2 foods that are to be avoided may shock you!

By Francis Mackey

The 2 foods that are to be avoided may shock you. You may be under the impression, like so many others, that these foods are OK, and not an issue when it comes to dieting. People are amazed when they learn that they should be removed from their diet.

It is common knowledge that trans fats are bad for you, and also high-fructose corn syrup. I won't go over these ones again " you probably know only too well. Its not either of these that I have in mind.
Number one to be avoided when you are on a diet, is all wheat products - that means anything that contains wheat. This would include bread of all types, bagels, pasta and cereals (and this even includes all those "whole wheat" cereals).

The reasons for wheat products are, first of all, much of the population has an allergy to the gluten in wheat products and other grains. But what most people do not realise is that we were never meant to have a large proportion of wheat in our diet. Our digestive system has never adjusted to it.

Wheat has been introduced into our diet only in the last couple of thousand years or so, and has NEVER been a high percentage of the human diet until the last 80 to 100 years! Before that, our diet generally consisted of a much healthier mixture of nuts, seeds, vegetables and fruits.

When a person is trying to lose weight, if they eliminate wheat from their diet for 2 to 3 weeks, they will lose weight, and feel a whole lot better. In some cases, it also gets rid of headaches and indigestion problems (even skin problems too) which they may have been having for years.

The second food that should be eliminated from your diet, will come as a shock to most people - fruit juice. It is generally regarded as a very healthy choice and would probably be included in most calorie controlled diets.

Now I am not totally against carbohydrates - in fact, I believe that most fruits are very beneficial and healthy. But this is referring to fruits in their natural state - not processed. And when you separate the juice from the rest of the fruit which is rich in fiber, it's no longer useful for dieting. What you are left with is a high-calorie , sugary drink that is best avoided.

When you only drink the juice of the fruit, your body is missing out on the fiber. This will result in a craving for more carbohydrates. Oranges and apples are two of the best examples of this. The fiber in the fruit will help to satisfy the appetite, and it also slows down the response of the blood sugar, much more so that the juice alone.

The bottom line is that consuming too much fruit juice makes you fat. But consuming the whole fruit is an important part of a balanced diet, and supplies your body with a high level of nutrients. This also depends on you having unprocessed foods in the rest of your diet also.

About the Author:

See our review of the best weight-loss programs over at How To Lose Weight. If you want to lose body fat faster, check out these 5 tips to Lose Stomach Fat the smart and effective way. Get a totally unique version of this article from our article submission service

Beer...It does a body good? | Beer for Bones

Beer could stop bones going brittle

Drinking beer regularly could stop bones from going brittle, according to scientists in Spain.

A study found that the bones of women who drink beer regularly are stronger, making them less likely to suffer from osteoporosis.

It is thought that the high level of silicon in beer slows down the thinning that leads to fractures and boosts the formation of new bone, the journal Nutrition reports.

Beer is also rich in phytoestrogens, plant versions of oestrogen, which keep bones healthy.

Bones are made up of a mesh of fibres, minerals, blood vessels and marrow, and healthy ones are denser with smaller spaces between the different parts.

The researchers asked almost 1,700 healthy women with an average age of 48 about their drinking habits. They then underwent ultrasound scans of their hands, which showed the bones belonging to beer drinkers to be denser.

The women's hands were chosen because the bones in the fingers are among the first to show signs of osteoporosis, a disease of bone that leads to an increased risk of fracture.

Those who had less than a pint a day, whom scientists classed as light beer drinkers, fared just as well as those in the moderate bracket, suggesting that even small amounts can boost bone health.

The Spanish researchers said: "Silicon plays a major role in bone formation. Beer has been claimed to be one of the most important sources of silicon in the Western diet."

Three million Britons are affected by osteoporosis. It is most common in women after menopause.

12 Popular Diet Myths

You Will Never Need Math in Your Life

Remember when you were in grammar school and you thought, “Oh c’mon, I am never going to use this stuff…” Well it’s true, you will need basic math to lose weight and here’s why.

Weight loss equates to calorie expenditure or reduction. Basically, in order to lose 1 pound of weight, you will need to cut back or expend 3,500 additional calories.

So here’s where the math comes in. You will need to assess how many calories you are consuming daily using your products dietary guidelines.

My suggestion is to chart your food for no less than 1 week. Write everything down you consume and then calculate the calories associated. Make no changes for the first week. After that then you can look at where you can make changes objectively.

For example, if I consume 3,300 calories a day and want to lose 5 pounds in 1 month then I need to reduce my calories by 750 each day. (3,300 calories consumed each day x 7 days = 23,100 calories consumed in 1 week. Remember 3,500 calories is needed to lose 1 pound per week so I need 5,250 in caloric deficit to lose 1.5 pounds; 5,250/7 days = 750. 3,300, what I was eating – 750, either through less caloric intake or more activity = a new total of 2,550 calories allowed per day.)

Basic math I know, but there are numerous calorie counting calculators you can find online to help. Once you get the hang of it, you will make your old math teacher proud.

Joy Bauer's Food Cures

By Joy Bauer

TODAYShow.com contributor

updated 10:24 a.m. ET, Tues., Aug 11, 2009

How safe are baby carrots? Just how damaging is yo-yo dieting? Are there specific foods that cause cellulite? There are still many common questions about dieting that leave many confused. TODAY nutrition and diet editor Joy Bauer helps separate fact from fiction:

Myth No. 1: Baby carrots are soaked with a toxic chemical and are unsafe to eat
This myth has been widely circulated through e-mail chains and seems to resurface every couple of months. The truth is that cut baby carrots, like bagged salad mixes and other “ready to eat” fresh vegetables, are rinsed in a dilute chlorine solution to inhibit bacterial growth. However, the trace amount of chlorine used is carefully regulated by the FDA and not harmful. In fact, this process protects your health by preventing the spread of foodborne illness. By the way, that white blushed color your baby carrots get is not caused by the chlorine. It’s just discoloration that naturally occurs as the carrots lose moisture.

