5 beverages to forget immediately if you want to be healthy

What types of drinks should you avoid?

Attention! If you don’t want to know the truth, please don’t read the article. You might feel sad for what I will say about your favorite drink, but remember, it is for you and your health. 🙂

No doubt, drinking is necessary to stay alive. But I think a lot of people tend to forget its importance and only drink when they feel thirsty… Or if they have a busy day, focusing on work or other arrangements, they simply just don’t have time or forget to drink enough.

As I mentioned earlier in my post on healthy habits, a daily recommendation of drinking is 4 to 7 cups of water for women and 6 to 11 cups for men (assuming only moderate physical activity at moderate ambient temperatures). It could be more, especially in summer. But naturally you are craving for more water in a hot temperature.

Let’s see the 5 beverages to forget asap!

1. Cola

It can be any type of cola, it doesn’t matter. I know it is sad news for a lot of you, but you probably know it already that it is not good for you.

Why is that? First answer will be sugar.

10 cubes of sugar in just one can?? It is a lot! Think about that how much do you put in your coffee or tea… 1-2? I think I don’t have to explain this.

Is zero sugar better?

But now you can say that there is zero sugar cola or diet drinks… How about that? It has no sugar in it, but it is still sweet, right? Why is that?

Because they add some sweetener to it. Okay, that must be better than sugar, right? Zero sugar, zero calories… Sounds pretty good! I can drink this delicious beverage (I can’t deny it, it tastes really good) without worrying for my health. But can I?

I have bad news for you (I think you knew that I will say that…), you can’t. To be that yummy thing you love so much, cola must contain a certain amount of aspartame (E951), which in high dosis can cause depression, irritability and bad brain functions – according to the study that Dr. Michael Greger mentions in his book: How not to die.

I must mention here that not only cola contains aspartame, but almost every diet soda or sweet drink, that has zero (sugar) in their name. For example Sprite Zero or Fanta Zero. Always check the ingredients!

And if that is not enough for you to stop drinking cola and its friends, an other bad thing about it that it contains phosphorus compounds. Why is that so bad? Of course we need phosphorus, but not that much. If you have to much phosphorus in your blood, it can increase the risk of kidney failure, heart failure, myocardial infarction and early death. Also it damages the blood vessels and accelerates the aging and bone loss process.

So, do you still want to drink cola?

2. Soft drinks, juices and syrups

I mean all the fizzy, sugary drinks, sweet fruit juices and syrups you can buy in stores. I wouldn’t mention the smoothies you make at home without sugar or sweetener, but that also counts as a whole meal. I mean they are calories too.

Apple, orange, peach juice, they are all delicious. But they contain a lot of sugar and calories. Sugar is always the problem in this beverages, and if you want to lose weight, you should avoid them! 

Anyway, you don’t want to have two breakfast/lunch/dinner at the same time, right?

3. Alcohol

I know what you think now. Alcohol is always the bad guy. I am not a saint, alcohol and I have a past. It wasn’t a long relationship, wasn’t really memorable, but we used to know eachother…

Now I know he was bad news. But back then it felt good to drink, be part of a group and get drunk together. Even I felt sick the next day or I did stupid things  – no law-breaking, I promise – under the influence of alcohol. But I knew where is the line, I didn’t drink that much that would harm my liver or would be toxic… 

But I didn’t know all the risks I do know now. And I want to share them with you, so you could take care of yourselves too. 🙂

I assume you all know what is alcohol or alcoholic beverage, but keep in mind that deodorants, mouth washes or even chocolate can contain alcohol.

Let’s see the dangers of drinking alcohol:

• abnormal consumption of alcohol damages all levels of the digestive tract,
• heavy drinking can cause fat accumulation in the liver, that may cause inflammation and leads to liver failure,
• the risk of malignant neoplasm of the mouth, larynx, esophagus, stomach and pancreas is considerably increased,
• chronic alcohol consumption can be the main cause of gastritis, gastric ulcers, hepatitis, liver cirrhosis and pancreatitis,
• it can lead to dementia and brain atrophy, and also can cause impotence.
• If you drink one or more alcoholic beverage a day (if you are a woman) or two or more (if you are a man), it can lead to fatty liver disease in less than 3 weeks,
• according to the WHO’s offical college that deals with the assessment of cancer risks, alcohol is responsible for breast cancer development as a carcinogen. I must say here that not exactly alcohol is bad for you, but its toxical decomposition product, acetaldehyde. Even one teaspoon of alcohol is enough that you hold in your mouth for 5 seconds, to form carcinogenic acetaldehyde.

Sources: from 1-5 translated from here, 6-7 is from the book: How not to die by Dr. Michael Greger.

I can continue, but I think that is enough. You can think about it whether it is worth the risk or not…

4. Energy drinks

I am happy that you still reading this article. It is so good that you care about your health!

Energy drinks with their active ingredients and vitamins, energizes you, allowing you to always operate at top speed. What they give you: increased performance, heightened concentration, shorter reaction time, wakefulness, improved mood and better metabolism. 

At least they promise that on their page.

Let say that these are true. But also fruits and plants can give you the same results. And energy drinks also contain sugar or aspartame (that I mentioned earlier), which is not good to people, especially who have diabetes.

Too many energy drinks can lead to severe headaches from the caffeine withdrawal symptoms, and can cause insomnia, addiction (to energy drinks and caffeine) and also High Blood Pressure. 

Source: https://www.caffeineinformer.com/top-10-energy-drink-dangers

I think pure coffee is a better choice if you really want to drink something that gives you energy. But the best would be sleeping and healthy eating.

5. Milk

I mean non-human milk, of course. As a vegan and lactose intolerant I don’t drink milk. And I never liked it, but this is not why I say you shouldn’t drink it.

But because it is so bad for you! Even if you don’t care where it is coming from (brief version: cows only produce milk when they had a baby, and that baby is taken away from them to have the same destiny or to die and be your meat).

I know that a lot of people love milk, it is delicious and can be used in many ways.

But if you really care about your health, you must read the following.

Why you should stop drinking milk:

• it is not for humans, as no other species drink human breast milk,
• if you are lactose intolerant or allergic to milk it is definitely not good for you,
• you don’t want to have broken bones (yeah, that’s right!),
• you don’t want to have acne,
• you definitely don’t want to have prostate or ovarian cancer, right?,
• or lots and lots of cholesterol,
• or because of the antibiotics that are in the milk,
• because of the saturated fat (interesting fact: a single serving of whole milk can contain more than 20 percent of the recommended daily allowance of saturated fat),
• you don’t want to gain weight (or maybe you do, but still, don’t choose milk…),
• because of the sodium (too much sodium can hurt you!).

For more information visit this site: https://www.peta.org/living/food/reasons-stop-drinking-milk/

If that is not enough for you, you can do your own research. But I wish it would be enough, because I really care about you and your health.

Anyway, these were the 5 beverages to forget in order to be healthy. I don’t say that you will die if you drink these sometime (I must confess that I used to drink Coke when I felt dizzy or had nausea, because it helps…), but try to avoid them as far as you can.

But there is the big question: what can I drink? Of course, water is the obvious answer, but other than that. It will be the topic for another post. Stay tuned!

Love,
Suzie