What a Sip Of Soda Does To Your Body

By admin on January 30, 2013

In case you missed it, Coca Cola just rolled out a new advertising campaign, claiming that Coke can “play an important role in the fight against obesity.”

It is “the issue of this generation,” the ad claims, and the fault of calories.

It’s an emotional plea, certain to please the corporate social responsibility and legal teams at the soda companies, but a deeper dive reveals more.

Not all calories are created equal. Soda companies want to focus on calories in, calories out, but with some calories heavy-laden with sugar, while other calories are densely packed with nutrients, not all calories are created equal.

And with a new study that links sugar and high glycemic foods to an up to 80% recurrence in colon cancer, it’s time to stop playing this “in and out” game. This isn’t just about added calories any more, this is about a tumor growing on our economy, our health care system buckling under the weight of a nation and our national security as a country. It is that big. We can not afford to be this sick.

And while sodas aren’t the only contributing factor (mounting scientific evidence points to the role that the increasing numbers of chemicals, pesticides and other non-food ingredients in our diet play in disease) it’s time to take a mindful look at what exactly sugar might do to us, given that for 50 years, researchers have been suggesting that cancer cells are “avid sugar consumers”.

It’s not what anyone with a sweet tooth wants to hear, but with Americans drinking ten times more soda than the Japanese, 216 liters per person per year versus their 21.6 liters per person, dialing back on the sweet stuff, even just a little bit, might go a long way to helping stop the runaway cancer epidemic we are now seeing.

With the President’s Cancer Panel now reporting that 41% of us are expected to get cancer in our lifetimes, 1 in 2 men and 1 in 3 women, drinking a little less soda might do a lot for the health of our country.

And as controversies swirl over how to handle the obesity epidemic, as individuals, we are quickly learning that there are a lot of little things that we can do that will make a big change in the health of families. And that as we take these baby steps, these changes add up.

And with recent reports suggesting that even a 64 calorie reduction a day could go a long way to reducing the escalating rates of obesity, maybe it’s as easy to do as ditching a can of soda. If you need some inspiration, try the infographic below. If you need a little bit more, watch The Real Bears.