Going Natural Part 2 — This is where it Belongs…

Welcome to the world of sugary sodas, the world where good drinking water is converted to these sugary sodas, packaged with micro plastics and served to you with super marketing. From the place where I come from, I remember so many water scarcity strikes because soda companies drained all their ground water. Just imagine a situation where you are denied fresh drinking water and they are converted to these weird drinks.

I always knew the sugary soda drinks are bad but I really started thinking about it after an incident. One day I saw one of my friends giving coke to his kid, literally going behind the kid and persuading him to drink. As if it was the best drink you can get for the kid. Amazing the way how these drinks got so deep into our lives.

When I came to US, I noticed there was a difference in taste from India, Middle East same brand drinks. Later I realized in US there is one more interesting super non healthy component called High Fructose Corn Syrup which is added for free.

I am always shocked the way we approach such dangerous food and how sometimes we are ok to give it to kids and we ourselves may not take it. Shouldn’t it be the opposite? They are kids, we always have a choice to take it away from them, not to give them. If it is bad for them, even if they cry it’s fine as long as it is good for them in long run.

I have heard many times where they say, oh it’s just occasional, it’s just when we go outside we give it. You always have a choice not to give. If everyone in a group decide not to do it, of course none of the kids will ask it. Kids are usually attracted by its colors when they start but later get addicted to the sugar. When they are small, the impact of such foods can be far far more than for an adult.

I am far from perfect. These drinks are every where and suppressing the urge not to drink it is very difficult. There are brilliant brains marketing it to make sure you drink it. During last World Cup, the kind of ad that came from these companies which conveyed friendship and togetherness, I was seriously tempted to buy. Sometimes I do end up drinking it but i usually make sure I feel bad after I do that.

One approach I have tried is to keep training your brain that these drinks are bad. You can keep making an attempt not to drink every time you drink. You may end up drinking but keep training. This is the same trick corporate marking did for coconut oil years back saying it is bad over and over again.

Some days you may be able to skip it. At some point, it would have reached a point that you would start hating this. I even stopped going to some stores because they keep such drinks in the initial few aisles.

My friends keep criticizing me that sometimes I don’t follow. They keep discussing about this on how I don’t follow. But indirectly it is training their brain as well that these drinks are bad as they talk about it. Next time they try to drink it, brain will for sure bring the bad picture instead of the beautiful ad. I am very happy when I see that we no longer buy such drinks when we have get togethers. I don’t mind if I am being criticized if that can bring a change to all.

During my kids birthday part last week, these drinks came with the package. My friends were super furious, I am glad they were. I am pretty sure they will remember this for a long time and may make them not to drink it. I was glad that most of my close friends didn’t even touch those drinks during the party and nobody wanted it to take it home. I got those drinks back home.

My very understanding better half allowed me to keep those bottles in the right place where it belongs. These sugary soda drinks are excellent cleaners and are useful for killing scorpions. Summer is coming and I kept them in the rightful place, On my cleaning shelf next to the wood polish and scorpion killer spray.

I said : “This is where it belongs….. “

I saw my kid staring at it, I asked him do you know what it is?

He said : “Papa it’s bad for kids”. I smiled…