THE HARM OF SOFT DRINKS

On a very hot day in Accra, Kejetia, Zabzugu, or wherever you find yourself in Ghana, nothing can be more refreshing than an ice cold soft drink. From Coco-Cola to Pepsi, Orange to Root Beer, sparkling water to seltzer, there are numerous soft drinks to choose from. Soft drinks are sold in every restaurant, supermarkets and just about every place you go today. But where did this carbonated delight come from? How was it invested? Mineral water found in natural springs is considered healthy for the body. I’m going to give you a brief history of soft drinks before journeying you its harm and effects.

Technically, a soft drink is defined as any drink other than plain water, doesn’t contain alcohol. The first soft drinks were not made in factories but came naturally as they were mineral waters found in natural springs and geysers.  Early society would bathe in natural springs believing they contained health improving minerals. This theme of the health benefits of soft drinks follows its development throughout the ages. Later, Arabic chemists developed sherbets. These sherbets were the first fruits juice and carbonation drink and were made from crushed fruits, berries, herbs or flowers. Muslim shopkeepers sold what they called a sharob to the European traders coming through the Middle East. Out of the Muslim sharob came the fresh sorbet. Around 1265, the sherbet Dandelion and Burdock was introduced in England and was instantly very popular. This led to the development of other carbonated drinks in the Western World. Joseph Priestly developed this machine to make carbonated water.

The first soft drinks to be marketed in the West were made from water and lemon juice, sweetened with honey and was called Lemonade. A Paris company was granted a monopoly on the dale of lemonade soft drinks and its employees would walk around Paris with tanks of the drinks on their back and sell by the cup. Not much later in England, an imported discovery was made that would revolutionize soft drinks in 1767, Joseph Priestly discovered a method of infusing water with carbon dioxide. The invention is known as carbonated water. Another Englishman named John Nooth improved the carbonated water designed and began selling his product to pharmacies   throughout England. Like the ancient societies, the carbonated soft drink was believed to aid in good health. Later two Swedish Chemists improved on the work done by the English. Torben Bergman invented a process that produced carbonated water from chalk by using sulphuric acid. This allowed carbonated water to be produced in large amounts. Later, John Jacob Berzeluis began to add flavours to the carbonated water. Coca-Cola was first intended as a medicine but now it’s one of the biggest soft drink producers in the world as well as Pepsi.

Today, soft drinks are mostly known by its most popular form; the soda pop. However, even soda pop is nothing more than carbonated with flavour added. The important step came in 1784 when citric acid was developed from lemon juice, since soda was given a trademark. This soda is ginger ale. Four years later, Charles Hires intended his Root Beer extract in 1876 it was offered at the Philadelphia fair. Root Beer was made from a herb tea made from roots that added carbonated water and citric acid. Hires Root Beer became popular on the East Coast. Then came Coca-Cola, Dr. Pepper and Moxie which were introduced in 1886. At first, Coca-Cola was sold as a remedy for headaches. But Dr. Pepper, introduced in a corner drug store in Waco, Texas, was sold as a beverage. Then in 1903, Pepsi-Cola was formed and its products were sold as a cure for dyspepsia. Later, sugar was added and these once medicines became the tasty beverages we know today. Soft drinks today are a big business. Coca-Cola and Pepsi still compete to be crowned as the world’s best soft drink. But the soft drink was developed as health supplement and until only 100 years ago was marked as such. Today it is a tasty beverage!!!

Lovers of sweeteners and especially have soft drinks every time and don’t even mind taking it day and night. It is one of the worse beverages that you could be drinking for your health. As the debate for whether to put a tax on the sale on soft drinks continues, you should know how they affect your body so that you can make an informed choice. The consumption on soft drinks in high quantity, especially by children is responsible for causing many health problems such as tooth decay, obesity, heart diseases, nutritional depletion and type- two diabetes. This is because soft drinks contain little to no vitamins or other essential nutrients. However, they rather contain caffeine, carbonation, simple sugars or worse, sugars substitutes and often sugar additives such as artificial colouring, flavouring and preservatives. Carbonation depletes calcium. Beverages with bubbles contain phosphoric acid which can severely deplete the blood calcium levels. Our bone matrix has calcium as its key components. When the calcium is less concentrated over a long time, it can lower deposition rates so that bone mass and density suffer. This clearly means drinking sodas and carbonated water increases your risk of osteoporosis. Now in addition to the caffeine, your problem gets worse because it depletes the body’s calcium and stimulates the central nervous system to contribute to stress, a racing mind, and insomnia. 98% of the soft drinks contain a high amount of simple sugars. The USDA recommendation of sugar consumption for2,000-calorie diet is a daily allotment of 10 teaspoons of added sugars. Many soft drinks contain more than this amount!

