Long, hot summer days are right around the corner, and they bring along with them our dry, parched throats longing for the cool, sweet wetness that a bottle of that soft drink will bless us with.
The same bottle brings with it a bundle of nasty surprise, a fact that every single one of you surely know. However, it is astounding to know that soft drinks are responsible for more than just our ‘mainstream’ diseases like obesity and diabetes. Let’s look at the after-life of the glass of soft drink you gulped in.
BRAIN: Artificial sweeteners like HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) are far from being sweet to our brains, rather, these have a mean effect on our cranial activity. HFCS, in high amounts, interfere with the brain cell signalling activity. And we know that our brain, in its entirety, is dependent upon these very signals!
TEETH: The high reactive solvents and phosphoric acid react with our tooth enamel. Acid + enamel= no enamel! (Oh, okay, fine! ‘Slightly’ dissolved enamel). The enamel gets eroded, and that is my point. Save the trip to the dentist’s, won’t you?
RESPIRATION: Sodium benzoate, used as a preservative, mixes with our diet and reduces the availability of potassium to our body. Research suggests that this may lead to recurring respiratory problems like asthma.
HEART: The Framingham Heart Study showed that individuals who consume one soft drink per day are 50% more likely to develop Metabolic Syndrome (a group of conditions that increases the risk for developing diabetes, stroke and heart disease).
PANCREAS/LIVER: The sudden spike in blood sugar level triggers the pancreas into an overdrive to produce insulin. The liver responds by converting every sugar molecule (that is in plenty) into fat. Number of sugar molecules is directly proportional to the number of fat molecules, so, do the (figurative) math! Also, diet sodas are equally bad, if not worse.
KIDNEY: Research suggests a possible connection between the phosphoric acid and formation of kidney stones. Ladies, diamonds should be the only stones that you’d want to collect!
REPRODUCTION: Biphenyl-A (BPA) is a carcinogenic and teratogenic chemical compound that is one of the causes of premature puberty in children, and some reproductive anomalies. It is deeply disturbing to know that these perpetrators are present in not just our soft drink bottles, but also in plastic baby bottles, water bottles and the like! [owing to this, many EPA-free water bottles are being manufactured and are currently available in the market.]
BONES: The high phosphorus content, while being excreted out with urine, takes along with it calcium ions thereby, inducing a calcium deficit environment and consequently, breakdown of our bones. This results in a condition known as osteoporosis, something which was previously only associated with old people, but now also manifests in the young. No milk powder will help in maintaining bone health unless you cut the (soft) drinks.
Carrying a filled water bottle around doesn’t seem like a bad idea after all!
E-ureka 