Recently I've been battling with my...gulp...sugar addiction. I got off cokes for a few months, then allowed myself to have just a little here and there. (a note to non-Texans, all colas, sodas, etc. are called 'cokes' no matter what brand they are..) After a while, though it just turns into a roaring need. I also love to eat chocolate chip cookies, preferably the gooey kind, but Chips Ahoy will do, or even the store brand equivalent (gooey, no need for milk - crunchy, must have milk.) And to make things worse, my husband is also a (not self-acclaimed) sugar addict; but he'll eat more varieties than I will. One reason that it makes it worse is because when he eats sugar, it doesn't show on him physically, AND he'll buy sweets or cookies that I won't eat, so that I won't... well... eat them.
I sent an article to a friend, as we had recently been talking about our cola preferences. ...here is part of the article by Dr. Reginald B. Cherry, M.D. :
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Are you a cola drinker? Then you might want to consider this important information.
In a Tufts University study, women who drank colas daily were shown to have lower bone-mineral density than those who drank clear soda (or who drank cola only once a week or less) even though both groups had similar calcium intake.
For years, some experts thought cola drinkers had lower bone density because they consumed soft drinks in place of milk. However, in this study the decrease in bone density wasn’t because of lower calcium, according to Katherine Tucker, Ph.D., associate professor of nutritional epidemiology. Apparently, the problem is increased levels of phosphoric acid, which can interfere with your body’s absorption of calcium. A typical can of cola contains 44 to 62 milligrams of phosphoric acid per 12-ounce serving, and diet cola contains 27 to 39 milligrams. (Phosphoric acid is added to colas to give it its tartness but is not added to other sodas.)
While phosphoric acid is present in other dietary sources, including dairy products, it doesn’t appear to cause the same sort of problem.
“When phosphoric acid comes packed with other nutrients, it’s absorbed normally and everything is in balance. We think the problem with cola is that you’re getting those doses of phosphoric acid without any calcium. It’s not balanced, and that extra phosphorus binds with calcium and prevents it from being absorbed, says Dr. Tucker. "