Myth No. 2: High-fat and high-sugar foods cause cellulite
Nope, not true! Cellulite is pockets of body fat located just beneath the surface of the skin. When this fatty tissue pushes up against the connective tissue that binds skin together, it produces a bumpy, dimpled texture, most often in the hips, buttocks and thighs. And while genetics plays the strongest role in determining who gets cellulite and where, there are some factors you can control.

When it comes to diet, it’s important to understand that no specific foods cause cellulite. That said, overindulging in high-calorie foods (often laden with sugar and fat) leads to weight gain, which can make cellulite more noticeable. While slimming down and toning your lower-body muscles certainly won’t make cellulite disappear, it can help to minimize its appearance and make you more comfortable in your skin.

Myth No. 3: Dairy is bloating
Dairy is only bloating for people with lactose intolerance ... and, in some instances, for people with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). If you don’t fall into either of these groups, low-fat milk, yogurt and cheese should not cause bloating or discomfort. Even among individuals with lactose intolerance, some dairy products may be tolerated without symptoms. For example, hard cheeses (such as Cheddar and Swiss) and yogurts that contain live active cultures are usually easier to digest than straight milk or ice cream. Experiment with your diet before you give up on dairy altogether.

Myth No. 4: Alcohol turns to sugar in the body
Contrary to what most people think, alcohol does not act like a sugar, significantly raise blood sugars, or get stored in the body as sugar. In fact, alcohol is a completely separate entity; it’s not digested in the same way as the carbs, fats and proteins that enter our system. Alcohol is metabolized strictly by our liver, while carbs, proteins and fat are broken down by a slew of enzymes in our intestines and then absorbed.

In fact, hard liquors like rum, gin and vodka don’t contain any sugar or other carbohydrate whatsoever (all of their calories come from pure alcohol). Of course the mixers we douse them with are another story altogether! Mixers like sour mix, simple syrups, margarita mix, tonic and juices are loaded with simple sugars, which contribute major calories and can spike your blood sugar levels. Wine and champagne contain a very small amount of carbohydrate — about 3 grams per 5-ounce glass (that’s just 12 calories of carb out of 120 calories for the glass). Beer has the most carbohydrates — about 12 grams per 12-ounce bottle (that’s 48 calories of carb out of 150 calories for the bottle).

Keep in mind: While alcohol doesn’t act like a sugar, it does contain calories and can contribute to weight gain (not to mention bad decisions!) if consumed in excess. So while alcohol may be misunderstood, the extra calories coming from alcohol — just like those from carbs, fat and protein — will be stored by the body as fat and pack on the pounds.

Myth No. 5: Yo-yo dieting kills your metabolism
“I’ve been on so many diets, my metabolism is shot!” Yup, I’ve heard that one before. Fortunately, studies have shown it’s simply not true. Though your resting metabolic rate does slow down a bit when you restrict calories, the drop is only temporary, so dieting won’t cause any permanent damage to your metabolism or make it impossible for you to lose weight in the future. However, there may be some other serious negative side effects. A handful of studies have shown that “weight cycling” is associated with low bone density, which could place yo-yo dieters at higher risk for fractures. If you have a long history of dieting, it’s all the more important that you incorporate resistance training into your routine to prevent further bone loss (and take in adequate calcium and vitamin D from food and/or supplements).

Additional Diet Myths...

What is a diet myth? The dictionary defines the word "myth" as "a fiction or half-truth". Let’s do an examination of several of these myths regarding weight loss.

Myth #1: If you stick to your diet, you don’t need to exercise to lose weight. If Myth #1 was true, the whole world would be thin because most people have tried to lose weight this way. This diet myth is listed first because it is probably the one that is believed the most. Wouldn't it be nice if the pounds just came off without breaking a sweat? Forget about it!

To maintain your body weight, the calories you take in should equal the calories you expend, so the most effective way to lose weight is by reducing calories and increasing exercise. However, exercise is important even if you are not trying to lose weight, as it also improves cardiovascular health, circulation and decreases your risk of heart disease and diabetes. Doctors have stated that it is better to be fit and slightly overweight than thin and unfit, as physical activity is as important as weight in preventing heart disease. It is advisable to start off slowly before building up to a more rigorous plan. For example, take the stairs instead of the elevator or walk to the next bus stop instead of waiting at the stop. If you exercise and have a healthy diet, you will find it easier to lose weight and keep it off. Counting calories can be effective.

Myth #2: Diets based on single foods (i.e. the cabbage soup, grapefruit or egg diets) are the best way to lose weight. This is another one of those diet myths that has tricked many people into thinking weight loss is easy. Diets based on a particular food or food type promise rapid weight loss in a short period of time, but only work because they severely restrict calories. These diets are unsustainable long-term and can lead to deficiencies since single foods don’t contain the range of nutrients we need to stay healthy. The Academy of General Dentistry suggests that certain diets like this can even negatively affect oral health since they lack nutrients like calcium and vitamin D, which are necessary for maintaining healthy teeth and gums.

