Water is a large part of human body: babies about 78%, one year old 65%, adult men about 60%, and adult women about 55%. Our lean muscles are about 75% water by weight, our bones are about 22% of water, and our body fat contains 10% of water. Even small changes in the amount of water in our body can make a difference in our health; therefore, the thirst mechanism in our brain, normally, signals the body to drink water when the body is dry.
We lose water daily, thus, we need to drink about 8-12 cups of fresh filtered water a day (each of 8 oz.) to replenish one lost through sweating (about two cups), breathing (two cups), urinating and bowel movement (six cups), and to keep all the body compartments with adequate amount of water. We lose even more water when we drink coffee and caffeine-containing soft drinks, alcohol, and when we exercise in a hot and dry weather.
Why Your Body Does Not Need Soft Drinks?
Besides of carbonated water, soft drinks contain ingredients that are not required for human body functions. They even interfere with these functions causing them fail over time, which manifests in obesity and diseases.
Let’s take a look at the ingredients of the of a very popular Diet soft drink, as an example, as it is prepared in the US:
- Carbonated water
- Aspartame (or Splenda) (but in regular sodas, high fructose corn syrup – HFCS – is used instead)
- Caramel color (E150d, most likely GM)
- Phosphoric acid
- Caffeine (46.5 mg. in a 12-oz can, but less caffeine, 34.5 mg., in a regular-coke can)
- Potassium benzoate (to protect taste)
- Natural flavors
- Citric acid
Guess how many sodas do we drink? – more than 450 pints, or 206 liters per person per year now according to the National Soft Drink Association (NSDA). Soft drink companies spend billions of dollars on advertising, also pursuing children through movies, cartoons, and, videos, playgrounds, toys, amusement parks, sweepstakes, clubs, plus radio, magazines, and the internet. As a result, soft-drink companies earned over $57 billion in sales in 2008 in the US.
A typical soft drink addict is a twelve-year-old child whose drug is a soft drink from a vending machine in his school. Thousands of children like him are sent to attend special classes sponsored by their schools to be warned about the dangers of drugs, tobacco and alcohol. However, they are not warned about the other drug – the soft drinks.
In May of 2009, an article shared a study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute investigating the association between formaldehyde and lymph cancer. It was noticed when cancer cells are exposed to aspartame they became more mobile. The original studies done by the G.D. Searle company also pointed out that lymphomas and primary brain tumors as well as tumors of multiple organs were related to aspartame. All of this signifies that aspartame is a powerful carcinogenic substance.
Many of the common yet shocking symptoms associated with aspartame according to FDA’s records include:
- Tumors
- Eye problems such as protruding eyes, retinal detachment, blindness, and bleeding eyes
- Partial paralysis
- Spasmodic Torticollis (involuntary spasms in neck)
- Unsteady gait
- Skin problems and lesions
- Obesity
- Genetic damage and birth defects
Recent studies conducted at Princeton University showed that artificial sweeteners, e.g., NutraSweet present in many diet soft drinks, are considerably sweeter than natural sugars, making your body crave sugar more due to absence of the natural sugar. But being sweeter is not just the only harm of the artificial sweeteners.
A lot of people don’t really know much about Organic Food and have no idea about the great health benefits that they can receive by simply including them into our diets. Not only that, a lot of people are unaware that the methods used during Organic production are beneficial to the environment.
Eating raw foods is becoming more and more acceptable means to a healthy lifestyle. By eating raw foods you can avoid almost every common health problem that exists today ranging from constipation and gastritis to heartburn and asthma. Raw foods are also by far the best and most affective anti-carcinogens there are. With so much to gain it will be very unwise to ignore them.