Sodas are worse for your health than eating sugary junk foods and may even be worse for you than smoking. Soda is proven to be addictive and consumption has been clinically linked to increased blood pressure, high blood sugar, weight gain, kidney disease, heart disease, diabetes, depression, asthma, headaches, ear infections, joint and muscle problems, developmental delays, ADHD, heavy metal toxicity, yeast infections, urinary tract infections, candidiasis, other increased pathogenic activity, increased PMS symptoms, brain damage, liver toxicity, tooth decay, acne, mood swings, decreased fertility in men and women, and so much more!

In other words, drinking soda feeds infections, disrupts the gut microbiome and the metabolic processes, degrades cells, causes chronic illness, exacerbates virtually all chronic illness symptoms, and rapidly ages the body.

This is true for sugary sodas, diet sodas, and most energy drinks.

Recommended: How To Heal Your Gut

The Sugar in Soda

A 20-ounce bottle of Coke contains approximately 65 grams sugar which equates to about or 16 teaspoons of sugar. There are 39 grams of sugar in a 12 oz can of Coke, which is equivalent to about 10 teaspoons of sugar. Most sodas that aren’t artificially sweetened are made with high fructose corn syrup, so the teaspoons of sugar are just equivalents.

The American Heart Association recommends that Americans consume no more than five to nine teaspoons of sugar per day.¹ We contend that nine teaspoons of processed sugar are too much. Even one is too much. We don’t recommend any refined sugar.

A 20 oz soda has 2.5 servings. A standard serving size is eight ounces. There are 100 calories in one eight ounce serving of soda. These calories are void of nutrition. There’s an easy trick to figure out how many teaspoons of sugar a food has: divide the total sugar grams by four.

A 20-ounce bottle has 65 grams of sugar; 65÷4 = 16.25 teaspoons of sugar.

A can of coke has 35 grams of sugar; 35÷4=8.75 teaspoons of sugar.

If you’re trying to stick with the American Heart Association’s recommendations of no more than nine teaspoons of sugar per day you’re pretty much done after a can of soda.

Beverages are the most significant source of added sugars in the American diet.  The average American drinks almost 42 gallons of sweetened beverages a year. That’s about 39 pounds of sugar.²

Our genes are arranged within double-stranded molecules of DNA called chromosomes. At the ends of the chromosomes are stretches of DNA called telomeres. Telomeres protect the ends of chromosomes from deterioration and from fusion with other chromosomes. When chromosomes replicate, the enzymes that duplicate DNA cannot continue their duplication all the way to the end of a chromosome. Consequently, when a chromosome is duplicated it is also shortened. The telomeres act as disposable buffers at the ends of chromosomes, protecting the genes from being shortened. Over time, with cell replication, the telomere ends become progressively shorter.

Telomere length is positively correlated with lifespan, and shorter telomeres are associated with aging and an increased risk of age-related diseases. Sugar-sweetened soda consumption is associated with shorter telomeres. “Regular consumption of sugar-sweetened sodas might influence metabolic disease development through accelerated cell aging.” ³ The good news is that telomere length has been shown to increase with positive dietary and lifestyle changes.

Recommended: Holistic Guide to Healing the Endocrine System and Balancing Our Hormones

It’s Not Just the Sugar

Plain sparkling water is slightly acidic. We don’t believe these weak acids acidify the body significantly but the carbonation may cause some damage to the teeth’s enamel even without the sugar (diet sodas have been shown to cause tooth decay). There is also a theory that the phosphate used in some carbonated beverages inhibits calcium absorption. But neither of these issues compares to the damage sugar and artificial sweeteners do to the body.

Artificial colors and flavors in many soft drinks have been shown to cause hyperactivity in children.  Yellow 5 has been associated with irritability, depression, and insomnia. Caramel coloring produces a chemical called 4-methylimidazole (4-MEI). The chemical may increase the risks of developing cancer. But, again, these risks are nearly negligible when compared to the health impacts of the sweeteners.

Soda has also shown in studies to have mercury, lead, cadmium, chromium, and aluminum.^4,5,6

Diet Soda

Artificial sweeteners increase hunger and make it harder to enjoy healthier foods.

