A can of chilled soft drink is most definitely ‘a pick me up’, especially so during the summers.
Whilst you may grab one every alternate day, the recent scientific evidence pin points that ‘reaching for a couple of cans of soft drinks everyday to quench your thirst should NOT be an option’.
The acidity of cola beverages … is about the same as vinegar. The sugar content masks the acidity, and most of us don’t realize we are drinking this strange mixture of phosphoric acid, sugar, caffeine, coloring, and flavoring matter.
I’m sure you already are aware that soft drinks are loaded with empty calories and truly not the best drinks to quench your thirst. However, am listing down a few pointers highlighting the facts about soft drinks, which hopefully shall aid in beating the cola temptation!
Here is a list of 10 reasons for avoiding excessive intake of soft drinks.
1) Carbonated soft drinks are a diuretic. Drinking a soft drink will take more water from your system than they will put back in your body. The digestion process for the high levels of sugar will remove much water from your system. To replace the water lost from drinking a carbonated soft drink, you will have to drink many glasses of water to make up for your soft drink consumption.
2) A sugar surplus (and crash) in your body can lead to diabetes
High amounts of sugar in the soft drink can cause your pancreas to produce too much insulin. Constant elevation and reduction of insulin and sugars in your system can lead to fluctuations in blood glucose levels and insulin resistance.
3) Heavy soft drink consumption can interfere with your body’s metabolization of iron and diminish nerve impulse transmission.
4) Cola drinks can interact adversely with intake of antacids, possibly resulting in constipation, calcium loss, hypertension, nausea, vomiting, headaches, and kidney damage.
5) Caffeine has been linked to lowered absorption of calcium.
Soft drinks have long been suspected of leading to lower calcium levels and higher phosphate levels in the blood. When phosphate levels are high and calcium levels are low, calcium is pulled out of the bones. The phosphate content of soft drinks is very high, and they contain virtually no calcium. What’s more, the kidneys are programmed by caffeine to produce excess urine, leading to dehydration. there is enough evidence that colas and other carbonated drinks are linked to low bone mass-in both adults and children-that people should be concerned about how much of these beverages they drink.
6) Eight times the amount of benzene that is allowed in drinking water can be found in carbonated soft drinks. The chemical “Benzene” found in abundance is linked to leukemia
7) Another advantage of avoiding sodas is that you will avoid the caffeine that is in many of them. Caffeine intake above safe limits has been associated with irritability, anxiety, jumpiness, deprivation of deep sleep, and vascular headaches.
8) Soft drinks are in fact far from being soft. Since colas are high in phosphorous and phosphoric acid, they tend to infiltrate bodily fluids and corrode stomach linings. They may also upset the alkaline-acid balance of the kidneys, and adversely affect your liver functions. Researches have clearly indicated that acids with a low pH at around 2.5 are 10,000 times more acidic than the desired neutral pH level of 7.0.
9) Soft drinks also contain refined sugar, and artificial substances like colorings and flavorings, sweeteners- all of which shall contribute to free radical production in the body.
10) Since soft drinks are quite acidic in nature, with a pH of approximately 2.5, drinking too many may pose problems related to your teeth and gums.
So, next time, you opt for the soft drink, beware that it isn’t just your teeth and weight that could be at risk, but in fact your entire body system and overall health too! Switch over to green tea, lime water, fruit juices and buttermilk to quench your thirst and trust me, each and every cell of your body shall be thanking you for the switch!
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