How sweet drinks ruin our health?

2023-11-15

In a recent study published in the famous international medical journal "Circulation", researchers at Tufts University in the United States came to a surprising conclusion: sweet drinks cause hundreds of thousands of deaths every year. This is according to the researchers' statistics between 1980 and 2010. The findings were based on dietary data from more than 610,000 people in 51 countries.

Many people may not understand, how could just drinking sugar water be linked to death? This is because sweet drinks seem safe, but drinking too many sweet drinks over many years will increase the risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, diabetes and cancer, leading to early death of drinkers. This data is really not alarmist, and it may not even fully demonstrate the "destructive" power of long-term love for drinking sweet drinks.

The harmful effects of sugar in sweet drinks are almost too numerous to describe. From the research results published so far, it can be seen that the "sins" involved in sweet drinks include: promoting obesity, promoting diabetes, promoting fatty liver, promoting high blood pressure, promoting gout, and promoting dental caries. etc.; some studies have also found that people who consume more sweet drinks are prone to lack of vitamins and minerals in their diet; children who like sweet drinks are prone to develop picky eating habits; too many sweet drinks can also affect the balance of intestinal flora . There are also some studies that suggest that high intake of sugar from artificially sweetened foods, including sweetened drinks, may be related to breast cancer, endometrial cancer, bowel cancer, osteoporosis, and senile cognition in postmenopausal women. associated with the risk of degenerative diseases.

A 355 ml can of Coke contains 37 grams of sugar, and a 500 ml bottle of fruit drink contains 40 to 60 grams of sugar. Just drinking one product has already exceeded the recommendations of the World Health Organization - the latest recommendation is that the daily intake of artificially added sugar should not exceed 25 grams, and must be controlled within 50 grams.

Although the average number of drinks consumed by Chinese people is not too high, it is only a "beautiful" average that masks the worrying actual situation and development trends. A survey by the Chinese Disease Control and Prevention System has proven that teenagers and young adults consume the largest number of sweet drinks, and this data has grown rapidly in the past ten years. Young people's beverage consumption is "in line with developed countries." In fact, there is no need to do so much research. Just go into the supermarket and see how dazzling the beverage shelves are. More than 90% of them are sweet drinks, and the sales volume is staggering every day. You will know that the situation is no longer optimistic.

The worst thing is that there has even been an unwritten "stereotype" in society - the default is that children and young people should drink sweet drinks, fashionable people should drink various high-calorie coffee drinks with sugar and milk, and the elderly should drink Talent should drink tea. This tendency can be clearly seen at the party table: whenever there is a party, someone will order some sweet drinks for the children, as if the children should drink these unhealthy sweet water. Whenever teenagers and young people hold parties, they will inevitably prepare a lot of sweet drinks and other snacks with very low nutritional value.

A friend told the author that her relative’s teeth were severely damaged when he was 28 years old. The dentist determined that he started drinking Coke every day when he was two years old. As an adult, he did not drink water and only drank sweet drinks including Coke. This young man’s teeth were damaged. The main reason for falling. The young man also suffered from back pain and knee pain. A bone density test showed that his bone density was too low, equivalent to that of a 60-year-old man. Although it is difficult to conclude that his diligent consumption of sweet drinks for more than 20 years is the main cause of osteoporosis, it is at least one of the reasons that cannot be ignored.

Another young man who lives in a suburban area developed diabetes and gout just after he turned 30. When chatting with him, he said that almost all the young people around him had this kind of disease. In addition to eating kebabs and drinking beer every day, I drink sweet drinks like water, and I never touch boiled water or tea.

I have also seen many children who are either bloated or have a sallow complexion. When asked about eating habits, most people start drinking sweet drinks when they start eating, and some even start drinking sweet drinks before weaning. The nutritional value of sweet drinks is very low. Drinking sweet drinks and not eating well will cause malnutrition. The result is that the child's face will be gray and the body will be flabby. Drinking a lot of sweet drinks in addition to three full meals will result in obesity.

