How Soft Drinks Endanger Your Health?

What the experts says...

William Duffy
The doctor speaking in these dialogs is, Dr. McCay, the nutritionist at the Naval Medical Research Institute.

"I was amazed to learn," he testified, "that the beverage contained substantial amounts of phosphoric acid. . . . At the Naval Medical Research Institute, we put human teeth in a cola beverage and found they softened and started to dissolve within a short period. The acidity of cola beverages ... is about the same as vinegar. The sugar content masks the acidity, and children little realize they are drinking this strange mixture of phosphoric acid, sugar, caffeine, coloring, and flavoring matter. "

Greg Critser
Fat Land : How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World

"A joint study by Harvard University and Boston Children's Hospital researchers in February 2001 concluded that such excess liquid calories inhibited the ability of older children to compensate at mealtime, leading to caloric imbalance and, in time, obesity. "

"One extra soft drink a day gave a child a 60 percent greater chance of becoming obese. One could even link specific amounts of soda to specific amounts of weight gain. Each daily drink added .18 points to a child's body mass index (BMI). This, the researchers noted, was regardless of what else they ate or how much they exercised. "Consumption of sugar [high fructose corn syrup]-sweetened drinks," they concluded, "is associated with obesity in children."

Neal Barnard MD
Foods That Cause You to Lose Weight: : The Negative Calorie Effect

"Another advantage of avoiding sodas is that you will avoid the caffeine that is in many of them. Caffeine is a weak diuretic that causes calcium loss via the kidneys."

Dr. Earl Mindell
Earl Mindell's New Vitamin Bible

"Recent research has linked soft drinks with childhood obesity - and an estimated 200 school districts nationwide have contracts with soft drink companies that give them exclusive rights to sell their products in schools."

"Saccharin is a noncaloric petroleum derivative estimated to be three hundred to five hundred times sweeter than sugar. It is used in diet soft drinks. Studies done in the 1970s linked saccharin ingestion to bladder cancer in laboratory animals."

"Children who drink large quantities of diet sodas containing aspartame are particularly vulnerable to its dangerous side effects."

"Aspartame contains methyl or wood alcohol, which can affect fetal brain development."

"Twenty-one percent of the sugar in the American diet comes from soft drinks. That's more than just an unhealthy consumption of empty calories. It is a dangerous overload of caffeine and potentially hazardous, nutrient-depleting additives."

"Soft drinks contain large amounts of phosphorus, which can throw off the body's calcium/phosphorus ratio (twice as much calcium as phosphorus), decreasing calcium as well as reducing your body's ability to use it."

"For anyone over age 40, soft drinks can be especially hazardous because the kidneys are less able to excrete excess phosphorus, causing depletion of vital calcium."

"Heavy soft drink consumption can interfere with your body's metabolization of iron and diminish nerve impulse transmission."

"Cola drinks can interact adversely with antacids, possibly causing constipation, calcium loss, hypertension, nausea, vomiting, headaches, and kidney damage."

"Soft drinks can decrease the antibacterial action of penicillin and ampicillin."

"Diet sodas that are low in calories are high in sodium. Too much salt in the diet may cause more calcium to be excreted in the urine and increase the risk of osteoporosis."

"Excessive consumption of soft drinks, which are high in phosphorus, can also deplete you of calcium and increase your chances of osteoporosis."

Jean Carper
Food: Your Miracle Medicine : How Food Can Prevent and Cure over 100 Symptoms and Problems

"Tests at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine by Roland R. Griffiths, MD, show caffeine withdrawal can strike people who drink a single cup of strongly brewed coffee or drink caffeinated soft drinks everyday. Further, Dr. Griffiths discovered that caffeine-withdrawal symptoms include not only headache, but also fatigue, mild depression, muscle pain and stiffness, flu-like feelings, nausea and vomiting."

"Those consuming at least one cup of a caffeine-containing beverage per day, such as coffee, tea or soft drinks, were more prone to PMS. And the more caffeine they consumed, the more severe their PMS symptoms."

Elson M Haas MD
The Detox Diet: A How-To and When-To Guide for Cleansing the Body

"Phosphorus is found in most foods but soda pops, diet pops contain especially high amounts. The ideal dietary phosphorus-calcium ratio is about 1:1. The ratio in the average American diet is often greater than 2:1 and sometimes even 4:1 or 5:1. At those levels, excess calcium is removed from bone and eliminated, blood levels are reduced, and there is bone demineralization. A diet high in phosphorus and low in calcium has been shown to cause bone loss and increase tissue calcification."

"Tooth loss, periodontal disease, and gingivitis can be problems, especially with a high phosphorus intake, particularly from soft drinks. All kinds of bone problems can occur with prolonged calcium deficiency, which causes a decrease in bone mass. Rickets in children, osteomalacia (decreased bone calcium) in adults, and osteoporosis (porous and fragile bones) can occur when calcium is withdrawn from bones faster than it is deposited. Fractures are more common with osteoporosis and almost eight million yearly in the United States are related to this prevalent nutritional deficiency disease."

"High dietary phosphorus, as is found in a diet with meats, soft drinks, and other convenience foods, can readily affect calcium metabolism. Potential calcium deficiency symptoms may be more likely when the phosphorus intake is very high. A low calcium-to-phosphorus ratio in the diet increases the incidence of hypertension and the risk of colon-rectal cancer."

Barnet Meltzer MD
Food Swings: Make the Life-Changing Connection Between the Foods You Eat and Your Emotional Health and Well-Being

"But soft drinks are far from soft. High in phosphorous and phosphoric acid, they infiltrate bodily fluids and corrode stomach linings, upset the alkaline-acid balance of the kidneys, and eat away at your liver like Hannibal Lecter. Soft drinks also contain hidden caffeine, refined sugar, and artificial chemicals."

Ralph T Golan ND
Optimal Wellness

"Avoid processed foods and cola soft drinks; their phosphates can also cause calcium loss and excretion."

Dr. Gary Null
"Natural Living" radio show.

"A study on the relationship between caffeine and fertility found that just one caffeinated soft drink per day was associated with a reduced monthly chance of conception of 50 percent."

"It should be noted here that soft drinks are the number one source of phosphorus in the American diet today. According to Dr. Steenblock, excess phosphorus is one of the major contributing factors to the development of osteoarthritis."

James A Howenstine M.D.
A Physician's Guide to Natural Health Products That Work

"Soft drinks also contain large quantities of phosphorus, which when excreted pulls calcium out of the bones. Heavy users of soft drinks will have osteoporosis along with their damaged arteries."


Michael Murray ND and Joseph Pizzorno ND
Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine, Revised Second Edition

"Of the fifty-seven children who had low blood calcium levels, thirty-eight (66.7 percent) drank more than four bottles (12 to 16 ounces per bottle) of soft drinks per week, but only forty-eight (28 percent) of the 171 children with normal serum calcium levels consumed as much soft drink. These results more than support the contention that soft drink consumption leads to lower calcium levels in children. This situation that ultimately leads to poor bone mineralization, which explains the greater risk of broken bones in children who consume soft drinks."


James Duke PhD
The Green Pharmacy : The Ultimate Compendium Of Natural Remedies From The World's Foremost Authority On Healing Herbs

"And watch out for cola soft drinks, which are very high in bone-dissolving phosphorus."