I found this on some dumb site. Read it, then forget it. Give Up This One Thing. Shed Pounds It's actually pretty simple: Give up the soda pop. Lose weight. The healthiest thing you could do for yourself is to trade in that can of soda for a bottle of water. People who drink regular soda consume about 10 teaspoons of sugar and 150 calories per 12-ounce can. Here's the kicker: When we consume empty and excessive calories in drinks, we don't cut back on food to make up for it, Purdue News reports of research from Purdue University that was published in the International Journal of Obesity. So we get fat--just from drinking soda. Study leaders D.P. DiMeglio and Richard D. Mattes put 15 healthy male and female volunteers on either a "soda pop diet" or a "jelly bean diet." Each person consumed an extra 450 calories of either soda or jelly beans every day for a month. And then they switched "diets." Those who had been drinking the soda switched to the jelly beans and vice-versa. The results: When the participants ate the jelly beans, every single one of them decreased the number of calories they consumed in other foods to compensate for the candy's calories. Their total caloric intake for the day ended up being about the same as it was before the "jelly bean diet." So they didn't gain weight. However, when they drank the extra calories as soda, none of them changed what they ate. So they really did consume 450 extra calories every day--and not surprisingly each gained weight. In the past 30 years, soda consumption in the United States has almost tripled, according to the National Soft Drink Association. We're also drinking more juice, sports drinks, and "designer" coffee and tea--all of which are packed with calories and none of which elicit that same "full" feeling we get when we eat the same number of calories. "Beverages are not solely to blame, but accumulating evidence indicates that caloric drinks are contributing to excess calorie consumption in this country, and thus a national trend toward being overweight," Mattes told Purdue News. Here's the startling fact you may never have considered: If you drink soda and you don't eat less food to make up for those extra soda calories, you will gain weight. Calories count. Plain old water is still the best way to quench your thirst fast. It's easy to digest and very accessible. Besides, it can help quell those hunger pangs so you'll eat less. --Cathryn Conroy Try it for a couple of weeks. If it works, let me know. I only drink juice and water anyway.