For any of you that may have caught the news yesterday there was an amazing revelation that a single soda per day could lead to increased chance for heart disease. While it is good that something that is as common place as breathing, such as soft drinks and has so many potential health risks, is getting some negative press when will people really stop and listen.

We have for some time now known that there are a number of health risks associated with drinking soft drinks (soda), but with the fantastic marketing of the various manufacturers there has been a continual increase in the consumption of these drinks. To make mattes worse there are countless numbers of people that live with a soft drink of some time next to them throughout the entire day. There is little surprise that as a nation we are in the top rankings worldwide when it comes to being unhealthy – in the top 10. That ranking is based in large part because of the percentages of our population that are considered over weight and/or obese (65% +), are diabetic, malnourished, fighting arteriosclerosis, osteoporosis, and anemic just to name a few.

For women a VERY big one is the fact that osteoporosis being a big concern is further exasperated by soft drinks.

While you may be thinking that you have dodged that bullet by drinking diet soft drinks think again. Much of the research, including the announcement yesterday, has found no distention between those drinking the diet soft drinks and those drink the sugar filled variety. If you are drinking more than a couple soft drinks per week please take some time to reconsider that habit and try replacing it with something to give your body the nourishment that it is screaming for. While an entirely different topic, but closely related, if you drink anything that is packed with sweeteners or sugar of any kind you really want to give your body a break. Your pancreas, adrenals, kidneys and liver to name a few would greatly appreciate it.

For those of you that would like to read the original report that prompted the news report visit WebMD

As some addtional reading included here are a number of quotes from leading experts on health:

Carol Simontacchi
The Crazy Makers: How the Food Industry Is Destroying Our Brains and Harming Our Children
“One liter of an aspartame-sweetened beverage can produce about fifty-six milligrams of methanol. When several of these beverages are consumed in a short period of time (one day, perhaps), as much as two hundred fifty milligrams of methanol are dumped into the bloodstream, or thirty-two times the EPA limit.”
“What may happen, in the face of day-to-day, continuously high levels of sodium in the diet and the bloodstream, is that we experience a type of acute hypernatremia—not enough to kill us or cause the myelin sheath to lose its integrity, but enough to keep our sodium potassium pump slightly dysregulated and throw off the electrical system of the brain…. Americans drink soft drinks that are often loaded with more sodium and which further unbalance the mineral stores.”

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James A Howenstine M.D.
A Physician’s Guide to Natural Health Products That Work
“In an interesting experiment the sugar from one soft drink was able to damage the white blood cells’ ability to ingest and kill gonococcal bacteria for seven hours.”
“Soft drinks also contain large quantities of phosphorus, which when excreted pulls calcium out of the bones. Heavy users of soft drinks will have osteoporosis along with their damaged arteries.”

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James Duke PhD
The Green Pharmacy : The Ultimate Compendium Of Natural Remedies From The World’s Foremost Authority On Healing Herbs
“And watch out for cola soft drinks, which are very high in bone-dissolving phosphorus.”

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Marion Nestle
Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health (California Studies in Food and Culture)
“Soft drinks are the single greatest source of caffeine in children’s diets; a 12-ounce can of cola contains about 45 milligrams but the amounts in more potent soft drinks can exceed 100 milligrams— a level approaching that found in coffee.”
“Soft drinks have replaced milk in the diets of many American children as well as adults. School purchases reflect such trends. From 1985 to 1997, school districts decreased the amounts of milk they bought by nearly 30% and increased their purchases of carbonated sodas.”
“The relationship between soft drink consumption and body weight is so strong that researchers calculate that for each additional soda consumed, the risk of obesity increases 1.6 times.”
“Adolescents who consume soft drinks display a risk of bone fractures three to four-fold higher than those who do not.”
“Sugar and acid in soft drinks so easily dissolve tooth enamel.”
“Americans drink 13.15 billion gallons of carbonated drinks every year.”