Do you know the extent to which drinking carbonated, caffeinated, sugared, or artificially sweetened beverages harms your body? Giving up soda can be one of the best things you can do to improve your health!
Weight Gain and Obesity
Many people either forget or don't realize how many extra calories they consume in what they drink. Drinking a single can a day of soda pop translates to more than 1lb of weight gain every month. Studies have proved that soda pop is directly related to weight gain. The relationship between soda consumption and body weight is so strong that researchers calculate that for each additional soda consumed, the risk of obesity increases 1.6 times.
People who drink soda don't feel as full as those who consume the same amount of calories in solid food. A study done in 2000, gave 15 volunteers 450 calories a day of either soda or jelly beans for a month and then switched them for the next month, while monitoring their total calories. The candy eaters compensated for the extra calories by eating less food and maintained their weight; during the soda phase, the volunteers ate more and gained more weight.
Diabetes
Diabetes is a consequence of weight gain and obesity. Anything that promotes weight gain increases the risk of diabetes. Drinking soda not only contributes to making people overweight, but it stresses the body's ability to process sugar.
Rapidly absorbed carbohydrates like high fructose corn syrup put more strain on insulin-producing cells than other foods. When sugar enters the bloodstream quickly, the pancreas has to secrete large amounts of insulin for the body to process it. Researchers believe that the unceasing demands that a soda habit places on the pancreas may ultimately leave it unable to keep up with the body's need for insulin. Also, insulin itself becomes less effective at processing sugar; both conditions contribute to the risk of developing diabetes.
Researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and Harvard Medical School analyzed data from the Nurses' Health Study tracking the health of more than 51,000 women. None of the participants had diabetes at the onset of the study in 1991. Over the following 8 years, 741 women were diagnosed with the disease. Researchers found that women who drank one or more sugary drinks a day gained more weight and were 83% more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than those who imbibed less than once a month.
Weakened Bones and Risk of Osteoporosis
Frequent consumption of soda may also increase the risk of osteoporosis, especially in people who drink soda instead of calcium-rich milk. High soda consumption in children poses a significant risk factor for impaired calcification of growing bones.
In the 1950s, children drank 3 cups of milk for every 1 cup of soda. Today that ratio is reversed: 3 cups of soda for every cup of milk. If your children drink sodas all day, they’re probably not getting the necessary nutrients in other beverages such as milk or juices. These deficiencies translate into not only poor nutrition, but an increase in the risk of bone fractures and osteoporosis later in life.
Tooth Decay
Soda eats up and dissolves the tooth enamel. Research revealed that sodas are responsible for doubling or tripling the incidence of tooth decay. The acidity can dissolve the mineral content of the enamel, making the teeth weaker, more sensitive, and more susceptible to decay. Soda's acidity makes it even worse for teeth than the solid sugar found in candy.
Kidney Damage
Frequent consumption of soda also increases the risk of kidney stone formation. Soda has a high acidity and radical mineral imbalances. Your body must buffer the acidity of soft drinks with calcium from your own bones. As this calcium is eliminated through your urine, it slowly forms kidney stones.
Also, in a study published in the journal Epidemiology, the team compared the dietary habits of 465 people with chronic kidney disease and 467 healthy people. After controlling for various factors, the team found that drinking two or more colas a day, whether artificially sweetened or regular, was linked to a twofold risk of chronic kidney disease.
Toxins – Aspartame
If you think diet soda is better think again. The poison in diet soda is an artificial sweetener aspartame. Aspartame is made up of three chemicals: aspartic acid, phenylalanine, and methanol. It is used because it's about 200 times sweeter than table sugar. Despite FDA approval as a "safe" food additive, aspartame is one of the most dangerous substances added to foods. After you drink an aspartame-sweetened product, aspartame breaks down into its starting components: phenylalanine, aspartic acid, and methanol. There are over 92 different health side effects associated with aspartame consumption.
Most people can endure aspartame, the main sweetener in diet soda. But for some people who are genetically or metabolically susceptible to the dangers of aspartame, drinking diet soda can be detrimental to their health! Today stealth diseases such as MS and lupus are rampant in America. And with the mass consumption of diet sodas, coincides with these near epidemics. Most suffers do not know that aspartame may be the culprit behind their conditions. They are being poisoned so sweetly.
Healthy Alternatives
There are many healthy alternatives to not drinking soda. Alternatives that will give you the essential vitamins and minerals that you need! Below are a few healthy alternatives.
- Water - If you have a hard time drinking plain water, try sprucing it up a bit by adding
- Natural Green Tea - Studies of green tea
- Juice + Seltzer = Jeltzer - There's no need to purchase sugary sodas or pricey vitamin-enhanced waters
- Stir in Some Sweet Stevia - Stevia
- Drink Your Vegetables - Vegetable juice offers a quick, low-calorie way to get all the benefits of veggies