Myth #3: Low-carbohydrate, high-protein diets are the best way to lose weight. People who follow ‘low-carb’ diets tend to lose weight initially, but much of this weight is water. Many may dispute this diet myth. Of course the Atkins Diet comes to mind. Here is the problem with weight loss method. Since calories from carbs are the first thing our body uses for fuel, following a low-carb diet forces the body to quickly use this energy, then revert to stored carbs (known as glycogen) from the liver and muscles for energy. Since water is stored in the body with glycogen, you lose water as this glycogen is used for energy. Therefore most of the weight loss that occurs at this point is water and not fat. Just like the other diet myths mentioned here, practitioners of this method end up dissapointed. Once these stored carbs are used up, the body then relies on protein for energy and as a result, compounds called ketones are produced. These can be dangerous, particularly for people with medical problems such as heart disease, hypertension, kidney disease, and diabetes because the brain relies on glucose for energy, but ketones don’t provide energy for the brain. The body therefore tries to eliminate ketones through the liver and kidneys, which puts a severe strain on these organs because of the toxicity of ketones to the body. For people with metabolic problems, ketones are particularly hard to metabolize and eliminate. Due to the high level of ketones produced in a low-carb/high-protein diet, you may also experience dehydration, weakness, nausea and, in severe cases, gout and kidney problems. Additionally, many low-carb/high-protein diets can be problematic if the protein you eat is high in saturated fat (such as fatty bacon or cheese), because it increases the risk of heart disease. Despite the belief that carbs are fattening, fat is much higher in calories than carbohydrates. Current nutritional advice advocates a low-fat diet.

Myth #4: A diet is successful only if you lose more than two pounds a week. Wow! This diet myth might be the greatest diet myth on the page. Your main goal when trying to lose weight is to reduce fat rather than muscle. But if you lose more than two pounds a week you’ll also lose lean tissue (or muscle). Because your basal metabolic rate (or the speed at which you burn calories) is determined by the amount of lean tissue you have, less muscle means your metabolism slows down and it becomes difficult to sustain weight loss. This diet myth is important to read again. Be careful what you are losing when your weight drops.

Myth #5: Potatoes and other carbs are fattening. Carbohydrate foods like potatoes, rice, pasta, and bread are not fattening unless you put fat (in the form of sauces or butter) on top of them. Carbs play an important role in diets since they satisfy our appetite without being too high in calories. Fats, however, are less satisfying and have over twice the amount of calories per gram as carbs (9 calories per gram compared to 3.75 calories per gram respectively). Because fat is less satisfying, we tend to eat more of it. A low-fat, high-carb diet is therefore more effective for weight loss because you stave off hunger by eating carbs and are less likely to overdo your fat intake.

Myth #6: Fat is not a four-letter word. Fat is not bad for you. In fact, it is important to get 35% of your daily calories from fat (if you eat around 2000 calories a day, you’ll need about 70g fat). Fat has many crucial functions aside from being a concentrated source of energy. First, it circulates fat-soluble vitamins such as A, D, E and K through the blood so they can be absorbed by the body. Secondly, fat contains essential fatty acids such omega-3 and omega-6, needed for the proper formation of the nerve walls. Note: it’s better to eat poly- and mono-unsaturated fats (such as olive oil) which are good for your heart, than saturated fats (such as animal fats) which increase the risk of heart disease. Because fat is a concentrated source of energy, you don’t need to eat a lot of it. Here’s how to reduce your fat intake:

· Switch to lower fat versions of milk, cheese and other dairy products.
· Use leaner cuts of meat and remove skin from chicken.
· Use little or no fat in cooking. Grill, poach or steam rather than fry

Myth #7: You can’t have sugar, fat or alcohol if you’re on a diet. A realistic diet will not restrict certain foods or ingredients (especially our favorite ones) like sugar, fat and alcohol across the board, as this will only make you feel deprived. For many people, an eating plan that doesn’t allow the occasional treat is a short-lived one. Additionally, if you severely restrict your calories while dieting, then once you stop the diet and begin to eat these foods again (which is inevitable), you will likely gain the weight back. This is because your metabolism slowed during the diet and you won’t be able to efficiently burn the amount of calories you’re now consuming. Because many people find they can stick to a long-term diet if they’re allowed the occasional sugary ‘treats’, many successful weight loss programs allow sweets. If you have a sweet tooth or drink alcohol regularly, the most effective way to reduce your intake is to phase out these items gradually. This might mean cutting down on ‘visible sugar,’ such as the pure kind you put in tea or coffee. For alcohol, it might mean alternating alcoholic drinks with non-alcoholic ones.

Most importantly, chronic dieting can have a negative impact on psychological health. Weight loss followed by weight regain can squash self-esteem and promote feelings of failure. This mind-set makes it difficult to maintain a healthy relationship with food. With that in mind, take care of your body and your psyche — avoid crash dieting and instead stick with a program you can sustain long term.

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The Fresh Diet

theexaminer.com

There is a new diet craze hitting the US. It's called the Fresh Diet and lots of celebrites are using it, here is some info from the company

Fresh Diets' Chefs' Choice Program gives you all the best Fresh Diet has to offer & still keeps your price at under $35 a day.

With Chefs' Choice your daily menu is prepared by our Culinary Masters, choosing from the freshest available ingredients daily, while creating your delicious meals and snacks with their gourmet style.

Chefs' Choice is for the Adventurous Diner with a few foods dislikes on their palate.

The Chefs' Choice program allows you to choose up to 8 food dislikes which will be substituted out of your daily menu for a suitable diet fitting ingredient.