There are also many fashionable women who do not drink carbonated drinks, but are also keen on drinking high-calorie sugar-added drinks such as milkshakes, cappuccinos, and lattes, drinking pure fruit juices with sugar content as high as 8% to 18%, and drinking sugar content as high as 14%. % or more lactic acid bacteria drinks, or make various "sugar water", iced sweet drinks and "freshly squeezed juice" at home, thinking that it doesn't matter as long as you add rock sugar, honey, etc., as long as the sugar comes from fruits. As a result, they often complain about why they eat very small portions for three meals, but the fat on their stomachs remains unchanged; why they are keen on sugar, fruit and juice health every day, but their skin has not improved.

Some people may ask unconvincedly: Don’t Americans drink a lot of sweet drinks? But the average life span of Americans is also very long! In fact, most of the research conclusions that sweet drinks are harmful come from the United States, where sweet drinks are very popular. Researchers are really disgusted with these sweet drinks, but unfortunately, various health education seems to be unable to compete with the brainwashing of commercial advertisements. Nutritionists are watching helplessly as more than half of the adults in the United States are obese, looking at the high incidence of high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes and various cancers, and racking their brains to discuss how to get children to drink less sweet drinks. However, With little success.

The American Diabetes Association recommends that in order to prevent diabetes, it is best to choose beverages without calories, such as plain water, various teas without added sugar, and coffee without added sugar. The association even advises people to drink less freshly squeezed juice, because freshly squeezed juice is often not pure juice and contains no less or even more sugar than pure juice. Even if it is pure fruit juice, you can easily drink a lot of sugar. For example, a cup of grape juice (250 ml) contains 160 kcal, which is equivalent to half a bowl of rice, and there is no satiety when eating fruit or rice.

Australian nutritionists clearly stated in the Australian Dietary Guidelines that it is not recommended that citizens consume various sweet drinks with added refined sugars and syrups, including carbonated drinks, sweetened fruit drinks, and even sugar-added vitamin drinks, sugar-added sports drinks, Sweetened pick-me-up drinks and sweetened mineral water.

If you must drink a drink, we can pay attention to the following issues:

1. Try to choose low-calorie and low-sugar drinks. Beverages labeled as "low calorie" mean that the calorie content per 100 ml is less than 80 kilojoules (approximately 20 kilocalories), while "zero calorie" must meet the standard of less than 17 kilojoules (about 4 kilocalories) per 100 ml. . The "low sugar" label means that the sugar content per 100ml is less than 5%, while the "sugar-free" label must meet the standard of less than 0.5% sugar content.
2. At the same sugar content level, choose varieties with higher nutritional value. For example, if they all contain 5% sugar, then they contain natural raw materials (such as milk, soy milk, cereals), nutrients (such as various vitamins, calcium, magnesium, etc.) or health care ingredients (such as prebiotics, probiotics, Dietary fiber, etc.) ingredients are slightly better than products without any nutrients.
3. Even if it contains nutrients, it cannot be used as a reason to drink sweet drinks with confidence, because we can obtain nutrients from sources other than sweet drinks. It is recommended to drink plain water and various light teas, flower and fruit teas, etc. daily. Limit the amount of sweet drinks to less than half a bottle (250 ml) per day. It is best to only have sweet drinks at parties, and do not eat other sweet drinks after drinking them. Sweets.

Therefore, the best way to avoid being harmed by sweet drinks is to give up your addiction to sweet drinks. Instead of feeling depressed about giving up sweet drinks, it is better to eat a variety of fresh vegetables, fruits, grains and potatoes, fill your stomach with healthy carbohydrates, and use less salt in cooking. If you eat like this for a period of time, your desire for sweet drinks will naturally gradually decrease, and the physical vitality damaged by sweet drinks and various unhealthy foods will be effectively repaired.