You most likely have had different types of soda drinks. You go to parties, and food is served with sodas. Let’s start by looking at the disadvantages of consuming soda drinks.

Weight gain: while starchy foods are broken down to glucose when our bodies digest them, soda drinks contain sucrose (table sugar) which is broken down to fructose by our bodies. Unlike sucrose, fructose does not lower the hunger hormones or stimulate fullness quite well. Thus, soda drinks are usually consumed with your normal calorie intake, thereby increasing your overall calorie intake. Study as shown that the increment could be as much as 17%.

Mood swings: the sugar in soda drinks, asides from affecting your weight, can also affect how you feel from time to time. This is because the sugar in soda absorbs very quickly, leading to a spike in your blood sugar. Due to how rapid this spike is, your body isn’t naturally prepared to deal with it, so it releases hormones in a bid to compensate, thereby plunging your blood sugar too low. These abnormal spikes can make you feel tired, irritable and hungry.

Enamel erosion: what is enamel? One part of the human tooth is embedded in the gums; the other part (the crown) is visible outside of the gums. This visible part of the human tooth needs some form of protection. Hence, it has an outer protective layer. This layer, though thin, is the most complex tissue in the human body, and it’s called enamel.

Imagine if the human tooth was without enamels; chewing, crunching and grinding things like bones, biscuits, meats, fibre rich fruits like apples and mangoes will be almost impossible. Have you ever had this funny sensation in your teeth when you take hot or cold drinks/foods? It could be a sign of eroding enamels, as they also protect the teeth by insulating it from potentially painful temperatures and chemicals.

Our enamels should be treated properly because they don’t have any living cells and thus, cannot self-repair if chipped or cracked.

Okay, we’ve said a bit about enamels, but what exactly does this have to do with drinking soda?!

Fun fact

Tooth erosion happens when acids wear away the enamel. Okay… that wasn’t a fun fact.

Back to enamel and soda.

Chemicals like phosphoric and citric acids help to erode enamels. These chemicals are seldom found in soda drinks; hence, having them too often will only aid in quickening the eroding of one’s enamels. It gets even worse if the teeth are not adequately cleaned regularly.

Tooth decolouration: as the enamel erodes and more dentin (the main portion of the tooth responsible for its colour – whether white, off white, grey, or yellowish) is exposed, the teeth may appear yellow.

Calcium Depletion: Calcium is an essential mineral for strong bones and teeth. Sodas contain high amounts of citric acid. Citric acid from soda can leach calcium out of your teeth. This will make them brittle and prone to cavities and dental erosion. Hence, it’s advisable to rinse your mouth after drinking soda, if you must drink them. Sodas also contain high levels of phosphoric acid. Phosphoric acid could deplete the calcium from your bones and also decrease calcium absorption. This could lead to brittle and weak bones.

Liver disease: glucose can be metabolized by every cell in your body, whereas the liver can only metabolize fructose (the byproduct of soda). This means that when you take in too much soda, your liver becomes overburdened and ends up turning the fructose into fat, some of which gets farmed out as blood triglycerides, while the remainder remains in your liver. If this keeps piling up over some time, it can lead to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease

Dehydration: soda drinks containing significantly high levels of caffeine, a natural diuretic, may lead to dehydration. Due to the high levels of caffeine, the urge to use the toilet increases, thereby making you lose body fluid through urination. It would help if you didn’t consume soda drinks while exercising as you are already going to lose quite a bit of fluid through sweat. You don’t want to lose a bit more through your urine. Our hot climate also increases the rate at which one gets dehydrated, so rather than taking soda drinks, it is advisable to take a cup of water as water will keep you hydrated.

Excessive belly fat: one good way to rid yourself of excessive belly fat is by cutting down your intake of soda drinks. This is because fructose, which is contained in soda, is converted to fat by the liver, some of which is stored around the belly. Asides from not giving you the shape you probably seek, excessive belly fat are linked to an increased risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

Insulin Resistance: Insulin is a hormone that drives glucose from your bloodstream into your cells. Too much intake of sugary soda drinks may lead to one’s cells becoming less sensitive or resistant to the effects of insulin. This will lead to one’s pancreas making even more insulin to remove the glucose from the bloodstream, thereby spiking the insulin levels in one’s blood.

Type 2 diabetes: insulin resistance or deficiency can cause one’s blood sugar levels to spike up, leading to type 2 diabetes. Numerous studies have linked excessive soda consumption to type 2 diabetes. So try not to make soda drinks your everyday companion.

Having taken a look at a few of the many disadvantages of having soda, it is only fair that we take a look at the advantages.

There aren’t any known advantages of drinking soda, health-wise. Furthermore, soda has absolutely no nutritional value, so you should substitute them with water and more natural fruit juices.