The Many Evils of Soda

Hands down one of the worst “food” items you can put in your body is soda, aka pop. And not just regular cola, we’re talking diet, root beer, and all the rest. The scary part is how many ways it can mess with your body. The sugar alone in non-diet sodas has been linked to obesity, diabetes, and tooth decay. One can of regular soda has the equivalent of 10 teaspoons of sugar. Try putting 10 teaspoons of sugar in your hand and eating it all at once.

Many people try and avoid these problems by switching to diet sodas, but unfortunately there are other ingredients that cause just as serious of health problems. The phosphoric acid that is in both regular and diet sodas interferes with your body’s balance and storage of calcium leading to weaker bones. There have been many studies that prove drinking soda on a regular basis leads to more frequent bone fractures in both teenagers and adults. How does it do this? Well, all soda is extremely acidic (coke has a pH of 2.5, battery acid has a pH of 1.0, our body’s normally have a pH of 7.4), and therefore is harmful to our bodies. To neutralize the acidity of the soda, our body turns calcium into an alkaline compound. Where do we store nearly all of our calcium…yup, our bones. So drinking soda regularly forces the body to take calcium out of the bones and use it up.

Going back to pH for a moment, studies have shown that our bodies need to be in an alkaline state (between 7 and 14 on the pH scale) to function properly and be healthy. When we are in an acidic state (between 0 and 7 on the pH scale), our body’s are significantly more susceptible to many diseases like cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis, arthritis, kidney and gall stones. In fact, cancer can not exist in an alkaline environment. Lab tests on terminal cancer patients show their pH level to be around 4.5, much lower than our ideal 7.4.

Drinking an occasional can of soda may not cause you to break your leg or get cancer, but on the other hand, wouldn’t it be better to make those little changes in our lives that help our bodies stay healthy, balanced, and functioning in the most optimal way possible? Switching to another beverage, like a bottle of water, may not give you that 15 minute caffeine and sugar rush, but you’ll end up feeling better in the long run anyway.



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The Many Evils of Soda