Harmful Effects of Soft Drinks, Side Effect of Drinking Cold Drinks

 Cold Drinks

 Some people even admit to drinking more soda than water each day, or no water at all. Soft drinks are a multi-billion dollar product, and they account for a quarter of all drinks consumed in the United States.  With Americans consuming this large amount of soft drinks each year, it becomes important to evaluate how soft drinks can influence a person’s health. With a little research, it becomes clear that even moderate consumption of soda can be dangerous.

7 Side Effect of Soft Drinks:-

1.Belching and Heartburn

Carbonated beverages contain dissolved carbon dioxide, which becomes a gas when it warms to body temperature in your stomach. Consuming carbonated soft drinks may cause repeated belching as your stomach stretches from the accumulation of carbon dioxide gas. Food and stomach acid may come up your food pipe as you belch, causing heartburn and a sour taste in your mouth.

2.Diet-Soda Belly

It’s not surprising that drinking all the sugar in sodas would cause weight gain, but what is surprising is that even diet soda will pack on the pounds: Researchers from the University of Texas Health Science Center monitored 475 adults for 10 years, and found that those who drank diet soda had a 70 percent increase in waist circumference over the 10-year study, compared with those who didn’t drink any soda. Those who drank more than two diet sodas per day saw a 500 percent waist expansion! A separate study the same researchers conducted on mice suggested that it was the aspartame, which raised blood glucose levels, that caused the weight gain; when your liver encounters too much glucose, the excess is converted to body fat.

3.Increased Risk of Obesity

Consuming sugar-sweetened, carbonated drinks adds calories to your diet, which may increase your risk of overweight and obesity. In an April 2007 article published in the "American Journal of Public Health," Lenny Vartanian, Ph.D., and colleagues report that the risk of overweight and obesity associated with consumption of sugar-sweetened, carbonated beverages is greater for women than men and for adults compared to children and adolescents. Overweight and obesity are significant risk factors for the development of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and osteoarthritis.

4.Caramel Cancer-Causers

In 2011, the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to ban the artificial caramel coloring used to make Coke, Pepsi, and other colas brown. The reason: Two contaminants in the coloring, 2-methylimidazole and 4-methylimidazole, have been found to cause cancer in animals, a threat the group says is unnecessary, considering that the coloring is purely cosmetic. According to California’s strict Proposition 65 list of chemicals known to cause cancer, just 16 micrograms per person per day of 4-methylimidazole is enough to pose a cancer threat, and most popular brown colas, both diet and regular, contain 200 micrograms per 20-ounce bottle.

5.Tooth Decay

Regular and diet carbonated soft drinks can harm your teeth. Your mouth contains bacteria that feed on sugar, producing chemicals that can break down the hard enamel of your teeth. A cavity forms when erosion of the enamel exposes the soft, inner core of your tooth. When you drink sweetened, carbonated soda, the sugar remains in your mouth, promoting the processes that lead to tooth decay. The acid in these carbonated drinks further increase the likelihood of developing cavities, because these chemicals also slowly erode the enamel of your teeth.

6.Water Pollution

The artificial sweeteners used in diet sodas don’t break down in our bodies, nor do wastewater-treatment plants catch them before they enter waterways, researchers have found. In 2009, Swiss scientists tested water samples from wastewater-treatment plants, rivers and lakes in Switzerland and detected levels of acesulfame K, sucralose, and saccharin, all of which are, or have been, used in diet sodas. A recent test of 19 municipal water supplies in the U.S. revealed the presence of sucralose in every one. It’s not clear yet what these low levels are doing to people, but past research has found that sucralose in rivers and lakes interferes with some organisms’ feeding habits.

7.Reduced Bone Strength

If you are a woman, consumption of cola-type, carbonated drinks may reduce your bone strength. In an October 2006 article published in "The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition," nutrition scientist Katherine Tucker, Ph.D., and colleagues report that women who consume regular and diet cola tend to have weaker hipbones compared to those who do not drink these beverages. The authors note that the degree of bone weakness correlates to the amount of cola consumed.