On Pop

Someone asked me to write about mineral drinks.

By mineral I mean Coke, Pepsi, Diet Coke, Mountain Dew, etc. In US it’s soda, in the UK pop. I’ll call it pop. Let’s look at the basic ingredients in pop.

Sugar. A 12 oz can of pop typically has 12 teaspoons of refined sugar. There are no minerals or vitamins. The consumption and absorption of sugar requires minerals and vitamins. These must be obtained elsewhere, either from other food or from the body’s own reserves. Minerals are largely stored in bone. This is how pop addiction can contribute to osteoporosis.
As a liquid sugar without fibre, pop causes blood sugar irregularities (hypoglycemia, prediabetes, diabetes). Chronically high blood sugar leads to various problems - obesity, heart disease, hypertension, personality disorders, polycystic ovarian syndrome, etc.
Refined sugar boosts the stress hormones. These reduce immunity function. Hence immunity problems - candida, athlete’s foot, susceptibility to infections, cancer.
Sugar is addictive. The proof is in supermarkets, petrol stations, newspaper shops. Observe kids scarfing down fistfuls of sweets with pop.

Caffeine. A can of pop typically has half or two thirds the caffeine in a cup of coffee. Caffeine, a short term stimulant, increases the stress hormones. These raise blood sugar. Caffeine and liquid sugar together are a double whammy for blood sugar, destabilizing it to too high, too low, or both.
Caffeine inhibits digestive function. This is because the stress hormones shift blood flow from the digestive tract to muscle. Without adequate blood to fuel the work of digestion, nutrient absorption declines and this can lead to further problems. Caffeine, a diuretic, is dehydrating. Drink water with pop.
The caffeine stimulus can lead to a slump that demands renewed stimulus… more caffeine. This is addiction.

Aspartame. A synthetic sweetener, aspartame is associated with neurological disturbances - headache, memory loss, seizures, depression, insomnia.
Aspartame is not a carbohydrate. Yet its sweetness tells the digestive tract to prepare for carbohydrates. In a sugar-free pop (no carbohydrates), this is deceptive. It can lead to digestive confusion in processing carbohydrates. Eat carbohydrates with sugar-free pop. This is not a problem with sugar-rich pop. It’s all about honesty.

Phosphate, or phosphoric acid. Phosphate is an essential mineral, needed for bone, energy metabolism, etc. The problem is that pop has no other minerals. This is unbalanced. Phosphate must always come with calcium and magnesium as all three are absorbed from food in the same way. Drinking phosphate rich pop can lead to compensatory withdrawal of calcium and magnesium from bone… osteoporosis.
Excessive dietary phosphate can cause kidney stones, arthritis and heart disease.

Pop robs the body of minerals and vitamins, the precious foundation of life, of biology, of health. Chronic deficiency of minerals and vitamins opens the door to the “ten thousand diseases”.

Let’s look at the pop container.

The pop can crushes easily. This is aluminum. Aluminum has no place in human physiology. A neurotoxin, it is strongly associated with neurodegenerative disease such as Alzheimer’s. Phosphoric acid and citric acid, both pop ingredients, corrode aluminum. To prevent leaching of aluminum, pop cans are lined with plastic. How long does this lining last? Don’t drink canned pop past the ‘sell-by’ date.

Plastic bottles can leach xenoestrogens into pop. Xenoestrogens are synthetics that affect organs sensitive to estrogen (and progesterone and testosterone). Minuscule amounts can have adverse effects on the breast, uterus, ovaries, testicles and prostate, with various consequences such as infertility, PMT, endometriosis and cancer.

Glass bottles are safe.