HYDERABAD: During the Euro 2020 football conference, Cristiano Ronaldo moved a bottle of Coke aside and held his water bottle up. “Agua!,” the Portuguese footballer said, urging people to drink water instead. As usual, memes and spoof videos flooded the Internet; with some of these showing Ronaldo passing them the aerated drink. However, soccer fans in the city feel differently.
“Ronaldo has always been at the forefront of personifying a healthy lifestyle. So, it doesn’t come as a surprise that he put the Coke away. I stopped consuming aerated drinks about six years ago after it affected my weight,” Rohan Sen says. Salahuddin, another fan from the city, finds it ironic that sports events heavily promote harmful items such aerated drinks. “The blatant product placements in FIFA are honestly baffling. Ronaldo has made a clear statement about making a healthier and responsible choice. He’s a global sports icon and promoting good health is the best thing he can do.
As a football fan, I’d love it if sports events didn’t need ads from aerated drinks, gambling and fast food brands, which are actively harming us,” he says. Dr V Mohan, a leading diabetologist from Hyderabad, could not agree more. He noted that a small tin of an aerated drink might contain 12 spoons of sugar, but while consuming, one might not notice the sweetness. “In a study conducted in California, it was observed that unrestricted availability of aerated drinks in schools was one of the leading causes of childhood obesity. As the number of well-to-do families increase in India, the same phenomenon can be noticed.
One should note that excess consumption of aerated drinks means excess sugar and calories, which is very harmful in the long run.” Dr Jagadeesh Kanukuntla, senior consultant physician and diabetes specialist at Medicover Hospitals, lists the harmful contents of aerated drinks and their effects. “Sodium benzoate, a preservative in soft drinks, can trigger Asthma, while the high sugar content can cause obesity, hypertension and diabetes. The sugar and acids in soft drinks can dissolve enamel and cause tooth loss, dental caries and other tooth infections,” he says.
Dr Bharat Kumar Nara, a surgical gastroenterologist, says, “When you suffer from flatulence or gastritis, you drink some soda and feel better. The ingredient in aerated drinks that helps in clearing the gas is carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide escapes from the sugar and water mixture and creates pressure in your intestines. The distended intestines get more area and then help release the gas. However, the rest of the CO2 stays back and ferments the food, which is harmful.
Soft drinks, which seem to relieve you from gas problems, start affecting the intestinal wall which can cause ulcers at a later stage.” Dr Bharat suggests that one can swap their soft drinks with chamomile tea or even a delicious serving of kombucha. If all of this is not enough to hold you back from adding that 75 ml soft drink bottle while ordering a biryani, dermatologist Pavithra Vani Patalay has some news for you - it’s not looking good for your skin’s health if you continue gulping down soda after every meal.
“Foods with high glycaemic index increase your sugar levels rapidly leading to inflammation and hormonal imbalance. These issues ultimately impact the function of oil glands in your skin and cause acne. This is why you have to be careful with the consumption of fizzy drinks. Apart from the high amounts of sugar, another concern about soft drinks is the usage of preservatives and colours which cause allergic reactions. After a while, these drinks will also cause dry skin and premature ageing.
As a routine, I always tell my patients to restrain from consuming fizzy drinks and quench their thirst with coconut water or even a glass of water with a pinch of salt and sugar,” she says. Dr Pavithra also reminds us that aerated drinks are harmful to the environment.
Classic Lemon Iced Tea
Ingredients:
Tea leaves - 1 - 1 ½ tsp | Sugar - 1 tbsp |L emon
juice - 1 ½ tsp |Mint leaves - 5-7 | Water - 200ml
Method:
(— Mansi Patel, dietician & nutritionist)
Healthy substitutes
JAMUN COOLER
Ingredients:
Jamun (de-seeded) - 12 |
Sugar - 1 ½ tsp | Lemon juice - 1 tsp
Pink salt - ½ tsp |Salt - 1 pinch
Black pepper (powdered) - ½ tsp
Mint leaves
Method: