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If you do a quick search on the internet for the best way to lose weight, you’re going to find one answer: eat better and exercise more.
Most of the time, the emphasis is on eating right.
And for good reason. Eating too many calories is the real culprit in the U.S., especially eating too many processed, sugary calories, since they’re so available.
Science has backed it up over and over again: cut out those processed, sugary calories, replace them with veggies and whole grains, and you’ll be much more in control of your weight and health.
Of course, there are some people who put the focus on exercise. But it’s a small number, and the science behind it isn’t really convincing.
Unsurprisingly, Coke and other soda chains love it.
In fact, now Coca-Cola is backing a research group called “Global Energy Balance Network,” which is focused on getting people to burn off the calories they don’t want, rather than actually eating better.
While it’s great that this group wants to get people on their feet, it’s a pretty dangerous message. There’s almost no evidence to support that exercise alone can help you lose weight. Unless you’re a marathon runner, you can’t exercise away a diet filled with junk.
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So it’s a pretty mean message to people who want to try to exercise away their bad diet. It’s just not going to work. The key to losing weight with exercise lies in not only fueling with healthy foods, but with burning more calories than you’re taking in, which is made almost impossible when you’re eating processed foods.
It’s especially not going to help in the face of diabetes. If you’re taking in too much sugar, you’re still working your insulin too hard. No amount of exercise will change that.
Of course, it’s tempting to believe that you can job away your bottle of Coke. Do you know who already knows how tempting that is?
Coke.
Think of cigarette campaigns that tried to argue that low-tar cigarettes were better for you.
In the end, it’s all bad.
And it’s not fair to consumers. In America, right now, living a healthy lifestyle is edgy, hip, and abnormal. That shouldn’t be the case. And the only way to fix that is for sugary, high-calorie foods to stop being the norm in America.
But Coke is making it clear that they won’t go down without a fight.
What do you think about this big business health research?
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