Mind Boggling Reasons You Should Never, Ever Drink Colas

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Although everyone, really, already knows that sodas aren’t healthy, you still see people sucking them down day after day. Did you know that the biggest cola seller in the world is also the most valuable and well-known brand in the world? Did you know that you could travel anywhere in the world, anywhere, and even if you couldn’t speak a word, you would just have to say the word “Coke,” and you would instantly be understood? Coke is the second most recognized word in the world.

But do you know what happens after you down that cola? (Not just that famous brand, but any cola.) Within 10 minutes, the phosphoric acid inhibits the sugar that is in that cola. Your insulin levels will start rising after 20 minutes. The caffeine level in your blood reaches its peak after 40 minutes. The caffeine raises your blood pressure and blocks the receptors of adenosine, which will stop you from feeling sleepy. After 45 minutes, the pleasure center in your brain is stimulated by dopamine, which is the same effect that heroin has on the brain. Within 1 hour, the gastrointestinal tract can start having problems. The metabolism slows, and the phosphoric acid binds to the calcium, zinc, and magnesium in your body and releases these minerals through your urine.

There are plenty of other reasons to stop drinking sodas, and not all of them are health related. Keep reading you will probably be shocked by some of the awful facts that surround something as seemingly harmless as a soda.

1. Sodas have High Fructose Corn Syrup

When you think HFCS, think GMO, because that is where this sweetener comes from. HGCS has been linked to a wide variety of health problems but even if you want to dismiss those because “it’s just one little soda,” you can’t dismiss the dangers of GMO corn where this sweetener begins its life.

2. It Takes a Tremendous Amount of Water

From start to finish, when you talk about growing the cacao leaves and the corn, it takes about 132 gallons of water to produce 2 liters of soda. Cola makers say that it takes about 1 gallon of water to actually produce 2 liters of water. Either way, that’s a whole lot of water for a product that has no nutritional value. And for those of you living in water starved California? Yeah, there’s a huge cola plant in Downey. Nice to know that you can’t water your lawn, but they can still make plenty of soda.

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3. Where Do Those Ingredients Go?

One report out of Germany states that those artificial colors, flavors, etc., are never fully removed from wastewater treatment plants. Eventually, those chemicals have to go somewhere, don‘t they? Where? Probably either into the ocean, or into the ground water, which is where we get our drinking water. Nice, huh?

4. It’s Expensive

When you consider that an average person in the US drinks about 216 liters of soda every year, or 365 20 ounce bottles. If you purchased that bottle of soda from a vending machine every day, that’s about $550 each year. Doesn’t sound like much, until you consider that if you put that same amount of money into a retirement account, at the end of 30 years (assuming a modest 7 percent return compounded annually) you would have $60,000! Even if you are a penny pincher and only bought your soda at the bulk discount store for about 40 cents a can, that would still be about $26,000 in that same 30 year period.

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5. Higher Medical Bills

Because of the health issues soda drinkers encounter, if you only get one of the numerous health problems soda drinkers often get, your long term medical costs will go up tremendously.

6. Health Problems

Drinking that one simple cola each day can cause serious health problems including:

The acid ruins your teeth
Causes high blood pressure, which can lead to heart disease and stroke
Causes weight gain
Can lead to osteoporosis
Can lead to diabetes
Increases your risk of kidney stones
Can cause liver problems
Causes heartburn
Causes digestive problems

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7. Transportation of Soda Leaves a Big Carbon Footprint

There are no exact figures about how much diesel fuel is required to move soda, but that soda has to get from the factory to your store, vending machines, fast food locations, restaurants, schools, and convenience stores somehow and all those trucks, whether they be big or small, burn fuel, which sends untold tons of exhaust into the air.

8. No Matter the Form, the Containers Have Environmental Costs

Even if you buy your soda in a glass bottle, it still takes fuel to transport that bottle to the recycling center, then on to the recycling plant. Aluminum cans are only able to be partially recycled. Also, aluminum is mined from the earth causing horrible environmental consequences. Plastic bottles take huge amounts of oil to produce them, and 80 percent are never recycled, but instead, end up in landfills or swirling in huge mountains of trash out in the Pacific Ocean.

9. Sodas Contain Pesticides

In some countries, sodas actually contain traces of pesticides. Of course, we don’t have this problem in America, (not with sodas anyway) but there is something not right about supporting companies that have no problem producing products that contain deadly pesticides in other countries, simply because they can. There are high levels of toxic pesticides in the sodas produced in India; enough to cause birth defects, disruptions of the immune system, even damage to the central nervous system, according to the Center for Science and the Environment.

10. Sodas Are No Longer Cool

OK, so there is no evidence to back this up, but look around you. More and more you see people drinking water, green tea, coffee, kombucha, and probiotic drinks. This says “I care about my health,” and that is definitely cool.

However, if you would like to know what to do with that liter bottle of soda sitting in your kitchen, it actually does have some pretty good uses. Use that soda to:

Remove grease stains from clothes
Remove burned on food from pots and pans
Kills snails and slugs in the garden
Cleans metal coins
Removes rust
Cleans car battery terminals
Cleans rust stains from swimming pools
Cleans toilets
Removes stains from carpets

When you consider all the things that colas can clean, would you ever dream of putting this stuff in your body?! We hope not!

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One Comment

Marvin Zinn

May 25, 2015 at 11:28 am

I remember trying these “cola” poisons 60 years ago. I thought they were terrible and never drank a drop since then.