Start asking around and you will find that many people will admit to drinking very little plain old water. You will even find people that will admit to never drinking any water whatsoever. We are so used to drinking coffee, tea, colas and soft drinks that it is very common to hear people say they don’t even like the way water tastes.

Americans, in general, are a nation of people who feel they “need something” in order to keep them going. Many start the day with coffee, or worse, a soft drink. Breaks and meals throughout the day are usually always accompanied by tea or soft drinks. By the end of the day, people are so hyped-up on sugar and caffeine that many turn to alcohol to “relax,” and it is not uncommon for these people to take over-the-counter sleep aids or Tylenol PM just so they are able to go to sleep at night. Before long a vicious cycle of chemically induced ups and downs is started that takes a huge toll on physical and mental health.

While you will run across a study here or there that suggests caffeine is beneficial to the human body, caffeine is something a person wants to avoid. In fact, any substance that causes withdrawal symptoms when a person stops ingesting it, should be crossed off the list of items you want to allow into your body. Caffeine combined with sugar is an especially noxious combination.

Very few adults would eat seven teaspoons of sugar at one sitting; however, that is just what they are doing with each can of Coke or Pepsi and many other canned drinks.

A can of Coke has 39 grams of sugar and a can of Pepsi has 41 grams of sugar. That is about seven teaspoons (or 13 lumps) of sugar per can! And that is just the amount found in a 12-ounce can of cola. Soft drink manufactures are moving to plastic bottles that come in 16 – 20-ounce bottles or more. Keep in mind, this is just taking into account the large amount of sugar, usually in the form of corn syrup, as soft drinks also contain a host of other ingredients that should be avoided such as, caramel, citric acid, corn starch, potassium chloride, potassium phosphate, and salt; not to mention artificial sweeteners such as saccharin or Aspartame, which are actually worse for you than the sugar.

As the nation moves into an epidemic of obesity and diabetes, the real winners are the soft drink companies, who enrich themselves at our children’s expense; the doctors, who line their pockets with the money of those who have made themselves sick on these unnatural, devitalized foods; and the drug companies, who manufacture drugs to keep our children, hopped-up on sugar, caffeine and other processed foods, under control.