Soda is the single greatest caloric source in the world, accounting for somewhere between 11-19% of all the calories consumed worldwide. It’s also the scapegoat for the obesity epidemic. The fact that it’s cheap, addictive and readily available means that it takes a lot of willpower to avoid it. However, healthcare website Beachbody offers some valid reasons to quit soda.
1- Soda may cause cancer
According to a report in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, consuming two or more soft drinks per week increased the risk of developing pancreatic cancer by nearly twofold compared to individuals who did not consume soft drinks.
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2- It leads to weight gain
Diet soda can also increase your risk of gaining weight
A 2005 study by the University of Texas Health Science Center showed that there is a 41% increased risk of being obese — and a 65% increased risk of becoming overweight during the next seven or eight years — for every can of diet soda a person consumes in a day. This just proves that not only regular sodas, but even diet sodas are very much part of the problem.
3- It’s the water…and a lot more
Clearly, soda is mainly made up of water, and soda companies’ need for an enormous amount of water results in them affecting the environment. The over-extraction of water by the bottling plants lowers the water tables, leaving farmers and the local communities unable to dig deep enough to get to vital water supplies.
4- Toxic chemicals
Water bottle companies took the heat when the dangers of Bisphenol A (BPA) were made public a couple of years back. Somehow, soda companies flew under the radar and continued to use it in their products. Studies in peer-reviewed science journals have indicated that even at very low doses, BPA can increase breast and ovarian cancer cell growth and the growth of some prostate cancer cells in animals.
5- Waste of oil
Besides the fact that soda adds to how out of balance our diets have become, it wreaks havoc on the world around us. According to a peer-reviewed report published in Environmental Research Letters, the bottled water industry (which is mostly owned by the soda industry) uses the energy equivalent of between 32 and 54 million barrels of oil a year, and the aluminum industry uses as much electricity as the entire continent of Africa. Adding to that, aluminum mining accounts for a tonne of toxic chemicals that are left behind.
6- Genetically modified intake
Whether you consume diet or regular soda, you’re getting all of the genetically modified food you need and more via high fructose corn syrup or aspartame. Both of these are under plenty of scientific as well as anecdotal scrutiny. Findings aren’t pretty but, so far, the multi-billion-dollar industry has kept these sweeteners on the shelves while alternative sweeteners meeting cost requirements are explored. According to one report, rats who consumed aspartame in exceedingly large quantities were more likely to develope cancer.
7- If speed doesn’t kill, soda will
A study at Boston University’s School of Medicine linked diet soda with increased risk factors for heart disease and diabetes. In the US alone, soda led to 75,000 cases of diabetes between 1990 and 2000. A study out of the University of California, San Francisco, shows that soda has killed at least 6,000 Americans between 2000 and 2010.
8- Soda might shorten your life span
A number of lifestyle studies have shown that those who consume soda have shorter lifespans. They take into account many factors so it might be hard to point a finger at soda. But given all the other evidence, it might not be a long shot. Two new findings merely add to the belief.
In 2014, researchers at The University of California at San Francisco published findings, that frequent soda drinking shortens the length of telomeres within white blood cells. Telomeres are a predictor of human lifespan. In 2010, a study showed that the high levels of phosphorus in darker sodas shortened mice lifespans by about a quarter.
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9* It’s the “real thing”…not exactly
Except caffeine (which is optional), there’s nothing in soda that comes from the earth. Soda is merely a mixture of altered water (injected with carbon dioxide gas), artificial flavors, artificial color, and phosphoric acid, along with its sole caloric source that is a byproduct of genetically modified corn production and offers virtually no nutritional value.
Compiled by Amna Hashmi
Published in The Express Tribune, December 10th, 2016.
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