Written by Celestine Chua

Do you drink soda drinks? How often do you drink it?

When I was young, I was an avid drinker of Coca-Cola and other soft drinks. Actually, I was pretty much a coke addict. I could never get past a day without drinking Coca-Cola. It was normal for me to have days when I would finish almost a whole 1.5 liter coke bottle.

As I grew up, I became more conscious of the need to be healthy. I started to relook into my diet, including my staple drink of Coke and soda. Over time, I realized Coke is actually quite detrimental to our health – so much so that I wonder why it even became such an ubiquitous drink! In my pursuit for a healthier life, I made the decision to quit drinking Coke at 18. I started to slowly forgo Coca-Cola and soda drinks. When I reached my early 20s, they were almost completely out of my diet. In the rare occasions where I do drink it, I would find the taste excessively sweet, acidic and unpalatable. When I look back, it was hard for me to even fathom myself putting so much of this chemical junk into my body when I was younger.

Here is a list of 5 top reasons why you should just quit drinking Coca-Cola and soda drinks.

1. Counteractive to Weight Loss Efforts.

One 330ml can of Coke contains around 160 calories. Assuming you drink one can of Coke everyday: that’s 4800 extra calories every month or 1.4lbs. In a year, that adds up to 57,600 extra calories or 16.8lbs! Granted, you will not be gaining an absolute 16.8lbs since our body metabolism adapts accordingly from consuming more/less calories, but you will still be gaining an extra layer of weight just by drinking Coke/soda drinks over other healthier, lower calories options.

Contrary to popular belief, Diet Coke/soda is counteractive to weight loss efforts as well. I used to think Diet Coke should be a diet staple when I was trying to lose weight, which I later I found out wasn’t the case at all. Diet soda has been found to increase possibility of weight gain by 41%. While there are many theories explaining this counter-intuitive finding, I thought to test this out for myself. I tried the following two scenarios in separate stretches of time: one drinking diet coke and another drinking just water.

The result? I found a much higher tendency to go into binging attacks when I drink diet coke. The most plausible explanation I found is artificial sugar in diet sodas confuses your body when it tastes something sweet that isn’t sugar. As a result, it makes your body crave for actual, sweet food. So while you may be taking in 0 calories from drinking diet soda, there is a higher likelihood you will grab consume more food after drinking the soda, which then leads to weight gain.

2. Stains and corrodes your teeth.

Coca-Cola and sodas with colorings stain yourteeth, as many are already aware. In addition, they have been shown to destroy 10 times more teeth material than fruit juices in just the first three minutes of drinking in a test. Slices of enamel were placed in Coke and other carbonated drinks for 48 hours, where there was a 5% weight loss of the enamel in the end. The high acidity content (pH 2.0~4.0) causes corrosion of your enamel. Granted, lab conditions do not mirror reality, but the corrosive effect of Coke on your teeth is something that accumulates over time.

3. Limited hydration.

Coke and soft drinks contain caffeine, which is a diuretic. A diuretic is a drug that speeds up the rate of urine production – meaning it removes water from your body. While you can get your thirst quenched when drinking Coke, you do not get as hydrated as compared to if you just drink pure water.

4. Artificial stimulant which alters your mind.

Caffeine is also a psychoactive stimulant drug. It affects the central nervous system and alters brain function, resulting in temporary changes in perception, mood, consciousness and behavior. By increasing the levels of adrenaline (a stress hormone) in your body, you end off setting off feelings of anxiety and tension in your body. Instead of being able to operate as a fully conscious being, you end up having less control of your thoughts, emotions and behavior.

I noticed that whenever I do drink Coca-Cola or soda, my mental thinking is not as clear. It feels as though my thoughts become more rapid, jumbled and haphazard. Even though I’m supposedly more alert, I’m not fully in control of the higher faculties of my mind. It feels more like my mind is operating by itself and my conscious self is only allowed to observe in the background to give limited inputs. If this was in the past where I was drinking Coke everyday, I would never have been able to make this observation. However, drinking Coke after being Coke/soda-free for many months made the contrast very stark to me.

