9 Disturbing Side Effects of Soda
Need a reason to break your soda addiction? We've got 9, and they're not pretty.
Soda's Bittersweet Side Effects
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If you've been reading health magazines and websites for any length of
time, you've read a litany of reasons why soda is bad for you. It's
nothing but sugar water. It's devoid of any nutritional value. It leads
to obesity and diabetes. But we've dug up nine other disturbing facts
about what soda does to your body, whether it's the side effects of
sucralose and other artificial sweeteners or ingredients that can lead
to memory loss. Keep reading to find out all nine reasons you should
kick soda to the curb
2.Weird Fat in Weird Places
In the latest bad news for the soda industry, Danish researchers
discovered that drinking non-diet soda leads to dramatic increases in
fat buildup around your liver and your skeletal muscles, both of which
can contribute to insulin resistance and diabetes. The study revealed
that people who drank a regular soda every day for six months saw a 132
to 142 percent increase in liver fat, a 117 to 221 percent jump in
skeletal fat, and about a 30 percent increase in both triglyceride blood
fats and other organ fat. Their consumption also led to an 11 percent
increase in cholesterol, compared with the people who drank other
beverages such as water or milk.
3.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.
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.
Accelerated Aging
Diet or regular, all colas contain phosphates, or phosphoric acid, a
weak acid that gives colas their tangy flavor and improves their shelf
life. Although it exists in many whole foods, such as meat, dairy, and
nuts, too much phosphoric acid can lead to heart and kidney problems,
muscle loss, and osteoporosis, and one study suggests it could trigger
accelerated aging. The study, published in a 2010 issue of the FASEB Journal,
found that the excessive phosphate levels found in sodas caused lab
rats to die a full five weeks earlier than the rats whose diets had more
normal phosphate levels—a disturbing trend considering that soda
manufacturers have been increasing the levels of phosphoric acid in
their products over the past few decades.
6.Water Pollution
The artificial sweeteners used in diet sodas don't break down in our
bodies, nor do waste water-treatment plants catch them before they enter
waterways, researchers have found. In 2009, Swiss scientists tested
water samples from waste water-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.Mountain Dew Mind
Dentists have a name for the condition they see in kids who drink too
much Mountain Dew. They wind up with a "Mountain Dew Mouth," full of
cavities caused by the drink's excessive sugar levels. "Mountain Dew
Mind" may be the next medical condition that gets named after the stuff.
An ingredient called brominated vegetable oil, or BVO, added to prevent
the flavoring from separating from the drink, is an industrial chemical
used as a flame retardant in plastics. Also found in other citrus-based
soft drinks and sports drinks, the chemical has been known to cause
memory loss and nerve disorders when consumed in large quantities.
Researchers also suspect that, like brominated flame retardants used in furniture foam, the chemical builds up in body fat, possibly causing behavioral problems, infertility, and lesions on heart muscles over time.
8.Whacked-Out Hormones
It's not just the soda that's causing all the problems. Nearly all aluminum soda cans are lined with an epoxy resin called bisphenol A (BPA),
used to keep the acids in soda from reacting with the metal. BPA is
known to interfere with hormones, and has been linked to everything from
infertility to obesity and diabetes and some forms of reproductive
cancers. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have pegged soda
cans, along with restaurant, school, and fast-food meals, as a major
source of exposure to the chemical. And while Pepsi and Coke are
currently locked in a battle to see which company can be the first to
develop a 100 percent plant-based-plastic bottle—which they're touting
as "BPA free"—neither company is willing to switch to BPA-free aluminum
cans.
9.Dead Birds
Before you switch from cans to bottles, though, take a look at the photographs of Chris Jordan,
an environmentalist and photographer who visited the Midway Atoll area
in 2009. It's close to the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch," a mass of
plastic debris in the Pacific Ocean where things like soda caps (which
often aren't recycled) and plastic fish netting float just beneath the
surface of the water. Birds, sea turtles, and other wildlife mistake the
debris for food and eat large quantities of the plastic, which they are
unable to digest. Ultimately, the plastic causes them to starve to
death. It's estimated that thousands of animals die this way every year.
10.Unknown Side Effects of GMOs
Take a look at the ingredients list for any soda and chances are most of
those ingredients are derived from corn. As much as 88 percent of the
corn grown in the U.S. is genetically modified to resist toxic
pesticides or engineered to create pesticides within the plant itself.
Thanks to lax government safety regulations, and tight corporate control
over who gets to test these proprietary seeds, there are no human
studies that can prove or disprove whether these crops are safe.
Independent scientists have found that, in animals, genetically modified
crops, or GMOs, are linked to digestive tract damage, accelerated
aging, and even infertility. Most recently, scientists in France found
that rats fed GMO corn for their entire two-year lifespan developed
mammary tumors and died earlier than rats that ate non-GMO corn their
entire lives.
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