How Soft Drinks Impact your Health - A Visual Guide

How Soft Drinks Impact your Health -- A Visual Guide

Maybe it’s the librarian in me, but I just really, really love smart visual representations of information.

While many of us know to stay away from soda like it’s the Bubonic Plague and the year is 1400, the truth of the matter is that overwhelmingly people continue to drink it and they have no idea how bad it is. It doesn't matter if it’s Coke or something organic, regular or diet. Soda is deadly.

Here's the rundown (and find it--larger--here):

Want to know how diet soda makes you fat? well, aside from artificial sweeteners being neuron-toxic (aspartame actually causes neurons to die almost immediately), they also contribute greatly to weight gain. This is because insulin response by the pancreas is triggered by the taste of sweet. When you eat or drink something sweet, your body recognizes the need for insulin, so it starts to secrete it. If you ate or drank something with artificial sweeteners, you get the same insulin response as if you just ate real sugar. This response sends your blood sugar plummeting and creating a huge, un-ignorable craving for sweets (this is your body correctly warning you of low blood sugar). Artificial sweeteners actually cause you to eat more sugar than drinking "regular" sodas.

So, don't drink it. Don't drink any of it (regular, diet, organic, whatever!).