Sunday 12 July 2015

Carbonated Drinks - The bitter truth behind the sweetness

Joseph Priestly, who we can say the Father of the soft drinks, where he is the first one to invent the drink in 1772. He did it simple - by infusing carbon dioxide into plain water. By doing so, carbonate water produced. In this era, many people do crave for soft drinks. Why ?, its because the soft drinks is considered cheap, tastier and gives refreshment for thirst, easier to get it in shops and moreover, the way the drinks promoted and advertised in mass media.

BUT, do you know that this drink is not healthy to humans ( everyone knows this of course ) and causes very disturbing effects from the very moment we drink it. The main reason of this causes are due to sugar which is at alarming rate. It is reported that 1 can of carbonated drink contains approximately 44 grams of sugar. By right, an normal adult male should not consume more than 36 grams of sugar a day, while 20 grams for adult woman and 12 grams for children. Moreover, there will be few levels of excessive sugar effects within in an hour.



Around 10 minutes after drinking carbonated drink : 10 teaspoon of sugar hits the system. This is about 100 percent of your sugar intake daily. And you do not vomit due to overwhelming sweetness is because phosphoric acid cuts the flavor.

Within 20 minutes : Blood sugar level spikes, and the liver responds ( as the result of insulin burst ) by turning massive amount of sugar into body fats and will be stored in tissues later on.

Within 40 minutes : Pupils dilate, caffeine absorption completed, and the blood pressure rises.

In 45 minutes : Dopamine production increased which stimulates the pleasure centres of the brain, an identical response of heroin effect.

After 60 minutes : You will start to have sugar crash.
 


Not only sugar that gives you the bad effect to our health, but those chemicals found in the drink do play their role too. Yes, chemicals. We can find much chemicals in a can of the drink, which is added for long lasting and gives some taste to it. To name a few of them.

1. 4-MEI
It is known as 4-methylimidazole which is used mostly in Coke and Pepsi. Act as a caramel colouring additives. Based on the research done by International Agency of Research on Cancer, this chemical will cause cancer after consuming certain level ( by daily drinking basis ).

2. Benzene
Benzene, which can be found normally in cleaning products, also present in the soft drinks. Benzene is not added, but produced whilst the production of this drinks. Decarboxylation of benzoic acid in presence of ascorbic acid (Vit. C) produces benzene. It is reported that a person consuming 12oz ( 350ml ) of this drink ingest 31 micrograms of benzene, which is similarly equivalent to person inhaling benzene when a motorist refills the fuel tank for 3 minutes.

3. Various types of acids.
Citric acids, phosphoric acids, malic or tartaric acids to list down a few which is found in the carbonated drinks which is sold in the markets. An experiment conducted shows that a tooth which is placed in a glass of carbonated drink for 2 days became very soft, and the enamel lose much of its calcium. Do you know that phosphoric acids are used to clean down the rust from chromes and clean the battery connecters of cars. Some would brush their teeth after having this 'tasteful' drink, but trust me, that's a very bad idea as it eventually increase the damage to the enamel and dissolve the gum line.


This is only a few of the chemicals found in carbonated drinks. Imagine there are alot more which is not written here.



This is the bitter truth behind every sweet drink which gives a 'refreshment' to the body when consumed, especially on hot days. With this, as you can see up there, it definitely harms us.
So, its your call now.


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