10 Diseases Linked to Soda Pop
The number of Americans who consume products that contain sugar-free sweeteners grew from 70 million in 1987 to 160 million in 2000. At the same time, the incidence of obesity in the United States has doubled from 15 percent to 30 percent across all age groups, ethnic groups, and social strata. And the number of overweight Americans has increased from about 30 percent to over 65 percent of the population.
And though soda is rather addictive treat and for many of us it would be hard to give up soda habit once and for all, at least we should try to place it to the category of things we enjoy on occasion.
As for me, the following information will surely keep me away from opening another can.
1 Extra pounds: Soda is a significant contributor to overweight and obesity. Many people either forget or don’t realize how many extra calories they consume in what they drink. Drinking a single 330 ml can a day of sugary drinks translates to more than 1lb of weight gain every month. The relationship between soft drink consumption and body weight is so strong that researchers(1) calculate that for each additional soda consumed, the risk of obesity increases 1.6 times.
Here is what research shows: It may sound counter intuitive, but people who drink diet soft drinks don’t lose weight. In fact, they gain weight.
An exciting new study in the Journal of Behavioral Neuroscience has shown conclusively that using artificial sweeteners not only does not prevent weight gain, but induces a whole set of physiologic and hormonal responses that actually make you gain weight.
2 Liver Damage: Soda damages your liver. There is evidence that consumption of too many soft drinks puts you under increased risk for liver cirrhosis similar to what chronic alcoholics have.
3 Tooth Decay: Soda eats up and dissolves the tooth enamel. Researches say that soft drinks are responsible for doubling or tripling the incidence of tooth decay. Soda’s acidity is even worse for teeth than the solid sugar found in candy.
4 Kidney stones and chronic kidney disease: Colas of all kinds are well known for their high phosphoric acid content, a substance known to change the urine in a way that promotes kidney stone formation. Research shows that drinking one quart (less than three 12-ounce cans) of soda per week may increase a person’s risk of developing kidney stones by 15%.
5 Diabetes: Anything that promotes weight gain increases the risk of diabetes. Drinking soda not only contributes to making people fat, but it also stresses the body’s ability to process sugar. Some scientists now suspect that the sweet stuff may help explain why the number of Americans with type 2 diabetes has tripled from 6.6 million in 1980 to 20.8 million today.
6 Heartburn and acid reflux: Heavy consumption of soda is a strong predictor of heartburn. First, a lot of carbonated beverages are very acidic. The other thing is that they deliver a lot of air – in the form of carbon dioxide – which can cause distension of the stomach. And that distension appears to be associated with more reflux.
7 Soft drinks = Soft Bones = Osteoporosis: Soft drinks containing phosphoric acid are definitely linked to osteoporosis (a weakening of the skeletal structure) because they lead to lower calcium levels and higher phosphate levels in the blood. When phosphate levels are high and calcium levels are low, calcium is pulled out of the bones. The phosphate content of soft drinks, such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi, is very high, and they contain virtually no calcium. Researchers found, that high soda consumption (particularly cola) in children poses a significant risk factor for impaired calcification of growing bones.
8 Hypertension (high blood pressure): Experts have reasons to believe that over consumption of soda leads to an increase in blood pressure. It actually doesn’t matter if the soda is regular or diet.
9 Heart disease: Heavy soda drinkers are more likely to develop risk factors for heart disease. Research shows that drinking more than one soft drink a day is associated with an increased risk of developing the metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is a group of symptoms such as central obesity, elevated blood pressure, elevated fasting blood sugar, elevated fasting triglycerides, low levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL or “good” cholesterol). Having three or more of the symptoms increases a person’s risk of developing diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
10 Impaired digestion (gastrointestinal distress): The common problem is general gastrointestinal distress. This includes increased stomach acid levels requiring acid inhibitors and moderate to severe gastric inflammation with possible stomach lining erosion. Drinking sodas, especially on an empty stomach, can upset the fragile acid-alkaline balance of the stomach and other gastric lining, creating a continuous acid environment.
Source: Squidoo
Dr. Michael Wegmann's Thoughts:
It's no secret, healthy people do not drink ANY kind of soda, regular or diet. The single greatest step you could take today would be to remove soda from your diet. Begin to replace all of your liquids with good quality water. According to USDA estimates, the per capita consumption of HFCS (the sweetener in soda) was about 40 pounds per year as of 2007, primarily in the form of soft drinks.
Tragically, high fructose corn syrup in the form of soda, is now the number one source of calories in the United States. HFCS has also been proven to have high levels of mercury which will destroy your nerve system. Food and beverage manufacturers began switching their sweeteners from sucrose (table sugar) to corn syrup in the 1970s when they discovered that HFCS was not only cheaper to make, it was also much sweeter (processed fructose is nearly 20 times sweeter than table sugar), a switch that has drastically altered the American diet.
