Dawaai Blog

What’s wrong with soft drinks?

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Medically reviewed by Dr. Riaz Ali Shah.

With every fizz that you hear, you are one step closer to the tempting bottle of soft drink. And why wouldn’t you be? What more could you want other than an icy cold bottle of soda on a hot day? But is it really worth all that charisma shown in the ads?

Let’s not lie to ourselves. At least once in your lifetime, you must have heard someone say, ‘soft drinks are bad for health’. While you do know they are harmful, what you don’t know is HOW they can be harmful. There is a lot that this not-so-innocent bottle of soft drink is doing to your body that you know nothing about. Almost involving each system of your body, here’s what it can do:

The Timeline of the Sugar Rush

The first few minutes of soft drink consumption are the most crucial. As soon as the soft drink reaches your system, the sugar levels rise. Twenty minutes later, this sugar rush results in a surge of insulin, a hormone that controls sugar levels, and stores excess sugars. As a response, this excess sugar is converted to fats by the liver.

As more time passes, the caffeine absorption completes, and this makes a few changes to your body. These can include wide pupils, increased blood pressure, and alertness.

About forty five minutes later, the brain secretes dopamine, the happy hormone, from the pleasure centers. Although this might sound like a win-win idea for keeping alert and productive, it is usually not the case.

A Consistent Sugar Rush

What if the aforementioned effects last longer? There will come a point when your body will stop responding to the increased sugar levels. Here’s what can happen then:

  1. Your liver will not store anymore excess glucose, increasing your blood sugar levels.
  2. Your heart will respond to increased blood pressure and this will put an increased load on the heart muscles. This can lead to heart problems.
  3. Your kidneys can develop kidney stones after constant filtering of the phosphoric acid that the soft drink contains.
  4. Your liver will also produce more fats, making you overweight.
  5. Insulin will ultimately stop responding to increased blood sugar levels, giving you diabetes.
  6. Overtime, soft drink consumption can destroy the crystals that make up your teeth. As the tooth wear continues, there will be an increased risk of tooth decay, and abscess formation if left untreated.
  7. All in all, diabetes, obesity, and heart disease are direct promoters of developing cancers.

A Recipe for Disaster

Imagine every system of your body, be it your heart, brain, kidneys, or your liver being affected by something as easy to purchase as a bottle of a soft drink. Would you still want to be cool and gulp down this venom? Make healthy choices, drink water, and say good bye to this sugar loaded destruction.

Guest Credits: Dr. Faryal Zaidi

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