It’s either soda or an orange

It’s obvious why soda and refined sugar are popular. The body needs glucose. Either you eat fruit and get natural glucose paired with fiber, vitamins and minerals. Or you get your glucose another way. And the most popular fruit alternative is soda.

Soda is available in stores nearby and never goes bad. Plus many sodas have the added energy boost from caffeine.

The question is not how can I convince people to drink less soda. It’s how can I get them to switch from drinking soda to drinking an orange. Really it’s eating an orange, but since an orange is likely 85 percent water, it’s really drinking an orange, one must simply peel and chew first.

The other evening, I was at a meeting and needed some food before we started. I ate one or two cookies offered by the host. A couple of hours later I felt a bit sluggish from those cookies and popped into a corner convenience store, likely a drugstore, to get something. Fortunately, I chose and ate an orange that immediately gave me some natural, wholesome energy plus vitamins and minerals that combined to undo the damage from the cookies.

It’s hard to beat the convenience of simply untwisting a soda cap to get glucose. The fizzy bubbles add a pleasant texture as well. To eat an orange, one must peel it, and some oranges, if they’re not ripe enough, can be hard to peel. Then one must find a place to put the peel. One can drive and drink a soda, but one can’t drive and peel an orange.

What’s more is that soda companies flavor their drinks with fruit flavors! This further tempts the body. One gets the taste of an orange and glucose, but in the form of refined sugar, or worse, high fructose corn syrup.

Someone seeking a healthier diet needs to slow down for a moment to peel, then enjoy the orange. And, overall, eating the orange will lead to overall better productivity over the course of the day. At least that’s been my experience from eating oranges and many other fruits.

So don’t twist the cap. Peel the orange. Choose healthy glucose.