There are some significant research backed findings that have recently been released which show that sugary drinks such as sodas and sweetened juices can lead to Alzheimer’s Disease or other diseases of cognitive impairment. Read that again: It's possible that soda will cause Alzheimers Disease... because of the sugar.
Sugar Causes Alzheimers Disease
"According to a recent study from the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, researchers fed mice 10 percent sugar water for 25 weeks and found that their learning and memory retention declined and the amyloid plaque deposits (a hallmark of Alzheimer’s and sometimes caused by inflammation) in the brains doubled compared with mice that drank water [alone]. Soft drinks may have a similar effect in humans."What’s more interesting is that the mice that were fed sugar-water, which is pretty much what soda and many juices are, also gained about 17 percent more weight, had higher cholesterol levels, and developed insulin resistance, a sign of diabetes.
A Cuase of Alzheimer's Disease
It’s hard to look at these findings and not draw the correlation with humans especially since we know that people have started developing these conditions more frequently since soda became a mainstay in our refrigerators. There are many people who are proponents of drinking diet sodas or using artificial sweeteners as supplements to sugar but there is further evidence that these artificial sweeteners are no better than the real stuff.
Alcohol & Alzheimer’s Disease
Personally, I have nearly eliminated soda from my diet and rarely if ever purchase sugary juices that are not of natural ingredients. Water works really well for meals. It has no calories and helps with digestion and hydration. Like other drinks it fills you up too so you don’t eat too much. Of course come evening I typically enjoy a beer, wine, or gin on the rocks. Not too much but just enough to enjoy my evening and meet my healthy quota of alcohol. …and to recap a finding I blogged about last month; alcohol in moderation can actually help in fighting off Alzheimer ’s disease while improving your HDL Cholesterol levels can do the same. Crazy, huh?If you have anything to add to the train of thought I’d love to hear it. Leave me a line in the comments below and consider subscribing to my feed if you liked this post. Thanks!
Source
Best Life, Apr 2008
American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
The Saturday Evening Post, Jul-Aug 2008
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4 comments:
This is a very important topic! People don't realized how bad soda can really be to your body. Not only does it have a lot of processed sugar, but the acidity also wears down the enamel in your teeth & can make peptic ulcers worse. It's amazing how addicting they can be though. Until you actually stop drinking soda for a long time, you don't realize how many times a week you actually did drink it.
Good for you for not drinking much of that deadly elixir :)
Thanks for your comments. You're right, the sugar content is addictive and the acidity is further damaging. The acidic reaction is just as present in diet soda as it is in regular too. We need to start training our kids to enjoy drinks with low sugar content so that national trends can start correcting themselves. Maybe Iced Tea?
I don't know my dad has been drinking soda since he was a child and he remembers everything and doesn't forget and has no trouble learning, or communicating or whatever else alzheimers effects. Plus if you brush your teeth right after you drink a soda, it won't wear down the enamel. It's just commen sense.
@anon - remember nothing is an absolute, researchers find that as a whole group the mice drinking sugar water had the stated results. That doesn't mean every one had them.
Translating to the human population, not every person that drinks lots of soda will have similar affects but as a group (compared to a non-soda drinking group) they probably will.
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