7 Day No Soda Challenge

In this week's challenge you must Not drink fizzy drinks . No fizzy drinks for a whole week. Now, it says there’s no sugar in fizzy drinks but seriously it's full of chemicals. Intake of soft drinks with high sugar and acid content both regular and diet could cause detrimental impacts on dental and general health including dental caries, dental erosion, overweight, obesity and increased risk of type 2 diabetes. Instead of focusing on what you can’t have this week, focus on what you’re going to get out of this challenge – Which is hopefully a flatter feeling tummy and feeling healthier. Also, you’ll hopefully be increasing your water intake too.

Effects of fizzy drinks on the body:

1. You Could Gain 15 Pounds of Fat

   One of the most obvious side effects of drinking soda is the risk of weight gain, thanks to the influx of calories and sugar. A 12-ounce can of soda contains around 150 calories and up to 40 grams of sugar. Drinking one a day means ingesting more than 130,000 extra calories a year, or 15 pounds of added fat!

2. Even Diet Soda Causes Weight Gain

   The study showed that over nine years, people who drank diet soda gained almost three times as much belly fat as those who didn't drink diet soda. Researchers have theorized that the consumption of artificial sweeteners leads to more sugar cravings, and therefore causes people to eat more calories than they normally would.

3. Your Risk of Type 2 Diabetes Increases

   Drinking soda causes your blood sugar to spike, and it sends your pancreas into overdrive producing insulin to metabolize all that sugar. So it's no surprise a study in the American Heart Association journal Circulation found that consuming sugar-sweetened beverages, like soda, was linked to the onset of type 2 diabetes. And this correlation was independent of obesity's impact on developing type 2 diabetes.

4. Your Body Ages Prematurely

   Sure, the weight gain and cancer risk from soda may age you, but drinking it affects your body on a cellular level. Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco found that people who drank more sugar-sweetened beverages had shorter ends of their chromosomes, known as telomeres. When telomeres are shorter, cells can't regenerate as quickly, meaning a more rapid aging of the body.

5. Your Skin Breaks Out

   Turns out, that whole drinking-soda-gives-you-pimples theory isn't just an old wives' tale. Eating foods high in sugar with high glycemic loads can mess with insulin levels and lead to the formation of acne, according to University of Wisconsin researchers.

6. Your Teeth Rot

   No surprise here: All of the sugar consumed by drinking soda is horrible for your pearly whites. Couple that with the acidity of carbonated beverages that destroy tooth enamel, and you have a dentist's nightmare. Soda leeches calcium from your teeth and leads to dental erosion, according to a study published in the International Journal of Dentistry.

Suggested Reading:

Impact of soft drinks to health - Learn more here.

The Science Behind a Soda - Learn more here.

Chronic effects of soft drink consumption on the health - Learn more here.