When we consume artificial sweeteners our brain thinks real sugar is coming into the body. We produce insulin to deal with the sugar that’s not there. When the sugar doesn’t arrive the insulin has nothing to store. Elevated insulin causes inflammation and depresses the immune system.⁷ Blood sugar temporarily drops but long-term use of artificial sweeteners raises blood sugar levels overall.⁸ They also alter gut bacteria, disrupt normal serotonin levels, slow metabolism, and they alter how the body responds to insulin and glucose, which can lead to glucose intolerance.^9,10

Studies suggest that drinking diet soda is associated with metabolic syndrome,¹¹ a mix of conditions that includes: high blood sugar, increased blood pressure, and ironically enough, obesity. This can lead to diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. Artificial sweeteners have been tied to Type 2 diabetes, Hypertension, Cardiovascular Disease, and cancer.^11,13

Soda Addiction

You can definitely compare the intense pleasure I get from a cold can [of soda] to having a cigarette.” – Wouter, People Explain How Soda Addiction Is Ruining Their Life

Recommended: Sugar Leads to Depression – World’s First Trial Proves Gut and Brain are Linked (Protocol Included)

Soda Facts

Soda May Cause Headaches and Migraines

Artificial sweeteners such as aspartame are listed as top migraine triggers by numerous medical authorities and migraine sufferers.” – Migraine Triggers: Artificial Sweeteners, (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7).

Caffeine and high fructose corn syrup are also common triggers for migraines.

Soda Messes Up Our Microbiome

Sugar (including dextrose, table sugar, and high fructose corn syrup) and artificial sweeteners have all been shown to disrupt gut bacteria, promote pathogenic activity, and increase the occurrence of yeast infections and urinary tract infections problems.

Soda and Diet Soda Are Making Us Fat

“The rise in soft drink consumption mirrors the national march toward obesity.” – Soda making Americans drink themselves fat

Obviously, sugar causes weight gain, but so does diet soda:

Several studies have proved conclusively that drinking diet soda is associated with weight gain.”

[…]

“Those who drank more than 3 of these drinks per day were more than twice as likely to become obese in the next 7 to 8 years.” – Here’s the Science That Explains Why Drinking Diet Soda Makes You Gain Weight

“And for another 8-year-long study between 1979-1988, participants who started out at a normal weight and drank an average of 21 diet beverages a week faced DOUBLE the risk of becoming overweight or obese by the end of the study, compared to people who avoided diet beverages completely.” – What drinking diet soda does to your body and brain

Soda Causes Diabetes

We all know sugar leads to diabetes and high-fructose corn syrup may even be worse (countries that use HFCS in their food supply had a 20 percent higher prevalence of diabetes than countries that did not use it ¹⁴). And artificial sweeteners fair no better.

A report published by the Washington Post stated that long-term use of foods and drinks containing artificial sweeteners are associated with a higher risk of Type 2 diabetes.

Diet Soda and Sugary Drinks May Lead To Stroke and Dementia

High-fructose corn syrup causes cholesterol and triglycerides levels to rise. High-sugar diets lead to diabetes. High cholesterol, high triglycerides, and diabetes increase the likelihood of strokes and dementia.

But diet soda drinkers have a higher risk of stroke and dementia compared with those who consumed conventionally sweetened soda, according to research published in the American Heart Association’s journal.¹⁵

Soda Vs. Smoking

According to this study, drinking a 20-ounce soda every day ages your cells as much as habitual smoking, an astonishing 4.6 years of aging at the cellular level.

The study, published in the Journal of Public Health, analyzed data from 5,300 Americans, ages 20 to 65: those who reported daily soda slurping were found to have significantly stunted telomeres. Telomeres, the little caps at the end of your chromosomes, are essential in regulating the lifespan of your cells, and shorter telomeres have been linked to shorter life spans, diabetes, and cancer.” – Is Soda Worse Than Cigarettes?

“Research indicates daily consumption of a 20-ounce soda (though the study didn’t say over how long a time period) correlated to nearly five years of increased aging. This is comparable to the effects smoking cigarettes have on aging.” – If You Would Never Smoke a Cigarette but Still Drink Soda, Read This

Soda Makes Us Older

Soda makes us age faster. It influences metabolic disease development through accelerated cell aging. If you’re not off soda yet, hopefully now you’re ready to kick the habit. Once you remove soda from your life your body will begin to feel much better, provided you don’t replace it with another bad habit. Waking up will feel better, going to sleep will be easier, moving will feel better, thinking will be clearer, joints will hurt less, wounds will heal faster, healthy food will taste better, allergies will lessen or disappear, and everything in your body will work better.

