Sodas or Soft Drinks for Diabetics?

Does soda or soft drink cause diabetes? Diabetes is caused by wrong food consumption and the body’s processing of sugar. It is not a disease that comes from nowhere. Soda and sugar manufacturers deny the association of sodas with diabetes since the disease is a complex one and it has no single cause nor a single solution. Let us take a look further.

A soda or soft drink, with its non-natural sugar content that is high-concentrated has always been one of the suspects of causing diabetes. As there are no studies that prove this, people can be confused on what really is the real score. Diabetics want to know as well since sodas are already part of the modern day lifestyle.

High-Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS)

Nature provides us with sugar which usually goes with minerals that help the body avoid heart disease and diabetes. However, high-fructose corn syrup or HFCS, which are in soft drinks or sodas, do not have the natural minerals. HFCS are not natural and do not have fibre nor phytonutrients that come from plants. They can be harmful to the body as they may contribute to some deficiencies and diseases.

Sugar in sodas

Studies reveal that people who regularly drink soft drink are 25 percent more likely to have type 2 diabetes than those who do not. Sodas which are sugar-sweetened with HFCS are big contributors to weight gain. As we know, weight gain if left unchecked can lead to overweight, then obesity and eventually type 2 diabetes.

Sweetened drinks like sodas can be consumed in large quantities quickly, resulting to a fast absorption of the body of its sugar content. Have a frequency of this and it shall lead to inflammation, insulin resistance and even hypertension – cases that forerun diabetes. The sugar in HFCS are found as more risky than other sugars. Therefore sodas or soft drinks can indirectly result to more belly fat than others. Belly fat is associated with cardiovascular problems and hypertension as well.

People love to drink sweetened beverages, exposing them to more risks. Frank Hu, an epidemiology and nutrition professor of Harvard said in a study that sweetened drinks consumption in the United States increases to about 142 calories a day from the late 1970s to 2006. It used to be just 65 calories a day. Consumption of sweetened drinks has something to do with diabetes, he said.

Soda consumption can be safer if it is less, and that physical activity with healthy diet prevails. However, for diabetics, they are usually advised to avoid them, or consult their doctor for the right consumption.

What about diet soda?

As for diet soft drinks, they can be good substitutes of the regular ones. No studies have proved that they are harmful or have contributed to disease like diabetes. Many studies do not link diet sodas to diabetes but some experts, as usual, advise diabetics for moderate drinking and further recommend that water is the best and safest beverage there is.