How soft drinks affect your health

[babetoo]

everywhere i go i see kids and adults with the giant sized soda pop. i generally drink caffeine free diet soda. goes good with a sandwich or chips. i do drink coffee in the am. don't care what it does to me, love it and it gets me going. can't and won't give up everything!! i have enough do's and don'ts as it is.

 

[Poppi G. Koullias]

These fizzy things don't do a lot for our health. Far too much artificial sweetners, too much sugar otherwise, in Coke and Pepsi, evil amounts of caffeine. My boy George is banned from having Pepsi/Coke as it makes him dreadfully hyper. He'd be climbing walls! And soft drinks are so loaded with carbon dioxide that I can hear him belch from the far end of the garden.

 

[Fabiabi]

I think soft drinks are the beverage of the devil!!! Nothing good in them, just sugar and junk!

 

[snickerdoodle]

To the OP, my midwife said 1 caffeinated beverage a day was OK while I was pregnant. I know of many women that abstained completely from caffeine while pregnant which is probably the better option.

My dh is addicted to pop. It's bad. He goes through a 12 pack in 2-3 days. Better that than beer though I guess. Need to find a way to wean him to something a little more healthful. I love me some Dr. Pepper but can't handle more than 1 a day due to palpitations and anxiety issues. Sometimes all I really want is the fizz, so I pick up some Perrier instead... so refreshing!

 

[Cinder]

I used to be one of those people who drank Coke from morning until bedtime...5-6 a day.
I started a medication that made anything carbonated taste like liquid metal , and went off Coke cold turkey. NOT pretty, but I did lose 25 lbs in 2 months!
One thing that I really noticed is that the amount of water retention dropped drastically....There is a huge amount of sodium in pop. Also, although before I could drink Coke right until bedtime, now I can't have a coffee after noon, or I don't sleep.
Also, if I DO want a drink and have an ice tea fromthe store, my fingers immediately swell up! There's that sodium again!

Cinder

 

[Zereh]

i ain't concurring w/ that. people saying 1 kinda sugar is healthier than another is quite the misnomer. shake that 2 your liking; a gram of carbohydrate is 4 kcals per gram, be that ingested via sugar packets, milk, a bottle of pop, or veal~ caffeination may well give jitters, GI ails, anxiety, headaches, & is addictive.......

There are differences. Big ones. And our body reacts differently to different kinds. There is tons of information, and misinformation, out there. All sugars are not created equally. Neither are carbs or fats.

 

[radhuni]

I used to have a few sips of Mirinda per day when I was pregnant. I was nauseated till the delivery. A few sips of Mirinda made me feel better. My Doc told me small amount of soft drinks (say 200ml per day) did not make any difference.

Now I only drink soft drinks once or twice in a week.

 

[luvs]

There are differences. Big ones. And our body reacts differently to different kinds. There is tons of information, and misinformation, out there. All sugars are not created equally. Neither are carbs or fats.

i have several dieticians that gave me this info. 1 should be by monday so i'll let her read that.
while there's carbs that my be deducted, a carb is a carb.

 

[Sprout]

I'm surprised nobody has said much about diet sodas here. Are artificial sweeteners too much of a controversial subject?
I feel the same about most beverages besides water (I'm still on the fence about milk, but I suppose unsweetened soymilk and the like are acceptable to me, too). They are treats. There's nothing you can get from any drink that you can't get from other, healthier sources (including enjoyment, but that's a whole other conversation). Like all other treats, they should be used in moderation. They shouldn't be a substitution for anything else, fruit, water, or otherwise.

That said, I do understand that they can be very useful in medical emergencies. As mentioned before by goodweed, juice is one of the quickest ways to replenish dangerously low blood sugar caused by diabetic emergencies, over-exertion, etc. It was certainly indispensable at blood drives in high school! Sports drinks can be helpful during and after prolonged physical activity, and even chocolate milk can make a reasonable recovery drink.

I have a bottle of juice in my pantry (along with some cookies, a cake mix or two, and even a few boxes of mac n cheese), and occasionally I have a few sips of soda or lemonade at work, but I recognize that these are not the healthiest choices I make during my day. I think it just becomes too much of a habit for many people, including myself at some points in my life, and that's without adding addictive caffeine into the mix.

 

[CraigC]

I used to drink a good bit of soda. Now I only drink it with rum. The rest of the time it's San Pellegrino or plain water. Tap water doesn't bother me. Pretty soon they'll be telling us that breathing is bad for us.

