Sunday, November 28, 2010

Soft Drinks: Disease in a can


I used to consume soft drinks such as coke and pepsi quite often years back before I discovered and learnt about the devastating impacts of these products to human health. Tons of people around me, colleagues, friends, relatives and the society have been consuming soft drinks every single day. With poor diet accompanied with regular soft drinks consumption, it is a setup for diabetics, obesity, gout, cancer, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, and the list goes on.

Let's take Coca-cola for example. Coca-Cola is one of the most recognized brands in the world, and in the United States the iconic red and white cans are as American as apple pie. Coca-Cola has been in business for 124 years, and in that time they've grown to reach more than 200 countries. In all, the company touts sales of 1.6 billion servings per day and says their dividends have increased for 48 consecutive years. Clearly the company is one of not only tremendous growth, but tremendous influence as well.

People are getting fatter and sicker. When I ask my colleagues or friends, "What type of food makes us fat?". All of them gave the same answer of sorts, "Eating food high in fats". The problem is, people are informed about 'eating fat makes us fat' hypothesis for years. Statistics and researches show that more people are consuming lower fat diet, but they are getting fatter and sicker. How could that be? Is it the fat? The answer is NO. Weight gain is all about consumption of carbohydrates, especially sugar.

I'm just shocked that everyone seemed to eat and drink without even knowing the ingredients in those products. How can you eat and drink something which you can't identify? Does anyone even care anymore about their health? Most of the so called 'food' are not even food anymore.

Alright. Let's focus back on Coca-cola. Coca-Cola spends close to $3 billion a year on advertising. With that amount of money it's no wonder the company has managed to hold on to its wholesome reputation. They are also in the habit of forming strategic alliances with health organizations that make it appear as though Coca-Cola is looking out for your health, which is laughable.

For instance, Diet Coke recently teamed up with the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to raise awareness for women's heart health programs and was the official "Beverage of Choice" for this year's winter Olympics. McDonald's also is one of the sponsors in this event, and named "Restaurant of Choice". Now, kids and adults alike have the pleasure of seeing two of the world’s biggest junk food brands side-by-side with some of the world’s greatest athletes, and are left with the impression that to win Olympic Gold they need only grab a Big Mac and fries, and wash it down with a long swig of Coke. What a joke!

From a health perspective, drinking Coke or any soft drink is a disaster. Just one extra can of soda per day can add as much as 15 pounds to your weight over the course of a single year, not to mention increase your risk of diabetes by 85 percent. Yeah. I can see eyebrows raised. Keep on reading folks.

There is absolutely NO REASON you or your kids should ever drink soda. If you were stranded in the middle of a desert with no other fluid available, then maybe, but other then that, ZERO. Some of my friends or colleagues even tell me, moderate consumption for any junk food or soft drinks would be alright. The problem is, you have been eating this garbage all your life until now!! And adding so called 'moderate' amount would be okay? There is a reason why I named the title of this blog "Are You Too Lazy To Live?". Period.

Soft drinks. Let me ask you guys. Which is the most popular soft drinks amongst the bunch? Yes, you are right! Coke and Pepsi. They are sold or available virtually everywhere from supermarkets, convenient stores, mini marts, office buildings, fast food outlets, restaurants, pubs, bars, discos, gyms and even hospitals.

Has anyone heard of fructose? Yes? No? Fructose is fruit sugar. Is it good for the body? Everyone whom I spoken to, tells me fruit sugar should be good for body and health. Well, if you consume fruit servings for the day not exceeding 15g, then it should be safe. The problem is, tons of processed food including soft drinks have high doses of HFCS. HFCS is a synthetically modified fructose. An average person with poor diet could have up to 70-90g of fructose per day! It is not that fructose if bad, but it is the massive doses which makes it dangerous. One can of soda already exceeded the safe zone of fructose consumption for the day.

If any of you know in-depth knowledge about Metabolic Syndrome, you will surely NOT consume soft drinks or any food with fructose of HFCS. Conditions such as GOUT, Hypertension, Diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, lipid problems, Obesity, are all strongly associated with fructose consumption.

Let me share with you what happens when you drink a can of soda such as Coke or Pepsi every single time.

- Within the first 10 minutes, 9 teaspoons of sugar hit your system. This is 90% of your recommended daily intake.

-  Within 20 minutes, your blood sugar spikes, and your liver responds to the resulting insulin burst by turning massive amounts of sugar into fat.

-  Within 40 minutes, caffeine absorption is complete,  your pupils dilate, your blood pressure rises, and your livers dumps more sugar into your bloodstream.

-  Around 45 minutes, your body increases dopamine production, which stimulates the pleasure centers of your brain. That is why we all love sugar!

-  After 60 minutes, you’ll start to have a sugar crash. Your body goes to hypoglycemic state.


By the way, let's take a look at some of the components of a can of soda.

Phosphoric Acid - Body needs to flush away this acid by using calcium, thus, causes osteoporosis.
Sugar(HFCS) - Arguably no.1 enemy in food and drinks.
Aspartame - Excitotoxin, please read my earlier posts.
Caffeine - Also known as diuretic, stimulant and causes tons of health issues.
Tap Water - Contains tons of chemicals such as chlorine, lead, cadmium and fluoride.

Clearly, the over-consumption of sodas and sweet drinks is one of the leading causes fueling the world-wide obesity epidemic. That is why tons of people in the society are getting fatter and sicker. Convince now? By the way, most of the soft drinks also shown to cause DNA damage, courtesy of sodium benzoate. Finally, let me tell you this, sugar is more addictive then cocaine! No? Then why can't you stop eating food which contains sugar?

P/S: Diet sodas are more dangerous then regular sodas. Don't be fooled by zero calories and zero sugar.


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