Are soft drinks really bad for your health? Well, let the statistics speak…
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Studies have shown that:
▪️taking even as little as one can of soft drink per day puts you at a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes (1);
▪️soft drinks are often associated with a high risk of cancer, especially pancreatic cancer (2)
▪️people who take soft drinks (sugar-sweetened beverages) consistently gain more weight than people who don’t (3)
▪️many studies suggest that sugar affects your brain like hard drugs. Therefore, the more soft drinks you consume, the more addicted you may become to them. (4)
▪️taking soda has also been linked with an increased risk of developing heart disease (5), tooth decay (6), Alzheimer’s disease (7)
and so on.
HOW DO I KNOW THAT I HAVE A SOFT DRINK HABIT?
Drinking several cans or bottles of soft drinks a day is a fierce habit for some people. You know that you have a soft drink habit when you find yourself going to a store at 10 p.m. because your refrigerator is out of soft drinks. You might also have a serious habit if you can never get by a single day without taking a bottle or can of soda.
4 STEPS TO BREAKING YOUR HABIT OF TAKING SOFT DRINKS
According to health experts, if you want to stop drinking so much soft drinks, you have to take four steps:
1. Make Up Your Mind — to give up soft drinks. Even if you just trying to reduce your intake of soft drinks, it would take a firm commitment to make it happen.
2. Make a Small Decrease at a Time — This is a suggestion by Dr. Paul Rozin, a psychology professor at the University of Pennsylvania. According to him, “Just make a small decrease at a time, like one sugared soda a day.”
3. Go Caffeine-Free. Health experts believe that caffeine (which is mildly addictive) is part of the reason why taking soft drinks is such a hard habit to break. Look for caffeine-free soft drinks. If you’re addicted to the caffeine in soft drinks, you’re actually working towards eliminating two habits — the soft drink habit and the caffeine habit. It could take a few weeks for the craving to die off completely.
4. Store Up Alternatives. If you can keep a lot of tasty non-soda drinks at home or at your workplace. This makes it easier for you to stop soda intake sooner than later.
SOME HEALTHY ALTERNATIVES TO SOFT DRINKS INCLUDE —
- ▪️ Water
- ▪️ Tiger nut drink
- ▪️ Fresh smoothies
- ▪️ Fresh fruit juice
- ▪️ Green Tea or Black Tea
- ▪️ Soy milk
- ▪️ Skimmed milk
As a final note, keeping a bottle of chilled water in your car or on your desk at work would go a long way in helping you get into the water-drinking habit and overcome your soft drink habit.
