body stops burning stored fat for energy and starts burning the new fat made from sugar. Since you don’t need that much energy, the new fat is stored in your fat cells, causing you to gain weight. In fact, the risk of childhood obesity increases 1.6 times with each additional daily serving of soda consumed. Over time, multiple daily insulin surges can cause insulin resistance and diabetes.

Diet sodas are not a safe option, either. Your body detects the sweet taste, and produces the same insulin response as in the non-diet drinks. Artificial sweeteners also contain chemicals that break down in the body and cause neurological damage.

Drinking the average soft drink adds 200 extra calo

One of the worst things you can do for your health is regularly consume soft drinks. When you understand what is in the average soft drink and what those ingredients can do, you may just want to stay as far away from them as you can!

The average soda has no nutritional value. Most contain only sugar, carbonated water, caramel coloring, flavoring, caffeine, and high fructose corn syrup. Dark colored soft drinks such as colas also contain phosphoric acid. Clear soft drinks (lemon-lime flavored) have citric acid.

Now, let’s look at some of those ingredients individually. The pH of phosphoric acid is very acidic, at 2.8. A substance of this pH can dissolve a nail in about four days. It can also clean the corrosion off a car battery. The only reason that the acid in soda doesn’t dissolve parts of your body after ingesting it is that your body makes a powerful base to neutralize it. Numerous studies have indicated that the sugar and acids in soda may cause tooth decay. In high concentrations, phosphoric acids block calcium absorption and flush calcium out of your bones, making them weak and prone to fracture. The phosphoric acid in soft drinks is also so strong that it reacts with the aluminum inside the cans, dissolving microscopic bits of aluminum right into the soda.

Many sufferers of Alzheimer’s disease have unusually high concentration of aluminum in their brain tissue, suggesting a link between aluminum toxicity and the disease. In some states, highway patrol officers keep cola in the trunks of their cars to clean blood off the highway after an accident. Cola drinks can also loosen rusted bolts nearly as well as silicone spray. In fact, the distributors of some cola drinks have been using it for over twenty years to clean the engines of their trucks. These trucks, by the way, must display hazardous material signs reserved for highly corrosive materials. According to some household cleaning websites, soda can even be sued as a toilet cleaner and grease remover.

An average can of soda has 35 mg of caffeine, and most energy drinks contain about 80 mg caffeine, along with other stimulants such as guarana and ginseng. Some energy drinks even contain up to 280 mg caffeine. This is triple the amount of caffeine found in a cup of coffee. These drinks boost heart rate, raise blood pressure, increase anxiety, dehydrate the body, and cause insomnia.

All soft drinks contain sugar, high fructose corn syrup, or artificial sweeteners. Most soft drinks contain around 13 teaspoons of sugar. Soda adds more sugar to a typical two-year-old’s diet than cookies, candy, and ice cream combined. High amounts of sugar entering the body quickly cause your pancreas to release high amounts of insulin, which turns the sugar into fat. To get rid of this fat, your body stops burning stored fat for energy and starts burning the new fat made from sugar. Since you don’t need that much energy, the new fat is stored in your fat cells, causing you to gain weight. In fact, the risk of childhood obesity increases 1.6 times with each additional daily serving of soda consumed. Over time, multiple daily insulin surges can cause insulin resistance and diabetes.

Diet sodas are not a safe option, either. Your body detects the sweet taste, and produces the same insulin response as in the non-diet drinks. Artificial sweeteners also contain chemicals that break down in the body and cause neurological damage.

Drinking the average soft drink adds 200 extra calor

t can also clean the corrosion off a car battery. The only reason that the acid in soda doesn’t dissolve parts of your body after ingesting it is that your body makes a powerful base to neutralize it. Numerous studies have indicated that the sugar and acids in soda may cause tooth decay. In high concentrations, phosphoric acids block calcium absorption and flush calcium out of your bones, making them weak and prone to fracture. The phosphoric acid in soft drinks is also so strong that it reacts with the aluminum inside the cans, dissolving microscopic bits of aluminum right into the soda.

Many sufferers of Alzheimer’s disease have unusually high concentration of aluminum in their brain tissue, suggesting a link between aluminum toxicity and the disease. In some states, highway patrol officers keep cola in the trunks of their cars to clean blood off the highway after an accident. Cola drinks can also loosen rusted bolts nearly as well as silicone spray. In fact, the distributors of some cola drinks have been using it for over twenty years to clean the engines of their trucks. These trucks, by the way, must display hazardous material signs reserved for highly corrosive materials. According to some household cleaning websites, soda can even be sued as a toilet cleaner and grease remover.

An average can of soda has 35 mg of caffeine, and most energy drinks contain about 80 mg caffeine, along with other stimulants such as guarana and ginseng. Some energy drinks even contain up to 280 mg caffeine. This is triple the amount of caffeine found in a cup of coffee. These drinks boost heart rate, raise blood pressure, increase anxiety, dehydrate the body, and cause insomnia.

All soft drinks contain sugar, high fructose corn syrup, or artificial sweeteners. Most soft drinks contain around 13 teaspoons of sugar. Soda adds more sugar to a typical two-year-old’s diet than cookies, candy, and ice cream combined. High amounts of sugar entering the body quickly cause your pancreas to release high amounts of insulin, which turns the sugar into fat. To get rid of this fat, your body stops burning stored fat for energy and starts burning the new fat made from sugar. Since you don’t need that much energy, the new fat is stored in your fat cells, causing you to gain weight. In fact, the risk of childhood obesity increases 1.6 times with each additional daily serving of soda consumed. Over time, multiple daily insulin surges can cause insulin resistance and diabetes.

