Kids in the Middle East love those super-sweet soda and drink beverages. Loaded with sugar, parents should limit intake for new reasons.
With all the food and beverage issues making headlines, like pink slime hamburgers and meat glue worries, there is new bad news on syrupy soft drinks that people order with those “slime burgers” and French Fries would have their share of controversy as well. A couple of years ago, an article posted in Green Prophet reported that long term consumption of soda with high amounts of sugar, contributes to diabetes, heart disease and causes fatty liver as well. New research in finds that one or more of these drinks a day can cause heart disease in later life.
New studies by researchers at Australia’s University of Sydney indicate that children who consume large amounts of sweetened carbonated beverages are more likely to develop heart disease later in life. The researchers found that children who “drank one or more soft drinks each day had narrower arteries in the back part of the eye — a factor associated with increased risk of heart disease and high blood pressure.”
The findings of this study were very similar to an earlier study conducted at Boston University School of Medicine in 2007 which also indicated that even drinking one carbonated beverage a day could result in a condition known as metabolic syndrome that leads to waistline obesity (that apple shape that many overweight people have), high blood pressure, and higher blood sugar levels that can eventually lead to diabetes.
The ready availability of carbonated soft drinks, either out of machines or served to people as part of a fast food restaurant’s “combo meal” results in children and teenagers literally guzzling these drinks on a daily basis. Here in the Middle East, carbonated soft drinks and fruit drinks are found virtually everywhere, and have more than their share if health issues, including a recent recall of a popular soft drink in Dubai from mold.
Trying to convince kids to drink more healthy liquids such as plain water or green tea is an uphill battle, and many kids refuse to drink unless it sweet and fizzy. That’s why so many adds are found on TV to show how fun it is to drink Coke and other soft drinks. As shown on both the U. Of Sydney and Boston U. studies, what can happen to people later in life is definitely no fun.
Read more on health issues based on fast foods and high sugar soft drinks:
Is Pink Slime Worse Than Meat Glue for Enhancing Fast Food
Vimto’s Mouldy Soft Drink Recalled in Dubai
Sweetened Soda and Natural Juice Causes Long Term Liver Damage
Image of Coke in Hebrew and Arabic by Karin Kloosterman
I agree. It’s hard to get kid to not indulge in carbonated soft drinks and fast foods, especially if most of their peers are doing this. That’s why Ronald McDonald is so popular.
We still need to feed our family healthy, well-balanced meals while keeping to a set budget. Change is the hardest thing and trying to do everything at once will have most people quitting before they even begin. You can get samples from sites like “Official Samples” where you can find all samples