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!!!