15 Truly Shocking Facts about Soft Drinks

Who really thinks that much about ordering a Coca Cola or Pepsi with lunch? It’s delicious and brings a slight tear to your eye if you gulp the cold bubbles too fast. What’s not to love? The calorie count for one, but drinking soda can also lead to more health problems than a larger pant size. Inside that can or bottle, a host of harmful stuff is waiting. Read on for 15 soda shockers that may make you want to put that soft drink you’re sipping on now.

1. Sodium benzoate, a preservative commonly found in high-acidic sodas like Fanta and Dr. Pepper, can screw with your DNA. The additive can cause health concerns like Parkinson’s disease, cancer, cirrhosis and hyperactivity in children. In 2008, Coca-Cola removed sodium benzoate from Diet Coke, and plans to remove it in other soda drinks as well.
2. Sodas have a massive amount of sugar stored in that little can or bottle – as much as 10 teaspoons. A human liver can’t handle that much sugar at once and processes it into fat.
3. Soda has been known to cause serious gastrointestinal problems from increased stomach acid levels from caffeine. Not only that, but caffeine is addictive.
4. In 1994, the Journal of Adolescent Health published a study correlating sodas with bone fractures in young girls. The study concluded that there was “strong association between cola beverage consumption and bone fractures in girls.”
5. Let’s talk about diabetes and soda. The spike of energy you feel after downing a soft drink is a result of insulin being released to control the sugar levels in your body. Eventually with diabetes, you must deliver your own sources of insulin to control the levels of sugar in your body because your pancreas is tired.
6. The acids in soft drinks can wear away tooth enamel leaving your teeth to fend for themselves against other lesser, natural acids.
7. Diet soft drinks that contain saccharine can actually make you gain weight by tricking your body into eating more because sodas sweetened with saccharine actually have no calories to metabolize according to a study by Purdue University. There seems to be nothing diet about diet soft drinks when they add to your waistline.
8. Carbonated drinks can lead to cancer. When you drink a soft drink and it results in acid reflux problems or heartburn, you are actually increasing your chances in developing esophageal cancer, especially if the condition goes untreated.
9. Liquid calories are the enemy, and sodas have a lot of them. According to an article on the “liquid candy,” a 32 ounce Coca Cola contains nearly 400 calories. That’s certainly something to think about before you supersize that value meal.
10. A 2007 laboratory study led by food science professor, Chi-Tang Ho, Ph.D, of Rutgers University concluded that out of 11 different carbonated sodas containing high fructose corn syrup also had alarmingly high levels of carbonyls, a reactive compound believed to cause tissue damage. Carbonyls can be harmful to people with diabetes that already have elevated levels of reactive carbonyls. Ho estimated that a can of soda can have up to five times the amount of carbonyls than blood tested from a diabetic individual. Therefore, high fructose corn syrup may not be so good for you.
11. Caffeine withdrawal may make you cranky. It can give you nasty headaches and possibly cause you to chase your husband around the living room, frying pan in hand ready to strike. Just a friendly warning.
12. It’s an old tale, but Coca Cola used to contain small amounts of cocaine as its special ingredient until 1929. How much was actually in the soft drink is uncertain, but in 1885 when the product was developed there must have been more than a few people walking around with a cocaine buzz.
13. Experts have found that drinking between two and nine liters of cola a day can cause a condition called hypokalemia that inhibits muscle function from a loss in potassium. Two patients studied suffered from symptoms like fatigue, appetite loss, muscle weakness and persistent vomiting from drinking several liters of soda a day according to the International Journal of Clinical Practice. Both patients were weaned off the cola and symptoms disappeared.
14. Drinking too much coke can cause metabolic syndrome. The American Heart Association characterizes metabolic syndrome as multiple metabolic risk factors found in one individual. Some of these risk factors include elevated blood pressure, abdominal obesity, low HDL cholesterol and high LDL cholesterol and insulin resistance. Metabolic syndrome can lead to diabetes and heart problems.
15. Chronic cola drinkers can also expect a host of other health problems to follow the above mentioned and possibly others that have not been identified by health experts. Some other diseases linked to excessive soft drink consumption include gout, chronic kidney disease, osteoporosis, kidney stones and tooth decay.

The refreshing crack of a can or bottle of soda may sound good, but the health risks outweigh a few moments of sugary pleasure. Researchers are finding new links to health problems and soda every year, but you have to die from something.