Soda

Since I have been on this good foods lifestyle plan (note I didn’t say DIET), I have been really sensitive to what others are eating and drinking.  Here at work I am constantly hearing the sizzle of soda cans opening up.  Knowing what I do now about the dangers of soda I cringe every time I hear it.  Soda has ingredients in it that are actually toxic to the body.

Doing a quick search on Google I found this article.

Soda Pop (or carbonated soft drinks) has an alarming amount of sugar, calories and harmful additives in it that have absolutely no nutritional value. Studies have linked soda to osteoporosis, obesity, tooth decay and heart disease. Despite this, soda accounts for more than one-quarter of all drinks consumed in the United States….and we wonder why we can’t lose weight and why we have health problems.

 I encourage you to think about it, especially giving it to your children.  Personally I am not too concerned about caffeine, but soda has a whopping amount of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), which is not only ubiquitous to soda but apparently most processed foods these days and a huge danger. 

I think I may have talked about this before, but one can never say enough about the dangers of HFCS.  Not only is it bad for your teeth, but it is highly linked to diabetes, hypertension, and liver damage.  If that were not bad enough, but now there is a suspicion that it also has toxic levels of mercury in it probably from the pesticides put on the corn during the growing season.  This is especially alarming since mercury exposure can result in irreversible brain and nervous system damage in young people.  Since our kids are the ones that are consuming so much of that stuff, this particular affect is especially alarming. I just wish I would have not given this to my kid when he was growing up, but I didn’t know it then.

So the next time you see the enticing ads for a cold refreshing soda, just dripping with the condensed water from the ice cold liquid in the shiny can, think about the dangers behind that tonic.  Think about the cold icy fingers of illness instead.  Maybe that image will steer your clear.