5. Causes insomnia and sleeping disorders.

The caffeine prevents drowsiness by (i) blocking the effects of hormones serotonin and melatonin and (ii) blocking adenosine receptors (sleep-inducers) from being binded. Apart from causing insomnia, it also prevents you from getting the full benefits of sleep, as the excerpt below from How Stuff Works shows:

The most important long-term problem (of caffeine) is the effect (it) has on sleep. Adenosine reception (sleep inducers) is important to sleep, and especially to deep sleep. The half-life of caffeine in your body is about six hours. That means that if you consume a big cup of coffee with 200 mg of caffeine in it at 3:00 p.m., by 9:00 p.m. about 100 mg of that caffeine is still in your system. You may be able to fall asleep, but your body will probably miss out on the benefits of deep sleep.

The last time I drank (diet) coke, it kept me up all night until 6am, even though I tried turning in at 2am. My mind just went into overdrive mode and I could not sleep even though my body felt physically tired. If you drink coke/soda and you are finding it hard to manage your sleeping schedule, it might be the caffeine causing the problem. The problem is further aggravated if you are a naturally hyperactive person too (like me).

While you may appreciate caffeine for keeping you awake for a particular morning meeting or presentation, bear in mind that the boost is only temporaryand at the expense of the natural functions of your mind (see point 5 above). While you may feel more alert after a dose of caffeine, it is just a stimulated feeling. Whenever I consume caffeine, I feel like my mind has been pried awake beyond its desires. Even though the lights are on in my brain, I can only perform low level tasks which do not require much thinking. Higher functions of my mind seem to be beyond me. I pretty much feel like a zombie walking around with limited mental capacities and a body heavy as lead.

To make things worse, after the initial effects wear off, I am left with a state of fatigue worse than beforesince I was denying your body of the rest it deserved. To quote Jacob Teitelbaum, “Caffeine is an energy loan shark. What it lends you in the morning it takes back with heavy interest in the afternoon.”

How To Quit Drinking Coke / Sodas Successfully

So, how can you quit coke and soft drinks?

1. Identify a substitute drink (that’s healthier). For me, after I quit drinking soda, my natural inclinations for drinks are:

(1) Plain water – (nearly) free, healthy, gives a fountain of benefits. Doesn’t get any better than this. If you are to dine outside, plain/mineral water will always be a reliable option.
(2) Fruit and/or vegetable smoothies which I make myself using my blender.

I would recommend not to substitute it with coffee – the higher caffeine levels makes it an unhealthy drink as well (more than 2 times compared to Coke, on a per oz basis). I personally do not drink coffee because of that. I have also never been fond of the taste of coffee anyway – it has a bitter undertone which does not sit so well with my taste buds.

2. Get rid of the soda drinks in the fridge. Remove all traces of Coke and soda drinks inside your fridge. It may seem like a waste but it’s better than downing them into your body and ruining it.

3. ….And stop buying them home. After you eliminate the remaining traces of those drinks, don’t purchase them anymore! Tell your family (or housemates if you live with other people) about your goal and tell them to stop buying the drinks. Better yet, educate them on why they should quit drinking and get them to quit as well. If this is not possible, ask for their help to put the drinks out of your side.

4. Tell your friends of your goal. This way, you are accountable to them as well. Your friends can serve as gatekeepers of your decision.

5. Mentally block out the soda section in the menu when you dine outside. Since you are going to give up sodas, there is no need for you to look at the soda section. This prevents any second thoughts.

6. Ensure you have enough sleep. So you do not have to resort to drinking caffeinated sodas to keep you awake later in the day.

7. Keep a record of the days you go without drinking Coke or sodas. Mark it on your calendar if you have one. When you start seeing a whole succession of soda-free days, you will be tempted to keep the ball rolling.

8. Persevere. As you start cutting away Coke and sodas from your life, you may find withdrawal symptoms in the first week (depending on how heavy a drinker you were before). These symptoms may come in the form of restlessness, anxiety, cravings to drink again. Push through! They will start melting away after a few days in the face of your determination.

