While slamming a 12 pack every night might be detrimental to one’s health, a few beers here and there may actually be good for your health.  According to a recent article from the Journal of Science of Food and Agriculture, beer contains a large amount of silicon in soluble form.  So this probably has you wondering, what does that have to do with my diet?

Well, beer in western countries has been known to be made with large amounts of hops, or flowers often used to flavor our favorite malted beverage.  These hops are known to be full of dietary silicon – oftentimes four times the amount found in malt. This dietary silicon found in the hops has been found to promote healthy bones!

So while it may not be in your best interest to use the local watering hole to get you vitamins, it is good to know that beer (in moderation) may actually be good for you!

When trying to cut calories and follow a diet, alcohol is one item that is always tough to cut out.  While the best option is to not drink at all, for most people this is not reality.  There are now several low carb beers on the market with everything from Michelob Ultra, Bud Select, Etc. but your best options may be to stick to wine or liquor.  Wine is the best option at about 100 calories for glass and under 5g of carbs per serving.  To stick with liquor, Vodka, Gin, Whiskey and White Rum all have under 100 calories and 0g carbs per serving.  If drinking liquor straight is not for you, try a diet soda or even soda water.  Even with these diet friendly choices it is still key not to go overboard (for your diet or the hangover) but try these options next time rather than the Light beer.

That daily Diet Coke is doing you more harm than good.  Recent studies have found that drinking pop daily can be extremely detrimental to one’s health.  Drinking soft drinks in excess has been connected to heart disease, obesity, and even type-II diabetes. Many people fail to understand the process the body takes to digest carbonated soft drinks.  Below is an excerpt from Dr. Mao’s article.  Click here to read more.

Most soft drinks contain a high amount of simple sugars. The USDA recommendation of sugar consumption for a 2,000-calorie diet is a daily allotment of 10 teaspoons of added sugars. Many soft drinks contain more than this amount!

Just why is too much sugar so unhealthy? Well, to start, let’s talk about what happens to you as sugar enters your body. When you drink sodas that are packed with simple sugars, the pancreas is called upon to produce and release insulin, a hormone that empties the sugar in your blood stream into all the tissues and cells for usage. The result of overindulging in simple sugar is raised insulin levels. Raised blood insulin levels beyond the norm can lead to depression of the immune system, which in turn weakens your ability to fight disease.

Continue reading at Yahoo.com

Did you know that delicious Venti Dark Berry frappuccino from Starbucks you enjoy every monring weighs in at 561 calories? That’s almost 1/4 of your daily caloric intake and it’s coming from one beverage. It’s pretty crazy to think about, but many of these early morning treats are what is preventing you from losing any weight.

An article from WebMD reports that the beloved beverage has been known to prevent many diseases.  It is said that individuals that regularly drink coffee are less likely to develop diabetes, Parkinson’s disease and colon cancer.

So the moral of the story…steer clear of those sugary, highly fattening iced coffee drinks.  If you need a boost, go for an unsweetened Cup o’ Joe.

Coffee: The New Health Food?

Iced Coffees Can Pack As Many Calories As a Meal

So the weekend is here and you have already completed your workout for the week.  When you wake up saturday morning regretting that late night street meat (among other things), theres no better time to hit the gym and sweat everything out.  Since you have already hit everything for the week, try something a little different.  A 100 rep workout is a great way to do this and it’s a workout that has helped shred T.O. when he’s not working out in his driveway.   Because you’re body is not used to doing such a high-rep set, it also helps stimulate new muscle growth.  The basis of the program is to pick one basic exercise per bodypart that you will do 100 reps of.  The weight you use is up to you but try to stay around 30% of your 10 rep max.  All you do is do as many reps as you can, rest for 10-30 seconds, and continue this process until you have hit 100 no matter how long this takes.  You’ll leave the gym feeling refreshed and with a great workout ready to do it all again.

For those of you who have not tried Lotus Vodka you are missing out. Lotus is still relatively new and is currently only available in Californina and Nevada but will be launching nationwide soon. Besides the unique packaging and awesome taste, Lotus packs something extra. There are two type of Lotus, Blue and White. The Blue is considered an “energy vodka” with added caffeine, guarine and taurine. The White is the “vitamin vodka” with added B3, B5, B6, B12 and vitamin C. Lotus has also won various taste test awards over the last few years. For a great tasting drink with some extra benefits, check out Lotus.

With the popularity of products such as Red Bull, Monster and 5 Hour Energy, it is important to know what exactly you are taking. If you aren’t aware, many of these drinks may be doing more harm than good. For some good information, check out this article.

I have always wanted to see an infographic like this.  In true American fashion it profiles the amount of beer that is drank per capita. Breaking it down by state and looking at the regions you can get an idea of the party states. The shocker here has to be Montana.  Who ever would have thought those people drank so much?

St. Patrick’s Day is arriving soon.  With that in mind, you are going to need a few fun drinks for your party.  The Nutty Irishman can be a shot or it can be poured over ice.  Its simple to make and tastes great.

1 part Bailey’s Irish Cream

1 part Frangelico

If you happen to be a drinker than you know what a few beers a day can do to your stomach.  Have you ever done the math? 10 beers that are 150 calories each is 1,500 calories!  Who cares what this does to my liver, my abs are going to look like Chris Farley’s did.  If you want to know how to get the best bang for your buck then look at Beer Calories.  Here you can see the alc. percent and number of calories per beer.  Pick your poison.