Soda, pop, soft drinks, carbonated beverages will mess you up! You must think that I only write about the evil side of foods. You might be right. I promise that I’ll try to find better stuff to write about after this post. I thought it might be important to you to learn about the side effects of drinking the beverages you see advertised so often. Surprisingly, most of you still believe that if a food or drink is being sold that some “consumer protection” agency has deemed it safe for you. NO IT ISN”T. Just look around. Notice how much bigger everyone is, especially children, compared to 10 or 15 years ago.
SOFT DRINKS ARE A MAJOR PROBLEM – STOP DRINKING THEM.
The following information is mostly from an article posted by Rodale titled “9 Disturbing Side Effects of Soda” – please click the link to read the complete story. I am posting only the highlights. – jughandle
FAT In Strange Places
Danish researchers have found that drinking non-diet soft drinks leads to a large build up of fat around your liver and skeletal muscles. Fat in these areas make your body insulin resistant which in turn leads to diabetes. This fact alone shows why there has been a major increase in cases of diabetes in the last 20 years. All it takes according to the Danish study is to drink 1 regular sized soft drink every day for just 6 months to increase your liver fat by over 135% AND a 200% increase in skeletal fat. In addition other organ fats, cholesterol and your triglycerides in your blood will show a large INCREASE.
Diet Soda Won’t Save You
A 10 year study at the University of Texas – ” Researchers from the University of Texas Health Science Center monitored 475 adults for 10 years, and found that those who drank diet soda had a 70 percent increase in waist circumference over the 10-year study, compared with those who didn’t drink any soda. Those who drank more than two diet sodas per day saw a 500 percent waist expansion! A separate study the same researchers conducted on mice suggested that it was the aspartame, which raised blood glucose levels, that caused the weight gain; when your liver encounters too much glucose, the excess is converted to body fat.”
HELLO – a 500% increase in waist circumference??? I know people who drink 5 or more diet soft drinks per day.
Cancer Causing Caramel in Cola Drinks
“In 2011, the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to ban the artificial caramel coloring used to make Coke, Pepsi, and other colas brown. The reason: Two contaminants in the coloring, 2-methylimidazole and 4-methylimidazole, have been found to cause cancer in animals, a threat the group says is unnecessary, considering that the coloring is purely cosmetic. According to California’s strict Proposition 65 list of chemicals known to cause cancer, just 16 micrograms per person per day of 4-methylimidazole is enough to pose a cancer threat, and most popular brown colas, both diet and regular, contain 200 micrograms per 20-ounce bottle.”
Obviously Coke and Pepsi aren’t going to take the brown out of their drinks, so it is up to us to vote with our wallet and stop buying these products.
Phosphates in Colas Accelerate Aging
I’m begging you to not believe me and do your own research. A recent study has shown that phosphates which are also phosphoric acid compounds that are flavor enhancers and preservatives found in lots of foods not only can damage your heart and kidney, can lead to muscle loss, osteoporosis and accelerated aging.
Artificial Sweeteners Cause Water Pollution
Artificial sweeteners used in our food supply don’t break down in our bodies or in nature. Scientists can same water from our rivers and lakes and find acesulfameK, sucralose and saccharin. A recent test of 19 municipal water supplies in the US have shown the presence of sucralose in all of them. So does that mean our fish will be fatter?
Mountain Dew Mind
“Dentists have a name for the condition they see in kids who drink too much Mountain Dew. They wind up with a “Mountain Dew Mouth,” full of cavities caused by the drink’s excessive sugar levels. “Mountain Dew Mind” may be the next medical condition that gets named after the stuff. An ingredient called brominated vegetable oil, or BVO, added to prevent the flavoring from separating from the drink, is an industrial chemical used as a flame retardant in plastics. Also found in other citrus-based soft drinks and sports drinks, the chemical has been known to cause memory loss and nerve disorders when consumed in large quantities. Researchers also suspect that, like brominated flame retardants used in furniture foam, the chemical builds up in body fat, possibly causing behavioral problems, infertility, and lesions on heart muscles over time”
BPA
As I pointed out in a recent post, BPA or bisphenol A is everywhere. It is used to line the aluminum soda cans to keep the soda from reacting with the metal over time. This is bad, bad stuff you guys. It will mess up your, and your childrens hormones.
Conclusions
I could seriously go on and on about these and other problems, but I just want to make the point and not scare you away. I’m not perfect, I drink a soda now and then. I’ll be drinking fewer after this blog. I just want you to be aware of the dangers and do your own research. If you get even more excited and want to do something about it, send this blog or a letter to the officers of the soft drink companies and ask them to do some thing about the problems. You might be surprised to find that they already are. – jughandle