Try it and see how it works for you Chances are, as you start freeing yourself of Coca-Cola and soda drinks, you will find your body feels so much more refreshed and cleansed. You can feel yourself becoming healthier. Your thinking becomes clearer as well. :)

Written by Dave Lake

As the animated series begins its 13th season, we look at some of its most outrageous episodes

Tom Cruise and Scientology are two of the many targets of “South Park”

EDITOR’S NOTE: THE FOLLOWING FEATURE CONTAINS VIDEO AND DISCUSSION OF AN ADULT NATURE.

Trying to choose the 10 most controversial “South Park” episodes is like trying to choose the worst Rob Schneider movie — there are just so many to choose from. But as the show begins its 13th season, on March 11 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Comedy Central, we thought we’d round up the episodes that have generated the most publicity over the years. And there have been a lot of them. Right from the get-go, this scathing satire, centered on four kids from South Park elementary, built a reputation on being an equal-opportunity offender, leaving no stone unturned and no topic too taboo. Many learning institutions in turn banned the show’s merchandise from their grounds, and several countries have banned the show’s broadcast entirely (we’re looking at you, former Soviet Union), no doubt stoking the fires of its brainchildren, Trey Parker and Matt Stone. There were many amazingly offensive and amazingly hilarious episodes to go through, but we were up to the challenge of finding our 10 favorites, and we present them to you here with clips from each.

Episode: “Trapped in the Closet”
Season: 9
Controversy: The mother (or should we say motherf—er) of all controversial “South Park” episodes is no doubt this one, which skewers Scientology, Tom Cruise, John Travolta, and R. Kelly in one fell swoop. Dubbed Closetgate, Comedy Central, a network owned by Viacom, pulled a rerun of this Emmy-nominated episode, supposedly under pressure from Tom Cruise, who threatened to bail out of promoting his upcoming film “Mission: Impossible III,” which was being released by Paramount, a division of Viacom. Isaac Hayes, who had long performed the voice of Chef on the series, and who also happened to be a Scientologist, quit the show abruptly just days prior to this episode’s broadcast. He later returned, and this episode has seen multiple reruns.

Episode: “The China Probrem”
Season: 12
Controversy: The episode implies that “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” is a raping of the franchise by having the film’s star, Harrison Ford, literally raped several times in the episode by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg in an variety of famous movie rape scenes. Favorite “South Park” haters the Parents Television Council cited the episode for “exploiting the sensitive topic of rape for a trivial movie satire.”

Episode: “It Hits the Fan”
Season: 5
Controversy: Inspired by the saucy language of ABC’s “NYPD Blue,” the episode opens with the gang talking about “Cop Drama,” a network show planning to air a scene with an uncensored S-word in it. “South Park” then drops 162 uncensored S-bombs — that’s one every eight seconds — for the remainder of its 22 minutes, with a counter at the bottom of the screen keeping track of each one. But aside from the gratuitous use of language, the episode ponders a larger question: Why is it considered offensive when an animated comedy pushes the envelope via edgy language, while a serious drama doing the same thing is considered art? Another episode, titled “With Apologies to Jesse Jackson,” pulled a similar stunt using the N-word.

Episode: “Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo”
Season: 1
Controversy: A Russian Pentecostal organization demanded that the Russian government revoke the license of the nation’s oldest private entertainment channel after it aired this Christmas-themed classic from the show’s first season featuring a singing, hat-wearing turd. The organization’s appeal was flushed and the station’s license was kept.

Episode: “Jared Has Aides”
Season: 6
Controversy: After Jared Fogle, the spokesman for Subway restaurants, visits South Park to discuss his weight loss, the boys misunderstand his methods for losing weight. Fogle explains it was a series of appointments with his personal trainer and his dietitian, his aides, which the boys misinterpret as his AIDS. The rest of the episode’s plot revolves around Butters, South Park’s favorite overweight kid, and his abuse at the hands of his parents after they think he’s attempted a liposuction surgery on himself at home. Ironically, Comedy Central banned the episode, not due to its AIDS-related material, but due to its portrayal of Butters being abused by his parents.

