Side Effects of Carbonated Drinks
According to a 2005 USDA research titled "Contributions of Nonalcoholic Beverages to the U.S. Diet," Americans drink more than 50 gallons of carbonated soft drinks year on average. Although the Food and Drug Administration has approved the components in carbonated drinks as safe, regular consumption of these drinks may result in adverse effects. Understanding the potential negative effects of carbonated beverages might help you make wise dietary decisions.
The most frequent links between drinking high-sugar soft drinks and obesity, type 2 diabetes, and weight increase. However, drinking sodas can harm your smile as well, possibly causing cavities and even obvious tooth decay. … When you consume soda, the sugars in it combine with oral bacteria to form acid.
IT CAN CAUSE TOOTH DECAY
Carbonated soft drinks, both regular and diet, might damage your teeth. It may make your teeth yellow, necessitating the teeth whitening services of Dr. Phan, or it may cause more severe health concerns, which we shall discuss below.
The bacteria in your mouth produce chemicals that can erode the tough enamel on your teeth when they consume sugar. When the soft, inner core of your tooth is exposed due to enamel degradation, a cavity develops. When you consume sweetened, carbonated soda, the sugar stays in your mouth and encourages the tooth decay-causing processes.
Because these compounds also progressively erode your teeth's enamel, the acid in these carbonated drinks increases your risk of acquiring cavities.
SIDE EFFECT OF CARBONATED DRINKS: BELCHING AND HEARTBURN
Carbonated beverages contain dissolved carbon dioxide, which becomes a gas when it warms to body temperature in your stomach. Consuming carbonated soft drinks may cause repeated belching as your stomach stretches from the accumulation of carbon dioxide gas.
Food and stomach acid may come up your food pipe as you belch, causing heartburn and a sour taste in your mouth.
INCREASED RISK OF OBESITY
Consuming sugar-sweetened, carbonated drinks adds calories to your diet, which may increase your risk of overweight and obesity.
In an April 2007 article published in the “American Journal of Public Health,” Lenny Vartanian, Ph.D., and colleagues report that the risk of overweight and obesity associated with consumption of sugar-sweetened, carbonated beverages is greater for women than men and for adults compared to children and adolescents.
Overweight and obesity are significant risk factors for the development of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and osteoarthritis.
POOR NUTRITION
Consumption of carbonated soft drinks can adversely affect your overall nutrient intake. Drinking these beverages may reduce your consumption of proteins, starch, dietary fiber and vitamin B-2, also known as riboflavin.
People who drink carbonated beverages also tend to eat less fruit and drink less fruit juice compared to those who do not drink sodas.
REDUCED BONE STRENGTH
Carbonated drinks of the cola variety may weaken your bones if you're a woman.
Nutritionist Katherine Tucker, Ph.D., and colleagues indicate that women who drink normal and diet cola typically have weaker hipbones compared to those who do not drink these beverages in a paper that was published in "The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition" in October 2006.
The authors point out a connection between cola consumption and bone brittleness.
