What Soft Drinks are Doing to Your Body

Peanut_Butter · 11-02-2009, 04:50 PM

***Article I saw on yahoo health... i found interesting, and wanted to share***

Soda, pop, cola, soft drink, whatever you call it, it is one of the worst beverages that you could be drinking for your health. As the debate for whether to put a tax on the sale of soft drinks continues, you should know how they affect your body so that you can make an informed choice on your own.

Soft drinks are hard on your health
Soft drinks contain little to no vitamins or other essential nutrients. However, it is what they do contain that is the problem: caffeine, carbonation, simple sugars or worse, sugar substitutes and often food additives such as artificial coloring, flavoring, and preservatives.

A lot of research has found that consumption of soft drinks in high quantity, especially by children, is responsible for many health problems that include tooth decay, nutritional depletion, obesity, type-2 diabetes, and heart disease.

Why the sugar in soft drinks isn't so sweet
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.

Something else to consider is that most of the excess sugar ends up being stored as fat in your body, which results in weight gain and elevates risk for heart disease and cancer. One study found that when subjects were given refined sugar, their white blood cell count decreased significantly for several hours afterwards. Another study discovered that rats fed a high-sugar diet had a substantially elevated rate of breast cancer when compared to rats on a regular diet.

The health effects of diet soda
You may come to the conclusion that diet or sugar-free soda is a better choice. However, one study discovered that drinking one or more soft drinks a day and it didn't matter whether it was diet or regular, led to a 30% greater chance of weight gain around the belly.

Diet soda is filled with artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, sucralose, or saccharin. These artificial sweeteners pose a threat to your health. Saccharin, for instance, has been found to be carcinogenic, and studies have found that it produced bladder cancer in rats.

Aspartame, commonly known as nutrasweet, is a chemical that stimulates the brain to think the food is sweet. It breaks down into acpartic acid, phenylalanine, and methanol at a temperature of 86 degrees. (Remember, your stomach is somewhere around 98 degrees.) An article put out by the University of Texas found that aspartame has been linked to obesity. The process of stimulating the brain causes more cravings for sweets and leads to carbohydrate loading.

Carbonation depletes calcium
Beverages with bubbles contain phosphoric acid, which can severely deplete the blood calcium levels; calcium is a key component of the bone matrix. With less concentration of calcium over a long time, it can lower deposition rates so that bone mass and density suffer. This means that drinking sodas and carbonated water increases your risk of osteoporosis.

Add in the caffeine usually present in soft drinks, and you are in for even more trouble. Caffeine can deplete the body's calcium, in addition to stimulating your central nervous system and contributing to stress, a racing mind, and insomnia.

Skip the soda and go for:

Fresh water
Water is a vital beverage for good health. Each and every cell needs water to perform its essential functions. Since studies show that tap water is filled with contaminants, antibiotics, and a number of other unhealthy substances, consider investing in a quality carbon-based filter for your tap water. To find out more about a high-performance filtration system, click here.

On the go? Try using a stainless steel thermos or glass bottle, filled with filtered water. Enhance the flavor of your water with a refreshing infusion of basil, mint leaves, and a drop of honey.

Fruit Juice
If you are a juice drinker, try watering down your juice to cut back on the sugar content. Buy a jar of organic 100% juice, especially cranberry, acai, pomegranate, and then dilute three parts filtered water to one part juice. You will get a subtle sweet taste and the benefit of antioxidants. After a couple of weeks, you will no longer miss the sweetness of sugary concentrated juices.

Tea
Tea gently lifts your energy and has numerous health benefits. Black, green, white, and oolong teas all contain antioxidant polyphenols. In fact, tea ranks as high or higher than many fruits and vegetables on the ORAC scale, the score that measures antioxidant potential of plant-based foods.

Herbal tea does not have the same antioxidant properties, though it is still a great beverage choice with other health benefits, such as inducing calming and relaxing effects.

If tea doesn't satisfy your sweet tooth, try adding cinnamon or a little honey, which has important health benefits that refined sugar lacks. For a selection of healthy teas that promote total body wellness, click here. Drink up!

I hope you find the ways and means to avoid soft drinks.

May you live long, live strong, and live happy!

