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10 Diseases You Could Get By Drinking Soda
Statistics show that soda remains a hit among Americans, accounting for over 25 percent of all drinks in the United States. In 2000, more than 15 billion gallons of soda were sold. That’s about one 12-ounce can daily for every man, woman, and child.
Are you a regular soda drinker? Squidoo gives a rundown of the 10 diseases linked to your favorite beverage.
- Extra pounds. Contributing significantly to obesity, a single can of soda a day translates to over a pound of weight gain every month. Diet soda isn’t any better – its artificial sweeteners stimulate physiological and hormonal responses that make you gain weight.
- Tooth decay. The incidence of tooth decay rises with soda consumption. This is because soda can dissolve your tooth enamel. In fact, its acidity is worse for your teeth than the sugar in candy!
- Kidney stones and chronic kidney disease. Soda has high phosphoric acid content that changes your urine and consequently promotes kidney stone formation. Your risk of developing kidney stones increases by 15 percent when you drink a quart of soda per week.
- Heartburn and acid reflux. Drinking soda makes you a strong candidate for heartburn. It also delivers a lot of air in the form of carbon dioxide, causing your stomach to be distended. This distension is associated with reflux.
- Diabetes. Do you know that anything promoting weight gain increases your diabetes risk as well? Soda gets in the way of how your body processes sugar.
- Liver damage. Soda damages your liver. Like a chronic alcoholic, you are put at an increased risk for cirrhosis when you consume too many soft drinks.
- Hypertension. Regardless of whether it’s regular or diet, many experts believe that soda causes your blood pressure to rise.
- Osteoporosis. High phosphoric acid in soda is linked to lower calcium levels and higher phosphate levels in your blood. This causes weakening in your skeletal structure.
- Impaired digestion. Gastrointestinal distress is characterized by increased stomach acid levels (requiring acid inhibitors) and moderate to severe gastric inflammation with possible stomach lining erosion. Drinking soda – especially on an empty stomach –upsets the fragile acid-alkaline balance of your stomach.
- Heart disease. You’re more likely to develop certain risk factors for heart disease if you’re a heavy soda drinker. Research shows that over one soft drink a day is associated with a higher risk of developing metabolic syndrome – a group of symptoms including central obesity, elevated blood pressure, elevated fasting blood sugar, elevated fasting triglycerides, and low levels of HDL or “good” cholesterol.
Natural health expert Dr. Joseph Mercola confirms these dangers of soda, which are on his list of five absolute worst foods and drinks.
For radically improved health, Dr. Mercola recommends replacing soda and other sugar-laden drinks with clean filtered water.
However, you shouldn’t be lax about the water coming directly from your tap. It has impurities and toxic contaminants that could adversely affect your health.
You can use quality water filters to get rid of contaminants in your tap water. Water filters can also remove the fluoride present in most municipal water supplies.
Dr. Mercola personally uses and recommends reverse osmosis filters. However, be sure to add Himalayan salt or other high-quality salt to the water after using this kind of filter.
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