Episode: “Scott Tenorman Must Die”
Season: 5
Controversy: Consistently voted one of the show’s most popular and most outrageous episodes by fans, “Scott Tenorman Must Die” is notable both for the appearance of the band Radiohead as themselves (most celebrities are impersonated on the show) and the depths with which Cartman will go to seek revenge. In this case, feeding the titular character chili made from the remains of his parents. It is also, according to Stone and Parker, the first and only episode to not have two plots.

Episode: “Terrance & Phillip in Not Without My Anus”
Season: 2
Controversy: Conceived as an April Fools’ Day prank, and fueled by the generous publicity received by the Season 1 cliffhanger, the second season premiere, which was intended to answer the question of who Cartman’s parents were, instead focused on an unrelated episode involving the show-within-the-show characters of Terrance and Phillip. Fans were outraged, and as such Comedy Central pushed Parker and Stone to quickly create the real episode, which they did, and which aired three weeks later.

Episode: “Bloody Mary”
Season: 9
Controversy: The Catholic League protested the episode because of its depiction of a Virgin Mary statue bleeding from its rectum. It originally aired on Dec. 7, 2005, the night before the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, a Catholic holiday relating to the Virgin Mary. There were conflicting reports that Comedy Central had agreed to not rerun the episode, however the network denies ever having agreed to such a demand. There was also outrage in New Zealand, where the nation’s Catholic Bishops’ Conference attempted, unsuccessfully, to stop the episode from airing.

Episode: “Hell on Earth 2006”
Season: 10
Controversy: In the episode, a guest at a Halloween costume party shows up as wildlife expert Steve Irwin with a stingray barb sticking out of his chest. After being confronted for wearing such a tacky costume, the guest turns out to be Irwin himself, and is subsequently removed from the party for not wearing a costume. The episode aired just weeks after Irwin died from having a stingray spine puncture his lung while filming a segment for a television show. Shortly after the episode aired, a friend of the Irwin family issued a statement saying the episode “goes too far too soon.”

Episode: “Cartoon Wars Part II”
Season: 10
Controversy: In 2005, after a Dutch newspaper published a series controversial editorial cartoons featuring the Islamic prophet Mohammed that sparked violence in several countries, Comedy Central censored a photo from the episode that depicted the prophet appearing on an episode of “Family Guy.” In its place, the show ran a title card reading “Comedy Central has refused to broadcast an image of Mohammed on their network.” Aside from the political overtones, the episode also takes aim at “Family Guy” and its writers, as well as a network executive named Doug, presumably a dig at Doug Herzog, president of Comedy Central.

What is your favorite outrageous “South Park” episode? Comment and let us know.

Written by David Spark

When I was working as a stand-up comic, I was always warned about the rules of performing. In general, the advice was good (e.g. “Don’t be dirty.” “Talk about yourself.” “Play to the crowd.”), adhering to it made one look and sound like everybody else. It didn’t take long to quickly learn that for every guideline and rule of successful stand-up comedy, somebody has broken that rule and made a fortune off of it (e.g. Sam Kinison, Andy Kaufman).

When I left stand-up, I learned that stand-up’s “rule breaking” successes transcended everything, even social media. And like in stand-up, I watched the masses collectively form “the rules,” which manifested itself as an endless stream of top tips, best practices, and expert advice. It all became mind numbing.

Advice only goes so far. The way we really learn is through real experiences. In this piece, I sought out stories of people who listened to the advice of experts, ignored it, did what they wanted to do, and then succeeded. There was only one rule they followed: They were convinced that what they were doing was right.

Rule #1 broken: Do whatever you have to do to keep your job

Mark Horvath was a top TV executive in Hollywood and then lost it all. Out of work and with a home going into foreclosure, Horvath quickly became homeless. With no income or a roof over his head, Horvath still had to do something. So he started Invisiblepeople.tv, a personal first account video blog designed to give homelessness a face and voice.

