Thanks, But I Will Skip The Soda!

A rare glass of soda is not poison, but a can of cola a day certainly is. If you are in the habit of guzzling cans of soft drinks after a hot day out, with your evening spirit, or wash down a meal, you may want to rethink your hydration drink. The harmful effects of soft drinks extend beyond the obvious weight gain and obesity. Soft drinks can cause and exacerbate diabetes, asthma, heart, liver, and kidney disease, bone loss, tooth decay, and cancer.

According to the USDA, 16% of calories in the typical American diet come from refined sugars and half of those calories come from beverages with added sugar. Where it once was a treat to have a pop now it has become part of the everyday culture around us.

Any beverage without “hard” alcohol or dairy products in it may come under the bracket of soft drinks, but they usually indicate the sweet, bubbly, carbonated sodas or flavored drinks found on the shelves of grocery stores, convenience stores, and gas stations. 

The “Contains No Fruit” label ironically tells us about the zero nutritional content of the drink. More worrying than the lack of nutrition, however, is the high level of unhealthy ingredients in the average soft drink and the health risk they pose.

1. Increases Risk Of Diabetes And Metabolic Syndrome

The high sugar levels in the average drink cause a sharp spike in your blood glucose level, and without helping you stay satiated for long. As a result, your body feels hunger and fatigue, unleashing a vicious cycle that negatively impacts your waistline and ups your risk of type 2 diabetes (1). Having 1 or more soft drinks per day leads to a substantial weight gain and an increased risk for type 2 diabetes in women (2). In men too, having 1 or 2 servings of such drinks daily increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes (by 26%) and metabolic syndrome (3).

While the WHO (World Health Organization) has set the limit of daily consumption of sugar at 6 teaspoons, a 12 oz can of soft drink contains 10 teaspoons of sugar. That is 1-1/2 of your daily limit in one swoop

Can Diet Soda Make You Gain Weight?

Short answer: yup. If you are thinking that the diet version is better, prepare to be disappointed. Contrary to what they are advertised for, diet sodas may actually make you gain weight. Researchers believe that artificial sweeteners in sodas don’t satisfy your sweet tooth like normal sugar and you tend to reach for more sugar as a result(4). They are also responsible for negatively affecting the microbiome in your gut. Aspartame has been implicated in cancer in some animal studies (5) and artificial sweeteners like sorbitol may also cause diarrhea or aggravate irritable bowel syndrome (6).

2. Raises Obesity Risk In Children

Since children enjoy guzzling these sugary drinks sometimes daily (often replacing healthy foods), they are at a greater risk of becoming obese. Pediatricians who treat overweight children claim that many of their patients take in 1,000 to 2,000 calories a day from soft drinks alone. Some kids drink pop all day long and getting all the calories they need for a day in sugary drinks with zero nutritional value. Decreasing soft drink intake can significantly reduce obesity in children and adolescents (7).

3. Raises Risk Of Heart Disease

Obesity, metabolic syndrome, and type-2 diabetes, all of which become more likely with sugary drink consumption, are all markers for cardiovascular disease. Those who consume soft drinks regularly have a 20% higher risk of getting a heart attack. When you’re consuming too much sugar from unhealthy sources, there are fewer chances of your eating nutrient- and fiber-rich fruits and vegetables. This can lead to an imbalance in your lipids and cause heart problems. In a study conducted over 2 decades, men who consumed soft drinks regularly were found to be 20% more at risk of getting a heart attack (8).

4. Causes Tooth Erosion

There is yet another reason why too much sugar in your soda can wipe away smiles. The sugar in your sodas, when acted upon by the bacteria in the mouth, becomes an acid. And this acid attacks teeth enamel and weakens it. Children and adolescents are especially susceptible to tooth decay because of their underdeveloped enamel. Using a straw to drink a soda, gulping quickly, and brushing your teeth 30 mins after consumption can reduce damage. Is diet soda the way out? Sadly, no. The damage caused to your teeth when you drink diet soda is the same as consuming meth or cocaine (9). This is because apart from the sugar, sodas also contain citric acid and phosphoric acid as preservatives. This can sometimes make the drink highly acidic. These acids can wear away the teeth' enamel and dentin, the layer beneath, right from the moment they come in contact with the teeth. For the occasional soda, and even citrus fruit juice, use a straw, take a quick gulp, and brush after 30 minutes

5. Leads To Osteoporosis And Bone Fractures

Phosphoric acid is a food additive added to colas to give them a tangy flavor and also to inhibit the growth of microorganisms in the sugar-rich environment. Too much phosphate in the blood can intervene with proper calcium metabolism essential for healthy bones. Caffeine too can interfere with mineral absorption. According to one study, having cola daily led to osteoporosis and increased risk of bone fractures in older women, possibly due to an imbalance in the calcium and phosphate ratio. Interestingly, non-cola drinks showed no such effect. Nor did any of these affect the bone mineral density in men. Smaller bones, less physical activity, and hormonal changes may put women more at risk (10). 

6. Can Cause Kidney Trouble

In a study on 465 patients with chronic kidney disease and 467 healthy people, it was found that drinking 2 glasses of cola daily, but not non-cola beverages, raised the risk of kidney disease by 2 times. This was attributed to the phosphoric acid in colas which causes urinary disturbances, kidney stones, and chronic kidney disease (11).