Recommended:

• Healthy Sugar Alternatives & More
• Detox Cheap and Easy Without Fasting – Recipes Included
• Stop Eating Like That and Start Eating Like This – Your Guide to Homeostasis Through Diet
• How to Make the Healthiest Smoothies – 4 Recipes

When chemicals added to processed foods earn a bad rep for causing disease and disability, one would hope the food manufacturers would remove them from their products or the FDA would protect the American people by banning them, but neither seems to be the case – not when big money is at stake. Instead the food manufacturers either launch dis-information campaigns claiming their additives are either healthy or benign, or they confuse and deceive the consumer by using a different name for the same additive. For example, according to The Truth in Labeling Campaign, MSG can be found in food under 50 different names.

With this history of deceit, it comes as no surprise to learn that we now have to look for high fructose corn syrup and aspartame under new names.

High Fructose Corn Syrup

Dr. Mark Hyman has spent more than ten years studying high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), reading and interviewing “most of the ‘medical and nutrition experts'”.

He states the following reasons why we should never eat HFCS and why eating it may kill you.

1. “Sugar in any form causes obesity and disease when consumed in pharmacologic doses.” Both are dangerous to the body in the amounts eaten by the average American.
2. “HFCS and cane sugar are NOT biochemically identical or processed the same way by the body.” HFCS not only spikes insulin since it goes right into the bloodstream, it also goes right to the liver triggering the production of triglycerides and cholesterol. New research finds that it is a common cause of leaky gut syndrome. “High doses of free fructose have been proven to literally punch
   holes in the intestinal lining allowing nasty byproducts of toxic gut
   bacteria and partially digested food proteins to enter your blood stream
   and trigger the inflammation that we know is at the root of obesity,
   diabetes, cancer, heart disease, dementia, and accelerated aging.”
3. “HFCS contains contaminants including mercury that are not regulated or measured by the FDA.” Mercury was discovered. Other contaminants were also detected but as yet are unidentified.
4. “Independent medical and nutrition experts DO NOT support the use of HFCS in our diet, despite the assertions of the corn industry.” The industry takes comments out of context and passes them off as supportive to their products when they are not.
5. “HFCS is almost always a marker of poor-quality, nutrient-poor disease-creating industrial food products or “food-like substances”.” Surely we all know by now that nearly all processed food is garbage.

Add to this impressive list the fact that most of the corn in this country is genetically modified. Do you ever want to put this in your body?

So now that the truth about high fructose corn syrup is more readily available, Chex cereal has decided to rename it – calling it fructose. Even while their packaging states that the product does not contain HFCS (which is 55% fructose), instead it contains HFCS-90, (note it is high fructose corn syrup with 90% fructose) and they are calling it fructose.

Aspartame

The makers of aspartame use the argument that orange juice is natural and good for you and all they did was take two of the amino acids from orange juice to make their product. What could possibly be wrong with that?

You can easily find arguments on either side of aspartame safety from a nutritionist with a PhD listing 92 reasons aspartame is dangerous and should be completely avoided to articles claiming test after test has proven it’s safe. It is interesting that those articles always say something about the level ingested. The fact that aspartame changes into formaldehyde in the body is enough for me. I’ve smelled it. Have you?

Again, this is big business with lots of money at stake. So now a rebranding is underway. Aspartame is now aminosweet. Consumer beware.

Though you can save yourself a lot of time and trouble deciphering labels and trying to figure our what the food industry is hiding. Eat – real – food! It’s simple. Check out the 80% Raw Food Diet. If you’re looking for an inexpensive and healthy replacement for HFCS laden beverages, check out this cranberry lemonade recipe.

Further Reading:

• High Fructose Corn Syrup – A Not So Sweet Surprise
• 4 Types of Food to Avoid to Decrease Your Risk of Depression

Sources:

• Hidden Sources – Truth In Labeling
  
• Corporations Renamed High Fructose Corn Syrup – Natural Society
• 5 Reasons High Fructose Corn Syrup Will Kill You – Dr. Mark Hymen

Hansel and Gretel Had It Easy

We have all read, seen or listened to some variation of Hansel & Gretel from the Brothers Grimm. A witch lives in a deep forest luring children with an edible house and sweet treats hoping to fatten them up for her cannibalistic urges. The children turn the tables as befits fairy tale heroes and get out alive.

Well, according to the newest research from Princeton University published officially in Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior1 and for the mass market in Science Daily2, Hansel and Gretel would be even fatter, slower and more lethargic eating today’s sweeteners like high fructose corn syrup because the weight gain from HFCS is far greater than ordinary sucrose. This would put the outcome of tricking the witch into her own oven in doubt.