Craig

 

[PattY1]

Fruit juice (100%) can be drank, but in moderation, and not every day. Whole fruits actually decrease the risk of developing type-2 diabetes by about 18%. If you like fruit, or want your children to eat and drink good things, give them whole fruit, not the juices of fruit.

Seeeeeeya; Goodweed of the North

I wish someone would explain this.

 

[LAJ]

I stopped drinking soft drinks almost a year ago. I never drank the diet sodas. I feel they are more unhealthy than the ones with sugar. I decided I wasa drinking too many and I started feeling better and losing 5-8 pounds in the meantime. (I was not over weight). But, those few pounds came off because the soft drinks stopped. I drink purifed water and organic juice. If I sip a ginger ale I find it too strong and I dont crave it anymore. It was a good choice for me. I think in moderation- we can all eat fast food once in a while, have a Coke or a piece of cake. The problem is- so many people are unable to do it in moderation.

 

[Alix]

I wish someone would explain this.

PattY1, if you just drink the juice all you get from it is simple sugar. If you EAT the fruit you get the benefit of the fiber in the fruit and when you calculate how many carbs/sugars you take in as a diabetic you subtract the number of fiber grams. So...a glass of apple juice might have 23g of carbs no fiber to subtract. An apple would have the same number of carbs, 23g but would also have 13g of fiber. 23-13=10g of carbs instead of the 23g in only the juice.

Does that help at all? And please, no one assume my numbers are accurate, I'm just making up numbers to help illustrate the point.

 

[DaveSoMD]

I wish someone would explain this.

The fiber in the fruit slows the absorption of the sugars in the fruit and that prevents spikes in insulin levels. Juice is just the straight-up natural sugars, sometimes concentrated, and those are absorbed more quickly and can lead to spikes/surges in insulin levels. Teaching them to eat the fruit will encourage better eating habits and hopefully not encourage the consumption of "sugary/sweet" beverages.

Also, many juices these days are loaded with extra sugar and HFCS.

 

[blissful]

Here is a 20 minute video (long I know), with Jamie Oliver.
Jamie Oliver: Teach every child about food.

(and mostly by parents in my opinion).

Highlights:

During the video

 

[taxlady]

PattY1, if you just drink the juice all you get from it is simple sugar. If you EAT the fruit you get the benefit of the fiber in the fruit and when you calculate how many carbs/sugars you take in as a diabetic you subtract the number of fiber grams. So...a glass of apple juice might have 23g of carbs no fiber to subtract. An apple would have the same number of carbs, 23g but would also have 13g of fiber. 23-13=10g of carbs instead of the 23g in only the juice.

Does that help at all? And please, no one assume my numbers are accurate, I'm just making up numbers to help illustrate the point.

Also, it takes a number of apples or oranges to make a glass of juice. You would usually be satisfied by one or two pieces of fruit. So, not only do you get the fibre, you don't get sugar from so many pieces of fruit, when you eat whole fruit.

 

[taxlady]

everywhere i go i see kids and adults with the giant sized soda pop. i generally drink caffeine free diet soda. goes good with a sandwich or chips. i do drink coffee in the am. don't care what it does to me, love it and it gets me going. can't and won't give up everything!! i have enough do's and don'ts as it is.

But one or two cups of coffee a day is actually good for you.

 

[PattY1]

The fiber in the fruit slows the absorption of the sugars in the fruit and that prevents spikes in insulin levels. Juice is just the straight-up natural sugars, sometimes concentrated, and those are absorbed more quickly and can lead to spikes/surges in insulin levels. Teaching them to eat the fruit will encourage better eating habits and hopefully not encourage the consumption of "sugary/sweet" beverages.

Also, many juices these days are loaded with extra sugar and HFCS.

Thank you Dave.

 

[SuzyL]

Caffeine

I had been having heart palpitations for quite a while and never really understood why. A friend of mine asked how much caffeine I was drinking per day. Well, coffee throughout the day and in the evening plus 2 or 3 sodas per day. She told me to try and cut down and even stop drinking beverages that contained it. I did as she said and the palpitations completely stopped. I do not drink caffeine at all any longer and if I do, the palpitations return. If it causes your heart beat to race and be irregular, no one needs it. http://heartsafecooking.com

 

[Fabiabi]

When I was a kid I ate and drank quite alot of rubbish foods. I don't drink fizzy drinks anymore and don't even buy ready made juices, there is so much sugar in them, they're not healthy so what's the point?