COLA GATE Hard realities about soft drinks Even with zero pesticides and super-clean water, colas can prove a health menace
ANURADHA VASHISHT
Much heat was generated after the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) published its report on finding pesticides in soft drinks bottles. Media stoked the fire. The government report subsequently vindicated the cola giants. But was pesticides in soft drinks ever the issue?
CSE has not even scratched the surface of the problem. Pesticide traces have been found in our fruits, our vegetables, our crops, our soils, our water sources, and even in the milk of lactating mothers. What makes it such an important issue? Especially when the consumption of the basic necessities of life—food and water—is many times more than of colas?
And why should soft drinks manufacturers be taken to task, when the culprit is clearly our government, its faulty policies and the lackadaisical approach of bureaucrats? For didn’t the pesticide traces come into the bottles through underground water, contaminated by mindless use of chemicals in farming?
Even if soft drink majors purify the water before they use it for their products, who will purify the water billions of unsuspecting Indians drink?
Yet there is a second issue too. Who cares whether these soft drinks carry pesticides, muck or mercury? Pesticides or no pesticides, these drinks are still lethally corroding the nation’s health fabric.
Studies over the years have shown the huge amount of soda and refined sugar in these drinks hinder calcium and phosphorus absorption, thus lowering their levels in the body.
Besides maintaining the strength and hardness of bones and teeth, calcium reacts with sodium and potassium to promote normal action of the heart muscle like a steady and rhythmic beat. It also helps in the clotting of blood, and plays a significant role in many other crucial body functions.
Similarly, phosphorus, while maintaining blood neutrality, reacts with other nutrients — carbohydrates, proteins and fats — and provides heat energy and other necessary material for the body’s proper growth and maintenance. Both calcium and phosphorus are absolutely essential for regulation and coordination of body functions.
However, even a heavy amount of calcium supplements in our diet will be useless if we consume carbonated drinks. They will not allow the body to absorb this vital ingredient.
Further, carbonated drinks are the single biggest source of refined sugars. Cola is a highly concentrated sugar solution. It leads to increased water excretion, causing diarrhoeic potassium loss. In fact, every soft drink consumer, sooner or later, is a potential diabetic.
Over five years ago, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a non-profit organisation in the United States, presented 40 scientific studies in a 70-page petition that talked about the detrimental effects of caffeine in soft drinks.
A key ingredient in soft drinks, caffeine causes increased excretion of calcium in urine, leading to conditions like decreased bone density, osteoporosis, rickets, menstrual disorders, foetal growth retardation and miscarriages .
Caffeine can also cause nervousness, anxiety, irritability, insomnia and rapid heart beat. Its consumption makes children restless and fidgety. They also develop headaches.
Several additives used in soft drinks, like yellow dye and natural red colouring — cochineal and carmine — cause occasional allergic reactions. In the 1970s, the American Family Physician journal placed cola and chocolate among the ten food items that caused the most allergies, and recorded symptoms like headache, migraine, asthma, gastro-intestinal disorders, hay fever and eczema indicate a cola allergy.
And then we have obesity, the bane of a modern lifestyle. Studies in the US have linked obesity to high intake of sugar through carbonated drinks.
Most important, such drinks have negative nutrition value. They can alter the stomach’s pH , which upsets digestion and absorption of nutrients from healthy foods.
According to US Department of Agriculture (USDA) surveys, in the US children start drinking soda pop at a remarkably young age. One fifth of one and two year olds consume soft drinks.
It is scary to think what soft drinks consumption can do to the organs and health of toddlers and young children. Aren’t we denying them the right to health either by our ignorance or in our eagerness to ape Western lifestyles?
(The author is deputy editor, Life Positive)
10/9/03 Indian Express
########################################################################## # Send submissions for Goanet to [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # PLEASE remember to stay on-topic (related to Goa), and avoid top-posts # # More details on Goanet at http://joingoanet.shorturl.com/ # # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others # ##########################################################################
