The American Heart Association has designated November as No Soda November and is designed to encourage people to cut back on the number of sugary drinks they consume. The AHA conducted a large scale and found that drinking two or more sugary drinks in a day resulted in a 30% increase in the risk of cardiovascular death. Rebecca Baumann, an OSF Cardiologist says that you can become dependent on sugar.

One 20 oz. soda has the same amount of sugar as six donuts or 18 cookies and Baumann says that many people don’t even realize how much sugar they are consuming.

The daily recommended sugar limit from the AHA is nine teaspoons of added sugar per day for men and six for women. Dr. Baumann suggests that you read food and drink labels but knows that it can be an uphill battle for some people.

Baumann says that one way to get off of sugary drinks is to replace regular soda with artificially sweetened beverages, diet soda, or flavored powders with sweetener added to water. If you need that carbonation, drink seltzer with fruit juice. For more information on nutrition and recommendations on how to beat sugar, talk to your doctor or visit osfhealthcare.org.