Soft drinks are bad for you: Virat Kohli is right to reject multi-crore deal
Virat Kohli has refused to endorse Pepsi, after his multi-crore deal with the soft-drink giant expires on June 30. He reportedly said that quitting soft drinks was a part of his "fitness turn around", and eventually he started growing uncomfortable with the fact that he's promoting products which he himself won't consume.
Amid growing awareness about the harmful effects of cola products, Kohli made a logical and necessary move, as negative health impact of aerated drinks has been well corroborated by scientific research. Besides, you don't reach that level of fitness by constantly guzzling down sugary soda!
The most relatable part of his confession is the honesty with which he said, "things that I've endorsed in the past, I won't take names, but something that I feel that I don't connect to anymore... I won't urge others to consume it just because I'm getting money out of it."
"I want to give something to people that I use, myself. The one of the reasons, I decided not to sign Pepsi is that I have undergone lifestyle change. And, I am not using that product anymore," Kohli said.
Many international celebrities have endorsed soft drinks, in the past, and continue to do so. In fact, Pepsi and Coca-Cola are one of the best paying conglomerates in the world, when it comes to celebrity endorsements, because they have to constantly strive hard to sell an extremely unhealthy beverage to people, over and over again, despite warnings from health experts and researchers for almost a century now.
Most soft drinks that are being mass consumed are made of three main components - carbonated water (soda), sugar, and tonnes of chemicals such as heavy metal (from untreated water used in the production process), preservatives, plastic, and pesticides, to name a few.
High sugar content (approximately 17 teaspoons in a 500 ml bottle) is associated with weight gain, and type 2 diabetes, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. There are many more, relatively unknown side effects of sugary-soda beverages than the ones that are popularly known.
It doesn't quench thirst, on the contrary, it dehydrates
It's so ironical that most soft-drink advertisements revolve around how drinking their product is your best option to quench your thirst, in the ruthless Indian summers. Soft drinks are, on the contrary, high in caffeine (which is also the reason some people are addicted to them) and caffeine is a well-known and efficient diuretic, which further leads to mal absorption of nutrients by the body, as well as negatively affects bowel movements. So if you're thirsty, just drink some water - and not sparkling water - drink regular water.
Effects of soda last even after you quit
Soft drinks slow down your metabolism, so on the one hand, they make you gain weight with their high sugar content, and on the other, their regular consumption alters your metabolism for a long time. Therefore, even after you quit drinking soda, it takes a while for your body to recover and increase the rate of metabolism. This is only possible when you're regularly exercising and eating clean, if you're not making an effort to up your metabolism then you will continue to gain weight long after you've had your last glass of that sugary-soda.
It hampers the body's ability to burn fat
Soft drinks lead to high level of toxins, in the human body, in two ways. One, it contains many toxic elements, as mentioned above, and two, it directly harms the nephrons (which are like sub-filteration units, located in the kidney) as a consequence of which a lot more toxins enter the blood stream because the kidney is unable to block them. Now some toxins are completely fat soluble, the ones that can't be flushed out through sweat or urine. When these are released in the bloodstream, the body tries to defend itself by holding on to fat, because only fat can store these toxins and bar them from attacking vital organs. Consequently, no matter how much you work out, the fat stays.
The phosphoric acid in soda depletes essential elements from the body
For instance, it's known to dissolve calcium from the bones. This can lead to reduced bone density, and more so for women who have anyway lost a lot of calcium around childbirth, this can lead to acute osteoporosis.
Soft drinks are doubly harmful as they replace nutritional and essential beverages such as water, milk, buttermilk, etc, thus jeopardising your health. The fact that it's relatively inexpensive, easily available, and extremely well marketed, only worsens the situation.