With atmospheric temperature levels of planet Earth soaring, consumption of beverage, particularly differently flavored aerated soft drinks, has been aggressively increasing across the globe. The soft drinks industry is making best out of the situation and growing rapidly on the demand of humans’ need to quench their thirst. In many countries, due to growing incomes, people are consuming more soft drinks than water. Many people are now concerned about the possible health implications of this trend. So, are soft drinks good way to help people intake more fluids? Are soft drinks harmless?
Take one glass of water, add seven to eight tea-spoons of sugar and a dose of chemicals (which include flavor, color, etc.) and you will get one basic soft drink. The overwhelming intake of sugar, besides chemicals, from soft drinks produces several undesirable side effects, health experts say.
Unbalanced nutrition: A soft drink contains 120 to 180 kilocalories (kcals), all of which come from its sugar content, but no nutrients. Therefore, these are termed as ‘empty calories’. A typical sedentary person requires about 1400 to 1800 kcals per day to maintain optimal weight. Hence, just two soft drinks can considerably reduce the person’s daily food allotment, as well as the nutrient supply. Over time, this imbalance could cause one’s nutritional status to become marginal. Or, if the person continues to eat as usual, the soft drinks will add excess calories to the diet, leading to a build up of adipose tissue (better known as ‘fat’) making the person obese.
Uneven Blood Sugar: Sugar calories lack fiber and rapidly enter the blood stream, raising blood sugar levels and providing a boost of energy. When the blood sugar level goes up, insulin pours into the blood stream to pull the raised blood sugar to normal, which then causes an equally sharp drop in the energy. This sequence promotes a cycle of reaching for another, and then yet another, soft drink or sugary snack.
Added sugar is the prime culprit for global diabetes and obesity epidemic and 43 per cent of added sugars in our diets come from sweetened beverages, which comes as no surprise as one can / serving of soft drink averages eight tea-spoons of sugar. This was stated in a recent study by the Credit Suisse Research Institute titled ‘Sugar: Consumption at a Crossroads’, which said that 90 per cent of doctors across US, Europe and Asia identify excess sugar consumption as the primary cause for growing health problems such as diabetes and obesity which cost the global healthcare systems billions of dollars every year.
Recent studies, including the Credit Suisse Research Institute’s analysis, show the Type II diabetes and obesity have strong links to full-calorie soft drinks. Research shows that as the sugar is in a solution, it is easily and completely ingested, giving a large injection of calories without the feeling of being full. Added sugar can be found in almost everything edible; we feed it to children, it laces our breakfast cereals and it is a key ingredient of our soft drinks. As consumption has risen over the years, so has the prevalence of Type II diabetes and obesity.
Delayed digestion: When a sugared drink arrives in a stomach that is processing food, digestion must slow down or stop until the new empty calories are handled.
Dental cavities; Studies show that children who drink sweetened beverages have demonstrably more cavities than children who do not. Fruit juices have a similar effect, and this suggests that no juice or sweet drinks should be consumed as a snack, but only as part of a mixed meal.
Besides, a study found that heavy soft drink consumption is associated with aggression, attention problems and withdrawal behavior in young children. Researchers at Colombia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, University of Vermont, and Harvard School of Public Health assessed approximately 3000 5 year old children. The kids were enrolled in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a prospective birth cohort that follows mother-child pairs from 20 large US cities. In the study, mothers reported their child’s soft drink consumption and completed the Child Behavior Checklist based on their child’s behavior during the previous two months.
The researchers found that 43 per cent of the children consumed at least one serving of soft drinks per day, and 4 per cent consumed 4 or more. Aggression, withdrawal, and attention problems were associated with soda consumption. Even after adjusting for socio-demographic factors, maternal depression, intimate partner violence, and paternal incarceration, any soft drink consumption was linked to increased aggressive behavior. Children who drank 4 or more soft drinks per day were more than twice as likely to destroy things belonging to others, get into fights, and physically attack people.
Osteoporosis: Most soft drinks contain phosphoric acid, a powerful chemical used to etch glass. Excess phosphorus in our body is thrown out by the kidneys by combining it with calcium. Each phosphorus-containing drink takes away some calcium from the bones, draining them of bone mass over a period of time, leading to weaker bones and contributing to osteoporosis, amongst other factors that cause it.
What about Diet drinks?
Diet drinks do solve the sugar problems, but the substitutes they use result in other concerns. Additives used to provide color, flavor, Sweetening and preservation may irritate the lining of the stomach. So, what is the safest way to meet one’s body fluid needs?
Water is the perfect beverage. It has no calories, requires no digestion, does not irritate and is exactly what the human body needs to carry on its life processes.
(The writer is a freelance journalist)
