I’ve never been a soft drink addict so far and I really don’t know why nor did I ever bother to find out. After all, being seen with a slick and multi-coloured can of Coke or Pepsi outside, say a Mac Donalds or any other eatery worth its name was considered to be the “in-thing” till a few months/years ago(is it still?). I was notorious for doing all the “out-things” anyway, so I guess it didn’t make too much of a difference whether I was “in” or “out”.
My negative view on the “active and frequent” consumption of soft drinks got a major fillip when I came across a few articles which list out the side effects that these drinks have on our body and health. It certainly is not my intention to dissuade readers from consuming these “Kewl” drinks…I’ll only put down here some of the side effects caused by these drinks. It is left to you to decide whether you want to continue drinking regularly or not…
Ingredients
A normal soft drink contains calories, carbohydrates, sodium, potassium, phosphorus, caffeine(!) and Aspartame.
Soft drinks do not have any nutritional value worth mentioning(in terms of vitamins and minerals). What they do have are - higher sugar content, higher acid base and plenty of additives such as preservatives and colorings.
Side-effects
Some people prefer to consume soft drinks more often than they do water, guess what happens?
“Steal” water from the body – Soft drinks take 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, one needs to drink 8-10 glasses of water for every one glass of soft drinks!
Soft Drinks never quench thirst - Constantly denying one’s body an adequate amount of water can lead to something called Chronic Cellular Dehydration(CCD), a condition that weakens the body at the cellular level. This, in turn, can lead to a weakened immune system and a plethora of diseases.
The high level of phosphates in soft drinks suck vital minerals from the body - Soft Drinks are made with purified water that also suck vital minerals from the body. A severe lack of minerals can lead to Heart Disease(caused by lack of magnesium), Osteoporosis(lack of calcium) and many other diseases. Most vitamins can not perform their function in the body without the presence of these minerals.
Soft Drinks severely interfere with digestion - Caffeine and high amounts of sugar virtually shut down the digestive process in the human body which means the body is essentially taking in NO nutrients from the food you may have just eaten, even that eaten many hours earlier.
Soft Drinks are extremely acidic - The human body naturally exists at a pH factor(a measure of the bases to acids ratio) of about 7. 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 and that is precisely what soft drinks do. They deposit acid waste in the body which accumulates over time in the joints and around the organs.
The human body has an optimum temperature of 37 degrees centigrade which is essential for the effective functioning of digestive enzymes. The temperature of cold soft drinks is much less than 37C, sometimes quite close to 0(remember CHILLED soft drinks?). This lowers the effectiveness of the enzymes and puts great stress on the digestive system thus digesting less food. In 99% of the cases, the food gets fermented which in turn leads to emanation of bad smelling gases, decays in the body and forms toxins which when absorbed by the intestines, get circulated in the blood and are delivered to the whole body. I leave it to your active imagination to figure out what diseases can be caused by these toxins.
Some of us might already be aware of these facts while most might not be. I hold no personal grudge against these cola giants but I also value human life and feel the need to share information with my co-humans if I feel that something that they do frequently is silently destroying their body from within. One might vehemently argue that these soft drinks are surely not life-threatening.yes sir, I agree with you, but if taken regularly or in large volumes(which could be even a single bottle/can on a daily basis), these drinks can erase the lifeline on your palm by a few inches not to speak of “minor” other diseases and ailments, whatsay?
It is impossible to stay away from these soft drinks for the simple reason that they have become a part and parcel of our daily life, be it at home or while on a boozing spree with friends/colleagues or “just like that”. At the same time, remember not to get addicted to them.
So the next time your hand stretches out for that bottle of soft drink, think of all the havoc it could wreak in your body.