Reasons to Stay Away from Sodas and Energy Drinks |
 The average American drinks an estimated 600 sodas each year. In fact, carbonated soft drinks are the single biggest source of calories in the typical American diet.
This is largely because companies continuously spend billions of dollars on media advertising and other promotional activities to convince us to drink more soda. Soft drinks are promoted vigorously in stores, restaurants, gas stations, museums, vending machines, and even schools. The results are that in the past 10 years, soft drink consumption among children has doubled
in the United States.
Each can of soda has well over 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. |
| The average soda has no nutritional value - only sugar, carbonated water, caramel color, natural flavors, caffeine, phosphoric acid and high-fructose corn syrup. And heavy soft drink consumption is associated with lower intake of essential vitamins, minerals, and dietary fiber. |
| The risk of childhood obesity increases 1.6 times with each additional daily serving of soda consumed. And obese children are at a much greater risk of having type 2 diabetes, which, for the first time, is becoming a problem for teens as well as adults. As people get older, excess weight also contributes to heart attacks, strokes, and cancer. |
| Soft drink manufacturers are the largest single user of refined sugar in the United States. And soda adds more sugar to a typical child’s diet than most other foods combined. 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. |
| Numerous studies indicate that the sugar and acids in soft drinks cause tooth decay. In fact, these acids can begin damaging the enamel just 20 minutes after drinking a soda. And this same acid is the reason that sodas can be used to clean toilets and remove rust and grease. |
| Frequent consumption of soft drinks increases the risk of osteoporosis. Studies demonstrate that phosphorus, a common ingredient in soda, can deplete bones of calcium. With less calcium available, the bones become more porous and prone to fracture. And girls who regularly drink soda are 5 times more prone to broken bones. |
| Caffeine, which is added to many of the most popular soft drinks, is an addictive, stimulant drug. An average can of soda has 35-38 mg of caffeine and most energy drinks contain about 80 mg of caffeine, along with other legal stimulants like guarana and ginseng. Certain energy drinks contain huge blasts of caffeine (up to 280 mg) – almost triple the caffeine in a cup of coffee. These large doses of caffeine can dangerously boost heart rate and blood pressure, increase anxiety, dehydrate the body and cause insomnia. |
| 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 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. |
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