...so I am learning stuff. I really have never been one for carbonated beverages, I like tea or water myself. But there are a lot of people I know who are addicted to these drinks. There are a lot of reasons NOT to drink them and NOT to teach our kids to drink them. I also have friends who have had kidney disease and replacements.
Healthier alternatives range from just plain water to juice to herbal teas and milk. The milk "group" includes the healthy alternatives to milk like almond milk, coconut milk and rice milk. I tend to stay away from soy milks because of the additional hormonal effects of the soy.
This info is from Prevention:
In an 11-year-long Harvard Medical School study of more than 3,000 women, researchers found that diet cola is associated with a two-fold increased risk for kidney decline. Kidney function started declining when women drank more than two sodas a day.
According to a 2008 University of Minnesota study of almost 10,000 adults, even just one diet soda a day is linked to a 34% higher risk of metabolic syndrome, the group of symptoms including belly fat and high cholesterol that puts you at risk for heart disease.
Diet soda doesn't help you lose weight after all. A University of Texas Health Science Center study found that the more diet sodas a person drank, the greater their risk of becoming overweight. Downing just two or more cans a day increased waistlines by 500%. Why? Artificial sweeteners can disrupt the body’s natural ability to regulate calorie intake based on the sweetness of foods, suggested an animal study from Purdue University.
Cocktails made with diet soda get you drunker, faster, according to a study out of the Royal Adelaide Hospital in Australia. That’s because sugar-free mixers allow liquor to enter your bloodstream much quicker than those with sugar
Diet or not, soft drink cans are coated with the endocrine disruptor bisphenol A (BPA), which has been linked to everything from heart disease to obesity to reproductive problems.
Diet sodas contain something many regular sodas don’t: mold inhibitors. They go by the names sodium benzoate or potassium benzoate, and they’re in nearly all diet sodas. "These chemicals have the ability to cause severe damage to DNA in the mitochondria to the point that they totally inactivate it - they knock it out altogether,”
With a pH of 3.2, diet soda is very acidic. (As a point of reference, the pH of battery acid is 1. Water is 7.) The acid is what readily dissolves enamel, and just because a soda is diet doesn't make it acid-light. Adults who drink three or more sodas a day have worse dental health, says a University of Michigan analysis.
Just a thought, limit your use of carbonted beverages and substitute water or a healthy alternative. And, like the song, teach your children well!
glen
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This is so timely. I had dinner with a friend who is having some health issues. He was talking about what he drank and I told him, I don't drink ANY of that stuff. He believes he's being healthy by filling himself up with DIET sodas and stuff like Tang (who knew they even still sell it). I'm going to send him your blog post.
ReplyDeleteWhile I don't think diet soda is good for you (I don't drink soda myself) beware of reading the study at face value. People switch to diet soda as a response to weight gain, at a statistically significant rate; likewise, diabetics tend to crave sweets as a result of the disease, so in some cases the disease is causing the changes in diet, not vice versa.
ReplyDelete