HFCS is a corn derivative that typically has 55-percent fructose, 42-glucose and 3-percent other larger sugars. It is cheaper than sucrose in the United States where it is easier to grow corn than sugar cane or sugar beets. Sucrose is a naturally occurring blend of equally balanced fructose and glucose. HFCS replaced sucrose in the early 1970s and the rate of obesity as a population percentage has doubled from 15 to 33-percent since then according to CDC figures cited by Science Daily.

The researchers conducted two experiments. One compared male rats eating rat chow and HFCS water to similar rats eating rat chow and sucrose flavored water. The weight gain was described as “much for the rats eating the HFCS water. Thereally interesting fact about this study: the sucrose water was highly concentrated at levels similar to the few sodas sweetened with sucrose still in the US marketplace, but the HFCS water was half the concentration of the typical HFCS soda.

The second study lasting six months looked at high fructose corn syrup versus water. Here the rats ballooned up with 48-percent weight gains over rats just eating food and unsweetened water. The researchers described the high-fructose corn syrup rats as obese.

“These rats aren’t just getting fat; they’re demonstrating characteristics of obesity, including substantial increases in abdominal fat and circulating triglycerides,” researcher Miriam Bocarsly reported. “In humans, these same characteristics are known risk factors for high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, cancer and diabetes.”

The researchers speculated on the reasons why HFCS might be more fattening than sucrose. Apparently, fructose molecules in sucrose are bound to glucose molecules and take longer to hit the bloodstream than the fructose in HFCS, which aren’t bound to anything. The researchers also mentioned that fructose seems to be processed in the liver into fat, while sucrose is metabolized by insulin from the pancreas and is more readily used as an energy source.

“Some people have claimed that high-fructose corn syrup is no different than other sweeteners when it comes to weight gain and obesity, but our results make it clear that this just isn’t true, at least under the conditions of our tests,” says psychology professor Bart Hoebel, who specializes in the neuroscience of appetite, weight and sugar addiction. “When rats are drinking high-fructose corn syrup at levels well below those in soda pop, they’re becoming obese—every single one, across the board. Even when rats are fed a high-fat diet, you don’t see this; they don’t all gain extra weight.”3

The researchers cite previous research articles that show fructose affects hormones like leptin that work with insulin to control satiety, the feeling of being full.

This excerpt from the abstract says it all – “The combined effects of lowered circulating leptin and insulin in individuals who consume diets that are high in dietary fructose could therefore increase the likelihood of weight gain and its associated metabolic sequelae. In addition, fructose, compared with glucose, is preferentially metabolized to lipid in the liver.”4

Not feeling full induces more eating. In the meantime, we can imagine Hansel and Gretel being fed soda and other fructose-laden foods and winding up in the witch’s meat pie. End of story.

Sources for this Article:

1. Bocarsly, ME, et al. “High-fructose corn syrup causes characteristic of obesity in rats:
2. sciencedaily.com viewed 3/30/2010
3. sciencedaily.com viewed 3/30/2010
4. Elliott, SS, et al. “Fructose, weight gain, and the insulin resistance syndrome.” Am J
5. Increased body weight, body fat and triglyceride levels.” Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior, 2010; DOI: 10.1016/j.pbb.2010.02.012
6. Clin Nutr. 2002 Nov;76(5):911-22.

Though the commercial said “It’s OK in moderation,” most Americans do NOT ingest a moderate amount of high fructose corn syrup. This sweetener is used in so many refined products, it’s actually difficult to find processed foods that don’t contain it. Take a look at breads, sauces, hot dogs, candy, crackers, frozen dinners, pizza, juice, and soda to see how prevalent it is. It is often listed as one of the first ingredients (remember ingredients are listed by highest content). Because high fructose corn syrup is easy to transport and inexpensive compared to refined sugar, (thanks to federal subsidies and tariffs on imported sugar), high fructose corn syrup is the sweetener used in more than 40% of sweetened foods and beverages and nearly 100% of the time in the non-diet soft drinks sold in the United States. If you eat processed foods, you definitely consume more than a moderate amount of high fructose corn syrup.

OLM gives you the rest of the story on high fructose corn syrup…

High Fructose Corn Syrup Is Not Just Fructose

High fructose corn syrup is made by treating corn (typically genetically modified corn) with a variety of enzymes (many of which are also genetically modified) to first extract the sugar glucose and then convert some of it into fructose (fructose is sweeter than glucose). The end result is approximately 55% fructose and 45% glucose.

