Potential Health Risks Associated with Soft Drinks
• They Serve No Purpose…
As far as nutritional content is concerned. They contain little to no vitamins, minerals, fiber, protein, or other essential nutrients. With that being said, there’s no healthy reason why children should be consuming soft drinks.
• Linked To High Levels of Pesticides
In certain regions, farmers use popular sodas to spray their crops instead of commercial pesticides.
• Tooth Decay
Researchers declare that soft drinks are responsible for doubling the incidence of tooth decay and eroding the tooth enamel.
• Osteoporosis and Weak Bones
It’s been proposed in various studies that phosphoric acid contained in some soda pop draws calcium from the bones and lowers bone density of the skeleton.
• Diet Soda is not better
A study shows that diet soda increases risk of obesity. Also, there are claims that aspartame (a sugar substitute found in most diet sodas) is responsible for numerous health side effects including brain tumors, seizure and emotional disorders.
• Carcinogens (cancer-causing agents)
Let’s face it; mostly everything around us is toxic. However, when elevated levels of carcinogens are ingested on the daily basis, it poses a dilemma. Extremely high levels of benzene (known carcinogen) were linked to soda, particularly the citrus and vitamin-enriched drinks .
• Diabetes and Obesity
Drinking one or more sugar-sweetened beverages per day increases one’s risk of developing Type II Diabetes by 80 percent. Soft drinks also have excessive calories which are linked to weight gain. They’re normally accompanied with fast foods which are high in calories as well.
• Immune Suppressing
Drinking two- and-a-half 12-ounce cans of soda can diminish the ability of white blood cells to kill germs by 40 percent. The immune-suppressing effect of refined sugar starts less than thirty minutes after ingestion and can last up to five hours.
So is soda REALLY bad for you? I’ll let you be the judge.
