Many people drink their favorite sugary carbonated beverages all day every day. This is not good, because soda should be ingested as a treat and only drank once in a while.
Almost 50 percent of adults and 63 percent of youngsters in the U.S. consume at least one sugar drink per day. These drinks are likely to be a leading cause of obesity. One sugary beverage occasionally isn’t bad, but one or more per day is bad.
The following list of things will get better once you quit drinking soda:
1. You will be better hydrated. It takes water from your body to process soda. Between the caffeine working as a diuretic and all of the sugar that must be washed away inside, you will be losing hydration when you drink sodas. In fact, soda is bad for the kidneys because of this. Water is always the best choice for hydration.
2. Your teeth will be healthier and nicer. Soda is not only sugary, but it is as acidic as lemon juice. This eats away at the enamel of your teeth, and can cause them to die in your mouth. You can’t get enamel back, so once it is gone, it is gone for good. Ask your dentist if you have soda related tooth decay.
3. Gain less weight or lose some. Each 12 ounce soda has 32 grams of sugar and 140 calories. That is 14 grams over the daily recommended amount of sugar suggested for a woman and 36 grams over a man’s diet suggestion by the American Heart Association.
4. Less soda means less problems. You’ll reduce your risk of high blood pressure, weight gain, diabetes, heart disease, and more. Drinking one or two sodas per day increases your risk of type 2 diabetes by 25 percent.
5. You’ll have less gas. Carbonated sugary beverages like soda in your stomach can mean too much swallowed air in your body. This extra gas can build up, move around, and cause you pain throughout your body. Give your body a chance to process the fizz and get it out!
If you are having trouble, try keeping water with you all the time. Try swapping out just one soda for water each day, then increase it to 2 or more until you’ve traded your sodas for water.
If you are craving sugars, try eating fruit or adding some fruit juice to your water. If you are having caffeine withdrawal, try unsweetened tea. It will be hard at first, but your body will thank you later.