Because soda clearly elevates insulin levels, and elevated insulin levels are the foundation of nearly every chronic disease, including:
* Cancer
* Heart disease
* Diabetes
* Premature aging
* Arthritis and
* Osteoporosis
Only 5% of babies born have genetics defects, the majority of us have a perfectly healthy genome and produce functional proteins, illness in this group can likely be attributed to the nature of the signal. There are three primary situations in which signals contribute to dysfunction and dis-ease.
The first is trauma. If you twist or mis-align your spine and physically impede the transmission of the nervous system’s signals, it may result in a distortion of the information being exchanged between the brain and the body’s cells, tissues, and organs.
The second is toxicity. Toxins and poisons in our system represent inappropriate chemistry that can distort the signal’s information on its path between the nervous system and the targeted cells and tissues. Altered signals, derived from either of these causes, can inhibit or modify normal behaviors and lead to the expression of dis-ease.
The third and most important influence of signals on the dis-ease process is thought, the action of the mind. Mind-related illnesses do not require that there be anything physically wrong with the body at the outset of the dis-ease. Health is predicated upon the nervous system’s ability to accurately perceive environmental information and selectively engage appropriate, life-sustaining behaviors. If a mind misinterprets environmental signals and generates an inappropriate response, survival is threatened because the body’s behaviors become out of sync with the environment. We may not think that a thought could be enough to undermine an entire system, but, in fact, mis-perceptions can be lethal.
Both wellness and poor health involve future consequences, namely the inevitable rewards or unavoidable regrets resulting from past activities. If this is true, why don’t more people take time to ponder the future? The answer is simple: They are so caught up in the current moment that it doesn’t seem to matter. The problems and the rewards of today are so absorbing to some human beings that they never pause long enough to think about tomorrow.
If we have not bothered to eat well in the past ninety days, this lack of discipline does not seem to have any immediate impact on our lives. And since nothing drastic happened to us after the first ninety days, we repeat this error in judgment for another ninety days, and on and on it goes. Why? Because it doesn’t seem to matter. And herein lies the great danger. Far worse than not eating well is not even realizing that it matters!
The greatest joy of being human, is you can decide to change your life this very moment. You posses the power to alter the way you think, act and live. No other creature on this earth can influence their future like humans.
Run. Play. and don't forget to Laugh!
ABOUT THIS AUTHOR
Great what the heck can I eat?
Hello Bill, keep your eyes out for some new post addressing the questions, “what should I eat and drink”?
Thanks for your input.
how about Barretts Esophagua?
After deciding to cut soda out of my diet altogether, I have noticed an increase in my energy level. Remaining faithful to that decision was easy at first…but now……6 months later I am having some recession to one once in a while. Water is our friend. Since our body is about 60% water…..this is the one decision that will positively affect our body’s chemistry the most. Dr. Mike, thanks for keeping us informed! Blessings
@Mike Thomas
There are a few things about Barrett’s Esophagus that play into the topic of this article.
As I understand it, Barrett’s Esophagus is a pre-cancerous condition where ulcers form on the Upper GI tract, most often caused by, but not entirely exclusively, GERD (Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease, or “Acid Reflux Disease”). If left untreated, it is likely that the condition could worsen into Esophageal Cancer.
While soda is pretty acidic compared to most drinks, the average person probably doesn’t have to worry about getting Barrett’s Esophagus just from drinking soda.
However, if you are diagnosed with GERD, cutting soda out of your diet would be an extremely good idea, as the soda will only exacerbate the heartburn, increasing your chance to contract Barrett’s Esophagus over time, and in turn, increasing the risk for Esophageal Cancer.
You can try to mitigate these risks by using PPI’s (Proton Pump Inhibitors) like Prilosec (generically known as “Omeprazole”), but these drugs also carry their own set of adverse affects. These include short-term effects, such as nausea, headache, diarrhea, and dizzyness. There are also constant affects, like decreased B12 absorbtion (the vitamin that gives you energy) and a significant increase in the risk of catching pneumonia.
Now, I’m not a health care professional and I’m sure Dr. Wegmann will correct me if any of my information is wrong, but I have been diagnosed with GERD. This is something that I deal with every day. I’ve tried the PPI drugs as a long term solution, and let me tell you, after long term usage, I’ve felt like crap from day to day.
When it comes to Barrett’s Esophagus, your best option is to eat (and drink!) right, exercise, and make sure you get a good night’s rest every night. This is the only method that I’ve found that both combats GERD *and* enables you to stay feeling healthy.
Hello Dale, thanks for your kind words. This website has been an enormous undertaking, it’s great to see readers like yourself making positive changes in your life as well as gaining some value from this site.
Keep up the good work!
That’s a pretty scary list of diseases. I stopped drinking soda about 10 years ago and there have been many benefits. One that I didn’t expect was that I can do vigorous exercise (such as backpacking) much more easily. The HFCS effect is a feeling of energy burst in the short run but there is always a crash later, if one exercises.
I had no idea that high levels of mercury were in HFCS. That may even be a factor in the high rates of ADD among young people, an age group that tends to drink huge amounts of soda.
you can avoid kidney stones by drinking lots of liquid.;~`