Drinking soda: a great way to get fat
September 22nd, 2007 by Mr. TMOLThe king of bad food, “the only specific food that clinical research has directly linked to weight gain,” is soda pop (though see here for an opposing viewpoint). Nutritionally, there is almost nothing good to say about soda. That is the focus of an article entitled “Nutritionists: Soda making Americans drink themselves fat.”
The rise in soft drink consumption mirrors the national march toward obesity. At the midpoint of the 20th century, Americans drank four times as much milk as soda pop. Today, the ratio is almost completely reversed, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Meanwhile, in the past 30 years the national obesity rate has more than doubled, and among teenagers, more than tripled, reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Soda pop is a quintessential junk food,” said Michael Jacobson, who heads the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which lobbies for government restrictions on foods it considers unhealthy. “It’s just pure calories, and no nutrients. It’s like a bomb in our diet.”
Not only is soda loaded with empty calories. Some scientists point to the high fructose corn syrup found in soda as the real problem. Drinking it also sets up a vicious cycle of eating and hunger that lasts all day long:
The sugar in soda pop not only provides a massive dose of calories, but triggers a vicious appetite cycle, said [Dr. David] Ludwig, [a Harvard endicrinologist]. . . “It’s rapidly absorbed, which raises blood sugar and in effect causes the body to panic.” The body releases insulin to break down the sugar, “but the body overcompensates, and blood sugar drops below the fasting level,” lower than it was in the first place.
Recognizing low blood sugar, the body releases ghrelin and other hormones, inducing hunger, inducing us to eat even more, Ludwig said.
Here’s a doctor’s description of what all that sugar does to your body when you gulp down that soda.
September 23rd, 2007 at 4:15 pm
Soda should be thought of as a liquid candy bar, because that’s what it is. Not only does it supply dead calories, it also rots teeth and causes malnutrition. And Americans consume, on average, 1.6 cans of it per day for every man, woman and child in the country. Of course, if we were to subtract out the many Americans don’t drink soda (I don’t, for example), the per-capita consumption rate would be higher, possibly much higher.
One other consequence of all that soda-induced obesity is that Americans demand larger vehicles — no doubt one reason for the huge (pardon the pun) popularity of SUVs. This demand, of course, contributes to air pollution, global warming, traffic jams, higher gasoline consumption, higher gasoline prices, and the enrichment of unstable, Mid-East oil-producing nations…some of which help support terrorism. Indeed, this is one reason why Bush’s policies for fighting terrorism are ultimately doomed to failure: his policies cause America to fund both sides of the terrorism problem, thereby perpetuating it.
October 4th, 2007 at 1:52 pm
It is well documented that sugar is highly addictive and leads to diabetes as it does a number on the endocrine system and overwhelms the body’s ability to produce insulin. My friend who is a Native American says, “It is the white man’s curse.” Sodas, white bread, and all the simple starch foods that we consume add greatly to an overload of carbohydrates in our diet. This leads to excessive calories and our lack of exercise has leaded us to an obesity problem in America.
Unfortunately, we are not alone, many other cultures that have mimicked us our diet or had our diet forced on them have become obese as well. This has led to heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and in some cases morbid obesity. For some who do not know what morbid obesity is, it is being so fat to the point that it kills someone. The person literally crushes himself to death with his own weight.
The most recent figure is China is having an obesity problem with their children. It happily coincides with the introduction of McDonalds in China. One child, two parent and four grandparents add in mix the commercials stating the McDonalds is the in thing and if you do the math this is a bad combination.