The bubbly,frizzy, sweet addiction!!

Are parents killing their kids with kindness? Are they making their own kids addicted? Do you offer sweet poison to your little one because you love and can’t say NO to her or him?

Somewhere I read the quote “Soda: Tobacco of the 21^st century”.

Soda a sweet, bubbly, frizzy sea drowning the kids deep to suffer! 

Initially I thought everybody does know the ill effects of soda/aerated drinks/soft drinks/ Coke/Pepsi etc. And it may not need a separate article until I saw something really disturbing one day on traffic signal. A very sweet girl around only 3 years old with a can in her hand sitting very comfortably in her luxury car was teasing me with cute naughty expressions while sipping on her Coke.

Her mother smiled back at me and conveyed her apologies through her expressions. I was doing thumbs down to her with a funny face looking at her ‘can’ which she failed to understand. Her mother hopefully may have understood my thumbs down act. Traffic light turned green and our teasing game stopped. But that incident made me think, why? Why soft drink to such a small girl? Why soft drink to any child of any age?

As an adult with enough maturity to understand what is good and bad, if you want to play with your health, play. But nobody has right to do the same with the children.

Sad but true almost three generations had sank in the ocean of soft drinks. Hands full of fast food and a can of Soda! Unfortunately we Indians too walked far long on the path following the foot prints of Americans.

Do you know when your kid hold the can of cold drink what exactly he or she is holding in hand?

The toxic contents of soda:

• Caffeine, sugar, high fructose corn syrup, artificial flavors and colors, phosphoric acid and other acids, Carbon Di oxide, sometimes pesticides are some of the contents in any Soda. All are highly dangerous to the health and have no good role on the human or any living body.
• The cancer causing 4-MEI though banned still is used in some soft drinks especially Pepsi.
• Some brands use aborted human babies to enhance and give the typical taste to the soft drink. This is the most disgusting thing to read for any one. HEK-293 is the code of the content. The dead human babies kidney cells are used to stimulate a typical taste bud protein on human tongue. Synomex and PepsiCo are the brands that uses this for sure.

Do you know what happen to your body in the first 60 minutes, after you drink Soda/Pepsi/Coke or other soft drinks?

 In The First

• 10 minutes: 10 teaspoons of sugar reach in body (10 teaspoon is much higher amount to consume in one dose )If you try to consume so much sugar with only water you will vomit immediately but the phosphoric acid and other flavors in Soda suppress this allowing the sugar remain in body. This is against nature and body response obviously.
• 20 minutes: Sudden increased sugar causes an insulin burst. Liver can’t tolerate so much sugar in the blood and turn it into the fat.
• 40 minutes: Caffeine absorption is complete. Your pupils dilate, your blood pressure rises, and as a response your liver dumps more sugar into your bloodstream. Ideally so much sugar should make you feel little drowsy but particular receptors in the brain is blocked and you don’t feel drowsy. Instead you feel stimulated or energetic for some time. Yes, you are right the same effect that a small peg of Whisky, Vodaka or any other alcohol shows on body. Remember we are talking about children here. Got the seriousness of the topic?
• 45 minutes: The body ups your dopamine production stimulating the pleasure centers of your brain. By the way ,exactly the same way heroin (drug) works, and Caffeine works here as strong false mood maker or psycho stimulant in the medical language. Sounds little scary?
• 60 minutes: The phosphoric acid in Soda takes Calcium, Magnesium and Zinc in intestine, increasing the metabolic rate. High doses of sugar and artificial sweeteners also increase the urinary excretion of calcium resulting in Calcium as well as above mentioned minerals deficiency. These minerals in your intestine were supposed to go to the bones and joints to make them strong. Instead Soda is throwing them out of the body through the urine. More scary right?

Now imagine the consequences if you or your child drinks soda regularly or even occasionally too!

Bitter facts of sweet Soda

• Zero nutritional value: Useless calories and zero nutrition soda on other hand suppress the digestion and appetite of the child. Regular soda taker kids eat less and many times observed to suffer from Vitamin A, B, Magnesium,Zink and Calcium deficiency.
• Child can become addictive to Soda: The caffeine in the soda or soft drinks is supposed to be the most commonly used addictive substance in soda industry. Caffeine dependency is more fast and serious in children. Mood changes or altered moods or aggressive behavior are the results of caffeine addiction in soft drinks. Coke contains cocaine which is drug.
• Soda can cause behavioral problems in children: Caffeine, sugar, artificial flavors, blood sugar spikes in body are some of the reasons for it. Lack of attention, concentration, aggressiveness and withdrawing behavior are observed in children having soft drinks/Soda frequently.
• Bone health: We already saw how Calcium is thrown away causing weak bone health and calcium deficiency.Phosporus in more amounts in soda further damages the bones. Teeth are literally eaten by Soda causing decay due to over sweetness and other oral hygine issues.
• Obesity, diabetes and heart diseases: Soda directly leads to the childhood obesity, diabetes and some other heart diseases.

Are these enough reasons for all of those who drink soft drinks/Soda or offer it to their kids, to stop consuming it?

Parents,

• Discourage the consumption of soda in early age as later on kids got addicted to it. Develop good food habits as earliest of the age as possible.
• Replace the Soda/soft drinks with the healthy options like coconut water, fruit juice, buttermilk, fresh lemonade etc
• Parents are the role model so do not drink soda or soft drink at least in front of the kids.
• Food and beverages together is a bad idea. Water is the best thing one can have with food.
• Don’t drink fruit juice, tea, coffee or soft drinks along with food.
• Do not let the kids blackmail you emotionally. Be strict and firm with your stand. You are doing for the better of your kid. Learn to say NO firmly to your kids when it is the question of their health.

I have not covered the topics like how the soft drinks industry destroyed the whole generation’s health and the economy behind it and its close relation with health and medicine industry and policies of nation. The reason is, I am more concerned with the health of people around me rather than some economic or political scandal.

To educate my readers about the facts that some of you may not know before is the purpose of this article. I am worried for small towns. The Soda industry suffering huge loss in America and other big countries and metro cities in India and some other countries. To overcome the loss these companies are targeting the small towns and less aware customers. The funda to captures the hearts of innocent rather ignorant I will say, is the same, advertisement. Bollywood actors and actresses getting paid huge money to destroy the health of their fans, followers and loving people.

God save this mind set and innocent people.

(The write up belongs to Dr.Rupali Panse.The images and some data and facts are derived from authorised sources.Do not change the original article while sharing or reposting it.)

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