A while ago I wrote about giving up Mountain Dew, claiming this was something I hoped to achieve. I did achieve it, temporarily – and there lies the problem, temporary achievements are nothing short of failures. Calling a failure an achievement allows us to downplay a problem with ignorance.
The problem is, to give up something you really have to believe it is bad for you – you really have to be able to mentally weigh the pros and cons of giving it up.
The cons:
- All that sugar and caffeine is affecting my health.
The pros:
- Soda tastes really good and quenches my thirst.
Easy enough to weigh out, right? Maybe at first glance, but subconsciously – I really could care less that it’s “affecting my health” because the effects are not being quantified. I am much more interested in consuming the product than I am considering the toll it is having on my body that I am quite simply ignorant towards – or perhaps just uninformed.
Actually, uninformed is probably the better word. For now that I am informed, I am giving up soda with a fist full of will power. People are clearly uninformed, as I found out from this Yahoo! Answers page.
On this page, “peanut” asks: What happens to your health if you drink 1 can of coke each day?
The answers are astonishing:
-
let me guess nothing
because i do that
i drink can of coke every single day since grade 5
now i am in grade 7 - Erm nothing.
If you only drink 1 can of coke a day and don’t eat or drink anything else you die.If you drink 1 coke a day as part of a balanced diet then nothing happens.
Geez, what do you think is gonna happen? - nothing serious, your blood sugar will be higher for a bit. but we need caffeine.
=]
There were a few answers that tried to be more precise about the effects of soda drinks, but these answers clearly represent an uninformed or possibly ignorant population.
- In The First 10 minutes: 10 teaspoons of sugar hit your system. (100% of your recommended daily intake.) You don’t immediately vomit from the overwhelming sweetness because phosphoric acid cuts the flavor allowing you to keep it down.
- 20 minutes: Your blood sugar spikes, causing an insulin burst. Your liver responds to this by turning any sugar it can get its hands on into fat. (There’s plenty of that at this particular moment)
- 40 minutes: Caffeine absorption is complete. Your pupils dilate, your blood pressure rises, as a response your livers dumps more sugar into your bloodstream. The adenosine receptors in your brain are now blocked preventing drowsiness.
- 45 minutes: Your body ups your dopamine production stimulating the pleasure centers of your brain. This is physically the same way heroin works, by the way.
- >60 minutes: The phosphoric acid binds calcium, magnesium and zinc in your lower intestine, providing a further boost in metabolism. This is compounded by high doses of sugar and artificial sweeteners also increasing the urinary excretion of calcium.
- >60 Minutes: The caffeine’s diuretic properties come into play. (It makes you have to pee.) It is now assured that you’ll evacuate the bonded calcium, magnesium and zinc that was headed to your bones as well as sodium, electrolyte and water.
- >60 minutes: As the rave inside of you dies down you’ll start to have a sugar crash. You may become irritable and/or sluggish. You’ve also now, literally, pissed away all the water that was in the Coke. But not before infusing it with valuable nutrients your body could have used for things like even having theability to hydrate your system or build strong bones and teeth.
- “But not before infusing it with valuable nutrients your body could have used for things like even having theability to hydrate your system or build strong bones and teeth”
Basically, no matter how good my diet is, drinking soda is going to give me diminished returns on my efforts. - “This is physically the same way heroin works, by the way.”
I’ve read some places that sugar is actually more addictive than heroin. - “The adenosine receptors in your brain are now blocked preventing drowsiness.”
I’ve discussed this previously, but the fact that soda prevents you from knowing when you’re tired means you can’t get a good night’s sleep.
Well..this really should open people’s eyes to the bad effects that drinking soda has on your body. I’ll admit that I didn’t know some of these facts, but it certainly will make me think twice before popping the top on another can. Thanks for the information. I hope this is pushed around so more people become aware. Keep up the great posts..thanks alot!