When consumed in excess or for long periods sugary drinks can have disastrous effects on your health. This primarily applies to sugary soda, but also to fruit juices, highly sweetened coffees and other sources of liquid sugar.
Here are 10 reasons to avoid soda (and other sugary drinks)…
1. Weight Gain
Sugary drinks don’t make you feel full, so you eat the same amount of food as before, but with a whole lot of extra sugar calories on the side.
In one study, people who added soda on top of their current diet ended up consuming 17% more calories than before. That is a huge amount, which could easily lead to obesity over a few years.
The truth is… sugary drinks are THE most fattening aspect of the modern diet. If you want to lose weight, or avoid gaining it over time, then you should seriously consider removing these drinks from your life.
2. Leading Cause of Type 2 Diabetes
Type 2 diabetes is a very common disease, affecting about 300 million people worldwide. It is characterized by elevated blood sugars in the context of insulin resistance or a deficiency in insulin.
Given that sugary drinks can lead to insulin resistance, it is not surprising to see that numerous studies link soda consumption with type 2 diabetes.
3. Heart Disease Risk
Sugar intake was first linked to heart disease risk back in the 60’s and 70’s. Since then, it has been established that sugar-sweetened drinks increase some of the main risk factors for cardiovascular disease. This includes blood sugar, blood triglycerides, small, dense LDL particles and numerous others.
4. Soda Drinkers Have a Higher Risk of Cancer
The risk of cancer tends to go hand-in-hand with other chronic diseases like obesity, type 2 diabetes and heart disease. For this reason, it is not surprising to see that sugary drinks are frequently associated with an increased risk of cancer. It has been linked to pancreatic cancer, endometrial cancer and colorectal cancer among other types.
5. Not at all good for your Teeth
It is a well known fact that sugary soda is bad for your teeth. Soda contains acids like phosphoric acid and carbonic acid. These acids create a highly acidic environment in the mouth, which makes the teeth vulnerable to decay.
6. Drastically Increased Risk of Gout
Gout is a medical condition characterized by inflammation and pain in the joints, particularly the large toes. Gout typically occurs when high levels of uric acid in the blood become crystallized. Consequently, many large observational studies have found strong links between sugar-sweetened drinks and gout.
7. Increased Risk of Dementia
Dementia is the collective term used to describe neurodegenerative conditions that can occur as we grow older. The most common form is Alzheimer’s disease. Research has found that any incremental increase in blood sugar is strongly associated with an increased risk for dementia.