9 Disturbing Side Effects of Soda

By Emily Main, Rodale

Soda’s Bittersweet Side Effects

If you’ve been reading health magazines and websites for any length of time, you’ve read a litany of reasons why soda is bad for you. It’s nothing but sugar water. It’s devoid of any nutritional value. It leads to obesity and diabetes. But we’ve dug up nine other disturbing facts about what soda does to your body, besides packing on the pounds, that don’t get much attention in broader discussions about soda and its impact on your health.

Weird Fat in Weird Places

In the latest bad news for the soda industry, Danish researchers discovered that drinking non-diet soda leads to dramatic increases in fat buildup around your liver and your skeletal muscles, both of which can contribute to insulin resistance and diabetes. The study revealed that people who drank a regular soda every day for six months saw a 132 to 142 percent increase in liver fat, a 117 to 221 percent jump in skeletal fat, and about a 30 percent increase in both triglyceride blood fats and other organ fat. Their consumption also led to an 11 percent increase in cholesterol, compared with the people who drank other beverages such as water or milk.

Diet Not Working? Try This

Diet-Soda Belly

It’s not surprising that drinking all the sugar in sodas would cause weight gain, but what is surprising is that even diet soda will pack on the pounds: Researchers from the University of Texas Health Science Center monitored 475 adults for 10 years, and found that those who drank diet soda had a 70 percent increase in waist circumference over the 10-year study, compared with those who didn’t drink any soda. Those who drank more than two diet sodas per day saw a 500 percent waist expansion! A separate study the same researchers conducted on mice suggested that it was the aspartame, which raised blood glucose levels, that caused the weight gain; when your liver encounters too much glucose, the excess is converted to body fat.

Diet Soda = Diabetes Soda

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Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Sassy A.

12:15PM PDT on Mar 29, 2013

thanks

March 29
send a green star

Wendye K.

2:09AM PDT on Mar 26, 2013

Thanks very much.

March 26
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Greenthinktank D.

2:32PM PDT on Mar 25, 2013

We have warned the public for many years about drinking soda, including diet soda for years. Armed with more information, maybe persons will amke betetr choices. Pop seems to be served at most luncheons, dinner banquets, meetings with refreshments and is stocked in vending machines even at fitness centers and hospitals.

March 25
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Heather M.

7:03AM PDT on Mar 25, 2013

This is really disturbing. Great motivation to stop drinking all those empty calories though. Thanks for all the info.

Freda Lee J.

4:44PM PDT on Mar 24, 2013

Oh dear...

March 24
send a green star

Debbie W.

1:17PM PDT on Mar 23, 2013

Thanks

March 23
send a green star

Christopher M.

4:33PM PST on Feb 12, 2013

Gas

February 12
send a green star

Dale O.

4:29PM PST on Feb 12, 2013

For those drinking too much of it per day...moderation does help. This lady died from an overdose of ...coke as she drank ten litres a day of the stuff. Another woman came close to death as she ate three pounds of raw bok choy per day (cooked would have been no problem).

http://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/video?playlistId=1.1153012

http://www.newser.com/story/89588/bok-choy-diet-leads-straight-to-hospital.html

Everything in moderation, even some veggies!