Say 'No' to Soft Drinks: 10 Reasons

Because you don't want to be obese !

Obesity means being at least 20% above our ideal body weight. Obesity is not just a matter of looking bad or being uncomfortable, it increases the risks of health problems such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, heart attack, heart failure, cancer, gall stones, gout,osteo-arthritis, sleep apnoea, drowsiness and dying early.

In the past two decades, both soft drink consumption and obesity rate has increased more than 100% in the US. This is no coincidence. Soft drink consumption increase the chance of being obese. Here are some interesting facts:

Because you don't want yellow (or no) teeth !

Here is a magic trick to impress your friends with! Say you have a set of beautiful, pearl white teeth. Tell them you can change the colour of your teeth permanently in an hour. Simply take a mouthful of cola and keep it in your mouth for an hour, don't swallow it. Then show your teeth! They are yellow. The enamel is gone.

Acids such as phosphoric acid is added to soft drinks to create a tangy taste. It is a strong acid that will dissolve a nail in about 4 days and a whole tooth in about 10 days. The sugar in the soft drink also combines with the bacteria in your mouth to create acid.This acid erodes the tooth enamel, the outer most layer of our teeth, the layer which keeps your teeth shining white. As the enamel erodes, caries is formed, the yellow dentin inside becomes more and more visible, and our teeth starts to look yellow.

Researchers have found that drinking soda is one of the major causes of dental decay. Research shows those who drink 3 or more soft drinks daily have 62% more dental decay, fillings and tooth loss.

Because you don't want broken bones

The phosphoric acid in the soft drinks leads to a loss of calcium in our bones. This increases the risk of bone fractures. A study conducted by a group of researchers from Harvard in 1994 found that teenage girls who drank soft drinks were five times more likely to have bone fractures than those who didn't. It also increases the long term risk of osteoporosis, or a reduction in bone mineral density. Osteoporosis is particularly common in older women, and is the reason why they have fractures in their vertebral column, rib, hip and wrist more often than healthy people.

Because you don't want to be an addict!

The average soft drink has 50 mg of caffeine. Soft drink companies say they include it for the taste. Caffeine's bitter taste, they say, enhance other flavours.

But when Roland Griffith of the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions tested their claim, he found that 92% of regular soft drink consumers could not notice any difference in taste between regular and caffeine-free soft drinks.

A more convincing reason to include caffeine in these drinks might be the fact that caffeine is addictive. Once you are hooked to it, you just want more and more. Sounds familiar?

Like all addictive substances, caffeine alters your mood positively in the short run but has a lot of negative effects in the long run. Even consuming one or two carbonated beverages can lead to diseases and disorders such as insomnia, nervousness, irritability, and deviations from normal heart rate. Large quantities can contribute to irregular heartbeat, panic and anxiety disorders, muscle twitching, incoherent speech, flushed skin, depression and high blood pressure. Research has shown that caffeine consumption during pregnancy may lead to an increased rate of miscarriage, pre-term or low birth weight babies, and increased risk of sudden death of babies after birth.

Caffeine is also a diuretic, meaning it causes excessive urination and dehydrates your body, So if you are drinking soft drinks on hot summer days thinking you are making up for all the water getting out of your body with the sweat, you are mistaken. Just drink water instead.

Because you want to digest your food !

Because you don't want diabetes !

The sugar and the weight gain associated with soft drinks increases the chance of diabetes. Research presented in a gathering of the American Diabetes Association found that women who went from drinking less than one soda per day to one or more daily sodas were nearly twice as likely to develop type 2 diabetes over a four-year period as women who drank less than one soft drink a day.

Because you don't want to increase your chances of getting cancer!

Soft drinks deplete the amount of oxygen in the body thus increasing the risk for cancer. The chemical polyethylene glycol is used in many soft drinks to achieve the caramel colouring, Scientist are concerned that this caramel colouring may be a carcinogen (substance that causes cancer.) Aspartame is a chemical used as a sugar substitute in diet soda. It has about 92 different health side effects including brain tumour, birth defects, diabetes, emotional disorders and epilepsy/ seizures. When aspartame is stored for long periods of time or is kept in warm areas it changes to methanol, an alcohol that converts to formaldehyde and formic acid, which are known carcinogens.

Because a dialysis in not an enjoyable thing !

The ethylene glycol used in the soft drinks as an anti freeze is a poison that has devastating effects on our kidney. If you drink four litres of coke in one hour you will die of renal failure. The late Brigadiar Siraz Jinnat, a kidney specialist, said in a paper presented to  BIRDEM that the primary reason Bangladeshi children are having more kidney and urinary problems is the rise in the consumption of soft drink.

Because you don't want to drink insecticide.. or a toilet cleaner... or a... !

In 2004, farmers in Andhra Pradesh and Chattisgarh states in India began using coca-cola as pesticide in their fields. And why not? As Gotu Laxmaiah, a farmer from Ramkrishnapuram in Andra Pradesh delightedly reported, "I observed that the pests began to die after the soft drink was sprayed on my cotton." Not only were they effective, they were also much cheaper than regular pesticides.

In a nationwide study in 2006, the Centre for Science and Environment in India found unsafe levels of pesticide in all samples. Here are a few other ways coca-cola is used:

• as a toilet cleaner

• to clean truck engines: the distributors of Coca-Cola themselves have been doing it for more than 20 years

• to remove blood mark from clothes

• to remove rust from airport carriers and transport ships

So ask yourself, what are you drinking ?

Because you want to stay young!

A study of almost all fifty year old men and women in Framingham, Massachusetts found that having more than one soft drink, whether sugared or diet, increased the risk of metabolic syndrome by 44 percent over a 4 year period. Metabolic syndrome is a combination of medical disorders that increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes and causes premature ageing. The sugar in soft drinks increases insulin levels , which can lead to high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, diabetes, weight gain, premature ageing and many more negative side effects.

Because, if you are a Muslim, it might not be halaal for you:

Coca Cola and other soft drinks keep their recipes secret, so you can never be sure of the ingredients it contains. In For God, Country and Coca-Cola: The Definitive History of the Great American Soft Drink and the Company that Makes it, one of the authoritative books on Coca-Cola, researcher Mark Pendergrast states that Coca-Cola contains alcohol. While researching for the book, he came across a yellowing piece of paper marked X in a company archive. Alcohol was one of the ingredients listed in the recipe. While Coca-Cola denies the recipe is genuine, when Sunday Times produced a cola based on the recipe, it fooled some experts into believing it was the real thing. So if you are a Muslim, ask yourself, what are you drinking, and what you are encouraging your child to drink?

All this is for No Nutritional Value ! So conscious people are realizing that drinking soft drinks is the most 'uncool' thing you can do. We hope you are one of them.