Why I Stopped Drinking Soda, Part II

Read Part 1 here.

The health problems.

On average, one soda provides Americans with 12 teaspoons of sugar a day, while the U.S. Department of Argriculture only recommends 12 teaspoons for a 2,200 calorie diet. Most people are getting all of their recommend daily value from one soda alone! Just think of all the people who drink soda throughout the day (i.e: Myself freshman year) and you can only imagine how many of our recommended calories are filled up by the refined sugar in soda.

Obesity

Since the good calories and nutrients we’re supposed to eat are being replaced with refined sugar, heavy soda drinkers encounter more health problems than non-soda drinkers. Obesity, which has more than doubled since the 1970’s, can be attributed to poor diet and lack of exercise, but our increased soda consumption definitely plays a factor. Obesity causes diabetes, heat disease, stroke, cancer, depression, and truck load of other problems. “An analysis of USDA 1994-96 dietary-intake data found that obesity rates have reisen in tandem with soft drink consumption, and that heavy consumers of soda pop have higher calorie intakes,” says the “Liquid Candy” study.

Bone decay and osteoporosis.

Due to the rise in soda consumption, there has been a significant decline in calorie intake from milk and other dairy products. Calcium has been replaced with refine sugar which leads to increased risk in oeseoporosis, which is a disease that causes fragile bones.

Tooth Decay

What did your mommy always tell you? Eating all that sugar will cause your teeth to rot out! Good thing you listened, right? I can speak from personal experience on this subject, since I put holes in teeth with my excessive soda drinking. When I got my cavities filled, I gave up drinking more than one or two sodas per week and almost five years later have not had a new cavity. Experts recommend that if you are going to drink soda, have it with a meal and brush your teeth afterwards with fluoride toothpaste. The increase in preventive tooth care has actually declined the rates of tooth decay in the US, but that doesn’t mean you’re off the hook!

Conclusion

In conclusion, I know from my own experience why soda wasn’t good for me. If you’re an avid drinker, you may have a hard time giving it up so easily. Trust me on this, once you stop, you really can’t go back. Drinking more than a can of soda in a given period usually makes me ill. I’ve gotten into the habit of drinking so much water throughout the day that it doesn’t leave room for soda. Water doesn’t have taste, but the refreshing feeling you get from a nice cold glass of water is unparallel to the stinging you get in your throat and acidy feeling in your stomach that you get from soda. Treat a can of soda like a candy bar, a liquid candy bar if you will, and enjoy it with a meal maybe once a week. Hopefully, you can limit your intake substantially and begin replacing those bad, empty calories with something nutritional, or better yet, nothing at all!

Source: Liquid Candy (pdf)

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 15th, 2006 at 2:34 pm and is filed under Diet. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.