There is a new diet craze hitting Chicago and the US, it's called the Fresh Diet and is another "food plan" diet, where you buy the pre made foods from the company and that is the only thing you eat. Here is a little about the company,

Established in January of 2006, The Fresh Diet was conceived by a Le Cordon Bleu trained chef and is based on the 40% carbohydrates, 30% proteins and 30% fats diet concept. It became the first diet delivery company in Florida to offer clients fresh daily-prepared meals that are never frozen, freeze-dried or vacuum packed. Instead, The Fresh Diet delivers three freshly prepared delicious meals and two snacks directly to your door each day. The result is a savory (and sweet!), mouth-watering culinary experience that is always healthy, made-to-order and FRESH!

As an innovator in the diet delivery service world, The Fresh Diet provides members with access to certified dietitians and an on line meal planner, which gives them hands on control over their service plan even allowing members to reschedule meals without penalty. By checking off the foods you don't like or have dietary restrictions from eating, The Fresh Diet chefs will specifically craft meals to suit your taste buds. If you are allergic to shellfish, opt out of the crab cakes drizzled with zesty chipotle lime sauce and indulge in the decadent peppercorn brandy glazed pork loin with steamed brocoflower and spinach couscous.

With The Fresh Diet expanding to serve over 19 major markets in 2008, there is no more convenient way to shed post-holiday pounds or better your health this year!

Here is the price for their premium package.

Premium Choice

Premium Choice, this allows you to choose from a variety of our delicious daily menu items for breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, and hors d'oeuvre.

Fresh Diet's Premium Choice is the first and only diet delivery service that allows you to choose from a variety of our delicious daily menu items for breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, and hors d'oeuvre. With our state of the art website you can choose all of your meals a month in advance by simply logging into your Fresh Diet Account.

Cost averge $50 to 60 a Day...Seems a little high for the average person.

They seem most proud of the celebrities that use their diet and including Demi Moore, Brad Pitt, Cindy Crawford, Janet Jackson, Bill Clinton, Howard Stern, Jenifer Aniston and a lot more.

If you are changing your eating habits for life and only eating correctly for the rest of you life, it is not a diet but a life style. If you are only eating foods you don't like, and feel like you are starving, it is a "diet" and when you quit the diet you will gain all your weight back and more. Just ask Oprah.

More 'Eat This, Not That' A 2,010-Calorie Shake?!?! (and Other Shocking Drinks to Avoid)

Americans have a drinking problem—we simply consume too much nutrient-empty, calorie-full liquids. Blame food marketers for the ever-expanding serving vessels, chock-full of cheap sugar substitutes, a variety of hard-to-pronounce chemicals, and tons of fats. But it’s not all doom and gloom—it turns out, those liquid calories are the easiest kind to cut. And a recent study from Johns Hopkins University found that people who cut liquid calories from their diets lose more weight—and keep it off longer—than people who cut food calories. In fact, cutting those calories in half could mean you could drop around 23 pounds in one year!

Two years ago, Eat This, Not That! exposed the 20 Unhealthiest Drinks in America. The list was bad in the scary, jaw-dropping sense: Belt-busting beverages that tipped the scales at over 1,000 (and sometimes, 2,000) calories; hundreds of grams of blood-glucose-spiking sugar, and a slew of unnatural and exotic-sounding additives.

The good news is that many of these beverages have since disappeared from menus and grocery aisle shelves. The bad news, of course, is that even worse monster-malts and Franken-shakes have popped up in their place. That’s why, in our all-new book, Eat This, Not That The Best (and Worst!) Foods in America! we’ve updated our list of the absolute worst drinks to avoid—and offered sensible alternatives, so you can still enjoy your meals and beverages, but lose weight anyway. Here are the top 4.

4. WORST FLOAT
Baskin-Robbins
Large Ice Cream Soda with Vanilla Ice Cream Float (32 ounces)
960 calories
40 g fat (25 g saturated, 1.5 g trans)
136 g sugars

If you’re going to have a float, it’s best to limit yourself to one small scoop of ice cream and a reasonable pour of soda, yet Baskin-Robbins’ smallest portion is 32 ounces! Unfortunately, if the ice cream mogul doesn’t begin offering smaller sizes, your options are limited. Either split a small float or cut the soda out of the equation. All of this is part of a troubled history of serving up deleterious drinks at Baskin-Robbins, which came to a belt-snapping climax earlier this year when they began offering the 2,600-calorie Oreo Cookie Shake. After deriding it as the Worst Drink in America on the Today show and in this very blog, we’re happy to say that the folks at Baskin-Robbins have snapped to their senses and eliminated the weapon of mass construction, along with the rest of their so-called premium shakes. They're starting to offer some healthier varieties, too.

Drink This Instead!
Cappuccino Blast Original (small)
310 calories
12 g fat (7 g saturated)
42 g sugars

3. WORST ICE BLENDED COFFEE DRINK
Così Gigante Double OH! Arctic (23 ounces)
1,210 calories
19 g fat
259 g carbohydrates

How does Così’s coffee creation reach such abysmal heights? By dropping a giant Oreo cookie into the blender with a flood of chocolate syrup and then sticking another Oreo on top. The only thing stronger than the massive caffeine jolt will be the sugar crash to follow. “Blended coffee drinks” is a troubled genre in need of a name change; we think “caffeinated milk shakes” is a more apt description.

Drink This Instead!
Grande Latte (15 ounces)
210 calories
7 g fat
21 g carbohydrates

2. WORST SMOOTHIE
Smoothie King’s The Hulk, Strawberry (40 ounces)
2,088 calories
70 g fat (32 g saturated)
240 g sugars

To be fair, this smoothie is made to help people gain weight and that's the only reason it's not our official worst drink in America. The problem is that we live in a nation in which two-thirds of us are overweight, and the number of professional body builders doesn’t constitute a significant demographic. Plus, if you really want to put on some pounds, just eat 9 Odwalla Super Protein bars. That’s how many it would take to match this caloric load.

