Do you drink fizzy pop?
Sugar is bad, right? I mean, there's nothing worse... or is there?
Do you, your children, your family, or friends drink branded fizzy pop or energy drinks? Well, these can be deadly, and please don't be fooled by the "low sugar" or even "zero sugar" labels. They still have artificial sweeteners, which to be honest, in most cases, are worse than sugar! If you do occasionally have one, maybe after reading this you'll think twice in future...
Branded Energy drinks are not the best way to energise you body. The caffeine, sweeteners and other nasties can remain in your system long after you've finished the can. For some brands, a 20 once drink can take up to 6.3 gallons of water to flush it out of your kidneys. It would take the average person more than 14 days to consume that much water!
Energy drinks hyper stimulate your adrenal glands to increase hydrocortisone and adrenal production, and then the GABA amino acid comes in to suppress all the hyper stimulation so you don't feel jittery. All this extra work for your adrenal glands can lead to adrenal fatigue or "crash". The extra hydrocortisone your adrenal glands are producing makes you resistant to insulin.
Throw in all those artificial sweeteners that these types of drinks contain, and your pancreas will be working overtime! This can lead to weight gain that shows up specifically in the abdomen, this is known as "Abdominal Obesity" All of this hyper-stimulation and production can cause "metabolic syndrome", the initial symptoms of which cause hypertension, diabetes and high cholesterol. As metabolic syndrome progresses, it leads to heart disease, stroke, kidney failure and nerve damage.
Each energy or fizzy pop style drink contains anywhere between 40mg to 240mg of caffeine. This amount of caffeine in one hit has been known to cause an irregular heartbeat, anxiety, jitters, increased blood pressure, and thickening of the blood. Worryingly, a 2015 study published in the Journey of Medical cases found that consuming these types of drinks can induce cardiac arrest.
The mere fact these drinks are manufactured and sold makes me so cross, but when I see young people consuming them, I'm appalled. The artificial sweeteners, such as Aspartame, used in "low calorie" or "sugar free" drinks is highly addictive. Aspartame is actually 200 times sweeter than sugar! I've seen people who have tried cutting fizzy drinks from their diet suffer some terrible withdrawal symptoms. The use of these nasty artificial sweeteners means that manufacturers encourage consumers to believe their product is a healthier choice because it's sugar free. Words fail me. Please, don't be lulled into a false sense of security. What you drink can have a huge impact on your well-being, and is just as important as what you eat.
So, next time you reach for a can, cast an eye over the ingredients. Make sensible choices, your body will thank you.
