why I say "No" to Pop

This past weekend I was at a family funeral for my dear aunt Verda.  She was a wonderful aunt who welcomed you with open arms and squeezed really really tight!  She would have loved that her funeral gave us the opportunity to have a mini family reunion.  It was a wonderful gathering filled with lots of laughter, tears and ofcourse... food and drinks!  What I wasn't prepared for was when my 7 year old little sweet heart came around the corner with her cousin carrying a can of coke!  Arrrggghhh!  Up to this point my daughter has never had a can of pop and I had hoped to continue that for as long as I could get away with it.  So across the deck I watched as she and her cousin went up to her cousin's mom (my cousin) to ask if they can have a can of coke... "Ofcourse you can!" was the answer.   I'll give my daughter some credit here, because she knows that coke is not good for you.  She walked across the deck and asked "Mom... can I PLEASE try some coke?"....  What's a super health conscious mom to do?   I let her have the darn can of coke, with my inner voice screaming at me the entire time.  Sometimes you just have to let your guard down and let them try it.  I wish I could tell you that she took one sip and she hated it, but that would have been too easy.  She drank about 1/2 the can and then went to play.

In the meantime my Mom and another cousin was sitting next to me and they could see that I was having difficulty with the decision.  My cousin could not believe that she had never had a can of coke (and potentially many readers may have a hard time as well), and couldn't understand why I would restrict pop from her diet.   It's no wonder that he would have a hard time with the concept since in Canada the average canadian consumes 119.8 litres of pop per year (which is less than the 216 litres per year that our neighbors south of the boarder drink) and marketers spend approximately 500 million dollars a year to market the stuff too us.

So we all have heard that pop isn't that great for us, but do we really understand why?   Some US statistics about pop consumption raise serious concerns in Canada as well:

• A child’s risk for obesity increases an average of 60% with each additional serving of pop.
• Calories from sweetened beverages tend to be ‘extra’ calories that lead to higher total energy intakes for children.
• 41% of children (2 – 11 years of age) and 62% of teens ( 12 – 17) in California drink a pop or another sugar sweetened beverage each day.
• California adults who drink a pop or more per day are 27% more likely to be overweight or obese.

But those are just statitstics and if you are like me, your brain just skips over stats and does better with images.  A friend sent me this image that I believe says it better than I could ever explain...


Via: Term Life Insurance

So the next time you are at a family reunion and your little cousin or neice asks if she can have a can of coke... offer her some water.  She may whine and complain a little, but then she will likely say "OK".