Today Sally and I discuss the subject of soft drinks. They can undermine your health and that of your children. Did you know how much sugar there is in a lot of soft drinks? Do you know what damage soft drinks can inflict on your bodies and wellbeing?
Resist the urge to regularly buy soft drinks
You have control over how often you buy Soft Drinks for your pantry. You also have the power to shape the eating habits of your children and their food preferences for life. Feed them junk and they will love junk. Stock your fridge with carbonated soft drinks and you may well build a lifelong habit which will undermine their health and wellbeing.
Soft drinks are like liquid sugar and contain too many empty calories
A single can of soft drink contains 8-10 teaspoons of sugar, around 36 grams of carbohydrate and zero nutrition. These are empty calories and exceed the total calorie and carbohydrate needed by the average child in a day.
The American Heart Association recommended in 2016 that children consume less than 25 grams of added sugars per day or six teaspoons.
The daily Carbohydrate requirement for children 4 and 8 years is 17 – 20 grams [KidsHealth ] and 22 -31 grams for older children and teens, [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention].
Soft drinks raise the risk of chronic disease
As a Cancer Prevention, The American Institute for Cancer Research recommends that you limit consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks, and drink mostly and unsweetened drinks. This is because there is convincing evidence that sugar-sweetened drinks cause weight gain, overweight, and obesity in both children and adults, especially when consumed regularly.
Because Sugary drinks cause obesity, they raise the risk of a plethora of chronic disease including:
- Metabolic Syndrome > Prediabetes > Diabetes (133ooo)
- Cardiovascular disease (44ooo)
- Cancer (6ooo avoidable deaths pa)
- Gout
- Osteoporosis
- Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease
- (avoidable deaths pa globally, source Mercola)
And yes, in case you wondered, sugar is highly addictive
Have you weighed up the health risks of diet drinks?
You want to lose weight but struggle to kick the soft drink habit? So, like many others, you decide to drink diet cola or soda. But is this a wise choice? The evidence suggests not and that you are better to stick to sugar-sweetened drinks.
Purdue University reviewed a dozen studies looking at the link between diet drinks and health in the journal Trends in Endocrinology & Metabolism. Consumption of diet soft drinks is correlated with weight gain, and significantly increased the risk of acquiring diabetes, heart disease or a stroke.
A Boston University study in 2017 of nearly 3,000 adults who had one or more diet drinks a day were nealry three times more likely to develop dementia and three times more to suffer a stroke. [1] In contrast, while drinking regular, sugar-sweetened sodas or beverages is not healthy, their consumption did not appear to raise the risk of stroke.
My top three tips to reduce soft-drink consumption:
- Decide to kick the habit
- A determination to get through the inevitable withdrawal period
- Discover Healthy Hydration with water and herbal or fruit teas
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[1]: Sugar and Artificially Sweetened Beverages and the Risks of Incident Stroke and Dementia