Is Soda Making You Sick?

Monday, February 27, 2012

Americans’ intake of sweetened drinks — chief among them, soda — has more than tripled in the last 40 years, and that consumption is taking its toll on our health, says Newsmax Health expert Dr. Russell Blaylock.

“Virtually anything that can go wrong in the body can be made worse by high intake of these liquid sugars,” says Dr. Blaylock, editor of the “The Blaylock Wellness Report.” “Americans are consuming massive amounts of these soda products and we’re paying a very heavy cost in terms of human disease.”

Soda consumption can be correlated to various cancers and brain degenerative diseases, like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Lou Gehrig’s (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), he says. Sodas offer fast-absorbing sweeteners that lead to an intense insulin response in the body. But after 20 to 30 minutes, blood-sugar levels drop, triggering the brain to produce the chemical compound glutamate and depleting magnesium, an essential mineral important for muscle function and the activity of certain enzymes. The process puts us at risk for diseases, he explains.

“The liquid form is the worst of the sugars that we could be exposed to,” he says.

Sugar-free sodas are not a safer option because they contain artificial sweeteners, including aspartame and sucralose, which also cause harm, says Dr. Blaylock, a retired neurosurgeon and nutrition researcher. Aspartame is toxic to every cell, breaks down into formaldehyde, and “is strongly correlated” with brain cancer, leukemia, and lymphomas, he explains.

Sucralose, also known as Splenda, has not been adequately tested, “but we know it has a negative impact” on the immune system and on the survival of babies in-utero, he says.

“So these artificial sweeteners can be quite dangerous and I would advise people to completely avoid them,” he says. “There are a lot of natural sweeteners that people can turn to.”