Over 130,000 cases of diabetes now linked to soda consumption, HFCS

[Guest guest]

Over 130,000 cases of diabetes now linked to soda consumption, HFCS

_http://www.naturalnews.com/028340_diabetes_sodas.html_

(http://www.naturalnews.com/028340_diabetes_sodas.html)

by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger

 

 

NaturalNews) For years, advocates of natural health have been hammering

away at the message that soda causes diabetes and obesity. The soda industry,

meanwhile, has remained in denial mode, mirroring the ridiculous position

of the tobacco industry that **nicotine is not addictive.** Soda doesn't

cause diabetes, the industry claims, and it's perfectly safe to consume in

essentially unlimited quantities.

 

 

The Corn Refiners Association has joined the denial with its own spin

campaign that seeks to convince people High-Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is

totally natural and completely harmless. HFCS is, of course, the primary

sweetener used in sodas and soft drinks.

 

 

Now comes new research presented at the American Heart Association's

Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention annual conference in San

Francisco. This new research reveals that over the last decade, soda

consumption has conservatively caused:

 

• 130,000 new cases of diabetes

• 14,000 new cases of heart disease

• 50,000 more **life years** with heart disease over the last decade

 

 

**The finding suggests that any kind of policy that reduces consumption

might have a dramatic health benefit,** said senior study author Dr. Kirsten

Bibbins-Domingo (associate professor of medicine at the University of

California, San Francisco).

 

 

The American Beverage Association, meanwhile, says this study hasn't been

published in a peer-reviewed medical journal yet and therefore it doesn't

count. Soda consumption doesn't cause diabetes or heart disease, they claim,

because **...both heart disease and diabetes are complex conditions with

no single cause and no single solution.**

 

 

It's silly logic, of course: Diabetes obviously has a cause. It's not some

spontaneous disease that appears out of nowhere. And when you go looking

for the cause, you obviously have to look at dietary factors since diabetes

is a disease related to the consumption and metabolism of dietary sugars.

Once you do that, sodas immediately raise a red flag because they're liquid

sugar in a highly-concentrated form that does not exist naturally in nature.

 

 

HFCS doesn't grow on trees, in other words. Nature provides sugars locked

into insoluble fibers that slow digestion and lower the effective glycemic

index of sugars that are consumed. In nature, sugars are always combined

with minerals, too, and many of those minerals help prevent diabetes and

heart disease. But High-Fructose Corn Syrup is stripped of virtually all those

minerals. It contains no fiber and no healing phytonutrients that you might

encounter in plants. As a result, HFCS -- sometimes dubbed " liquid Satan "

-- might be called a dietary poison that causes disease while contributing

to nutritional deficiencies that accelerate disease.

 

 

Bone loss

 

 

Interestingly, this new study did not look at loss of bone density, which

is another side effect of drinking soda. Due to the extremely high acidity

of the HFCS sweetener combined with the phosphoric acid used in sodas,

people who drink sodas often lose bone minerals and end up being diagnosed with

osteoporosis (even at a relatively young age).

 

 

Other people end up with kidney stones due to all these minerals passing

through the kidneys and contributing to the built up of mineral deposits

there. Long-term soda consumers may even suffer from pancreatic cancer due to

the extreme stress placed on the pancreas following the consumption of

liquid sugars.

 

 

In all, soda consumption is linked to at least six serious diseases:

 

#1) Diabetes

#2) Obesity

#3) Heart disease

#4) Cancer

#5) Osteoporosis

#6) Kidney stones

 

 

That's why taxing sodas is more than merely a way to raise money through

soda sales; it's also a way to dramatically reduce the cost of treating

these diseases. It's no surprise that several U.S. states are now starting to

seriously consider slapping new taxes on sodas and other " junk " beverages.

 

 

That's not the way I would prefer to see the situation handled, actually.

The better option, in my view, would be to ban all soda advertising by

effectively stripping Free Speech rights from corporations. Such rights belong

only to individuals, not multi-billion-dollar corporations. Corporations

whose products physically harm the health of the population at large should

not be allowed to openly advertise and promote those products to the public.

They can still sell them, they just can't advertise them.

 

 

This is the real solution to the problem: Take away the advertising of

sodas and consumer consumption immediately plummets. It's all the advertising

that keeps the soft drink sales machine churning out disease and suffering

in the name of corporate profits. Soda companies, of course, will argue

that they have a Free Speech right to advertise their products even if they do

promote disease. That's an argument to be taken up by the U.S. Supreme

Court, of course. But let there be no mistake about it: The continued tolerance

of soda advertising is creating a nation of diabetes, obesity and heart

disease.

 

 

There will be a price to be paid for all this, and I fear it will be a

price far beyond what society is able to pay. To raise a nation on sodas and

processed foods is to ultimately doom that nation because failed health will

ultimately lead to a failed nation. You cannot built a healthy nation upon

the backs of a diseased population, and thanks to the soda companies and

junk food companies, the United States of America is now a nation of

diseased, diabetic, obese consumers who continue to poison themselves every

single

day with the dangerous chemicals found in heavily advertised food,

beverage and personal care products.

 

 

If I were the health advisor for a country, I would outright ban all

advertising of harmful consumer products (foods, beverages, personal care,

cleaning products, etc.), and in their place I'd run public service

announcements teaching people about nutrition, disease prevention, vitamin D

and

commonsense self-care. Within one generation, that nation would be the

healthiest

in the world, with the lowest rates of disease and affordable health care

coverage for all.

 

 

The junk food and soda companies, of course, would go broke, and the

economy would rearrange itself to open up new jobs in healthier and more

productive industries rather than the " disease industries " that dominate

America

today.

 

 

Sugary beverages, you see, aren't just a disease upon those who regularly

consume them; they are a disease upon the very nation that threatens its

economy and compromises its future.

 

 

Sources for this story include:

_http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/636642.html_

(http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/636642.html)

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

>That's why taxing sodas is more than merely a way to raise money through <

>soda sales; it's also a way to dramatically reduce the cost of treating <

>these diseases. It's no surprise that several U.S. states are now

starting to <

>seriously consider slapping new taxes on sodas and other " junk "

beverages.<

 

While drinking sodas may be extremely destructive behavior, no one has

any business stopping others from drinking them. Do-good politicians

must stop their social engineering in the interest of raising taxes. If

I want to kill myself, it should be my right and if I am interested in

taking an herb or a supplement that they don't think is good for me in

the interest of wellness, that should also be my right. Please join

with me in keeping government our of our faces.