I have a friend back home who has an addiction I really can’t reason with. She drinks at least three Cokes every day, including one bright and early in the morning when most people would be having their coffee. Personally I can’t even drink half a Coke without my teeth feeling grimy and/or getting a stomach ache. Now, my friend seems to be doing just fine, but there have to be some long term effects of this constant soda consumption that are detrimental to her health.
My first thought was that this has to be decaying teeth in some sort of way. What I found is that soda contains citric and or phosphoric acid, which is harmful to the enamel, or outer covering, of the tooth. Soda will also cause an excess of plaque buildup on the teeth which ultimately leads to either cavities or other types of problems.
Another way soda, particularly diet soda, has been known to visibly affect you is through weight gain. According to Time, this past May a study was conducted on 3,000 women who were pregnant. When looking at the infants of mothers who regularly drank soda compared to those who did not, they were twice as likely to be extremely overweight at around one year old.
Now besides simply focusing on the physical downsides of soda consumption, I am also interested in ways our body could be affected without us even knowing. According to WebMD, those who drink diet soda regularly are nearly 50% more likely to have a stroke or heart attack. With that being said, there is no know mechanism to directly link that diet coke causes strokes. There have also been studies conducted at the University of Miami which back up this information further. After controlling some confounding variables such as smoking, they found that in a study done on people ranging from about 59-79 years old, those who drank soda regularly were about 60% more likely to experience a stroke or heart attack than those who did not.
Overall, what seems to be the trend with these soda studies is the fact that there are many correlations between regular soda consumption and heath issues, but no real causations can be made. It is important to keep these things in mind when filling up your glass with a sugary drink, but ultimately it won’t directly kill you.
This was an interesting article. I used to drink soda all the time because I liked the bubbles, but switched to seltzer because I thought it was healthier. In the study of diet coke and heart attacks, one third variable could be the caffeine found in coke. Caffeine can speed up the heart rate and could potentially cause a heart attack or stroke.
I can completely relate to how you feel about your friend because my mom also needs to drink multiple cans of coke a day and she always has one really early in the morning. I found the studies you discussed really interesting, especially the one about how coke consumption can lead to a higher risk of having a stroke or heart attack. On my mom’s side of the family everyone who has passed has died from either a stroke or a heart attack. It’s pretty shocking but unfortunately true. Everyone is Italian on that side of my family and I know from family gatherings that eating healthy is not their top priority, however, I also know that they do drink a lot of soda- especially coke. My family can’t be a directly related to the study because there are a lot of confounding variables that can explain the reason behind the large amounts of heart attacks and strokes, however, I think that it’s interesting that there may be some relation between the two.
Thanks for sharing, before I came to college I used to drink soda more regularly. My parents would always condemn me, and tell me that soda was “poison” I was putting into my body. When I got to college ironically I started becoming more disciplined about what beverage I choose and how it may affect me. I feel that I feel more healthy, and fit because of the choice not to drink soda. is a video I found that describes the dangers of soda. Here
Thanks for sharing, before I came to college I used to drink soda more regularly. My parents would always condemn me, and tell me that soda was “poison” I was putting into my body. When I got to college ironically I started becoming more disciplined about what beverage I choose and how it may affect me. I feel that I feel more healthy, and fit because of the choice not to drink soda. Here is a video I found that describes the dangers of soda.
I throughly enjoyed reading your post. I think you did a great job relaying the information to your audience in a concise manner, while retaining the integrity of the studies. I think it is interesting to consider your claim of correlation and causation. Though the correlation is very clear, as you said there is little data stating causation.
Here is an article discussion one particular chemical found in Pepsi.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/23/health/consumer-reports-soda-caramel-coloring/
4-Mel, also known as caramel color, has been linked to causing cancer, which makes me wonder if this chemical could bring upon other health issues. Perhaps this 4-Mel is the mechanism behind soda causing health problems.
Good post! Thanks for sharing!
This post was really interesting because it was straight to the point and included the scientific facts necessary to support your claim. While reading the section on the effect soda has on teeth, it made me wonder what the effects actually look like. Here’s a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJlDx2Nf1zc on what actual human teeth look like after they are submerged in soda for 5 days.
As a person who used to drink soda everyday, I have cut the habit which has lead to some great outcomes. I feel more energized throughout my day and have cut down on my weight. A can of coke is known to have 39 grams of sugar. According to the American Heart Association, 37 grams of sugar is recommended as the healthy amount of sugar you should intake in a day. One soda already exceeds the healthy amount of needed sugar. Some people are fine with the excess sugar, but there will definitely be negative outcomes in the future. I feel that this is a great post, especially for people who drink excessive amounts of soft drinks.
Nice well rounded post, you didn’t bore with some of the details that everyone is so used to hearing about the topic but it covered all of the main topics in the point against soda. As a young boy with ear problems the carbonation in soda bothered my ears and to this day I still do not drink more than 1 or 2 sodas a year. As an overweight person as well this is probably a good thing I have seen many people gain weight due the excess drinking of these drinks.