I hope you’ve been well. It is has been a bit longer than usual for me to post- I had a crazy amount of work last week. I had a deadline to turn something in, so I was up until 3 or 4:00 am every day! After turning it in Friday, I really needed some me time. :) Yesterday it was pouring here in NYC so all I did was go grocery shopping for my favorite foods, and I made food and watched movies with some friends. I watched Michael Jackson’s This Is It, which blew me away! What a spirit and an amazing talent. Despite some weirdness that happened, no one can deny how when he was performing he was such a channel for light, pure energy flowing through him. I think it might have to be one of the few DVDs I’ll actually buy!
Anyways, I was thinking about the ridiculous amount of beverage choices we have at our fingertips right now. Have you ever stood before the massive and imposing line of beverage choices at Wholefoods and felt overwhelmed? I know I do, regularly! I’ve been shopping for many of my clients for better beverage replacements, for not such great choices they were making previously- so I know how attached so many of us are to our beverages.
Here’s the thing: different beverages, like foods, are really different forms of stimulation. We are used to being stimulated by many different kinds of tastes, so we start to crave them. As we clean out our bodies with truly alkaline-forming foods, we will see that like our food choices, our beverage choices will start to simplify. We won’t need too many different things to drink. All those fancy new “health” drinks are loaded with citric acid (natural to fruit but added as a preservative to many drinks) as well as many other acids and preservatives. We’re just better off without them, probably giving some headache relief, allowing our bodies to rejuvenate!
The only beverages I consume are Green Drinks, filtered water, herbal tea (lots of roobius), coconut water, kombucha, and the occasional red wine.
Here’s why we should avoid the following beverages:
Diet sodas and regular sodas: Extremely acid-forming, with phosphoric and carbonic acid, etc. Demineralizes us. Artificial sweeteners (including Splenda, Aspartame, Saccharine, etc) are unnatural for our bodies to process and can cause numerous health problems, including harming our brain and nervous system.
V8, Odwalla, Fresh Samantha, fruit juices, etc: If you pick up any kind of bottled or packaged fruit or vegetable drink at the grocery store….immediately put it down. Remember this: ANYTHING you find in a bottle or a package has been pasteurized. When fruit and vegetables are pasteurized the fruit becomes acidic and the entire beverage is DEAD. It has no more enzymes. I would sooner drink plain water than let any such type of beverage pass through my lips!!!!! I don’t care if it says “all natural” on the label- the fact is these drinks are simply not fresh. They are not acceptable.
Canned drinks: They all must be avoided, as they are all exposed to aluminum and chemicals.
Drinks flavored with lots of agave or honey: I recently saw this Gorilla Life chlorophyll drink with honey that had 52 grams of sugar in a tiny bottle. You’re much better off getting the nutrients from just having chlorella tablets, like I talked about recently, or eating good food!
Vitamin water or other fancy type energy drinks: I recently looked up the ingredient list for Vitamin Water’s Triple Antioxidant list and here it is:
Vapor distilled, deionized water and/or reverse osmosis water, crystalline fructose, citric acid, vegetable juice (color), ascorbic acid (vitamin 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)
Notice that the first ingredient besides the water is fructose! Though it naturally occurs in fruit, we get fiber and natural vitamins and minerals when we eat fruit or drink Green Smoothies. When it is added into a beverage that is a serious issue. It can disrupt insulin levels, as well the hormone leptin, which regulates appetite.
I wouldn’t drink anything where I saw fructose added in as an ingredient. To top it off, the next ingredient on the list is citric acid.
There are so many other beverages there I would like to mention here, but I think that is a good start. Maybe I’ll do a second part to this post.
I’ll be back on track this week with the writing!
Lots of love. Om Shanti (peace)! Love, Kimberly
So this is only a little related. I just (finally) read ‘The Chine Study’ book, and had a question (you may not know): what do people idealy feed babies? I am totally not having one any time soon, but after all the horrible stuff about cow’s milk and about soy milk, I just sort of wondered what people who weren’t nursing fed the babies?
Also, isn’t just so hard to avoid the Odwalla–and other–drinks? You think, oh, it’s made with a lot of the things I’d use in a green smoothie, so why not? And then you feel all good about it…at least I did. It’s also cheaper (I’ve found) to make your own. But I still wonder why the pretty packaged, easy solution is always so interesting?
Have a wonderful day, Kimberly!
Morgan
Is Citric acid bad for you?
Kim,
Does this mean Naked brand juices as well? I realize they are not low in calories. However, I’ve read the ingredients over and over on several different flavors and there doesn’t seem to be anything added except fruit. I love them so much
Hi Charlene!
Sorry but they are pasteurized!!! Just know when you drink them they aren’t replacing a fruit serving or a Green Smoothie.
xx
I like Morgan’s questions about what people who aren’t nursing can ideally feed their babies.
