Drinking soda may damage your health and cut years off your life!
I will confess if I am driving in my car for more than two hours I must have a bottle of Mountain Dew nearby. However, aside from that I do not drink soda because I believe it is detrimental to my health. According to the Beverage Marketing Corporation, Americans consume close to 50 billion liters of soda per year, which equates to about 216 liters, or about 57 gallons per person. That's a staggering amount of sugar! Tragically, high fructose corn syrup, in the form of soda, has become the number one source of calories in the United States, and it is very clear that it may be the primary cause of obesity and other diseases.
How Soda Damages Your Health and Cuts Years Off Your Life.
One of the more troubling health risks soda (heavy) drinkers face is a higher risk of cancer. Numerous studies have pointed out the link between sugar and increased rates of cancer, suggesting that regulating sugar intake is key to slowing tumor growth. Soda has even been shown to cause DNA damage, courtesy of sodium benzoate, a common preservative found in many soft drinks, which has the ability to switch off vital parts of your DNA. This could eventually lead to diseases such as cirrhosis of the liver and Parkinson's. Gout is another common health challenge that disproportionally affects soda drinkers, and this is directly related to the fructose content of soda. Fructose, as opposed to glucose, is particularly damaging to your body due to the way it's metabolized. The entire burden of metabolizing fructose falls on your liver, which creates a number of waste products and toxins, including a large amount of uric acid, which drives up blood pressure and causes gout. Some research suggests there is a increased risk of osteoporosis and kidney decline. According to a report published in "General Dentistry," the phosphoric acid in soda causes tooth enamel erosion, even with minimal exposure.
University of Miami and Columbia University researchers followed roughly 2,500 New Yorkers for 10 years. All of the study volunteers were over age 40 and had never had a stroke. At the end of 10 years, the daily diet soda drinkers were more likely to have had a stroke or heart attack, or to have died from vascular disease. The increased risk remained even after study investigators accounted for smoking, exercise, weight, sodium intake, high cholesterol, and other factors that could have contributed to the difference.
Both regular and diet soft drinks were linked with certain, but separate, cardiovascular disease risk factors. In this study, frequent diet soda drinkers were more likely to be former smokers and have higher blood sugar, high blood pressure, and, ironically, larger waistlines. They were also more likely to have metabolic syndrome. That's the name for a cluster of risk factors-high blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist, and abnormal cholesterol levels-that occur together and increase the risk of heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes.
Even with these reports a moderate ingestion of fructose should be harmless. The American Heart Association recommends women consume up to 25 grams of sugar per day and men up to 37 grams. So, it is not necessarily the fructose itself that is bad. It is consuming massive doses of fructose that exposes you to trouble. Just know that one serving can give you your maximum daily intake of sugar. Drinking a diet soda may not be the answer to your dilemma. The artificial sweeteners in diet sodas interrupt your body's natural ability to regulate the calories you consume based on the sweetness of the foods you intake. This can result in people over-eating because the artificial sweetener is tricking your body into thinking you are consuming real sugar and your body naturally craves more. Researchers at Harvard found that diet soda can double the risk of kidney decline in women expecially when a woman drinks more than two diet sodas a day.
So, again enjoy your soda, but in moderation. Some have said sugar is more addictive than cocaine and I will leave you with that thought.
To your good health and better living,
Clem
I will confess if I am driving in my car for more than two hours I must have a bottle of Mountain Dew nearby. However, aside from that I do not drink soda because I believe it is detrimental to my health. According to the Beverage Marketing Corporation, Americans consume close to 50 billion liters of soda per year, which equates to about 216 liters, or about 57 gallons per person. That's a staggering amount of sugar! Tragically, high fructose corn syrup, in the form of soda, has become the number one source of calories in the United States, and it is very clear that it may be the primary cause of obesity and other diseases.
How Soda Damages Your Health and Cuts Years Off Your Life.
One of the more troubling health risks soda (heavy) drinkers face is a higher risk of cancer. Numerous studies have pointed out the link between sugar and increased rates of cancer, suggesting that regulating sugar intake is key to slowing tumor growth. Soda has even been shown to cause DNA damage, courtesy of sodium benzoate, a common preservative found in many soft drinks, which has the ability to switch off vital parts of your DNA. This could eventually lead to diseases such as cirrhosis of the liver and Parkinson's. Gout is another common health challenge that disproportionally affects soda drinkers, and this is directly related to the fructose content of soda. Fructose, as opposed to glucose, is particularly damaging to your body due to the way it's metabolized. The entire burden of metabolizing fructose falls on your liver, which creates a number of waste products and toxins, including a large amount of uric acid, which drives up blood pressure and causes gout. Some research suggests there is a increased risk of osteoporosis and kidney decline. According to a report published in "General Dentistry," the phosphoric acid in soda causes tooth enamel erosion, even with minimal exposure.
University of Miami and Columbia University researchers followed roughly 2,500 New Yorkers for 10 years. All of the study volunteers were over age 40 and had never had a stroke. At the end of 10 years, the daily diet soda drinkers were more likely to have had a stroke or heart attack, or to have died from vascular disease. The increased risk remained even after study investigators accounted for smoking, exercise, weight, sodium intake, high cholesterol, and other factors that could have contributed to the difference.
Both regular and diet soft drinks were linked with certain, but separate, cardiovascular disease risk factors. In this study, frequent diet soda drinkers were more likely to be former smokers and have higher blood sugar, high blood pressure, and, ironically, larger waistlines. They were also more likely to have metabolic syndrome. That's the name for a cluster of risk factors-high blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist, and abnormal cholesterol levels-that occur together and increase the risk of heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes.
Even with these reports a moderate ingestion of fructose should be harmless. The American Heart Association recommends women consume up to 25 grams of sugar per day and men up to 37 grams. So, it is not necessarily the fructose itself that is bad. It is consuming massive doses of fructose that exposes you to trouble. Just know that one serving can give you your maximum daily intake of sugar. Drinking a diet soda may not be the answer to your dilemma. The artificial sweeteners in diet sodas interrupt your body's natural ability to regulate the calories you consume based on the sweetness of the foods you intake. This can result in people over-eating because the artificial sweetener is tricking your body into thinking you are consuming real sugar and your body naturally craves more. Researchers at Harvard found that diet soda can double the risk of kidney decline in women expecially when a woman drinks more than two diet sodas a day.
So, again enjoy your soda, but in moderation. Some have said sugar is more addictive than cocaine and I will leave you with that thought.
To your good health and better living,
Clem