Horvath eventually got a job at a homeless shelter and began to tweet passionately about the day-to-day madness of homelessness. Read his feed (@hardlynormal) of more than 6,500 updates and you’ll see he’s not the face homeless agencies would want you to see and hear.

Repeatedly, Horvath has been told by homeless service agencies and government officials that there are legal consequences to what he’s doing and he should simply stop. The agency has a process to deal with homeless problems and that involves meetings, assignments, and budgets to acquire to make things happen, said Horvath. Having been homeless, Horvath doesn’t think that’s the way to handle the issue. He’s all about exposing problems publicly on Twitter as they’re happening. He doesn’t want to wait for the issue to be brought up in a private meeting.

In an effort to scare Horvath, he’s been warned multiple times, “Be careful, people are watching.” The threats haven’t slowed him down even though he knows he’s going to be laid off in a week with no severance. He believes his efforts have all been successful because he’s been getting the word out on homelessness and got all the homeless agencies up and connected on Twitter.

Horvath has no anger towards his soon to be former employers. “These are not bad people. They are just insecure and don’t really have their priorities straight. It’s not about who has the most effective marketing, it’s ALL about getting people off the streets,” said Horvath, “I’ve lost everything except my laptop, my car and some furniture. A normal person would just be taking care of themselves, a rule breaker puts others before himself.”

Rule #2 broken: You can’t make money on YouTube

Pinny Gniwisch, Founder and EVP marketing for jewelry site Ice.com, was told by experts that nobody had figured out how to make money on YouTube. He simply wouldn’t be able to do it. If he wanted to market his business on YouTube or get celebrities to participate he was going to have to fork over serious marketing dollars.

Gniwisch ignored all that advice and spent only $1,295 to launch a silly YouTube campaign where he interviewed celebrities such as “Three 6 Mafia” and Kevin Sorbo about Mother’s Day and whether they got guilt for not getting a gift as good or better than what they gave the previous year. At the end of the video a woman delivers a call to action, asking viewers to sign up at Ice.com for a chance to win a $10,000 shopping spree.

The goal of the YouTube campaign was to build up the Ice.com database, and then over the holidays convert those subscribers to buyers. While not tons of traffic, the call to action worked and he got over 6,000 people to sign up for the sweepstakes. And those signups have converted into more than $20,000 in sales.

Rule #3 broken: Top Twitterers have the best advice on how to use Twitter

J.T. O’Donnell is the founder of CAREEREALISM.com, a site for career news and perspective for job seekers and young careerists, ages 18-40. Adding to the list of career services, O’Donnell devised The Twitter Advice Project or T.A.P., which would be a series of experts tweeting advice in response to questions posed by readers (see video). All advice would appear in the @CAREEREALISM Twitter feed and users could easily see all the answers to specific questions.

O’Donnell went out looking for experts to participate in T.A.P. She first approached a few well known Twitter users who told her the idea would never fly because it was impossible to give good career advice in just 140 characters. One said it would be too confusing and it would take up too much time to research and post answers. Another with more than 10,000 followers didn’t want to have to compete with other experts. A third expert thought the conflicting advice from experts would actually frustrate the readers.

J.T. didn’t believe any of them and just kept going. She continued to pitch more Twitter influencers and convinced eight experts that T.A.P. was actually the BEST way to give career advice.

In the first 72 hours of launching T.A.P., @CAREEREALISM gained more than 700 new followers and she’s been flooded with requests from other experts to join the roster.

Rule #4 broken: Always follow Seth Godin’s advice

Becky Blanton is a prolific and seasoned freelance writer who broke all the rules of social media not because she was a heretic, but because she simply didn’t know the rules.

A while back a client asked Blanton to write more like Seth Godin. At the time, Blanton didn’t know who Godin was so she started reading his blog and his books. She then joined Triiibes, Seth Godin’s invitation-only social network, and starting posting a lot. So much so that Seth Godin emailed her personally, saying she was being too personal, posting too much, and that this was not how social media is done. She was shocked and taken aback. All this coming from the master of social media.

