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It is typical of the ajebutters among us to take soft drinks of various flavours as dessert after every meal. The averages take it once in a while, whilst the ‘fortunate’ lower-class tastes soft drinks once in a blue moon; credit to festivals and official meetings. Do you wonder why I tagged those that rarely take soft drinks as fortunate? Because soft drinks are bad for you!
Keep reading, e get why…
Soft drinks are non-alcoholic carbonated drinks that taste sweet with distinctive sourness and a flavour of cola, orange, lemon, or whatever. Their colours portray the flavouring across different brand names. Shall we look at the features of a typical soft drink to know what we gulp down as refreshment?
The sweetness is a result of the added sugar during manufacturing. A 330ml can/bottle of soft drink contains about of sugar, which is more than the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) set by the American Heart Association.
Soft drinks taste sour because they contain an acid, mainly phosphoric acid. This acid disguises the high sugar content which otherwise will make the drink intolerable to taste. They are also pleasing owing to their caffeine content. This caffeine is what makes us feel relaxed and happy after taking soft drinks and leaves us craving for more.
Yes, with the short-lived pleasure that comes with soft drinks, there are priceless elements of healthy life that it flies with. Down here are a few:
You might be trying your best to lose weight, exercise, reducing carbs, slimming tea and all, but no result is achieved. Do you take soft drinks regularly?
The high sugar adds up belly fat leading to unhealthy weight gain. This weight builds up to obesity, which is a major risk factor for diabetes and hypertension.
Whenever we take sugary foods, our bodies secrete a hormone called insulin. It facilitates the utilization of sugar by our bodies. When taken in excess, our body system develops resistance to this hormone hence the sugar can’t be properly utilized. This results in the accumulation of sugar, leading to metabolic syndrome and consequently type 2 diabetes.
They say there are sugar-free soft drinks in the market, hell no. Don’t you know they also contain potentially harmful sweeteners?
It’s well known that high sugar in the blood causes the deposit of fat on the belly right? Not only that, the belly is the part we talk about more because it’s more obvious, but the fat also builds up in the arteries and the heart causing high blood pressure and heart diseases.
Do you know that heart diseases, diabetes and hypertension are among the major causes of old age morbidity, stroke (resulting in paralysis), and premature death?
How do you feel after taking sourish thingy, like lemon? Do you feel that shock-like tangy sensation on your teeth? Well, the sourness of the acid in a soft drink does the same to your teeth (but counter-concealed by the sugar). The acidity erodes the enamel of teeth, which allows the action of microbes resulting in toothache and decay.
No wonder many elderly ajebutters have files in dental clinics.
There is phosphoric acid in soft drinks, right? That acid enables the right condition for the formation of kidney stones, a mass deposit that blocks the fine tubes through which urine passes during formation, this escalates to chronic disease.
Soft drinks contain caffeine, which acts on kidneys to facilitate the passage of calcium alongside other important electrolytes. Calcium is an essential element in bone formation and density maintenance.
When calcium is lost through urine, there will be low calcium in the blood. The body tends to increase it by reducing the amount in your bones, guess what? Your bones pay for the price; they become brittle; easily breakable.
In the last three years, how frequently do you take soft drinks? What of now? I am sure your consumption of the drink had, and is increasing with time. It makes you crave for more. The problem associated with the habitual intake of soft drinks is soda addiction.
At each episode of drinking, the caffeine in the drink acts on the brain and makes you feel okay, satisfied, and relaxed.
However, when the brain cells become familiar with this feeling, it craves for more and forces you to increase the amount of the drink you take daily. Whenever you decided not to take, there occur withdrawal symptoms typical to that of drug addicts. This is why some diabetic patients couldn’t resist the urge to take soda despite the life-threatening alarms all around.
Are you now convinced that soft drinks are bad for you? We aren’t saying you should cut soft drinks in your life, but habitual intake is dangerous.
Drink healthy, live healthy!
I hope you find this article resourceful. If you do, kindly leave a comment for me in the comments section. Thank you.
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