What Happens in Your Body Within 1 Hour of Ingesting Soda

According to the Nutrition Research Center, this is what happens to your body within 1 hour of drinking a can of soda:

-10 minutes: 10 teaspoons of sugar hit your system, which is 100 percent of your recommended daily intake. You'd normally vomit from such an intake, but the phosphoric acid cuts the flavor.

-20 minutes: Your blood sugar skyrockets. Your liver attempts to maximize insulin production in order to turn high levels of sugar into fat.

-40 minutes: As your body finishes absorbing the caffeine, your pupils dilate, your blood pressure rises, and your liver pumps more sugar into the bloodstream. Adenosine receptors in your brain are blocked preventing you from feeling how tired you may actually be.

-45 minutes: Your body increases dopamine production, causing you to feel pleasure and adding to the addictiveness of the beverage. This physical neuro response works the same way as it would if we were consuming heroin.

>60 minutes: The phosphoric acid binds calcium, magnesium and zinc in your lower intestine, which boosts your metabolism a bit further. High doses of sugar and artificial sweeteners compound this effect, increasing the urinary excretion of calcium. The caffeine’s diuretic properties come into play. (You have to GO!) Your body will eliminate the bonded calcium, magnesium and zinc that was otherwise heading to your bones. And you will also flush out the sodium, electrolytes and water. Your body has eliminated the water that was in the soda. And in the process it was infused with nutrients and minerals your body would have otherwise used to hydrate your system or build body cells, bones, teeth.

-60 minutes: The sugar crash begins. You may become irritable and/or sluggish. You start feeling like crap. Time to grab another?

-Courtesy of Peaceful Parenting

Winning Over Picky Eaters

My Picky Eater- at least she has style!

I admit it. I'm obsessed. I am bound and determined to win my daughter over to a more Paleo-(ish) lifestyle this year. 

This is pretty much how she looks when I get her to try something new.

My son, Arlo? Dream eater. That boy will eat ANYTHING. 

He loves it. Really.

This is his response to a Paleo Pumpkin Bread that was so horrible even I wouldn't eat it! It was as dense as a brick!

I would say my kids eat better than most. But it's just time. I went Paleo almost 2 years ago, my husband joined in a year ago. I just found out I have some major gluten issues. It's time, people.


So where do you start? That is always my biggest dilemma. One of my biggest peeves is when people (who usually don't even have kids) say things like "Just serve them what you are eating. if they are hungry they will eat it. If not, they can just starve."


That doesn't really work for me. I think my kids need to be involved in the process of meal-making and meal planning. I also believe that slow integration of things works best for my particular kids. Moving on.


I decided to approach this just like we do with new clients at the gym. We ask them to start with breakfast. Usually my kids have waffles, oatmeal, or pancakes with a protein on the side. This is what Lily has been eating the past week or so:

• An organic cheesestick wrapped in ham, honeydew, and maybe a boiled egg- we still have dairy in there, but that's the only dairy she eats during the day and we've eliminated the bread- score!

• Arlo hates cheese, so he eats ham, honeydew, and either an egg or some Kefir.

So that's where I'm starting. I got super creative last week and pulled out some of my old teacher tricks when I was trying to get her to try nuts.  I made a chart of all the nuts and all of our family members' names. Everyone had to try the various nuts and put a smiley face if they liked it, a sad face if they didn't.  You know what? She actually tried them all and there was ONE lonely smiley face- score!

On the menu tonight: Spaghetti Squash with Grassfed beef and tomato sauce, Sauteed kale