--Dr. Mao

dat · 11-02-2009, 04:54 PM

There's nothing wrong with soft drinks (diet or non-diet) in moderation. Moderation is the key, moderation is what most people don't have and that is why 99% of obese people are obese and have nutrition-related health issues.

8footballQB · 11-02-2009, 05:09 PM

water only for me. it was rough at first but i no longer crave soda. if i go out to eat and get one i can only drink like half of it. it feels good though

Peanut_Butter · 11-02-2009, 05:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dat

There's nothing wrong with soft drinks (diet or non-diet) in moderation. Moderation is the key, moderation is what most people don't have and that is why 99% of obese people are obese and have nutrition-related health issues.

to a point, i also agree moderation is key...

Sash · 11-02-2009, 05:46 PM

Good info there, here's what Coke's marketting department has come up with to try and claim it is interested in public health:

They come in 8 packs lol, but as the can says:

ENJOY! (your diabetes)

Nutshell20 · 11-02-2009, 05:57 PM

Not to mention the effect it has on your teeth.

rsb1982 · 11-02-2009, 06:04 PM

Good article. I take a bottle water over pop any day.

Scott~ · 11-02-2009, 06:06 PM

Article is full of ****. There are no documented dangers of artificial sweeteners. None. The author is not a real doctor, he's an alternative medicine "doctor". Aka full of ****.

AndrewWard123 · 11-02-2009, 06:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scott~

Article is full of ****. There are no documented dangers of artificial sweeteners. None. The author is not a real doctor, he's an alternative medicine "doctor". Aka full of ****.

You are too smart to be posting here.

BE GONE TO THE DARKEST CAVES OF THE BRO-SCIENCE UNDERWORLD KNOWN AS BROGAR!

cjhannsz · 11-02-2009, 06:40 PM

I just cannot take an article that tries to link diet soda to weight gain with any credibility.

Eating too much + soda = weight gain, sure
Eating just enough + diet soda =/= weight gain

Nor is someone more prone to eating more from drinking it. Not having enough self control does not mean that a zero calorie product makes you more prone to weight gain.

Peanut_Butter · 11-02-2009, 08:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sash

They come in 8 packs lol, but as the can says:

ENJOY! (your diabetes)

looks like they just made the can smaller to advertise '90 cals per serving', but now instead of a six pack, its an eight pack... in the end its the same amount of liquid with the same amount of cals...

Peanut_Butter · 11-02-2009, 08:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scott~

Article is full of ****. There are no documented dangers of artificial sweeteners. None. The author is not a real doctor, he's an alternative medicine "doctor". Aka full of ****.

au contraire mon fr?re... just google it... to see how much you'll find

Scott~ · 11-02-2009, 08:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peanut_Butter

au contraire mon fr?re... just google it... to see how much you'll find

Yeah, find something legit that isn't being pushed by community college doctors and internet bloggers. There is a real difference between medical doctors and dickheads with a website and opinions. Show me the actual science, not a cheesy salesman who perpetuates lies and distortions to make a buck off of simpletons.

dat · 11-02-2009, 08:24 PM

Not this sh it again.

There are so many articles suggesting there are side effects and so many suggesting there aren't.

Again, it all comes down to moderation. There have been no conclusive, widely accepted studies suggesting that low-moderate consumption of artificial sweeteners cause any noticeable side effects in ALL people.

Sure if you eat too much or are sensitive to an artifical sweetener it can be bad. But drinking a couple of cans of diet soda a day will not kill you.

rmack27 · 11-02-2009, 08:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peanut_Butter

looks like they just made the can smaller to advertise '90 cals per serving', but now instead of a six pack, its an eight pack... in the end its the same amount of liquid with the same amount of cals...

Less calories per serving though, which is better then nothing i guess. Most people will just finish whatever they have left whether they want it or not. Those will cut some cals/sugar from the average diet. Like i said, better then nothing.

Personally, i don't drink pop. Water or milk for me.

RichmondBread · 11-02-2009, 08:50 PM

Well i was raised on a diet of mostly coke and other junk. Now, however, I treat cokes like dessert. I dont think they hurt you if you have them in limited amounts. However, a lot of people drink up to 5 bottles a day of coke. I dont know, but I probably was doing that as a teenager.

I think alcohol is much worse, ya know, than cokes.