Why soft drinks are so bad for our health
Drinking Sugar
Fizzy drinks and other sugar sweetened beverages like fruit juice, energy drinks and sports drinks do not provide any nutritional benefit to your health. In fact, they can be detrimental.
The main ingredient is sugar, and a lot of it. Also, think about how quickly these drinks go down…it’s very easy to consume high amounts of sugar without even noticing!
Eating or drinking too much sugar can lead to weight gain. Holding on to excess weight can lead to diabetes, heart disease and some cancers.
Drinking high amounts of sugar, also leads to spikes in blood sugar which can cause you to feel tired, sluggish and lethargic.
If you’re drinking one can of soft drink per day (on top of eating your breakfast, lunch and dinner to meet your body’s energy requirements), this can lead to nearly 7KG of weight gain in one year.
What happens to me when I drink soft drink?
Sugar enters your blood
When soft drink reaches your gut, the sugar gets absorbed into your blood where it is sent around your body to be used for energy or stored away (as fat!).
Sugar, compared to other foods, gets absorbed into your body super rapidly.
Sugar is stored as fat
Sugar is used for energy. BUT, as your body probably does not need to use this much energy provided by such a high amount of sugar, it stores the sugar away as fat (hello waistline).
Your energy levels crash
This rapid absorption of sugar into your blood gives you a short lived energy burst. This is because the sugar has spiked and then dropped in such a short amount of time. You are then left with an energy slump, feeling tired, fatigued and probably in a bad mood.
You crave more sugar
This also makes you crave more sugary foods to get that ‘quick fix’ of energy again…sounds a bit like a drug addiction doesn’t it!
Compare this to wholegrain carbohydrates like brown grainy breads full of fibre, which slowly get absorbed into your blood. These foods give you longer lasting energy and more stable mood levels.
Your risk of disease increases
Let’s go back to all of that sugar being stored as fat. The excess sugar that is not going to be used as energy for your body, gets stored away as fat. This leads to weight gain.
This extra fat is generally stored around your waistline. Too much of this abdominal fat is toxic and actually releases chemicals around the body that start to cause havoc and increase your risk of developing those nasty diseases like diabetes, heart disease and some cancers.
How many teaspoons of sugar are in your regular drinks?
Can you imagine how you would feel if you sat down and ate 10 teaspoons of sugar…well drinking a can of coke is the same thing, it’s just in a liquid form!
We recommend reducing your intake of sugar sweetened beverages to one cup a week, if any!
You can quench your thirst with other variations like sparkling water sweetened with whole fruit. You’ll still get that cold bubbly sensation of a soft drink, but without the excess sugar and cm’s to your waistline!
Check out our favourite fruity combinations for a refreshing and thirst quenching beverage you can drink as much as you like of!
Fruit Infused Sparkling Water Ideas
Just chop up a couple of pieces of each fruit or herb!
Strawberry, basil & lime
Orange, lemon & lime
Mixed berries
Mango & raspberry
Cucumber, mint & lemon
Watermelon & mint
Sources:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4224210/
