Soda Does Your Body More Harm Than Good

A Healthier You Day 5

The next time you crave the refreshing taste of soft drinks, drink water till you’re full. Do this for the sake of your organs.

As refreshing and seemingly relaxing as soft drinks (popularly known as soda) may taste (especially when chilled), they harm your body more than you can imagine. Apart from loading up your calorie intake, soda does not nourish your body in any way.

What Soda Does to Your Body

A can of soda contains up to 10 teaspoons of sugar. How does that sound? 😏

Now, take a look at what soda does to you:

Raises Blood Sugar Level

Soda can raise your blood sugar level, especially if you’re inactive before and after taking it. The sugar just sits in your bloodstream. I’m that’s not something you want. 🥲

Excess Glucose Kills Brain Cells

Yep. You read correctly. Excess sugar from soda (and other sugary foods) can damage your brain cells. But this does not mean you’ll go daft after taking one can of soda. 😆

Your brain cells (just like every other cell in your body) multiply by themselves. So you may not notice the damaging effects of soda on your brain until you’re older, and your cells can no longer multiply as quickly as they should. This is where Alzheimer’s and other memory-related issues come in. 

Fills the Body with Phosphoric Acid

Soda contains excess amounts of phosphoric acid (you can check the label of any brand). Unfortunately, having so much phosphoric acid in your bloodstream (and not drinking enough water) is a leading cause of kidney stones.

Depletes Your Calcium Supply

Phosphoric acid also attaches to calcium in your bloodstream as it flows through your urine. This means that it depletes your body’s calcium supply. Now, if you take less milk, you may suffer calcium deficiency, bone fractures, and osteoporosis.

Erodes the Teeth

When you constantly take soda, the acid in them erodes your teeth’s enamel (the strong outer surface) to cause cavities. With time, it leaves your teeth stained and gradually erodes the inner part of your teeth. This leads to tooth problems like hypersensitivity, cavities, toothache, and decay.

Makes You Gain Weight

Even if you’re active after taking soda, remember you also consume calories from other things you eat. When you pack excess sugar in your blood, your liver stores them as fat.

And don’t tell me you’ll burn those calories by walking from one end of your workplace to another. You do not blast as many calories (nor as much fat) as you think by being active within an enclosed space. You have to do intense running for one hour to burn up to 590cal.

Endangers Your Organs

The bad thing about this fat storage isn’t just that you’ll gain weight. Sometimes (depending on your genes), fat is first stored around vital organs before there are stored under your skin, where you can visibly notice the weight gain.

The fat stored around your organs is known as visceral fat, and it produces toxic substances that can endanger your health. Can you imagine what happens when you have your liver, bladder, or kidney surrounded by toxin-producing fat?

How To Break Your Soda Pop Habit

1. Drink water more often to combat thirst, which usually causes a craving for soda.
2. Alternate soda with healthy drinks.
3. Gradually reduce your soda intake. Cutting it off at once will only make you drink more whenever you lay your hands on it.

Start by taking a bottle less than you do every week.

Then bring it down to once every 3 days and then once a week. If you can stick to taking a can of soda once a week, you can still bring it down to once every two weeks, then once a month. But, trust me, if you stick to plenty of water and healthy drinks, you’ll never want to drink soda again.