9 Reasons to Stop Consuming Soft Drinks Now
This post was last updated on December 9th, 2024
Can’t imagine gulping those yummy pizzas, burgers, nachos, etc. with your favourite soft drink? Can’t expect a party without those endless glasses of soft drinks and colas? Then you are probably being addicted to them to an extent that you are blindly consuming them despite knowing that it is hazardous for your health. If at all you are unaware of the possible health risks, then you will surely have enough reasons to quit it once you know them.
These days soft drinks are pitched as energy drinks and people are just crazy about buying soft drinks when they actually are thirsty for water. Most of these soft drinks are carbonated and artificially sweetened, owing to which they are abundant in calories. You may never know when you get accustomed to them that eating food without these soft drinks will become damn retarding. As per medical studies, continuous consumption of soft drinks for more than 20 days can result in enormous weight gain, particularly in people who have a family history of obesity. In addition to exponential addition in weight, you also become prone to suffer from diabetes and may develop uncontrollable cravings for sugar. This on the other hand, will drain away your bone density levels.
Many people consume it due to their notion that it gives a perk in energy levels while some other couldn’t resist their temptation for sugar. Your health is wealth and if you want to protect yourself from lifestyle diseases that can ruin your health before you reach 40s, then read these 9 reasons to stop consuming soft drinks now:
1. Weight Gain
Soft drinks come loaded with lots of artificial flavours, colours and sweeteners that are hell bent on making you add extra pounds. Medical researchers have revealed that having soft drinks and weight are directly proportional in a way that the risk of obesity rises 1.6 times on consumption of each additional soft drink can. You won’t even know how your addiction for soft drinks may one day end up making you fat and out of shape. The sharp shoot in weight is eventually followed by a series of other diseases.
2. Depression & Anxiety
Source: reason and meaning
Since soft drinks have hardly any natural or nutritive value in them, these chemical induced drinks cause hormonal imbalances and affects the functioning of the brain. There is a chemical called aspartame found in soft drinks that causes a change in the brain’s chemical composition. This in turn causes mood swings, periods of sudden depression or anxiety disorders, which in long run can have disastrous effect on your health.
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3. Increase In Temptation For Sweet Dishes
Curing your addiction for sugar is as difficult as getting rid of smoking or alcohol. The more sugar you consume, the more your body will demand. After consuming one can of soft drink, your mind will automatically crave for having more sugary stuff. It is hardly possible to control such sugar pangs and these uncontrolled temptations cause a stupendous rise in the blood sugar levels making your prone to diabetes, obesity, etc. Medical studies have stated that twenty minutes (approx) after drinking soft drinks, the rise in blood sugar causes an insulin burst, which the liver tackles by converting sugar into fat.
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4. Affects Your Bone Health
Since soft drinks comprise of high amount of phosphoric acid that makes them acidic in nature, they work their best in making your bone lose the calcium content. They reduce the calcium in your bones to make it weak and fragile. When this phosphorus is eliminated from the body with urine, it takes away calcium with it, thereby depriving the bones of an essential mineral. In addition, the caffeine in the soft drinks does not allow proper calcium absorption in the bones owing to which this further deteriorates the bone health. Medical researchers have found that most people with osteoporosis have been consuming soft drinks for a long period of time.
5. Diabetes
Mostly people who are obese are at a higher risk of suffering from diabetes due to continuous consumption of soft drinks. Also people who have inherited the disease must particularly refrain from having soft drinks. Medical studies have warned that people who drink soft drinks have an 80 percent increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes. However, these studies have also suggested that consuming soft drinks once a while does not have such serious repercussions.
Recommended: How To Prevent Diabetes That Is Hereditary
6. Raises The Risk Of Cancer
Now you know that soft drinks have adverse impacts on your brain, you must also be aware that many other harmful chemicals such as formaldehyde found in soft drinks can cause havoc on your body cells. They damage your body cells and if you are frequently consuming soft drinks, then the chemical build up over the time may lead to cancer.
7. Affects the Functioning of Your Kidney
Your kidney works like a strainer in the body and filters all substances to ensure stoppage of flow of harmful elements. Being packed with nothing but hazardous substances, soft drinks surely affects the functioning of the kidney in the long run. The plaque like substances keep on piling up in your kidney due to which it may gradually stop working efficiently. Moreover, it is the high content of phosphoric acid that causes kidney stones and other renal disorders.
8. Can Make You Susceptible to Asthma & Heart Diseases
Soft drinks comprise of preservatives in the form of sodium benzoate. This sodium preservatives add sodium to the diet while making the body unable to absorb potassium from the food. In many cases, it has been found that prolonged consumption of food items with high sodium benzoate resulted in asthma. Also most of the soft drinks contain high fructose corn syrup that increases the risk of metabolic syndrome which results in greater risk of diabetes and heart diseases.
9. Harms Your Reproductive System
Source: upaiyun
Not only soft drinks but soft drink cans too are dangerous for our health. They are made of a resin that contains BPA, a chemical easily found in plastic containers and water bottles and is a major cancer causing element. It creates havoc in the endrocrine system and studies have revealed that it causes premature puberty and reproductive abnormalities.
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Snehashree Bhat
A young writer who loves to pen words from creative perspective. Passionate internet surfer, a versatile homemaker and a person who finds pleasure in adopting healthier and positive changes in her persona. An enthusiastic feminist who wishes to make serious changes in the stereotypical thought process of the society via the voice of her words.