Health risks from soft drinks

Soft drinks are very popular in Bangladesh. Many of us cannot think of having rich food or enjoying a party without these carbonated drinks. However, the regular intake of soft drinks has been associated with multiple chronic health conditions. These risks are largely due to the added ingredients in soft drinks, especially sugar. Indeed, some sugar-sweetened soft drinks contain 40 grams of sugar or more, which exceeds the recommended daily sugar intake for adults.
Drinking sugary beverages can taste great at the moment but hides loads of dangers. Besides sugar, a soft drink also contains a unique chemical blend of caffeine, colour, flavour and preservatives in water, injected with carbon-dioxide gas. All of these ingredients are extremely harmful for the human body and may lead to complex diseases like cancer and heart disease, according to multiple studies. Because of our lack of knowledge, we the consumers have accepted these harmful drinks gladly and, nowadays, these are among the most consumed drinks in our country. We cannot take a stand against the giant beverage companies in any way, but after having learnt about the scientific findings, we can at least restrain from slowly poisoning ourselves by not drinking these beverages which do not have any health benefits whatsoever.

Abu Elias Linkon,
Banasree, Dhaka,
[email protected]