As you can see from her photo, Senior Supermodel Oleda Baker doesn’t age. I interviewed Oleda last month. She is a treasure trove of information on everything this blog stands for, so I asked her if she would share some of her ideas with us. She has written 10 books on beauty and health. Her latest, Breaking the Age Barrier – Great Looks and Health at Every Age – was released in November 2010 and is available from Amazon or from her website www.oleda.com
Oleda chose soft drinks, a subject in which I am extremely interested. I will put in links at the end of Oleda’s item to previous blog posts.
Some people drink soda as if it were water, some even drink it instead of water. This is a bad mistake. Granted, the primary ingredient is water, but, with all the other “stuff” it contains it can have a seriously harmful effect on your entire body. Drinking several cans of soda a day is a sure-fire way to damage your health.
The Mayo Clinic said, “Soda was once considered an occasional treat, but consumption has steadily increased over the last three decades. Many Americans drink soda every day. Demand is so great that manufacturers produce enough soda to supply the average man, woman and child in America with more than 52 gallons each year.”
Here is an example of why soda is bad for your health: a 20 ounce bottle of Coke has 65 grams of sugar in it. The term gram confuses some people. How much is a gram of sugar? Well, a teaspoon of sugar weighs 4.2 grams, so that 20 ounce bottle of Coke has 16 teaspoons of sugar in it. That’s not very confusing, is it? The American Heart Association recommends less than 10 teaspoons in an entire day for a person weighing 150 pounds on a 2000 calorie per day diet.
What about diet soda? No sugar there. Right, there are sugar substitutes, though. Aspartame is one of the chemicals used as a sugar substitute. There are over 92 different health side effects associated with aspartame consumption including brain tumors, birth defects, diabetes, emotional disorders and epilepsy/seizures. Further, when aspartame is stored for long periods of time or kept in warm areas it changes to methanol, an alcohol that converts to formaldehyde and formic acid, which are known carcinogens.
There are other harmful additives in soft drinks in general that have no nutritional value. Studies link soda to osteoporosis, obesity, tooth decay and heart disease. Nonetheless, soda accounts for more than one-quarter of all drinks consumed in the United States.
Sadly, young growing children and teenagers are huge consumers of soda. In the past 10 years, soft drink consumption among children has almost doubled in the United States. Teenage boys now drink, on average, three or more cans of soda per day, and 10 percent drink seven or more cans a day. The average for teenage girls is more than two cans a day, and 10 percent drink more than five cans a day.
Adult onset diabetes is occurring in teenagers and younger children at an increasing rate. How can we not draw a connection between soda consumption and this trend?
Research presented at an American Diabetes Association gathering found that women who went from drinking less than one, non-diet soda a day to one or more daily sodas were nearly twice as likely to develop type 2 diabetes over a four-year period as women who drank less than one soft during a day. The women who drank more soda also gained more weight over the same period.
Be smart. If you are thirsty, drink water. That’s what your body wants and needs. Forget the sugared and sugary tasting soft drinks. Your body will be glad you did.
Oleda
Here are links to previous posts on soft drinking:
How Damaging are Soft Drinks?
What’s Wrong With Drinking Diet Soda Daily?
Is it Harmful to Drink Diet Soda Every Day?
Lab Tests Find Carcinogen in Regular and Diet Coke and Pepsi
Tony
Wellness Secrets of a SuperAger 