How Do Sugary Drinks Affect Your Body and Your Weight?

Those super-sugary drinks that are tucked away in your refrigerator and pantry might taste yummy, but they could also be negatively affecting your tummy. Sugary drinks affect your body in more ways than one, though. Because of this, you should first learn what sort of impact these tasty drinks have on your body, and then you will want to figure out some healthy ways to avoid sugary drinks altogether.

Talk to your doctor or a certified nutritionist for more information; but, for now, consider the following:

Sugary Drinks Are Linked to Obesity in Both Children and Adults

According to recent studies, people who enjoy a few too many sugary drinks are more likely to suffer from excess weight gain. Those who consume large quantities of sugary beverages are more likely to get their calories from those drinks and not from whole-food sources. Over time, the consumption of these empty calories can lead to extreme weight gain and other, more serious health concerns.

In the study mentioned above, it was found that about 79 to 91 percent of American children between the ages of 6 and 11 are consuming about 60 percent of their daily calories from these sugary liquids. As a main contributor to the current global obesity epidemic, sugary drinks affect your body in huge ways … literally.

Too Much Sweetness Can Turn into Something Sour

Sugary beverages include those refreshing soft drinks that you and your family have grown to love. Overconsumption of soft drinks can even turn into type 2 diabetes* if you are not careful, according to a paper published by Harvard T H Chan School of Public Health.

This is because your body becomes constantly inundated with too much sugar (in the worst form, high-fructose corn syrup, most likely). After a while, your body no longer knows how to process sugars properly, and you fall into a diabetic trap. Perhaps the worst part is that this can easily happen to children if we are not careful about what we feed them. Speak to a pediatrician if you are not sure about the foods and drinks you offer your children.

---

Sugary Drinks Affect Your Body Differently Than Sweet Foods

This is not to say that sweet treats like candies and cakes are good for you. However, when you’re looking at the way sugary drinks affect your body, they may be even worse than the sweet stuff when you eat it in solid foods.  The Harvard publication pointed out that there are many additional factors in the liquid form that need to be taken into consideration when it comes to your health.

Among the most straightforward is the fact that beverages just aren’t as filling as solid food.  Therefore, the way sugary drinks affect your body is already different from having the equivalent amount of sugar in a solid food because it won’t satisfy your hunger as much. As a result, you’re more likely to overeat in calories and sugars after having a sweet beverage than you are after a piece of cake, for instance.

Neither one is good for you, but gram for gram of sugar, solid food is far more satisfying to your hunger levels. To slash your intake of sugars, switching from sugary drinks to a glass of water (or black coffee or unsweetened tea, for example) is one of your easiest choices, since it won’t negatively impact your hunger levels.

Final Thoughts

It may be convenient—and more delicious—to have some sort of soda or juice instead of water when you are thirsty, but this could have some serious consequences for your overall health. It has been proven time and time again that sugary drinks affect your body and your weight in negative ways. Check your shelves and see if you have these health hazards hidden in your cupboards.