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Why Soda is Bad For You

These Top 100 Weight Loss Tips continue to count down and here we are at article number 85 in the series. As before, each new article is another great top tip on how to lose weight naturally, easily and of course safely.

This post looks at the dangers of drinking soda, or carbonated, sweetened, flavored beverages and how they contribute to weight gain among other health related issues.

Before I get into this, please be aware that when I'm referring to soda, I mean the fizzy, non-alcoholic carbonated drinks that usually come in cans or bottles and are flavored and sweetened with a variety of ingredients. I don't mean the fizzy water that is often mixed with whiskey!

Why is Soda Bad For You?

Ever since a certain drinks company patented their recipe for cola, then advertised it as the next best thing to, well, the best thing ever, a whole industry has grown up around fizzy carbonated drinks.

These are known in the US as soda and in many other countries as simply fizzy drinks, pop, soda-pop and whatever else they like to call it. They are all the same thing and they are all made by taking straight water, adding flavorings, preservatives, colorants, chemical stabilizer and sweetener then carbonating it under pressure to add the fizz.

This produces a thirst quenching drink, especially when its cooled in a fridge. Or at least it would be thirst quenching if it didn't contain so many chemicals and some contain sodium to make you more thirsty so you'll drink more!

There are several reasons why soda is bad for you, not least of all that the majority of them contain a load of fructose in the form of high fructose corn syrup. This is an ingredient that is linked with obesity as well as type II diabetes, so it really is not good to be drinking this stuff as part of your daily diet or personal hydration strategy.

Maybe you think you can avoid many of the health dangers by switching to a low calorie, or sugar free alternative? Think again.

Sugar-Free but Still Bad

Sugar free soda contains artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, saccharine and sorbitol, all of which are linked with cancer. Aspartame, by far the most popular sugar free drink additive these days is a time bomb waiting to go off.

At temperatures greater than 83 degrees Fahrenheit, aspartame becomes unstable and the wood alcohol breaks down to form formaldehyde. That's the stuff embalming fluid is made of and it is carcinogenic (cancer causing), no question.

Aspartame also messes with cell DNA and can trigger abnormal cell growth. It also tricks your brain into thinking you are hungry. This means you're going to want to eat more of the foods that are usually bad for your diet, which defeats the object of drinking a low calorie or calorie free drink.

So do you still want to drink soda in any form?

There are some great alternatives to quenching your thirst. Try good old fashioned water. Remember that stuff? You can flavor it with freshly squeezed lemon or lime juice and chill it in the fridge for a really great thirst quenching drink that is totally calorie free, totally additive free and will help you to lose weight!

Here's a good weight loss tip: If you are a lover of sugar-laden soda drinks and drink two or more cans a day, by dropping them completely from your daily routine will help you to drop as much as FIVE POUNDS in a single week. And that's WITHOUT doing anything else!

100 Weight Loss Tips number 84 follows along in the next post!

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Posted on Fri, 03 Jul 2009 in Top 100 Weight Loss Tips | 1 Comments