Diet sodas are not a safe option, either. Your body detects the sweet taste, and produces the same insulin response as in the non-diet drinks. Artificial sweeteners also contain chemicals that break down in the body and cause neurological damage.

Drinking the average soft drink adds 200 extra calo

ue, suggesting a link between aluminum toxicity and the disease. In some states, highway patrol officers keep cola in the trunks of their cars to clean blood off the highway after an accident. Cola drinks can also loosen rusted bolts nearly as well as silicone spray. In fact, the distributors of some cola drinks have been using it for over twenty years to clean the engines of their trucks. These trucks, by the way, must display hazardous material signs reserved for highly corrosive materials. According to some household cleaning websites, soda can even be sued as a toilet cleaner and grease remover.

An average can of soda has 35 mg of caffeine, and most energy drinks contain about 80 mg caffeine, along with other stimulants such as guarana and ginseng. Some energy drinks even contain up to 280 mg caffeine. This is triple the amount of caffeine found in a cup of coffee. These drinks boost heart rate, raise blood pressure, increase anxiety, dehydrate the body, and cause insomnia.

All soft drinks contain sugar, high fructose corn syrup, or artificial sweeteners. Most soft drinks contain around 13 teaspoons of sugar. Soda adds more sugar to a typical two-year-old’s diet than cookies, candy, and ice cream combined. High amounts of sugar entering the body quickly cause your pancreas to release high amounts of insulin, which turns the sugar into fat. To get rid of this fat, your body stops burning stored fat for energy and starts burning the new fat made from sugar. Since you don’t need that much energy, the new fat is stored in your fat cells, causing you to gain weight. In fact, the risk of childhood obesity increases 1.6 times with each additional daily serving of soda consumed. Over time, multiple daily insulin surges can cause insulin resistance and diabetes.

Diet sodas are not a safe option, either. Your body detects the sweet taste, and produces the same insulin response as in the non-diet drinks. Artificial sweeteners also contain chemicals that break down in the body and cause neurological damage.

Drinking the average soft drink adds 200 extra calo

affeine, along with other stimulants such as guarana and ginseng. Some energy drinks even contain up to 280 mg caffeine. This is triple the amount of caffeine found in a cup of coffee. These drinks boost heart rate, raise blood pressure, increase anxiety, dehydrate the body, and cause insomnia.

All soft drinks contain sugar, high fructose corn syrup, or artificial sweeteners. Most soft drinks contain around 13 teaspoons of sugar. Soda adds more sugar to a typical two-year-old’s diet than cookies, candy, and ice cream combined. High amounts of sugar entering the body quickly cause your pancreas to release high amounts of insulin, which turns the sugar into fat. To get rid of this fat, your body stops burning stored fat for energy and starts burning the new fat made from sugar. Since you don’t need that much energy, the new fat is stored in your fat cells, causing you to gain weight. In fact, the risk of childhood obesity increases 1.6 times with each additional daily serving of soda consumed. Over time, multiple daily insulin surges can cause insulin resistance and diabetes.

Diet sodas are not a safe option, either. Your body detects the sweet taste, and produces the same insulin response as in the non-diet drinks. Artificial sweeteners also contain chemicals that break down in the body and cause neurological damage.

Drinking the average soft drink adds 200 extra calo

body stops burning stored fat for energy and starts burning the new fat made from sugar. Since you don’t need that much energy, the new fat is stored in your fat cells, causing you to gain weight. In fact, the risk of childhood obesity increases 1.6 times with each additional daily serving of soda consumed. Over time, multiple daily insulin surges can cause insulin resistance and diabetes.

Diet sodas are not a safe option, either. Your body detects the sweet taste, and produces the same insulin response as in the non-diet drinks. Artificial sweeteners also contain chemicals that break down in the body and cause neurological damage.

Drinking the average soft drink adds 200 extra calories to your diet. If you drink two soft drinks per day, the extra calories alone will cause you to store an extra pound of fat every ten days. For every two soft drinks you consume, the average person would have to run six miles an hour for over an hour to burn them off.

Now, let’s look at a much better alternative beverage--water. Seventy-five percent of Americans are chronically dehydrated. In 37% of Americans, the thirst mechanism is so weak that it is often mistaken for hunger. (Any possible correlation to our obesity rates?) Even mild dehydration slows down one’s metabolism as much as 3%. Dehydration has been shown to be the number one trigger of daytime fatigue. A mere 2% drop in body water triggers sluggish short-term memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulties focusing on the computer screen or a printed page. Some research has shown that drinking 64-80 ounces of water daily can significantly ease back and joint pain for up to 80% of sufferers. Drinking 50 ounces of water daily has been shown to decrease risk of colon cancer by 45%, breast cancer by 79%, and bladder cancer by 50%.

The more you know about what you put into your body, the better able you will be to make healthy choices and feel better about yourself. Now, the next time you are thirsty, which will you grab—a soft drink or a glass of water?

References: Fredericks-Franklin, Rachel, DC. “How Much Water.” Handout, Jan 2002. Martino, Russell J., Ph.D. “Colas, Soft Drinks, and Your Health.” Found online at Total Health Dynamics, June 2007. “Ten Reasons to Stay Away from Sodas and Energy Drinks.” To Your Health, June 2007.