7. Can Cause Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

A common sweetener used in soft drinks is high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), made from corn starch. Unlike glucose, which can be broken down by the cells of your body, fructose can only be processed by the liver. When consumed in excess, it can cause non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, a condition that is also associated with high cholesterol and high blood pressure (12). Since HFCS, being cheaper than sugar, is commonly used to sweeten drinks, some research goes so far as to attribute the obesity epidemic, in large part, to the HFCS in soft drinks.

8. Increases Cancer Risk

The added colors and preservatives in drinks spell more trouble for you. 

• Cola Color: The trademark caramel color of the popular colas may be aesthetically pleasing but its effects are pure evil: 4-methylimidazole is a carcinogen found in brown food coloring (13). In a laboratory setting, 4-methylimidazole caused lung, liver, and thyroid cancer in mice (14). The caramel color in cola is a cancer-causing agent.
• Orange-flavored drinks: The vitamin C (ascorbic acid) in cheerful orange drinks are known to react with sodium benzoate, a common preservative found in soft drinks, to form benzene (15). Benzene is a carcinogen that has been found to damage bone marrow cells and cause blood cancer in animal studies.

9. Can Disrupt Sleep

The daily caffeine limit for kids is 45 mg, which is just 1 can of diet cola. The caffeine found in your soft drinks is highly addictive and acts as a stimulant by enhancing the production of adrenaline. That’s good news when you need a pick-me-up to get through that deadline at work or that mammoth home renovation project. But if it’s a regular feature, things take a turn for the worse. When consumed in excess, caffeine can interrupt your sleep and digestion. 

What Can You Drink Instead Of Soft Drinks?

• Water or infused water: Nothing beats plain old H2O when it comes to replacing sugary sodas and bottled drinks. Toss in some cucumber and lemon or a handful of pomegranate seeds or frozen raspberries for some color and a subtle hint of flavor. Iced tea, coconut water, or real fruit juice minus the added sugars are also a healthy option.
• Sparkling water: If you just can’t give up on that fizz, drink sparkling water jazzed up with a squeeze of citrus. Or try reducing the sugar in a canned or packaged juice by drinking it diluted with sparkling water 50:50 or more.
• Chilled teas or coffees are also a good alternative, just watch your caffeine intake.

Here at Dispensaries, we promote a whole health approach to health! 

References

1. Vartanian, Lenny R., Marlene B. Schwartz, and Kelly D. Brownell. “Effects of soft drink consumption on nutrition and health: a systematic review and meta-analysis.” American journal of public health 97, no. 4 (2007): 667-675.

2. Schulze, Matthias B., JoAnn E. Manson, David S. Ludwig, Graham A. Colditz, Meir J. Stampfer, Walter C. Willett, and Frank B. Hu. “Sugar-sweetened beverages, weight gain, and incidence of type 2 diabetes in young and middle-aged women.” Jama 292, no. 8 (2004): 927-934. 

3. Malik, Vasanti S., Barry M. Popkin, George A. Bray, Jean-Pierre Després, Walter C. Willett, and Frank B. Hu. “Sugar-sweetened beverages and risk of metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes a meta-analysis.” Diabetes care 33, no. 11 (2010): 2477-2483. 

4. Sweetener scrutiny: Are sugar substitutes a helpful tool or an ineffective crutch? American Medical Association. 

5. The truth about aspartame. National Health Service.  

6. Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) fact sheet. US Department of Health and Human Services. 

7. Malik, Vasanti S., Matthias B. Schulze, and Frank B. Hu. “Intake of sugar-sweetened beverages and weight gain: a systematic review.” The American journal of clinical nutrition 84, no. 2 (2006): 274-288. 

8. De Koning, Lawrence, Vasanti S. Malik, Mark D. Kellogg, Eric B. Rimm, Walter C. Willett, and Frank B. Hu. “Sweetened beverage consumption, incident coronary heart disease, and biomarkers of risk in men.” Circulation 125, no. 14 (2012): 1735-1741. 

9. Bassiouny, Mohamed A. “Dental erosion due to abuse of illicit drugs and acidic carbonated beverages.” General dentistry 61, no. 2 (2013): 38-44. 

10. Tucker, Katherine L., Kyoko Morita, Ning Qiao, Marian T. Hannan, L. Adrienne Cupples, and Douglas P. Kiel. “Colas, but not other carbonated beverages, are associated with low bone mineral density in older women: The Framingham Osteoporosis Study.” The American journal of clinical nutrition 84, no. 4 (2006): 936-942. 

11. Saldana, Tina M., Olga Basso, Rebecca Darden, and Dale P. Sandler. “Carbonated beverages and chronic kidney disease.” Epidemiology (Cambridge, Mass.) 18, no. 4 (2007): 501. 

12. Moeller, Suzen M., Sandra Adamson Fryhofer, Albert J. Osbahr III, and Carolyn B. Robinowitz. “The effects of high fructose syrup.” Journal of the American College of Nutrition 28, no. 6 (2009): 619-626. 

13. Smith, Tyler JS, Julia A. Wolfson, Ding Jiao, Michael J. Crupain, Urvashi Rangan, Amir Sapkota, Sara N. Bleich, and Keeve E. Nachman. “Caramel Color in Soft Drinks and Exposure to 4-Methylimidazole: A Quantitative Risk Assessment.” PloS one 10, no. 2 (2015): e0118138. 

14. FDA Urged to Prohibit Carcinogenic “Caramel Coloring”. The Center for Science in the Public Interest. 

15. Data on Benzene in Soft Drinks and Other Beverages. U.S. Food and Drug Administration.