Are Soft Drinks Really That Bad For You?

A couple of weeks ago I was walking through a shopping centre, when I saw a Mum pouring Sprite (lemonade) into a bottle for her young child that I would guess to have been around 15-18 months old.  Of course, I cringed and done all that judgmental stuff but then when I thought about it –  although I never put soft drink into my children’s bottles – there was a stage where I did allow them to have an occasional soft drink when we were out and about or at a BBQ with friends, where this unfortunately was the norm.

Now, we all know that Soft Drink is full of sugar and bad for our teeth – but the fact is, the dangers of Soft Drink are far worse than this and had I have known, I sure as hell would have never allowed my children to even taste the stuff, let alone have them guzzling it down as a “treat” on all our little outings.  So when I saw this lady putting lemonade (probably thinking she was making a good choice – lemonade over coke!) into her babies bottle, later that night when I got past being judgemental, I thought I would give her the benefit of the doubt and just presume she too, was simply uneducated.  So I decided then and there that this was a post that I needed to write.

So, in answer to the Question – Is soft drink really that bad for you? The answer is YES! and not only is it Yes, it’s probably much worse than you even realise.  So now it’s time to share a few little facts with you about just HOW bad Soft Drinks really are.

Did You Know:
-That soft drinks have extremely high levels of Phosphoric Acid in them, which not only imbalances minerals in your body, but it also leeches calcium and magnesium from your bones – which is your bodies way of trying to restore the imbalance. (and don’t think that by taking a calcium supplement that it will make it all ok – because it won’t! and most calcium supps around are completely useless in actually providing a useable calcium source and most of them cause more harm than good!)

- If you drink “diet” soft drinks (or “diet”anything for that matter) with the thought that your making a healthier choice….think again! Aspartame (which is the artificial sweetner used in these drinks) has a list of 92 known side effects ranging from things such as headaches and dizziness to Parkinson’s disease and Brain tumours! I will do a more in depth blog on the dangers of aspartame – but if you already drink these drinks – STOP and do some research!!

-Sugar  is the most highly addictive substance on the planet and Soft Drinks are loaded with it! Aside from what it’s doing to your teeth – sugar addiction has been linked with insomnia, PMS, immune deficiencies, impotence and memory loss.  Now the problem with a sugar addiction – unlike many other addictions like drugs, cigarettes and gambling is that sugar is socially acceptable and very difficult to get away from (but not impossible!)

-Soft Drinks cause our immune system to be depleted for up to 3 hours after consumption – and we wonder why we are always getting sick!!

-Drinking from can’s is by far the worst – because on top of all the other nasties you are also adding the fact that aluminium is known to be dangerous to our health – again that requires a whole other blog post to go on about that one!

-Finally, The carbon dioxide which is put into the liquid to make the bubbles is a leading cause of blood acidosis –  Which in simple terms is turning your blood into an acidic state.

Here is a quote from Hayley Wallace N.D’s Book – ‘Finding Wellness’ on exactly what happens in our bodies when we consume Soft Drinks:

“One 350ml serving of caffeinated soft drink delivers a sugar fix equivalent to about 9 teaspoons of sugar straight into the blood stream.  It acidifies instantly and without an immediate emergency response from the body, it would kill you in a matter of minutes.  To counteract the sudden radical rise in blood acidity and reestablish blood pH to a safe level before you drop dead, you’d have to quickly drink 32 glasses of alkaline water after each serving of soft drink.  Considering that this is not possible, the body reacts swiftly by drawing huge amounts of organic calcium from the bones and teeth and delivers in to the blood stream to neutralise the excess acids and quickly restore  alkaline balance.”

The calcium is then excreted from the body through our urine.

Now, you can’t tell me – after reading this and knowing this you could honestly still feed this to not only yourself… but also your kids?

It’s horrible, horrible stuff and it should not be allowed on our shelves…..but, unfortunately it is – so it is up to you to make the choice to bypass that entire aisle in the supermarket and choose a better option. Have water,or go and make a fresh juice instead!

There are only two things allowed for drinks in my house and that is water or homemade juices! (oh and of course herbal teas…)

I invite you to do the same in your house

Have a great (soft drink free) day!

Carlee
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Tags: aspartame, disease, featured, soft drinks, teeth

Category: Blog, Detox, Healing, Live Well, Nutrition, Parenting