I’m going to tell you why we get unhealthy with too much sugar in our system. When you drink sodas that are packed with simple sugars, the pancreas is called upon to produce and release insulin, a hormone that empties the sugar in your blood stream into all the tissues and cells for usage. The insulin level rises as a result of over indulging in simple sugars. When the blood insulin level are raised beyond the norm, it can lead to depression in your immune system, which in turns, weakens your ability to fight diseases. An important fact to consider is that most of the excess sugar ends up being stored as fats in your body, which results in weight gain and elevates risk for heart diseases and cancer. Research finds it that when subject where given refined sugar, their white blood cell count decreased significantly for several hours. Another study discovers that rats fed with a high sugar diet had a substantially elevated rate breast cancer when compared to rats on a regular diet.

As humans as we are, I’m sure you are now concluding that diet or sugar free soda is the best. However, one study discovered that drinking one or more soft drinks a day and it didn’t matter whether it was diet or regular led to a 30% greater chance of weight gain around the belly. Diet soda is filled with artificial sweetness such as aspartame, sucralose or saccharin. These artificial sweeteners pose a threat to your health. Saccharin is carcinogenic and it produces bladder cancer in rats. Aspartame, commonly known as NutraSweet is a chemical that stimulates the brain to think the food is sweet. It breaks down into aspartic acid, phenylalanine and menthol at a temperature of 86 degrees. We need to know that our stomach is about 98 degrees .University of Texas had an article which states that aspartame has been linked to obesity. The process of stimulating the brain causes more cravings for sweets and lead to carbohydrates loading.

We all know what is good and bad, right or wrong. The decision is yours to take, so I conclude by saying, love your health and love yourself!!!

CHRISTIANITY IN GHANA NOW!!!

There are different perceptions of who a Christian is. A Christian is simply a follower of Christ, one who professes belief in Jesus as the Christ and follows his teachings.

During colonization, one of the activities of the whites was to spread the Gospel in Ghana. Each was dispersed into various denominations which we all call the Orthodox Churches. Unfortunately, we can’t even categorize some churches under any these days. We must ask ourselves why we can’t.

It is simply because, there are so many churches cropping up ‘’self-appointed pastors’’ just for the greed of money! There is the greed for money because the unemployment rate is high and they complain there is no money in the system, therefore, the best solution is to open a church. This clearly means, opening a church is a form of a business now.

Another point worth mentioning is, they know the needs of our ‘’supposed God-fearing citizens’’. Christianity must be worshiping God with our hearts but lately, we find people going to church solely for social purposes and miracles. Yes! Miracles are important but they are lacking faith in God and putting trust in man.  A typical example is couples moving from one church to another because they need a child. Other vital factors include, making pastors pray for them for visas, marriages jobs, etc.

Well, I conclude by saying, Christians must worship God with the right ideology but not for personal needs.

REWARDING CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION

                                 

Over the years, entertainment in Ghana has improved tremendously in the field of fashion, movies, music and events management. Some events houses in the industry are Charter House, Empire Entertainment, Global Events, + 233 Connect, just to mention but few.  Some of these events houses have acknowledged the talents and hardwork of our industry players and celebrities by organizing awards nights to reward their creativity and innovation.  