Drink This Instead!
The Shredder, Strawberry (20 ounces)
356 calories
1 g fat
41 g sugars

1. THE WORST DRINK IN AMERICA
Cold Stone Creamery Gotta Have It PB&C Shake
2,010 calories
131 g fat (68 g saturated)
153 g sugars

Is this the worst drink on the planet? All signs point to probably. First off, it has more sugar than 12 Fudgsicles, as much fat as a stick and a half of butter, and more calories than 37 Oreos. Oh, it also has 3 days’ worth of saturated fat. Need more proof? Let’s hope not.

Drink This Instead!
Sinless Oh Fudge Shake—Like It
490 calories
2 g fat (2 g saturated)
110 g carbohydrates
44 g sugars

Vitamin Water vs Lifewater - Which is healthier?...But Which Tastes Better

lifescript.com
At first glance, these two drinks seem almost exactly the same, but there's a big difference: One will add inches to your waistline, the other will not. The label on Vitamin Water says it has 13 grams of sugar, but there are 2.5 servings in a bottle – giving it more than 30 grams of sugar total!

I recommend just 15 grams of sugar a day, which means Vitamin Water contains more than two days' worth! For a healthy waistline, drink SoBe Black and Blue Berry Lifewater instead. This drink is made with PureVia, a combination of the sugar alcohol erythritol and the natural sweetener stevia. It has zero grams of sugar and no artificial sweeteners. The best part? It tastes great! Note: Be sure to get only the Lifewaters sweetened with PureVia.




thelifeledger.com
Vitamin Water (www.vitaminwater.com)

Flavor Tried
XXX (Acai, Blueberry, Pomegranate): too sweet, no aftertaste, good flavor; tastes like fruit punch, not water.

My Take
Vitamin Water gets a lot of rave reviews. As long as you’re expecting fruit punch as opposed to a clean water taste, you’re in for a treat. In my opinion, it also gets high marks for using real sugar and no preservatives - it could stand to be less sweet, but at least it’s not using sugar alternatives or HFCS. I would treat this as a soda alternative, something I drank maybe once a day - it’s not as healthy as water, but it’s a good lot better than a Coke.

Nutrition Information
Serving Size: 8 fl oz, 2.5 per container
Calories: 50 per serving (125 per container)
Sugar: 13g per serving (33g per container)
Vitamins per serving: C 100%; B3 10%; B12 10%; B5 10%; B6 10%

Ingredients
vapor distilled, deionized, and/or reverse osmosis water, crystalline fructose, cane sugar, citric acid, vegetable juice (color), ascorbic acid (vit c), natural flavor, berry and fruit extracts (acai, blueberry, pomegranate and apple), magnesium lactate (electrolyte), calcium lactate (electrolyte), monopotassium phosphate (electrolyte), niacin (B3), pantothenic acid (B5), pyridoxine hydrochloride (B6), cyanocobalamin (B12)

LifeWater (www.sobelifewater.com)

Flavor Tried
Blackberry Grape: too sweet, slight aftertaste, good flavor; tastes like syrup-based beverage, not water.

My Take
I had high hopes for LifeWater. I like many other Sobe beverages, and expected this to be no different. And to be honest, if I hadn’t gone to the local whole foods grocery store (Earth Fare in my area) and discovered Bot and Voosh, LifeWater would have been my favorite pick. While not as overpoweringly sweet as Vitamin Water, it’s still obviously not water, and doesn’t quench my thirst like water should. It also lists things like food starch and gum arabic that I expect from more processed products - perhaps that’s the reason Sobe markets LifeWater as a “Vitamin Enhanced Water Beverage” instead of a fitness water or something similar. All in all, it’s not a bad drink, and like any of these I’d drink LifeWater over any soda, but there are definitely better ones out there.

Nutrition Information
Serving Size: 8 fl oz, 2.5 per container
Calories: 40 per serving (100 per container)
Sugar: 10g per serving (25g per container)
Vitamins per serving: C 100%; E 20%; niacin 10%; pantothenic acid 10%; B12 10%; B6 10%

Ingredients
filtered water, sugar, natural flavor, citric acid, ascorbic acid (C), grape skin extract (color), sodium citrate, modified food starch, l-theanine, vitamin e acetate, calcium phosphate, gum arabic, calcium pantothenate, yerba mate exctract, niacinamide, pyridoxine hydrochloride (B6), cyanocobalamin (b12)

Five readers go on digital diet, and live to write about it

USATODAY.com

Five readers with real addictions to their virtual connections were put on a digital diet. Two abstained for 48 hours, the others for five days. All found their analog lives simpler and yet richer: Moments they may have missed before — a lazy summer porch chat with a neighbor, a meaty passage in a novel — became more meaningful. A sample of their digital-free diaries.

MALIA RODGERS, 35
Charlotte
Web editor

Affliction description: Rodgers relies on her iPhone 3G for "everything," from jotting down to-do lists to reading downloaded Scripture in church to setting the alarm — currently programmed to sound like a duck. It quacks not just to wake her up, but throughout the day, reminding her to, say, take her Claritin. "I know. It's ridiculous." It's also her conversation crutch. "I text more than I talk. I'm almost afraid that sometimes I don't know how to communicate with people." She says her phone is not just smart, it's tantamount to her second brain.

VIRTUAL UNREALITY: Tethered to technology

Day 1: Rodgers "actually got to work on time," instead of 10 to 15 minutes late (so what if it was to check up on things she normally soaks up at 6 a.m. on her iPhone — news and gossip, the weather, her horoscope). At home, she found herself talking more, on the seldom-used landline. That night she went out to one of her regular dinners with her parents, sister and brother-in-law. Their phones, typically as common a presence as water glasses, stayed stowed.