But for some reason that warning didn’t deter Blanton. She responded to Godin explaining that this is who she is and she’s just going to keep posting this way. Fellow Triiibes members supported her and responded by calling her the Mayor or sometimes the Queen of Triiibes. Eventually, she won over Seth Godin too, who asked everyone to wish Blanton “Happy Birthday,” which resulted in a flood of 273 “Happy Birthday” messages of which Blanton responded to all.

Blanton’s real success came when she entered the Johnny Bunko contest to come up with an inventive piece of career advice. “The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need” is a Manga style comic book that offered six pieces of little known career advice. The author, Daniel Pink, initiated a contest to come up with the seventh career secret. Blanton submitted an entry which was to “Stay Hungry,” meaning never be satisfied with what you’ve got and always strive for more.

The winner of the Johnny Bunko seventh career secret would be determined by who got the most votes. Popular opinion at this time told Blanton to email everyone she knew to vote for her. But she didn’t. Instead, she just let everyone know the contest was happening and to simply vote for the idea they thought was the best. Everyone said she would be committing contest suicide. You’ll drive votes to other people, they said. Blanton didn’t care. She was so committed to the “vote for the best idea” and not “vote for me” that she actually ended up voting for a competitor, Ed Brenegar, whose advice was to “Say ‘Thanks’ every day.”

Blanton’s non-tactics worked. In the end, she got the most votes and won the grand prize which was an all expense paid trip to Oxford, England to attend the TEDGlobal 2009. In addition, Seth Godin gave her props on his blog and second place winner, Ed Brenegar, and her are collaborating on a book together.

Rule #5 broken: Don’t get sloppy and unprofessional when pitching bloggers

Mike McGrath (@mikefj40) was working at a PR agency and engaging in a blogger relations project. Reading up on bloggers and sending pitches about his client’s company, McGrath was purposely trying to target his pitches appropriately. But among the volume of messages he sent out, he accidentally forgot to address one of the messages personally. Within an hour he got a rant from the blogger offended, Steve Borsch, who flamed him for all the ills of public relations.

Instead of firing back at Borsch or blaming him for such a negative attack, McGrath apologized saying he was trying to do the right thing and asked Borsch how he would like to be contacted. Borsch then spent the time to write three thoughtful pages of best practices. The two of them quickly became very appreciative of each other’s thoughtfulness to the issue. Borsch invited McGrath to join his mailing list and the two of them started following each other on Twitter.

Borsch had another similar initial mass mailing incident with another PR firm that didn’t go nearly as well as with McGrath. In that case, Borsch responded to the PR rep by telling her precisely how she should’ve done it, could’ve done it, and that this message was all about her, her client, and throwing stuff against the wall to see what sticks rather than reaching out authentically to people like Borsch. “We’re not just a nouveau channel of distribution for your messaging,” Borsch said. Later that day Borsch got a nasty message from the owner of the firm asking him why he was being such a dick. “You made her cry, for Godssake”, he told Borsch.

After McGrath’s email exchange with Borsch, McGrath’s boss reprimanded him for replying to Borsch and was told not to be transparent with either the client or the blogger. McGrath has since left that firm and does independent social media marketing, yet Borsch and him have remained good friends.

Conclusion

I know this comes off as a “Free to Be… You and Me” kind of recommendation, but what I’ve learned from all these stories is the best social media advice one can take is to simply follow your own convictions. It’s also how you become a great stand-up comedian. If you simply give people what they tell you to give, you’ll never rise above the noise. You have to be convinced that what you’re doing is right.

I’m interested to hear more from you though. What social media rules have you broken? How do you filter advice and learn when to accept it and when to ignore it?

David Spark is a veteran tech journalist and founder of Spark Media Solutions, a firm that helps companies build their industry voice through storytelling and social media. His technology report, The Spark Minute, can be heard every day on Green 960 and 910 KNEW in San Francisco.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Sveta