Soft drinks, i.e. sweet/sour, carbonated soft drinks, refer to all drinks that contain carbon dioxide dissolved in water – popular with young people and adults alike. But one can of soft drink alone contains about ten teaspoons of sugar, 150 calories and 30 – 55 mg of caffeine, peppered with food coloring and sulfides.

Phosphoric acid damages tooth enamel

Soft drinks can cause serious damage to tooth enamel and eventually lead to serious dental disease. This is due to the phosphoric acid in soft drinks, which is also thought to make digestion more difficult.

The body always strives to maintain its natural, slightly alkaline pH value of 7.4. The PH value of soft drinks is 2.0. Its acidity is therefore 100,000 times higher than that of pure water. Carbonated drinks leave residual acid in the mouth, which lowers the natural base level of saliva.

This imbalance activates a repair mechanism in the body. The body uses so-called neutralizers such as calcium    Chemisches Element Ca mit der Ordnungszahl 20, Mineralstoff, der zu den Mengenelementen zählt. Unter den Mineralstoffen ha... ions, which are found in teeth, for example, to convert the acidic pH value back to normal-basic. In this way, the enamel is slowly and steadily destroyed.

This acid can also cause stomach inflammation and, in the long term, even lead to the breakdown of the stomach lining. The body’s constant effort to restore its unnatural, because over-acidified, environment is also responsible for bone loss.

Sugar is converted to fat in the body

All soft drinks, including energy drinks, provide – and this is the crucial point – nothing nutritious. The calories they contain due to their sugar content are also known as “empty calories”. In the body, they turn into fat and can ultimately lead to overweight and obesity. The regular consumption of soft drinks can have even worse consequences, as it often lays the foundation for the occurrence of so-called “diseases of civilization” such as diabetes, heart failure, heart attacks, strokes or even cancer.

Diet drinks – an alternative for soft drink lovers?

So-called diet drinks, which contain aspartame instead of sugar, can cause glandular disorders. Numerous diseases, such as brain tumors, birth defects, emotional fluctuations or epilepsy are associated with it. Aspartame also turns into methanol – an alcohol that converts to formaldehyde and formic acid – known carcinogens when stored for a long time or in a warm environment.

The artificial sweetener saccharin, which is only used by a few companies today, is considered to be a contributory cause of bladder cancer in both human and veterinary research.

Energy drink and alcohol, a dangerous cocktail

The mix of energy drink plus vodka is a very popular cocktail, especially among young people. People who have already become sluggish and sleepy after heavy drinking and then switch to energy drinks tend to behave aggressively. Caffeine is directly linked to a number of health problems. With nervousness, insomnia, high blood pressure, cardiac arrhythmia, elevated cholesterol levels, vitamin and mineral deficiencies, but also with breast lumps and even birth defects.

Taking a closer look at the example of cola as a classic soft drink …

Cola doesn’t contain many ingredients – water, sugar, coloring, phosphoric acid, caffeine and flavoring – but sugar, caffeine and phosphoric acid are enough to turn water into a health disaster.

• 10 minutes after drinking a Coke
  In the first 10 minutes after consuming the cola, the body is confronted with an amount of sugar equivalent to about 10 teaspoons. The extremely sweet taste can only be tolerated because it is masked by the added acids. Both together – sugar and acids – pose a massive risk to the teeth, as both attack the enamel. The sugar, which goes straight into the blood, literally floods the body.
• 20 minutes after a Coke
  The blood sugar level reaches its maximum after 20 minutes. The pancreas reacts in shock and sends as much insulin into the bloodstream as it can. The insulin level shoots up. What does the liver do with fructose? It converts the sugar into a lot of fat – fat that is deposited around the liver and soon leads to a heavy and yellow fatty liver. While it was previously believed that diabetes brings with it a fatty liver, we now know that it is the other way round, i.e. that the fatty liver is there first, which leads to diabetes in no time at all.

• 40 minutes after a Coke
  After about 40 minutes, the body has absorbed the full amount of caffeine and is now in a state of caffeine-induced stress. Blood pressure rises and the pupils are slightly dilated. Stress hormones now urge the liver to release sugar.
  But the body has only just survived a flood of sugar. Now he has to watch again as he removes the sugar from the blood. The cola drinker will not normally consume the sugar immediately through physical activity. As a result, the pancreas is called upon again and has to secrete insulin to regulate blood sugar levels.
  However, blood sugar fluctuations of this kind – especially in combination with chronically elevated insulin levels – lead to ongoing inflammatory processes in the body. However, these are now known to be the harbingers of almost every disease of civilization – whether they are arteriosclerosis, heart attacks, high blood pressure and diabetes or arthritis, osteoporosis, neurodermatitis, irritable bowel syndrome, allergies, chronic sinusitis, Parkinson’s disease, inflammatory bowel disease, Alzheimer’s disease, cancer or whatever.
• 45 minutes after a Coke
  Five minutes later, you start to enjoy dopamine – a neurotransmitter that is one of the happiness hormones. Dopamine is also known as the reward hormone; it is always released when you do something with enthusiasm or have achieved a goal.
• 60 minutes after a Coke
  After an hour, the phosphoric acid has also done its work and bound a number of vital substances such as calcium, magnesium, zinc etc. in the small intestine, so that they can no longer be used by the body. As many people nowadays already suffer from a magnesium and/or zinc deficiency anyway, drinking cola further exacerbates this problem.

Refreshing can also be healthier

Of course, it would be better to refresh yourself with tasty drinks and do something good for your body at the same time. Healthy and tasty alternatives range from St. John’s wort tea and cherry juice to elderberry and cucumber for drinking. And homemade berry water with lemon and mint is simply a refreshing eye-catcher. Not only do we have a wide range of enjoyment options here, but we also drink healthy vitamins and strengthen our immune system.