Sugary Drinks Raise Diabetes Risk by 26 Percent

It's not surprising that soda and similar drinks raise the risk of diabetes, but the percentage by which the risk increases is startling...

From WebMD:

Habitual drinkers -- those drinking one to two sugar-sweetened beverages a day on average -- had a 26% increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes and a 20% increased risk for developing metabolic syndrome compared to those who drank the beverages once a month or not at all. [more]

- Daily Life Wellness 

Maggie Doyne, Founder of the BlinkNow Foundation

If you can spare 20 minutes or so...check out this video. Maggie Doyne, at the age of 18, started a school for orphans in the foothills of Nepal. Very cool.

Drinking green tea helps prevent breast cancer

From FoodConsumer.org:

Drinking more than 3 cups of green tea a day was correlated with 27 percent reduced risk of breast cancer recurrence, the review study showed. The risk reduction was statistically significant. [more]

- Daily Life Wellness

Up to one-third of U.S. adults could have diabetes by 2050

That's the finding of a recent study by the CDC:

"If recent increases in diabetes incidence continue and diabetes mortality is relatively low, prevalence will increase to 33% by 2050. A middle-ground scenario projects a prevalence of 25% to 28% by 2050," Theodore J. Thompson, of the agency's Division of Diabetes Translation, and colleagues reported Friday in the journal Population Health Metrics."

That's an alarming number, but, given the state and direction of health overall in this country, it really shouldn't come as a surprise.

- Daily Life Wellness

More Reasons to Avoid McDonald's...If You Value Your Health

There are many reasons to avoid McDonald's if you're at all interested in maintaining your health. Everyone knows this...I think. But I just happened to come across two more reasons recently.

First up: The Happy Meal Project. New York City artist Sarah Davies left a Happy Meal (burger and fries) on a shelf and photographed it every day for six months. Perhaps to no one's surprise...the burger and fries seemingly did not change at all in appearance...in six months. Think this stuff is good for you? You be the judge.

Check out Sarah's pic from Day 171...

Next up: Ever heard of Advanced Glycation End-products (AGEs)? How about Acrylamides? No? Turns out these pleasant sounding additives are both found in...french fries. The Heart Scan Blog tells us that AGEs block the effects of insulin in the body, leading to increased blood sugar (not a good thing), and also lead to high blood pressure. Even better, a study found that "Acrylamide causes cancer in rats when administered orally in high dose experiments, increasing tumors in the nervous system, oral cavity, peritoneum, thyroid gland, mammary gland, uterus, and clitoris." Good stuff.

Look, I'm the first one to admit that I chow down on McDonald's from time to time -- but if this stuff is a dietary staple for you, hopefully this info will put a scare in you. If not this, then Morgan Spurlock's great film, Super Size Me, definitely will.

- Daily Life Wellness

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