A Hard Look at Soft Drinks
For the Health of It
As I did research for my previous PresentMagazine.com article, Teas Me, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that worldwide, tea is the second most popular beverage, water being the first. I was expecting water’s follower to be coffee or soft drinks. Then I thought, how ethnocentric of me to think that soft drinks could be the second most popular drink worldwide; I knew good and well that Americans consume vastly more soda than other cultures.
Sugar-laden carbonated soft drinks are not the second most popular drink in the U.S. No, they’re first. Based on a 2005 Beverage Marketing Corporation study, soft drinks comprise 28.3 percent of total U.S. beverage consumption—more than coffee, tea, and milk combined. I was pretty surprised to hear that soda trumped America’s coffee obsession.
Liquid Candy
It’s no coincidence that we consume more soft drinks than any other culture and also suffer by far from the highest rates of obesity, heart disease, and Type II diabetes, all to which excessive sugar intake contributes. According to the National Soft Drink Association, as of 1998, the average person in the U.S. drank 54 gallons of soft drinks annually. When you consider that this doesn’t include most diabetics and small children, the volume is actually higher.
Each 12-ounce can of non-diet soda contains a whopping 10 to 12 teaspoons of sugar, usually in the form of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). The dangers of high fructose corn syrup are becoming more widely acknowledged. We’ve got the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over our right shoulder telling us that it’s safe, and a horde of independent studies and concerned doctors over our left shoulder telling us otherwise.
High fructose corn syrup (also disguised under the name crystalline fructose) is a relatively recent invention of our food industry and is an indicator of low-quality foods. It’s pretty ubiquitous; if you start reading food labels, you’ll see that it’s in everything: condiments, ice cream, juices, jams, soups, syrups, yogurt, cereal, and even bread. It’s cheap, has a long shelf life, and therefore conventional food companies love the stuff. The body just doesn’t know how to utilize this type of fructose and many a study is linking HFCS to obesity, diabetes, disrupted metabolic and liver function, and elevated triglycerides for men.
Most diet soft drinks are sweetened with NutraSweet® (aspartame) or SPLENDA® (sucralose). Despite many studies and testimonials to the contrary, the creators of these FDA-approved chemical sweeteners are scrambling to convince the public that they are safe. The dangers are too many to list here and the health issues surrounding the use of artificial sweeteners is deserving of another article. In my opinion, they should be banned. You’re better off with good ol’ sugar.
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