Tasty, Refreshing Poison

by: Bob McCauley

“Poisoners they are, whether they know it or not.”

                                                       ~ Friedrich Nietzsche 

 Carbonated soft drinks are primarily water, but they are the most dehydrating substances that are commonly consumed.  I grew up on a steady diet of soft drinks and it did more damage to my health than anything else.  As a child, I was never warned how dangerous soft drinks were to my health, and at the time few questioned them.  Not surprisingly, many CEO’s of soft drink and fast food chains succumb to cancer and heart disease at relatively young ages. 

 “Consuming acidic foods such as soft drinks may also create an ideal environment for cancer to form.” 

  Soft drinks contain highly processed sweeteners, which do not remotely resemble the natural chemical structure of sugars found in fruits and vegetables.  Caffeine is a diuretic that has been linked to rheumatoid arthritis.   It encourages the kidneys to produce so much urine that it leads to dehydration.  The phosphoric and carbonic acids contained in soft drinks are extremely acidic (pH 2.7)   and cause the body’s pH to drop considerably, leaving us more susceptible to chronic, bacterial and viral disease of every kind.  The phosphates found in soft drinks block the absorption of calcium and leach alkaline minerals from the body, leading to bone loss.   Soft drinks also severely erode our teeth.   They contain large amounts of benzene, eight times that which is allowed in drinking water.   Benzene is a carcinogenic chemical that has been linked to leukemia.  Chronic soft drink consumption was linked to hyperactivity and mental health problems amongst teens in Norwegian in a study of more than 5000 teens. 

 “To prevent acidic poisoning from cola (or other acid) consumption, the body uses two strategies.  One is to use alkaline blood buffers to buffer the acid.  The other strategy is to convert these volatile liquid acids into less-reactive solid acids.”

  The dangerous nature of soft drinks comes with no warning about their potential damage to our health and one of the reasons is that medical, educational, health and fitness professionals regularly promote the consumption of soft drinks.  If the medical establishment was truly concerned about our health, they wouldn’t allow the sale of soft drinks in hospitals, for example.  Instead, we do not hear a single word of condemnation about soft drinks from them.  

Dr. Heinz Valtin stated: “Many people contend that caffeinated drinks such as tea and soda, don't count toward your fluid intake. In fact, they can. And thirst does not necessarily mean you're already dehydrated.”   Both of these statements could not be further from the truth, however the simple fact that this appeared in a newspaper makes it the “truth” to many people.  A medical doctor has approved it, so now their concerns over soft drinks being unhealthy for them are eased.  They have found an enabler who has rubber-stamped their rationalization of why they consume soft drinks and now they can swing it like a mighty club of defiance.  The fact is that by the time the thirst mechanism in the body switches on to tell you to drink water, the body is already dehydrated. 

Most of us instinctively know that soft drinks are bad for our health even though the yearly per capita consumption of soft drinks in the U.S. has risen steadily to 49 gallons over the past 50 years.   This is in large part due to marketing and the lack of condemnation from parents, school officials and other role models where inculcation to the soft drink culture often starts as early as one year old.  

Soft drink consumption has been linked to esophageal cancer.   The artificial sweetener aspartame found in diet soft drinks has been linked to birth defects, brain cancer, emotional disorders, carpel tunnel, diabetes and epilepsy.  When asked if they would allow a product such as soft drinks on the market, the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) was blunt in stating that there was no possibility they would allow it to be marketed if it were presented to them today for approval.  Soft drinks are poison and should be avoided at all costs.

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i. Charlie Bell, Cantalupo’s successor died of colorectal cancer, age 44.

 Coca-Cola Chairman Roberto C. Goizueta died of lung cancer , age 65.

 Wendy's restaurant founder Dave Thomas died of liver cancer, age 69.

 Jack Laughery, former CEO of Hardee's and former Chairman of its Board of Directors, died of pneumonia after a battle against lung cancer, age 71.

 ii. Fantastic Voyage by Ray Kurzweil and Terry Grossman, MD.

 iii. Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, 2000; 59; 631-635.

 iv. A pH of 2.7 is 10,000 times more acidic than the body’s ideal pH of 7.0.

v. "Consumption of soft drinks with phosphoric acid as a risk factor for the development of hypocalcaemia in postmenopausal women.”  Fernando, RM Martha and M. Djokic.  2003.   Journal Clinical Epidemiology. 

    vi. Study done by the British Dental Association, reported in British Dental Journal. March, 2004.

    vii. Routine tests revealed levels of up to eight parts per billion (ppb) in some soft drinks.  Trace amounts found in Perrier Sparkling Natural Water™ in 1989 led to the withdrawal of more than 160 million bottles worldwide.
 
viii. “Consumption of Soft Drinks and Hyperactivity, Mental Distress, and Conduct Problems Among Adolescents in Oslo, Norway” Study conducted at the University of Oslo in Norway.  Dr. Lars Lien, Nanna Lien, Sonja Heyerdahl, Magne Thoresen, and Espen Bjertness  Am J Public Health, Oct 2006; 96: 1815 - 1820.

   ix. Fantastic Voyage by Ray Kurzweil and Terry Grossman, MD.

   x. Dr. Valtin is the Andrew C. Vail Professor Emeritus, as well as former Chair of the Department of Physiology, at Dartmouth Medical School. His scientific and academic excellence has been recognized with several awards, including the Arthur C. Guyton Award for Distinguished Teaching in Physiology in 1994 and the Robert Berliner Award for Excellence in Renal Physiology in 1995.

    xi.“Old 'rule' on water is all wet.  Drink when thirsty, scientist concludes after much research”, By Laura Beil. The Dallas Morning News.  08/19/2002

    xii.Based on U.S. Department of Agriculture data soft drink consumption rose from 10.8 in 1946 to 49.2 gallons per capita, a 450% increase.

    xiii. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation making California the first state to ban soft drinks in schools.  By July, 2007, students will be allowed only to buy water, milk, and some fruit and sport drinks that have limited sweeteners.

    xiv. Study done at Tata Memorial Hospital by Dr. Mohandas Mallath, et al. 2004.

   xv. “Does aspartame cause human brain cancer?” Roberts HJ. J Advanc M 1991; 4 (Winter):231-241.

    xvi. “Carpal tunnel syndrome due to aspartame disease”, Roberts HJ. Townsend Letter for Doctors & Patients 2000; 198 Nov: 82-84.

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