Saying NO to Soda

Some of the best ways to help improve our diets involve making tiny changes that affect something we do on a regular basis and sticking to them. That means things like not having butter on our toast, and things like avoiding adding salt to our cooking; and it also means saying NO to soda.

What’s Wrong With Soda?

While soda drinks might seem like a relatively harmless way to get some refreshment during your day, they actually are very bad for you and have many negative effects on our health. The first of these problems is of course the sugar and soda drinks are high in this – more so than you probably know. In fact, in terms of sugar alone a fizzy drink like a glass of Coca Cola is actually the equivalent of eating two Cadbury’s Cream Eggs – so five drinks throughout the day is like eating ten Cream Eggs. That’s disgusting. To put it in other terms for those who have never eaten a Cream Egg that’s ten spoonful’s of sugar.

But wait, what about sugar free fizzy drinks? Well actually they’re pretty bad for you as well. First of all, by drinking sugar free fizzy drinks you’re taking in a lot of artificial sweetener and this then has an unwanted effect of tricking your body into thinking it has consumed sugar. That then results in an insulin spike – which in turn uses up all the sugar that was previously in your blood. That in turn then leaves you feeling drained and wasted as you have no sugar left in your system and this then means that you are far more likely to binge on other sources of sugar. Not good for you. At the same time these drinks are worse for your health than even the sugar-filled versions.

Most soda drinks are also high in caffeine. This isn’t really the end of the world and it can help us to be more alert etc. However too much caffeine certainly isn’t a good thing as it can result in our becoming jittery, having difficulties sleeping at night, becoming dehydrated (it’s a diuretic) and experiencing headaches. On top of that it’s also addictive and that means that if you keep drinking soda you’re likely to drink more of it.

On top of all that you also get negative effects from the phosphoric acid which is a crucial part of all soda drinks. This will then bind calcium, magnesium and zinc in your lower intestine which increases blood pressure and it will result in the urinary excretion of extra calcium.

How to Say NO

If you’re struggling to stop drinking soda drinks then it’s time to replace those with something else. There are many things you can drink here that will have a better effect – for instance fruit juices which still have a lot of sugar but nowhere near as much, water, milk, or things like Oasis. Any of these is a step up, and something like one of the ‘Neuro’ drinks will also contain calcium to help you adapt to drinking less soda.

If you are really struggling to kick the soda habit then you simply need to remind yourself each time you crave it just how bad this stuff is for you. One way to do that is just to imagine those ten spoonful’s of sugar each time you think about drinking some and imagine eating them one after the other. Suddenly it’s not so appealing.

If you are on the road a lot and drink soda out of convenience, then make a habit to stock up once a week on bottles of water and apple juice. This way you will have them right to hand there in the car with you so you can grab them while you’re on the move.