Soda Puts Your Health in Danger

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Five Ways Soda Puts Your Health in Danger

Thursday, April 12, 2012 4:13 PM

By Sylvia Booth Hubbard

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Just 100 years ago, the obesity rate in the United States was less than 5

percent. Now, about two-thirds of adults - more than 190 million Americans -

are overweight or obese. What's the difference? Many experts believe it's

the amount of sugar in our diets, especially the huge amounts of sugar

Americans consume each day in the form of soft drinks - often called liquid

candy.

Here's a breakdown of five main ways soda is killing you:

Obesity. Sweetened drinks are the only specific food that clinical research

has directly linked to weight gain, " says Harvard endocrinologist Dr.

Ludwig. " Highly concentrated starches and sugars promote overeating, and the

granddaddy of them all is sugar-sweetened beverages, " Ludwig told CNN. The

sugar provides huge amounts of calories, but also creates a vicious cycle.

" It's rapidly absorbed, which raises blood sugar and in effect causes the

body to panic, " Ludwig said. When the body releases insulin to metabolize

the sugar, blood sugar drops. The body responds by releasing a hormone

called ghrelin, which causes hunger and provokes us to eat even more. "

A study from UCLA found that people who drank at least one soda a day

increased their risk of being overweight by 27 percent when compared to

those who didn't drink sodas.

A direct correlation can be seen in California between the rise in the size

of an average soda and an increase in obesity. For instance, the average

size of a soda increased from 6.5 ounces in the 1950s to an average of 16

ounces today. And in the past 25 years, obesity rates in California have

risen from 8.9 percent to 24.3 percent.

" Diet " sodas aren't any better than the sugared varieties. A study presented

at a 2011 meeting of the American Diabetes Association found that those who

drank diet sodas saw their waist circumference increase by 70 percent, and

those who drank two or more diet sodas a day had a 600 percent increase in

the circumference of their waists!

Heart disease. Sodas definitely aren't good for your ticker. A Harvard study

found that drinking a single 12-ounce sugar-sweetened drink each day

increased the risk of heart disease by 29 percent. Cardiovascular damage

from sodas appears to occur at an early age. A just-released study from the

University of Sydney found that children who drank at least one soft drink a

day had narrowed arteries in the back part of the eye, indicating an

increased risk of high blood pressure and heart disease.

A study from researchers at the University of Colorado Denver Health

Sciences Center found that a diet high in high-fructose corn syrup, the

common sweetener used in soft drinks, increases the risk of developing high

blood pressure by up to 87 percent. Soft drinks aren't good for cholesterol

levels, either. A study published in Circulation, the journal of the

American Heart Association, found that people who drank one or more soft

drinks each day were 25 percent more likely to develop high blood

triglycerides (a type of fat), and 32 percent more likely to have low levels

of " good " cholesterol.

Diet soda isn't any healthier: A new study published in the Journal of

General Internal Medicine found that people who drank a daily diet soda

upped their odds of having a heart attack or stroke by 44 percent.

Diabetes. The Nurses' Health Study followed more than 90,000 women for eight

years and found that those who drank at least one sugar-sweetened drink each

day were almost twice as likely to have developed Type 2 diabetes as those

who rarely drank sweetened beverages. Some researchers at Rutgers believe

that high-fructose corn syrup, an ingredient in most sugar-sweetened soft

drinks, may initiate a string of events in the body that leads to diabetes.

Cancer. British researchers discovered that sodium benzoate, used for mold

prevention in many soft drinks, has the ability to switch off vital parts of

a person's DNA. The result could be cirrhosis of the liver and other

degenerative diseases, including Parkinson's. But when mixed with vitamin C,

sodium benzoate creates a carcinogenic substance called benzene. Researchers

at India's Tata Memorial Hospital found a " very significant correlation "

between soft drinks and an increased risk of esophageal cancer. The

artificial sweeteners in diet colas may carry even more risks. Aspartame is

associated with several major cancers, including pancreatic, leukemia,

lymphoma, and breast.

Lung problems. Scientists at Australia's University of Adelaide interviewed

more than 16,000 people over two years and found a link between soft drinks

and asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The more " soft

drinks " a person drank, the more likely they were to suffer from asthma or

COPD.