WHY ARE CARBONATED BEVERAGES HARMFUL?

The answer to this question is multi-faceted. While the fizziness of carbonated drinks is not a direct contributor to weight gain, once you factor in the unhealthy amounts of sugar, artificial sweeteners and caffeine that carbonated sodas contain, adding unwanted pounds can most definitely be a side effect of consuming carbonated drinks.

One study discovered that drinking one or more soft drinks a day – whether it is diet or regular – led to a 30% greater chance of weight gain around the belly.

Most soft drinks present many other health threats:

• Excess sugar ends up being stored as fat and also releases insulin.  Raised blood insulin levels have been proven to depress the immune system, which in turn weakens your ability to fight disease. 

• ·A recent study found that people who drank more sugary soda tended to have shorter telomeres, the caps at the end of chromosomes in every cell in our body. Drinking an 8-ounce daily serving of soda corresponded to 1.9 years of additional aging, and drinking a daily 20-ounce serving was linked to 4.6 more years of aging. The latter, the study states, is exactly the same association found between telomere length and smoking.

• Diet soda is filled with artificial sweeteners that pose numerous threats to your health.  One significant health effect of a common sweetener, aspartame, known as Nutrasweet, is that the process of breaking it down in the body produces an effect of stimulating the brain to crave more sweets, which often leads to carbohydrate loading.
• ​Recent research has discovered that artificial sweeteners alter the gut bacteria and can cause an increase in glucose intolerance. By having an effect on insulin and other hormone levels, artificial sweeteners may actually cause a tendency to develop the very disorders they were designed to prevent.
• Beverages with bubbles also contain phosphoric acid, which can severely deplete the blood calcium levels.  This means that drinking sodas and carbonated beverages increases your risk of osteoporosis.

• Add in the caffeine and you are in for more trouble.  Caffeine also depletes the body’s calcium in addition to stimulating the nervous system and contributing to stress and insomnia.

 Here are better choices for good health:

• Skip the soda and go for FRESH FILTERED WATER.  

• Drink black, green, white or oolong teas, which all contain antioxidant polyphenols.  Add cinnamon or a little honey to satisfy your sweet tooth. Use a stevia extract or organic agave as nutritive sweeteners.  

• If you crave the fizz, opt for carbonated mineral waters that have no added sugars or artificial sweeteners. Add a bit of fruit juice if you want a sweeter taste - you'll get the carbonation without all the empty calories.  After a while you won’t miss the sweetness of sugary drinks.