High Fructose Corn Syrup Is Not Natural

In April 2008, the FDA declared that any product containing high fructose corn syrup could not be considered ‘natural’ and should not be labeled as such, because high fructose corn syrup is manufactured using a synthetic fixing agent. Under pressure from lobbyists hired by the Corn Refiners Association, the FDA quickly changed its mind. Now the FDA says that if the synthetic agent – called glutaraldehyde – does not come into contact with the high-dextrose corn starch, it can be considered natural. But there is nothing natural about high fructose corn syrup. It’s made in vats of murky fermenting liquid with fungus and genetically modified organisms, all of which are changed through the use of chemicals. There are a lot of products that are called “natural” though they are far from it, but high fructose corn syrup may be the biggest imposter of all these “natural” foods.

Fructose Makes You Fat

There has been a rapid increase in obesity following the introduction and increase of high fructose corn syrup into the American diet. Excess fructose (and it doesn’t take much to be excessive) is converted into unhealthy fat.

High fructose corn syrup short-circuits the glycolytic pathway for glucose and does not stimulate insulin secretion. Insulin controls a hormone called leptin, which signals the brain to tell your body it’s full. Since fructose doesn’t stimulate glucose levels and insulin release, there’s no increase in leptin levels and no feeling of satiety. Also, fructose does not affect ghrelin, a hunger inducing hormone, which is normally suppressed with food.

Natural fructose from fruit is attached to fiber and is ingested in considerably smaller amounts, which cause the sugar to be released slowly into the body while the fiber makes you feel full.

High Fructose Corn Syrup Is Linked to Diabetes, High Cholesterol, and Heart Disease

In natural sugars, fructose is bound to other sugars. High fructose corn syrup contains unbound fructose, often in large amounts. Unlike glucose, which can be metabolized by every cell in the body, fructose can be metabolized only by the liver. When too much fructose enters the liver at one time, the liver can’t process it as a sugar; it converts it into cholesterol and triglycerides, which are in turn dumped into the bloodstream. The more fat and cholesterol your blood has to transport, the higher your blood pressure needs to be to get the job done. (Imagine a pump that has to move thicker liquid.) High levels of LDL cholesterol and triglycerides increase the risk of heart disease and stroke. High triglyceride levels also cause our body’s cells to become insulin resistant. If enough cells are insulin resistant, diabetes will result.

Free fructose is also linked to blood clots, interference with the heart’s use of key minerals, functions of white blood cells, and high levels of uric acid. 

If you want to lose weight, lower your LDL cholesterol, lower you triglycerides, decrease your risk factors, treat, or reverse diabetes or heart disease, eliminating high fructose corn syrup from your diet is imperative – the first action you should take.

The Digestion of High Fructose Corn Syrup Is Hard On the Body

Acidic “foods”, which are void of nutrition, wreak havoc on the body. To compensate, the body will pull calcium and other minerals from our bones, teeth, and organs to keep our blood slightly alkaline. Enzymes must be produced to metabolize high fructose corn syrup and micro-nutrients must be utilized. High fructose corn syrup causes mineral imbalances and deficiencies, which can cause a host of other diseases and health problems.

High Fructose Corn Syrup Can Alter Magnesium Balance Leading to an Increased Risk of Osteoporosis

High Fructose Corn Syrup inhibits copper metabolism leading to both a deficiency of copper and copper toxicity (if you can’t metabolize the copper, it becomes toxic to your body), which can cause increased bone fragility, anemia, ischemic heart disease, defective connective tissue formation, gray hair, hair loss, and much more.

High Fructose Corn Syrup Accelerates Aging

Any food that is difficult to metabolize (foods void of nutrients or low in nutrients, acidic foods, foods low in enzymes, etc.) depletes the body’s store of minerals, vitamins, and enzymes causing every other body system to function improperly, accelerating aging in every way.

High Fructose Corn Syrup Is Bad for the Environment

Corn is generally grown as a monoculture crop (one crop planted over a large area with no diversity and usually without crop rotation). This maximizes yields, but at a price. Soil nutrients are depleted so farmers compensate with fertilizer and pesticides. Topsoil is weakened. Demand for corn is increasing due to the manufacture of high fructose corn syrup and corn-based ethanol. Corn is being planted world-wide at the expense of sustainable food crops in third world countries. Farmers throughout the world, who once produced a variety of food to feed their populations, are now growing one crop to ship to America–genetically modified corn.