Americans are drinking more soda than ever; in the last two decades, soda consumption in the United States has doubled. Americans drink, on average, 1.6 cans of soda daily – that’s about 597 cans of soda a year!
Additionally, 7% of Americans’ calories come from high fructose corn syrup (a major and problematic component to soda), making HFCS the largest single source of calories in the average Amercan diet. As part of our NoFizzUSA campaign, check out a few compelling reasons to give up soda, once and for all…
Reason 1: Dehydration
Drinking soda with caffeine and sugar causes your body to become dehydrated. Caffeine is a diuretic, which means it causes an increase in urine volume. When you drink a caffeinated soda to quench your thirst, you actually become thirstier, because you lose water through more frequent urination.
Reason 2: Empty Calories
Regular soda pop is high in calories. A can of Coke contains 10 teaspoons of sugar, which is 100% of the daily recommended value for adults. An 8 ounce can of soda has around 100-200 calories. Not only are the calories from soda pop empty of any nutritional value, they also deplete your body of vital minerals.
Reason 3: Caffeine Addiction
Caffeine addiction and withdrawal has been recognized as a medical disorder. A study at Johns Hopkins University revealed a few interesting facts about caffeine.
“Caffeine is the world’s most commonly used stimulant, and it’s cheap and readily available so people can maintain their use of caffeine quite easily,” says Roland Griffiths, Ph.D., professor of neuroscience at Johns Hopkins. “The latest research demonstrates, however, that when people don’t get their usual dose they can suffer a range of withdrawal symptoms, including headache, fatigue, difficulty concentrating. They may even feel like they have the flu with nausea and muscle pain.”
Reason 4: Acidity Levels
Whether you drink diet or regular soda, the amount of acid is enough to wear away at the enamel of your teeth over time. Teeth with weakened enamel are more sensitive and more susceptible to decay. In tests done on the acidity levels of soda, soda was found to have a pH of 2.5 — consider that battery acid has a pH of 1 and pure water has a pH level of 7.
Reason 5: Less Chance for Diabetes
While no research has definitively shown that soda pop causes diabetes, the daily consumption of soda pop does create other problems that could lead to diabetes: specifically weight gain.
However, according to the Children’s Hospital in Boston, the fact remains “when sugar enters the bloodstream quickly, the pancreas has to secrete large amounts of insulin for the body to process it. Some scientists believe that the unceasing demands that a soda habit places on the pancreas may ultimately leave it unable to keep up with the body’s need for insulin. Also, insulin itself becomes less effective at processing sugar; both conditions contribute to the risk of developing diabetes.”
Reason 6: Soda Replaces Healthier Drinks
In the 1950′s, children drank 3 cups of milk for every cup of carbonated drink. Today that statistic is flipped: children drink 3 cups of carbonated drink for every cup of milk. One of the biggest problems with soda is it acts as a replacement drink for healthier options. Less amounts of milk in the average diet could account for the lower bone density and higher occurrence of osteoporosis, among other issues.
Reason 7: Save Money
Soda may be pretty inexpensive when compared with fruit juice and milk. You can purchase twelve 8-oz cans for around $4.00. A person who drinks just 2 cans of soda a day will pay around $206 over the course of a year to maintain the soda habit. If there is more than one soda drinker in the house, or you drink more than 2 cans each day, that yearly total could quickly double or triple!
