If you have a soda habit, it’s time to make some changes. Not only does it contain calories you probably aren’t counting, it’s also addictive. Soft drinks contain sugar and caffeine. It acts the same way in your brain as opioids and releases dopamine, the feel good hormone. In fact, various studies show it’s as addictive as cocaine and the added caffeine in many soft drinks amplifies the problem. So you think that diet soft drinks may be your answer? You’re wrong.
A study from the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society showed that soft drinks are equally bad for your health, even though they don’t contain calories. The study used seniors and compared waistline measurements and the amount of diet drinks consumed. They found that those who drank the most, had the biggest waistline. While nobody wants a larger waist, it is also quite dangerous. That’s visceral fat, the worst type of fat that’s stored around organs and causes health issues. It may be due to the artificial sweetener and how the brain identifies the sweetness.
It may seem impossible if you’re drinking several bottles or cans a day, but it isn’t. You can start by weaning yourself off the drink a little at a time. Find a drink of choice, like unsweetened green tea or bottled water and start replacing one can of your favorite soft drink a day. After a week, if you’re drinking several cans a day, switch out the second can or bottle with water or green tea. While green tea still contains caffeine, it’s far less than coffee or colas or other high caffeine soft drinks, plus it offers other health benefits.
Let’s start with the real show stopper, soda accelerates the aging process. Your chromosomes are protected by telomeres that protect them and determine how many times they can replicate. The longer they are, the younger your biological age. If your chronological age is 42 and you have short telomeres, your biological or cellular age would be much older. Research completed at the University of California, San Francisco showed that people drank just one 8-ounce serving increased their cellular aging by 1.9 years. Drinking more servings per day escalated it. A 20-ounce serving added 4.6 years of aging. Soft drinks also increase the risk of diabetes, heart disease, some forms of cancer, osteoporosis and calcium deposits in the lungs, heart, eyes and blood vessels.