An award is something given to an individual or a group of people to recognize their excellence in a certain field. They could be signified by trophies, title, certificates, medals, badges, pins or ribbons. In Ghana and other parts of the world, the mass media is the bedrock of the entertainment industry. The RTP Awards is organized by Global Events Ghana to recognize and reward seasoned radio and television personalities who have over the years contributed immensely towards the development of the industry in Ghana and have also endeared themselves to listeners and viewers. Some other Awards Night held in Ghana by the entertainment industry are the Ghana Music Awards, 4Syte Music Video Awards,  Ghana Movie Awards,  Ghana DJ Awards, Gh Model Awards, Ghana Social Media Awards, Hi-Skull Entertainment Awards and a whole lot more. Obviously, music grows more each day in Ghana even with the institution of Underground Rappers Association which promotes upcoming artistes in Ghana on the Kasahare Level Programme on Adom fm hosted by Pope Skinny.

 Music from Ghana is now a force to reckon with both in Africa, and across the world.  Since the 1930’s, the Ghanaian traditional highlife had its moments thrilling the native fans to make their Saturday dance nights, a moment to relish and cherish. In the early 1970’s, traditionally styled highlife was overtaken by electric guitar bands and pop-dance music, which was termed “Borga- Highlife”. By the late 1990s, a new generation of artists created the genre Hip-life, which was a fusion of western hip-hop and contemporary highlife. This movement was headed by the Godfather of Ghanaian rap music, Reggie Rockstone.  Hip-life, since then, has offered life changing opportunities to musical talents such as Obrafuor, Samini, Sarkordie, Kwaw Kessie, VIP, Kwaadei, and lots more.

Currently with Ghanaian music at its prime, creative music videos were needed, to further push local productions from Ghana into the global market. Lately the Ghana music industry has been flooded by thousands for music videos from various artistes under various genres such as r’n’b, hip-hop, dancehall, highlife, afro-pop, reggae, jazz and other forms of music categories. To award producers, creative directors, production houses and artistes for their creativity, 4SYTE TV, in 2009, launched the 4SYTE music video awards, to serve that honorary purpose.

4Syte TV is one platform that has really made our Ghanaian celebrities step up their game in their mode of life in terms of dressing, musical content, film making, news reportage and public speaking.

However, 4Syte TV has inspired me to give thorough background information and update about their music video awards.  

The 4SYTE music video awards is an annual event designed to acknowledge record labels and productions house in Ghana and Africa, for their contributions towards promoting music through motion pictures. The event is in its 5^th year, and since its inauguration in 2009, organizers have partnered with various institutions such as Vodafone Ghana, Mtn Ghana, and Ghana Brewery Limited to enable the project run smoothly each year, to achieve its set objectives. 4SYTE music ward began as a single night event, full of glitzy fashion and exclusive performances from various artistes, both locally and abroad.  Categories for awarding winners include: Best Photography video, best edited video, overall best video, and other categories under various music genres. Music lovers also get a chance to vote for their favorite stars so they could win a prize. The 4SYTE music video award was the first of its kind to be launched in Ghana. It awarded winner based on the clarity of the storyline or concept, special effects, photography and quality of editing.

The music video award scheme has aided the Ghanaian music industry gain international recognition and created an open market for artistes to market their brands, as well as created a wide range of business opportunities for the country’s creative industry. In 2011, the platform attracted the likes of a renowned American film maker, Samad Davis, whose work “Dadie Kye” for the self-proclaimed African dancehall king, Samini, clinched a nomination at the 2011’s edition of the music video award. 

In 2011, the 4SYTE music video wards added nominees jam to spice up the concept.  This created an opportunity for the fans to interact with the stars nominated before the main event, which is mostly in November. The 4syte crew with the nominees each year, tour nationwide to excite the moods of the audience, and party with them throughout the night.  The nominees jam, since its launch, has been held in Cape Coast, Takoradi, Kumasi and Accra. The organizers also added the best African act to strengthen relationship between African artistes and contribute their quota to promoting African music world wide. The 2013 edition kicked off with a nominees jam in Kumasi on the 12^th October, 2013. The man of the moment, dance hall icon, Shatta Wala, rocked the stage as the crowd chanted excitedly, catchy phrases from his hit songs and Kwaw Kesse made an “insane” appearance with the crowd chanting wildly under his spell. Others include Tiffany, VIP, Jupiter, Dee Money, and many more. Annually, the 4SYTE music video awards create networking opportunities for investors in the music industry, and also forms a network for colleagues and industry leaders to share information and develop potential policies that is geared towards industry development of the creative industry.

Source: Nana Osei Kyei Mensah ( Flash Africa)