Day 2: With little to do but pop in a DVD after work, Rodgers attended to some long-neglected chores: cleaning up, washing clothes and folding clothes that had lingered in a heap for too long. "It was a workout," she says. "It was a lot of walking back and forth, putting stuff away that should have been put away weeks ago."

Revelation: The experiment "helped me realize how much a distraction my phone has been," Rodgers says. "I'm trying to limit myself from relying on it so much."

Still, when the day came to roll off the wireless-free wagon and back into cyberspace, "I was so excited, oh, my God." A day later, on a Sunday, she lugged her laptop to her parents', where the gang (minus her brother-in-law) was gathering, their individual laptops opened up side-by-side on folding tray tables. "We're supposed to be visiting with my parents, and we're all doing our own thing on our laptops," from burning CDs to checking Facebook. "It was really nice outside, and we could have gone for a walk or something, but, no, we were inside." Dinner was eaten from plates perched by the computers.

"I was just like, 'Wow, this is too funny,' " Rodgers recalls. Still, "the important thing is we were together."

LUCY HACKMAN, 35
Darien, Conn.
Works in corporate marketing

Affliction description: Though she has had her BlackBerry for about two years, it wasn't until six months ago, when she downloaded the Twitter and Facebook applications, that thumbing became an obsession. "It has ruled my life ever since. It's sick," says Hackman. "I hear the buzzing noise and I must drop everything to check."

After three full days of sending hourly tweets during a technology conference in California, Hackman was as ready for a virtual vacation as she'd ever be.

Day 1: Back home Saturday morning, after a 6:30 a.m. wake-up call from her two boys, "I'm sitting here wanting to check Twitter," she jotted down. "It's a great time to get caught up. I guess I could watch TV right now." Instead, she took her family for a walk. She wanted to bring her cellphone (which had made the journey back East) and catch up with her sister or mother. But leaving it was "nice." She reflected on her week. She sang Old MacDonald with her sons.

But then, while walking under a bridge, she announced that she'd read on Twitter that ducks were the only animal whose sound doesn't echo. Her husband, Guy, huffed. "He was like, 'Lucy, how do you know that's true?' I said, 'You could Wikipedia it.' He said, 'You have such a problem because Wikipedia is people making up that crap.' "

Her mom stopped by for 15 minutes and decreed, "You do have a problem because you know what? We never sit outside and chat like this."

That night, during dinner at their house with friends, Guy sounded like "just a sad little puppy dog" as he explained how he was thrilled that he was wife was paying more attention to him now than in the past six months.

"I didn't have this thing attached to me," Lucy Hackman says. "We were doing things together. I wasn't running inside and checking things on the BlackBerry."

Day 2: Sunday morning, Hackman walked to town to pick up the paper for the first time in a couple of months. But by that afternoon, "I didn't feel good." She was jonesing for a Twitter-delivered pop-culture fix. She thought, "Maybe people think I'm dead because I haven't put something up (on Facebook) in three whole days." Sundays are when good things happen on Facebook: Maybe her friends tied one on the night before and are now posting something funny about it? Lazing away the day as a Luddite was "hard."

Still, she and Guy cooked a shrimp dish for dinner, "maybe because we had more time?" And they actually retired to their room, together. (Lucy usually lingers in the kitchen for those last 10 minutes, pounding away at her you-know-what, which is verboten in the bedroom.) It was "nice."

Revelation: Her BlackBerry back, Hackman intends on modifying her digital diet. "I think I have to." She loves going digital, but her husband doesn't, "and I need to respect that he doesn't."

MEGAN RENZ, 24
Hilton, N.Y.
Secretary and online college student

Affliction description: Renz taps away — at her AIM, her Facebook, her Yahoo e-mail — almost as often as she blinks. During an overnight shift at the hospital where she works, she'll text the full eight hours, until her Pantech Slate battery is nearly dead. Sometimes she'll reach a hand into her pocket, grab her phone and just hold onto it, running her fingers over the buttons blindly, without sending any messages. "It's kind of weird," she admits.

Dialogue with her boyfriend typically goes something like this:

Christopher Bryce: "Do I have to text you just to get your attention some days? That's so messed up."

Renz: "Am I really that bad?"

Bryce: "Yes, you are that bad."

Day 1: Post-exam, Renz was aching to hop on her phone and tell friends how she did. "But I'm like, 'Don't touch it!' It's killing me."

Day 2: Work, which ran from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m., was "freaking brutal." With no paperwork to fill out, or phone to fiddle with, "I wanted to bash my head into a wall." Instead, Renz walks outside for five minutes to watch a thunderstorm. She meanders up and down the halls, "just to get out of my chair." When she didn't hear the dings of her phone (silently stored in her book bag under her desk), she thought, 'This really can't be happening. People can't be ignoring me like this! I feel neglected.' " So she sought out a nurse on the floor and chatted her up for 10 minutes. "I even talked to the housekeeper guy."

Day 3: Renz felt "so accomplished." She emptied out her ex-boyfriend's junk. She hung some pictures. She spent the day with her son. Bryce is starting to fear the aftermath, "that I'll have to make up for lost time, that I'll disappear for three days answering messages."

