Rethink What You Drink Essay

Between an 8oz glass of orange juice to a 24oz can of soda, one person can drink between six to eighteen teaspoons of sugar. One may not think that a can of soda a day will hurt a person greatly; but that person is wrong. If you consume one non-diet soda, sugary sport or energy drink, even juice, it can increase your risk of heart disease, obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure, even leading to chronic problems down the road. Even drinking a Five-Hour Energy or Monster in the morning everyday can lead to a caffeine related death. Keeping up homework, going to practice after school and maintaining a social life, a day being a teenager can be draining. We stay up late texting or studying for a test at the last minute, and sleep is not our number one priority. Yes, we wake up the next morning wishing we did not stay up so late, but there is always a cure for that. Almost one third of 12 to 24 year olds said they regularly down an energy drink in the morning. There is nothing wrong with consuming a Starbucks coffee or Five-Hour energy shot in the morning if it is the only thing that will keep us going. The sugar and caffeine in juice, energy drinks and coffee is one of the main factors that keep us teens moving at the pace we do. There are juices, diet sodas and energy drinks that have an okay amount of sugar and caffeine in them to where we could have one a day, and never be harmed. The National Health and Nutrition Exanimation Survey and Nutrition Services worker, Cheri Collier states, â€Å"A â€Å"sugary drink† is known as fruit drinks, soda, energy and sport drinks and sweetened bottles of water and also coffee beverages† (Gann) The consumption of sugary drinks remains high today. In fact, over a half of the American population has a sugary drink almost every day. Lisa Cimperman, registered dietitian for University Hospitals Case Medical Center said, â€Å"Many people consume too many calories each day; Liquid calories don’t make you feel full. Causing people to eat and drink more. † (Theiss) When someone has so much sugar in their system, it can lead to obesity and diabetes. It is shown that 25. 8 million Americans have diabetes (8% of population) and 191 million (2/3) are overweight/obese. (Gann) Not to say that a soda a day can lead to this, but when you are consuming mass amounts of sugar, you will become a part of that 25. 8 million. Men and women are both at risk for developing heart disease. Men who drink one sugar-sweetened beverage daily have a 20% higher risk of chronic heart disease then men who drink none. A study put on by the Harvard School of Public Health surveyed 43,000 men throughout 22 years, and results form 18,000 men were demographically similar. Results in American Heart Association journal stated: â€Å"Drinking 12oz of regular soda, fruit drinks and other sugar sweetened beverages daily was associated with higher risk of heart disease. † Dr. Frank Hu, Professor of nutrition and epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health said that the findings were notable. The same study was put on for a group of 89,000 women, and it was shown that women who drank one or less than two sugary drinks per day had a 23% increased risk of heart attack and it was four times as likely to have a chronic heart problem down the road. (Jaslow) Studying for tests, going out to parties, finishing research papers late into the night, maintaining a social life and working, life of a college student can be draining. Balancing everything usually takes a toll on one of our most critical bodily functions, sleep. So how do these college students wake up in the morning and go to class with energy? A study done by the University of Ohio stated that 74% of undergraduate students turn to energy supplements in the form of drinks or shots. A single Monster contains 14 teaspoons of sugar and a Five-Hour Energy contains over 8,000 percent of the daily-recommended intake of vitamin B12 and over 2,000 percent of vitamin B6. They say that the rush of energy one feels when consuming the drinks is due to the amount of sucralose, an artificial sweetener over 600 times sweeter than sugar and you will also see over 500 milligrams of caffeine in some drinks. So what happens to people who drink these energy drinks and Five-Hour Energy shots? According to Medicine Plus in 2007, almost 6,000 caffeine related deaths occurred in people under the age of 19, and since then, the numbers have continued to rise(Silva). When you come to thinking about drinking a nice cold 8oz soda, remember that you are putting a toxic drug into your body. You could one day have had too many sodas and be sitting at home with heart disease or diabetes. Remember not to over load yourself with a caffeine overloaded energy drink or shot. Try resorting to diet drinks with not as much sugar, or 100% fruit drinks. â€Å"Our soda habit is something we have total control over. There are a lot of things that keep us healthy that are hard work and difficult, but cutting back on sweetened drinks isn’t one of them† Dr. Stacey Rosen said, the chairman of cardiology at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park, NY. Next time, rethink what you drink. Works Cited Jaslow, Ryan. â€Å"Sugary Drink Each Day Ups Men’s Heart Disease Risk by 20 Percent. â€Å"Www. cbsnews. com. CBS News, 14 Mar. 2012. Web. 3 Dec. 2012. . Gann, Carrie, and Larry Borges. â€Å"Study: One Sugary Drink Per Day Raises Risk of Heart Disease for Men. † Www. abcnews. com. ABC News, 12 Mar. 2012. Web. 3 Dec. 2012. . Reidt, Robert. â€Å"Sugary Drinks Can Be Hard on Heart: Study. â€Å"Www. healthyliving. msn. com. Healthy Day, 2 Mar. 2012. Web. 3 Dec. 2012. . Theiss, Evelyn. â€Å"Consumption of Sugar Drinks in the U. S. Remains High, Study Shows. â€Å"Www. cleveland. com. N. p. , 31 Aug. 2011. Web. 3 Dec. 2012. . Silva, Evan D. â€Å"Monsters v. Students; the Battle for Energy. † Lariat. Multimedia Editor, 22 Oct. 2012. Web. 15 Feb. 2013. .