Lemony lime

So a few years ago I thought I should stop drinking coke. I love a cold canned coke! but I knew it was bad for me so I quit and replaced it with other drinks such as Sprite, Gatorade, Squirt and Fresca. I do love Fresca! Then I noticed that Fresca contains Aspertame and known neurotoxin. Yuck! and I did love me some Fresca so after a bit, back to coke I went.

Now we are soda free and I don't even miss them, thank goodness!! Then I came across this article that blew me away. All that time I thought I was doing better by drinking Gatorade and Squirt when in fact I was poisoning my body even worse. Come to find out a lot of those beverages comtain BVO which was orginally patented as a flame retardant!!

Here is an excerpt of the article. To read the whole thing (recommended) click here.

If you live in the U.S. and drink Mountain Dew and some other citrus-flavored sodas, then you are also getting a dose of a synthetic chemical called brominated vegetable oil (BVO).
BVO was first patented by chemical companies as a flame retardant.
The chemical is banned in food throughout Europe and Japan.
But BVO has been added to about 10 percent of sodas in North America for decades, even though it has resulted in soda-drinkers needing medical attention for skin lesions, memory loss and nerve disorders -- all symptoms of overexposure to bromine.
Studies suggest that BVO can build up in human tissues, and animal studies have found it causes reproductive and behavioral problems in large doses.
According to Scientific American:

"Reports from an industry group helped the U.S. Food and Drug Administration establish in 1977 what it considers a safe limit for BVO in sodas.
But some scientists say that limit is based on data that is thin and several decades old, and they insist that the chemical deserves a fresh look ...
With natural alternatives already in use in other countries, why not switch in North America too?"

What is Brominated Vegetable Oil, and Why is it Used in Soda?

Brominated vegetable oil (BVO) is vegetable oil, derived from corn or soy, bonded with the element bromine. It's added as an emulsifier, to prevent the flavoring from separating and floating to the surface. The FDA limits the amount of BVO allowed in fruit-flavored beverages to 15 parts per million.
Bromines are common endocrine disruptors, and are part of the halide family, a group of elements that includes fluorine, chlorine and iodine. What makes it so dangerous is that it competes for the same receptors that are used to capture iodine. If you are exposed to a lot of bromine, your body will not hold on to the iodine that it needs. And iodine affects every tissue in your body, not just your thyroid.

Are You Consuming Sodas Laced with BVO?

According to the featured article, Coca-Cola and Pepsi do not contain brominated vegetable oil (BVO), but the following citrus-flavored sodas and energy drinks, sold in the US, do:

Mountain Dew	Squirt	Fanta Orange
Sunkist Pineapple	Gatorade Thirst Quencher Orange, and Powerade Strawberry Lemonade	Fresca Original Citrus

This is not a complete list however. All in all, about 10 percent of all sodas sold in the U.S. contain BVO, so it pays to read the list of ingredients. Better yet, make a concerted effort to eliminate soda from your diet altogether. With or without BVO, sodas contain so many ingredients harmful to your health—high fructose corn syrup being one of the foremost culprits—that they really have no redeeming value whatsoever.

And please do not make the mistake of switching from regular soda to diet, as artificial sweetened drinks may be the worse of two evils. Also beware of drinks containing sodium benzoate, and Yellow Dye #5. The latter is also known as tartrazine, and has been banned in Norway, Austria and Germany due to its ill health effects.

Unfortunately, according to a 2010 study by the National Cancer Institute, sodas are still the number one source of calories for teenagers between the ages of 14 to 18. Among adults, sodas and other sugary drinks are the fourth largest source of calories, according to the latest dietary statistics from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

There's no doubt that this kind of excessive soda consumption ravages your body and robs you of good health... I believe one of the fastest ways to make a profound change in your health- and weight status is to dramatically reduce or eliminate soda from your diet, regardless of which type or brand you drink.