Day 4: She forgot to bring her smartphone (her security pellet even if it's off) to work — not so smart. "Today I have nothing on me but a pen, and I'll tell you right now I am not liking that one bit," she says. "It truly feels like withdrawal: nothing to grab, nothing to check, nothing to look at. I'm here again at my desk staring at the screen and all I can think of is, 'Where is my phone and what time will it be getting here?' "

Day 5: Renz has been getting to bed earlier and waking up earlier. She has been bonding with her son, Landon. As Bryce cooked dinner in the kitchen, Renz and Landon bounced around the adjoining living room for "a good two hours," dancing to the likes of Nickelback and the Spice Girls. "That happens rarely." She and Bryce have been bonding over games of gin, played the old-fashioned, paper-card way. "I thought, 'Wow, that's almost foreign.' " Bryce's assessment: "I like that when you come home, you pay attention to me instead of everything that has a battery."

Revelation: So she spent all day of her first day Sunday being reconnected sequestered in the bubble of her bedroom with some device in her hands, whether her iPod Touch or Pantech Slate. "I told my boyfriend I was taking a break from reality. I told him I didn't want to be a girlfriend or a mom or a student that day." Even when she was eating, she was texting.

Renz is trying to make more time for her family, but "I still like the 'me time' with my gadgets," she says. Nonetheless, Bryce "seems more irritated now if I'm on something because he knows I can do without and survive."

RAY SOTO, 30
Houston
Works in IT support for a home builder

Affliction description: At a Christmas party back in 2004 or 2005, the boss's wife walked up to Soto and gave him "a good ribbing" about how she hates that her husband never puts his phone down. "Back then, I vowed to never become one of those people," Soto says. "I am now one of those people."

Day 1: Soto arrived at work at 7:45 a.m. For the next 13 minutes (he's a very precise kind of guy), he's typically sitting in his truck, flicking through MSNBC and CNN on his iPhone 3GS. Instead, he listened to a local radio talk show, twitching. "I felt very hungry" for information.

During a diner breakfast earlier that morning, Soto noticed "how many people are not aware of their surroundings. They're not paying attention to their things." A woman sat there, "chitchatting with her friends and texting at same time," while her purse dangled from the side of her chair, an easy target for pickpockets. "They're so concentrated on, Did I get a text? Did I get an e-mail? I'm pretty sure that's me, too, which is frightening and funny at the same time."

On the job, Soto asked around for extra projects, to help distract his mind. He rebuilt his computer during downtime. "It was pretty much the equivalent of cleaning my desk."

That night, he turned on the Houston Astros vs. the St. Louis Cardinals game. "I'm watching the guy coming up to bat and thinking, 'OK, what are his stats against a particular pitcher?' I want to find out more about him." And he couldn't, at least not from the comfort of his couch. He wanted to order Pizza Hut via the company's iHut app, but the never-used Yellow Pages in the hall remained uncracked.

Day 2: Soto ran into an old friend at lunch at Chick-fil-A. With no keypad to punch, Soto wrote down his number on his hand. (He had to ask the woman behind the register for a pen.)

"I don't miss (digital connectivity) as much as I thought I would," Soto said. "It makes me realize I don't need as much tech as I thought I did." The old methods of communicating, fact-gathering and getting entertained "still work."

Still, on the job, he was trying to figure out how to slyly segue from a Bing search for Citrix to something that might cough up information about the latest Astros game. "How do I do six digital degrees of Kevin Bacon?"

Day 3: Tonight, atypically for the workweek, he headed to his parents' house "because there's not much else to do." They watched Wheel of Fortune over plates of spaghetti, like they did when he was a child. "It was interesting, nostalgic." Usually, he drops by briefly on weekend mornings, to pick up his mail and grab breakfast.

Day 4: Soto is honing drumming skills, the old-fashioned kind. Because he can't listen along to the songs (Nirvana's Sappy and Metallica's Cyanide) he was practicing via iTunes, he has been reading sheet music instead. "It's introducing more structure and better timing and rhythm."

Day 5: Soto used to surf an adult-oriented message board, posting several hundred times a day to, say, their political and humor sections, but he has found "I didn't nearly miss it as much as I thought." He doesn't want to be a post-addict. "This step back is a good thing. I found out I don't need to be consumed by it."

Revelation: No matter that the night before his iPhone went live again he picked up the Wii and PlayStation power cords he'd stowed at his parents' house "to prevent temptation" in anticipation of a digital overdose (and subsequent hangover). A few nights after Soto's newfangled tech was restored, he experienced a relatively old-school epiphany: As he lay in bed with his headphones on and his eyes closed, for the first time he could visualize writing the sheet music as the beat was pounded out. "I was like, 'OK, that's pretty cool.' "

FRAN STOVER, 44
Government worker
Winston-Salem, N.C.

Affliction description: Back in March, Stover sent out an electronic "It's a boy!" birth announcement, complete with picture, when she upgraded to a burgundy BlackJack II from Samsung. She nicknamed "him" Jack. "Yes, I am a gadget nut," she wrote. The postscript? "That loud thump you heard was my dad fainting when he opened his e-mail inbox and read the subject line."

Since then, Jack has accompanied her 24/7. A news junkie, Stover cruises everything from TMZ to BBC to get her fix. While she watched the movie The Hangover the other week, CNN beeped through with news of Walter Cronkite's death. "I'm usually the town crier." When messages come in and Jack goes ping, "it's like Pavlov's dogs": Stover begins to salivate (at least metaphorically) with anticipation. Her friends, by the way, are "really tired" of the fact that Jack has a camera.

Day 1: "I'm hurting," Stover said, laughing. "I'm itching. I've broken out into a rash." A co-worker teased her incessantly: "Did you see the news?" Stover shot back, "You need to shut that up." Still, she brought her local paper to work today, instead of tossing it, unopened, into the recycling bin.

