We like to preach about everything in moderation when it comes to diet and exercise. After all, a decadent dessert every once in awhile, or a much-needed cheat day of pizza and a martini, never killed anyone and might even help keep you on a path toward a cleaner, healthier diet.
But soda is an exception.
There are few drinks as bad for your health and few reasons to give in and indulge in this beverage. Here are 11 reasons you should never drink soda, like ever.
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Top Reasons To Never Drink Soda
1. The sky-high sugar content — You average can of soda contains 10 teaspoons of added sugar. Its entire carb content is made up on simple sugars that your body uses as quick fuel, but that burn off rapidly, sending you crashing and craving more sugar. Meanwhile, this spike in blood sugar causes your insulin levels to spike, as well, and this can contribute to health problems like diabetes and obesity.
2. Increased risk of obesity — Researchers have found that regular consumption of soda increases the risk of obesity by 1.6 times.
3. Caffeine overload — High amounts of caffeine found in colas may keep you up all night, but the side effects are worse than that. Caffeine can also contribute to high blood pressure, changes in your heart beat, and more.
Reasons To Avoid Soda
4. Artificial sweeteners — Drinking diet soda is not any better than regular soda, and can in fact be worse. The artificial sweeteners used in diet carbonated beverages, including aspartame, have been linked to health problems like seizures, metabolic syndromes, diabetes, higher cholesterol, and tumors.
5. Dental issues — Soda, especially colas, can strip the enamel from your teeth and contribute to plaque, gum disease, and cavities.
6. GMOs — All of that high fructose corn syrup used to sweeten soda? That comes from genetically modified corn and the processing of this corn often yields trace amounts of mercury, which can affect your nervous system.
The 11 Worst Things About Soda
7. The accumulation of fat in the body — You can't always see fat, but if it accumulates within the body, it's just as unhealthy. And regular consumption of soda has been shown to contribute to an increase in liver fat, skeletal fat, and triglyceride blood fats.
8. Caramel coloring — Artificial caramel coloring that gives cola the color you've come to expect contains two contaminants (2-methylimidazole and 4-methylimidazole) that have been found to cause cancer in animals.
9. Phosphoric Acid — Phosphoric acid is responsible for maintaining the very lengthy shelf life of all sodas, but too much of it has been linked to heart and kidney disease, osteoporosis, and even premature signs of aging.
Top 11 Reasons You Should Never Drink Soda
10. Its water content — All sodas contain water. This is a good thing, right? Not if the water that is being used comes from water sources that chemicals that have not been filtered prior to using it.
11. Soda contains no positive nutritional content — There are some foods that contain important vitamins and minerals and, though their calorie or fat content may be higher than you'd like, you make that sacrifice to benefit from its positive nutritional benefits. Soda does not belong in that category. There are, literally, zero good things about drinking a can of soda. There isn't one vitamin, mineral, amino acid — nada — in a cola or fruity soda.
Bottom line: ditching soda for good is one of the best moves you can make for better health and weight loss outcomes.
