The Real Dangers of Soda & Top Ten Reasons Never To Consume Soft Drinks!

[Guest guest]

The Real Dangers of Soda to You and Your Children

 

 

By Dr. Joseph Mercola

with Rachael Droege

 

 

How many sodas have you had today? How about your kids? The average American

drinks an estimated 56 gallons of soft drinks each year, but before you grab

that next can of soda, consider this: one can of soda has about 10 teaspoons

of sugar, 150 calories, 30 to 55 mg of caffeine, and is loaded with

artificial food colors and sulphites.

 

 

This is an alarming amount of sugar, calories and harmful additives in a

product that has absolutely no nutritional value. Plus, studies have linked

soda

to osteoporosis, obesity, tooth decay and heart disease. Despite this, soda

accounts for more than one-quarter of all drinks consumed in the United

States.

 

 

Teenagers and children, who many soft drinks are marketed toward, are among

the largest consumers. In the past 10 years, soft drink consumption among

children has almost doubled in the United States. Teenage boys now drink, on

average, three or more cans of soda per day, and 10 percent drink seven or more

cans a day. The average for teenage girls is more than two cans a day, and 10

percent drink more than five cans a day.

 

 

While these numbers may sound high, they're not surprising considering that

most school hallways are lined with vending machines that sell, of course,

soft drinks. It's not uncommon for schools to make marketing deals with leading

soft drink companies such as Coca-Cola from which they receive

commissions--based on a percentage of sales at each school--and sometimes a

lump-sum

payment.

 

 

The revenues are used for various academic and after-school activities, but

what activity could be worth devastating the students' health, which is

exactly what consuming all that soda is doing? Getting rid of vending machines

in

schools--or replacing their contents with pure water and healthy

snacks--could make a big difference, as vending machines can increase the

consumption of

sweetened beverages by up to 50 or more cans of soda per student per year.

 

 

Let's take a look at some of the major components of a can of soda:

 

 

a.. Phosphoric Acid: May interfere with the body's ability to use calcium,

which can lead to osteoporosis or softening of the teeth and bones. Phosphoric

acid also neutralizes the hydrochloric acid in your stomach, which can

interfere with digestion, making it difficult to utilize nutrients.

 

b.. Sugar: Soft drink manufacturers are the largest single user of refined

sugar in the United States. It is a proven fact that sugar increases insulin

levels, which can lead to high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart

disease, diabetes, weight gain, premature aging and many more negative side

effects.

Most sodas include over 100 percent of the RDA of sugar.

 

c.. Aspartame: This chemical is used as a sugar substitute in diet soda.

There are over 92 different health side effects associated with aspartame

consumption including brain tumors, birth defects, diabetes, emotional

disorders

and epilispsy/seizures. Further, when aspartame is stored for long periods of

time or kept in warm areas it changes to methanol, an alcohol that converts to

formaldehyde and formic acid, which are known carcinogens.

 

d.. Caffeine: Caffeinated drinks cause jitters, insomnia, high blood

pressure, irregular heartbeat, elevated blood cholesterol levels, vitamin and

mineral depletion, breast lumps, birth defects, and perhaps some forms of

cancer.

 

e.. Tap Water: I recommend that everyone avoid drinking tap water because it

can carry any number of chemicals including chlorine, trihalomethanes, lead,

cadmium, and various organic pollutants. Tap water is the main ingredient in

bottled soft drinks.

 

f.. Soda is one of the main reasons, nutritionally speaking, why many people

suffer health problems. Aside from the negative effects of the soda itself,

drinking a lot of soda is likely to leave you with little appetite for

vegetables, protein and other food that your body needs.

 

If you are still drinking soda, stopping the habit is an easy way to improve

your health. Pure water is a much better choice. If you must drink a

carbonated beverage, try sparkling mineral water.

 

===

 

 

Top Ten Reasons Never To Consume Soft Drinks!

 

1. Soft drinks steal water from the body. They work very much like a

diuretic which takes away more water than it provides to the body. Just to

process

the high levels of sugar in soft drinks steals a considerable amount of water

from the body. To replace the water stolen by soft drinks, you need to drink

8-12 glasses of water for every one glass of soft drinks that you consume!

 

2. Soft Drinks never quench your thirst, certainly not your body's need for

water. Constantly denying your body an adequate amount can lead to Chronic

Cellular Dehydration, a condition that weakens your body at the cellular level.

This, in turn, can lead to a weakened immune system and a plethora of

diseases.

 

3. The elevated levels of phosphates in soft drinks leach vital minerals

from your body. Soft Drinks are made with purified water that also leach vital

minerals from your body. A severe lack of minerals can lead to Heart Disease

(lack of magnesium), Osteoporosis (lack of calcium) and many other diseases.

Most vitamins cannot perform their function in the body without the presence of

minerals.

 

4. Soft Drinks can remove rust from a car bumper or other metal surfaces.

Imagine what it's doing to your digestive tract as well as the rest of your

body.

 

5. The high amounts of sugar in Soft Drinks causes your pancreas to produce

an abundance of insulin, which leads to a " sugar crash " . Chronic elevation and

depletion of sugar and insulin can lead to diabetes and other imbalance

related diseases. This is particularly disruptive to growing children which can

lead to life-long health problems.

 

6. Soft Drinks severely interfere with digestion. Caffeine and high amounts

of sugar virtually shut down the digestive process. That means your body is

essentially taking in NO nutrients from the food you may have just eaten, even

that eaten hours earlier. Consumed with french-fries which can take WEEKS to

digest, there is arguably nothing worse a person can put in their body.

 

7. Diet soft drinks contain Aspartame, which has been linked to depression,

insomnia, neurological disease and a plethora of other illness. The FDA has

received more than 10,000 consumer complaints about Aspartame, that's 80% of

all complaints about food additives.

 

8. Soft Drinks are EXTREMELY acidic, so much so that they can eat through

the liner of an aluminum can and leach aluminum from the can if it sits on the

shelf too long. Alzheimer patients who have been autopsied ALL have high

levels of aluminum in their brains. Heavy metals in the body can lead to many

neurological and other diseases.

 

9. Soft Drinks are EXTREMELY acidic: The human body naturally exists at a pH

of about 7.0. Soft Drinks have a pH of about 2.5, which means you are putting

something into your body that is hundred of thousands of times more acidic

that your body is! Diseases flourish in an acidic environment. Soft Drinks and

other acidic food deposit acid waste in the body which accumulates over time

in the joints and around the organs. For example, the Body pH of cancer or

arthritis patients are always low. The sicker the person, the lower the Body

pH.

 

10. Soft Drinks are the WORST THING you can possibly put in your body. Don't

even think of taking a sip of a Soft Drink when you are sick with a cold,

flu or something worse. It will only make it that much harder for your body to

fight the illness.

 

 

Fron the website of Kallie P. Miller, R.N. (Ret.),

_http://www.4optimallife.com/_ (http://www.4optimallife.com/)

 

 

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