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| Soft Drink |
Sweeteners and soda contained in soft drinks is so tempting when thirsty.
These types of drinks are not only favored by adults
but also children. Fresh sensation in the
throat that makes people prefer to choose soft drinks rather than drinking plain water. But behind the sweet and refreshing,
you need to be vigilant. Soft drinks can cause a
threat to health, especially if consumed in large quantities on a regular basis and for a long time. Here
are Five threat of a soft drink for
your health :
Obesity. Sweetened drinks are the only
specific food that clinical research has directly linked to weight gain,"
says Harvard endocrinologist Dr. David Ludwig. "Highly concentrated
starches and sugars promote overeating, and the granddaddy of them all is
sugar-sweetened beverages," Ludwig told CNN. The sugar provides huge
amounts of calories, but also creates a vicious cycle. "It's rapidly
absorbed, which raises blood sugar and in effect causes the body to panic,"
Ludwig said. When the body releases insulin to metabolize the sugar, blood
sugar drops. The body responds by releasing a hormone called ghrelin, which
causes hunger and provokes us to eat even more."
A
study from UCLA found that people who drank at least one soda a day increased
their risk of being overweight by 27 percent when compared to those who didn't
drink sodas.
A
direct correlation can be seen in California between the rise in the size of an
average soda and an increase in obesity. For instance, the average size of a
soda increased from 6.5 ounces in the 1950s to an average of 16 ounces today.
And in the past 25 years, obesity rates in California have risen from 8.9
percent to 24.3 percent.
Diet
sodas aren't any better than the sugared varieties. A study presented at a 2011
meeting of the American Diabetes Association found that those who drank diet
sodas saw their waist circumference increase by 70 percent, and those who drank
two or more diet sodas a day had a 600 percent increase in the circumference of
their waists!
Heart
disease. Sodas
definitely aren't good for your ticker. A Harvard study found that drinking a
single 12-ounce sugar-sweetened drink each day increased the risk of heart
disease by 29 percent. Cardiovascular damage from sodas appears to occur at an
early age. A just-released study from the University of Sydney found that
children who drank at least one soft drink a day had narrowed arteries in the
back part of the eye, indicating an increased risk of high blood pressure and
heart disease.
A
study from researchers at the University of Colorado Denver Health Sciences
Center found that a diet high in high-fructose corn syrup, the common sweetener
used in soft drinks, increases the risk of developing high blood pressure by up
to 87 percent. Soft drinks aren't good for cholesterol levels, either. A study
published in Circulation, the journal of the American Heart Association, found
that people who drank one or more soft drinks each day were 25 percent more
likely to develop high blood triglycerides (a type of fat), and 32 percent more
likely to have low levels of "good" cholesterol.
Diet
soda isn't any healthier: A new study published in the Journal of General
Internal Medicine found that people who drank a daily diet soda upped their
odds of having a heart attack or stroke by 44 percent.
Diabetes. The Nurses' Health Study followed
more than 90,000 women for eight years and found that those who drank at least
one sugar-sweetened drink each day were almost twice as likely to have
developed Type 2 diabetes as those who rarely drank sweetened beverages. Some
researchers at Rutgers believe that high-fructose corn syrup, an ingredient in
most sugar-sweetened soft drinks, may initiate a string of events in the body
that leads to diabetes.
Cancer. British researchers discovered that
sodium benzoate, used for mold prevention in many soft drinks, has the ability
to switch off vital parts of a person's DNA. The result could be cirrhosis of
the liver and other degenerative diseases, including Parkinson's. But when
mixed with vitamin C, sodium benzoate creates a carcinogenic substance called
benzene. Researchers at India's Tata Memorial Hospital found a "very
significant correlation" between soft drinks and an increased risk of
esophageal cancer. The artificial sweeteners in diet colas may carry even more
risks. Aspartame is associated with several major cancers, including
pancreatic, leukemia, lymphoma, and breast.
Lung
problems.
Scientists at Australia's University of Adelaide interviewed more than 16,000
people over two years and found a link between soft drinks and asthma and
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The more "soft drinks"
a person drank, the more likely they were to suffer from asthma or COPD. (Newsmax)