like many others, I assumed a toxic substance would never gain allowance into our food supply. I was wrong. For 2 years I suffered from cloudiness in my eyes. I always had one eye that was so fuzzy I could not see properly. Now I cannot tell you that Diet Coke was for sure to blame, but 6 months after I stopped drinking it, I realized my vision was completely fine! Aspartame is a man-made chemical and has no place whatsoever in our bodies. Water, on the other hand contains no aspartate, phenylalanine, or formaldehyde. Let’s check the score: Water 4, Opponents 0.

The biggest problem with juice is its sugar content. Too much sugar in juice form will be absorbed into the blood stream, causing a drastic spike in blood sugar. The drastic spike causes a drastic fall, leaving us craving more sugar. This may lead to drinking even more juice, adding even more calories!

Let’s take Ocean Spray’s white cranberry juice for instance.

Ingredients: Filtered water, white cranberry juice from concentrate, sugar, high fructose corn syrup, natural flavors, ascorbic acid (vitamin C), and citric acid. In addition to the concentrated juice, there is more added sugar and high fructose corn syrup! The term “natural flavors” can mean anything. It can even mean MSG has been added. It is amazing what labelers can categorize as natural. Water has no added sugar, no fillers, and no preservatives. Water 7, Opponents 0.

If you want juice, buy a juicer and make it yourself. It will then be full of vitamins, minerals, and enzymes which are needed for every single function within the body.

Even if you’re already drinking water, you need to start thinking about the source of that water. Drinking any old tap water is not good for our cells. Tap water has chlorine, among other things, added to kill bacteria. The problem here is that it kills both bad and good bacteria that our bodies need to be healthy.

Drinking chlorinated water is like taking antibiotics every day. It is important that drinking water is filtered using a respectable filtration system. I prefer carbon filtered water. Specifically I prefer the technology of Nikken’s Pimag™ water system, which reduces volatile organic compounds, lead, cysts, MTBE, turbidity, chlorine, bad tastes, odors, and particulate matter. It literally energizes your water. My mom was in a health food store with her Pimag™ water last week when the man running the store offered to test her water. The water scored off the charts in energy, and she hasn’t changed the filter in 2 years! Nikken recommends changing the filter once every year. I’m not sure what the Coca Cola Company does to its water, but I’m sure it’s not going to score very high on any energy test. Water 8, Opponents 0.

How much water do I need to drink? An often agreed amount of water is half your body weight in ounces per day. So, if you’re 160 lbs, you need 80 oz. of water each day. That breaks down into 10 8 oz. glasses or 10 cups of water. You must be sure to sip water throughout the day and not chug 2 or 3 glasses at a time to “make up” for lost glasses. Water taken this way may not become assimilated into the body and pass through the system relatively unused. You need to drink water first thing in the morning, as the body becomes dehydrated at night. I personally drink 8-16 oz. of water before I eat anything. It will also stop you from overeating!

Water is good for so many things in addition to dropping a few pounds, so you may notice other problems get better, like asthma, hiatus hernia, and pains in the lower back, neck, and heart!

Get headaches? Drink water! You will be amazed at the results!

Learn more about the power of water in Eating for Energy!

Get your copy today!  Click here...