"I feel like I'm mourning," she said. "Like I've lost my best friend." The 12-year-old son of her flesh-and-blood best friend, meanwhile, was betting she would not make it through the week.

But Stover was optimistic. "The thing I'm really looking forward to is reading" — something that doesn't glow, that is. "I love cracking the bind on that new book. I love the texture and seeing the fiber on that page." A year or two ago, she never went anywhere without a paperback in her pocketbook. These days, of course, Jack, not Jack London, is more likely to occupy such significant real estate.

Even if Jack gets offended over his exile (Stover's fear), her two cats and two dogs are going to love it "because I'm not sitting there ignoring them." Indeed, she spent her first night in one of the old wicker rockers on her front porch, giving herself a pedicure and playing with the animals. I'll go out there sometimes and think, 'I forgot how nice this is.' One of most peaceful sounds is to go out there and listen to nothing," except for maybe the early rumbles of a storm.

Her best friend of 40 years and her sponsor for the week, Michelle Edwards, called to check in on Stover's progress (or regress?). "I had only one concern," Edwards wrote in an update sent to mutual friends. "Jack was watching TV with her."

Stover confirmed the report. "He was on the table right beside me, but," she said, "he wasn't on."

Day 2: "I don't know what I think about this anymore," Stover revealed. Jack was like an unopened Christmas present now: "I'm very tempted to turn him on, just to see if I have any e-mails," but then, "Jack might tell on me."

And then there was the crape myrtle tree in her side yard, whose lacy lilac limbs, at their blooming peak, were just begging to be snapped by Jack.

"I miss my (physically distant but digitally connected) friends the most," Stover said — proof point of Jack's critical, ambassadorial role.

Day 3: "My friend says the third day after surgery is always the worst," Stover said. "Well, that's about how I came out today."

As Edwards put it: She's "still on the wagon, but today the wagon had wobbly wheels."

Waiting in the doctor's office (she took the day off from work), she was relegated to flipping through a story about Jon and Kate Gosselin — from May, back when they were Jon and Kate. Waiting for 10 minutes in the examining room, she was consigned to study a picture of Ted Williams mid-swing (though she admits he looked handsome) and a paperweight with a dust mite embedded in it. If Jack had been there, his powers would have been "in full swing": Googling Williams, e-mailing pictures of the dingy lobby.

After successfully hunting down a pay phone ("I was afraid I wasn't going to find one"), Stover then headed to a local bookstore and picked up a fresh batch of paperbacks, including Cronkite's autobiography, A Reporter's Life, (he had died the previous weekend) for $7. She chatted for a while with a couple of ladies about what new and interesting books were out. With Stover's eyes raised from Jack's screen, "I do find that I'm engaging more with the public."

In search of another surrogate phone, Stover stopped at the house of her 70-year-old farmer father. He reached into his bib overalls and pulled out his Razr flip-phone.

At home, a friend from Georgia called her landline."It's freaking me out that you're not on the Internet," she said. But, toward the end of the conversation, she added, "It's actually kind of inspiring. I really need to cut mine off."

Day 4: Stover had gotten inspired herself — to reach back to the cache of letters she exchanged with her friends during their days at UNC-Charlotte. She wanted to collate them chronologically into a journal, "to see what was on our minds back then," and then she was going to handwrite new letters to those same college buddies. "I cannot remember the last time I put pen to paper like that."

A man called out of the blue at work: "Fran, this is Jack. Why are you ignoring me?" (It was her husband, Michael, disguising his voice.) "It actually startled me for a minute. Then I laughed."

By now she has realized she can live without Jack; she just chooses not to. (Although without him or a working watch, she finds herself wondering what time it is.)

Day 5: Today was "stellar," Stover reported. She had a bit of an epiphany in the elevator lobby at work. "I needed this. I had been going along at a pace where I felt like staying in tune with the 'world' was almost more important than anything else, at a cost of clarity and face time and concentration." She needed to slow the tech train down a bit.

"I anticipate a glorious reunion with (Jack), but I hope and foresee our relationship takes on a different stance. It's been a fun week. It's been a stressful week. It's been annoying, liberating and eye-opening. But I'm so glad I did it."

Michael is known to "fuss at me" during concerts for yanking out Jack and snapping pictures and shooting videos. "He's like, 'Just enjoy the concert, enjoy the music!' " On the way home from seeing The Ugly Truth, alone in her car, Stover started surfing radio stations at a time when she would typically be surfing Jack. "I went from Luther Vandross to Pink Floyd to Blake Shelton, and I just enjoyed myself thoroughly. And I just kept thinking, 'You know what? I feel free. I just feel free from being tied to anything.' And it was so great."

Revelation: Stover turned Jack on at midnight. "He sang like a piano. He lit up like a slot machine," his purple flashing light working overtime. Her first Google search? Ted Williams, to see if he was "really hot after all."

At 3:30 a.m., she sent a reflective missive to 11 of her nearest and dearest, writing that it was "surprisingly refreshing" to have lived "more in that proverbial moment that is passing me by with every text and e-mail I send and every news site I pull up on Jack."

She's making a concerted effort to continue the kind of real, vs. virtual, connection she forged at the bookstore the other day. Instead of holing up inside with BigFishGames.com, she sat out on the porch one night with her husband, neighbors and their dogs for a solid hour (Jack stayed perched on the railing). Her Jack obsession "has really slacked off": She chose reading Cronkite's book over cruising Cronkite headlines. Even with the suspected North Carolina terrorist ring in the news, she hasn't felt "the incessant need to be in the know."

So does that mean Stover will tuck Jack away during, say, lunch-and-drinks dates? "Let's not be hasty!"