I had just read your article on the evils of soy :) and then visited my girlfriend who’s got a 7 month old baby. She can’t feed her dairy, and can’t nurse either so she’s feeding her soy formulas.
My friend is just recovering from post partem depression and is trying so hard to do everything right for the baby.. I didn’t want to pull the carpet out from under her on the soy thing with out giving her some other firm ground to stand on.. a better alternative. BUT, I haven’t really found anything yet on a non-dairy, non-soy alternative.
Anybody out there have any suggestions?
I was just thinking this the other day as I wandered through my local Whole Foods. The beverage ISLE and cases can be rather intimidating. Luckily, other than my green juices and smoothies I usually only drink water, herbal tea, or gogi water (soak my gogis overnight, scoop them out, & squeeze in lemon.)
I was watching The Hurt Locker last night and near the end the lead character is back from Irag & in the grocery store. He is in the cereal isle – they pan ALL of the choices and you see this 1 man standing amongst them all. Strange, but it gave me a sense of loneliness.
Thanks for all the great info Kim!
xo. Christel
Wow, that is interesting! Did you like that movie? Did you mean goji as in the berries? I’m not sure what gogi is but it sounds cool! :) xx
I know you are a raw foodist but I wanted to know whether or not you think it would be okay to eat organic frozen tv dinners (sometimes I come home late from work and don’t have much time to put together a meal so I eat these)? Thanks!
Jess
Hi Jess! Yes, I mostly eat raw food, but not 100%. I think if you want to eat those dinners sometimes it is okay, but you should throw together SOME kind of salad first, even a very simple one, so you are still getting fresh, living greens in your body. It could just be a bowl of chopped romaine with some sprouts and lemon. :)
Hi Kimberly,
Love your blog – lots of great information. Would you address the differences between crystalline fructose and agave, which I understand is high in fructose? I’d like to know the difference in how our bodies process these. There’s a lot of chatter on the web saying agave, even raw, is not good for you due to the high fructose levels, and that it should be avoided. I’m having some trouble finding a sane, rational article on it – help! :-)
Thanks much,
Susan
I too am very confused about agave and came to your site to find out if you had anything to say about it. I love agave and hope the hype isn’t true!
Hi Kera,
I used to love agave in recipes, but unfortunately there are not so favorable qualities about it. So I personally I replace it where I can with stevia. xx
Hi Susan! Yes, there are some major issues with agave- even when it is raw. I personally replace it with Stevia whenever I can. I just got a bunch of liquid Stevia and I’m experimenting with flavors right now. If you can handle the taste of Stevia, it would be the best choice! :)
I think agave is a good alternative that should be used in moderation like most things. Plus for most diabetics, I think Stevia would be a better choice.
I use agave myself in limited amounts, it helps that it is very sweet in small doses already. I came across this article from the founder of the Madhava Agave brand that I use. Not all agave brands are equal in their quality. Hope it gives you some insight.
https://alteredplates.blogspot.com/2008/12/madhavas-craig-gerbore-responds-to.html
Hey Kimberly,
What is your opinion on juice fasting, or other body cleanses? What do you recommend for further detoxing?
HI Dawn, Juice fasting is good when done properly, and usually under the supervision of someone if you have never done it before. You should prepare the body for a few days before, and breaking the fast afterwards in the proper way is crucial. You don’t want to introduce too heavy foods too fast, all at the same time. xx
Mmm, V8. I remember that. I thought I was a health-master whenever I conquered the bland, artificial taste of it.
Something… OK, intuition, told me to stop. I didn’t listen at first (when did I ever?!) but slowly, the unconscious won. Now I’m obviously ready to understand why by virtue of this magnificient blog. Yippee!
That applies to Vitamin Water, too… faddy fad fad.
Kim, I wonder if you really realise what you’re really doing…
You’re not just waking up legions of people like me up – you’re playing an instrumental part in our growth and development. That is priceless. PRICELESS.
My cheque’s in the post.
Very soon the stuff I feed myself with will have changed totally once and for all. The intuitive nudges here and there will need a sound explanation, which you’re providing, before any habits really have the potential to be crushed and dismissed once and for all.
Right now, I can express sincere gratitude to you- as well as word of mouth advertising! If you need any more help in any way let me know! I am serious! I will not take these things for granted any more!
Hm, hm! I appear to be having a “moment”.
Esop
Kimberly…can you tell me is citric acid bad for you? you mentioned it with concern as the 2nd ingredient in so many drinks. But I did not realize it was bad for us. ???
Citric acid occurs naturally in fruit but it is over-used, in my opinion, as a preservative in drinks. We should be drinking fresh water and coconut water, and herbal tea made with filtered water, so we really don’t need many of those citric-acid filled drinks anyways.
xx Kimberly