Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Soft Drinks

Soft drinks are utterly useless, addictive, wasteful, unhealthy and stupid.

You DO NEED water to support your body's biological functions, and you DO NEED food energy. While sugared soft drinks provide both, they do so in an extremely wasteful package.

Manufacturers love to sell you soft drinks because they can turn a penny's worth of ingredients into many times that. This huge profit margin is what supports the massive soft drink advertising all around us. The more they advertise, the more people think they need soft drinks, but it's all a fraud.

Most soft drinks contain a highly addictive substance: caffeine. When people think they are "thirsty" for a soft drink, it is usually just a craving for caffeine. Like any other drug, the pleasant effects of caffeine (the "pep") diminish with use until the drug itself doesn't feel good anymore; instead, you consume it just to avoid feeling bad. Soon the craving controls your behavior until you are going far out of your way to address it.

Thirst is something different and reflects an actual depletion of bodily fluid levels. How do you know your real fluid levels? Check your pee! If your urine is clear or light yellow, you have plenty of fluid in your system and your thirst is illusory. If it is dark yellow or you haven't peed at all in a long time, thirst could be an issue.

The carbonation in the soft drink gives the consumer the tactile illusion that he is drinking something of substance, but of course it's just flavored sugar water: Kool-Aid plus carbon dioxide.

Sugared soft drinks: (1) waste your money, (2) encourage obesity, (3) promote tooth decay, (4) often substitute for healthier foods, (5) waste environmental resources in their manufacture, packaging and distribution, (6) establish an addiction and possibly encourage addictive behavior in other areas.

Diet soft drinks aren't much better: All they do is deliver caffeine. Hey, if you're addicted, why not just admit it and start taking NoDoz caffeine pills?

Do you really need the food energy contained in sugared soft drinks? Look at your waistline. If you consider yourself underweight, maybe you do need the caloric intake, but there are more efficient and balanced ways to do it.

The thinking process you use to justify the purchase of a soft drink can easily transfer to much more dustructive behavior, like buying a luxury car you can't afford because it has the right "fizz." Let's concentrate instead on what works and what gets the job done.

Drink water! That will restore your fluid levels at minimal expense. We can argue about whether bottled water or tap water is better, but the basic compound H20 is what your body really needs. Why not go for it directly?

3 comments:

  1. this is total rubbish. soft drinks have many positives. one, they are a healthy alternative to alcohol, and two, they are a tasty and refreshing drink, that can be enjoyed as part of a balanced diet.

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  2. Haha, Bob Byres, if you are serious then you're a huge moron a simple google search and you can find a ton of info on the bad effects of soda. Go ahead drink your soft drinks and die. However if this was a troll then good job.

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  3. OMG! that mean i also have addition of caffeine and your statement is very correct that Most soft drinks contain a highly addictive substance thanks for this awareness.

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