Soft drink...hard time. Review on Are Soft Drinks Healthy

A few days ago, I went to a restaurant and in the beverage section had many aerated drinks to choose from. I decided to catch up with pink lemonade since that looked fine. When I drank, it tasted like ghar ka neembu paani. Initially it made me wonder ki ghar kaa neembu paani hi chahiye toh paise kyon diye. But the sign given below pink lemonade was " no soda, non-carbonated". That pleased me enough to turn myelf into a loyal customer of pink lemonade. I do not know if pink lemonade is being sold in India, but is less threatening.

And yet we do not shy away from ordering that coke/pepsi with large pizza, or french fries or gulping down large quantites of cola during wedding irrespective of temperature dipping down. When bored of these, we even mix two soft drinks to see how it tastes and even let the fizz of cola enveloping the ice cream...!!! Tempting enough???

But temptation is the trigger for unhealthy food.  I had a friend who was very careful about her diet, yet she was fat. She tried all her means to look thin and she never had anything oily,fried, ghee, butter and yet she wasn't getting thin despite her best efforts. Later we discovered her indulgent trip to soft drinks once a week especially carbonated ones. Nothing much happens with soft drinks especially carbonated ones... just that it shoots our calories up within no time and it is difficult to bring the weight down. Heavy soft drink consumption is associated with lower intake of numerous vitamins, minerals, and dietary fiber. As people get older, excess weight also contributes to heart attacks, strokes, and cancer. So, finally the most dreaded word cancer also has soft drinks contibuted to its occurence. And how? Basically, it works like this: You drink soda. It makes you burp (acid reflux, actually). The burping carries acid into the esophagus, causing lesions. The lesions become cancerous. Heaven help us then.

Now cross your heart and answer me honestly. Have you never been temped to go to that cute and small juice ki dukaan and have mixed fruit juice, mango shake or mausambi juice during summer? Admit it,  that it is sometimes more interesting a thought go for a small walk just after having lunch with a friend. The word " comparatively healthy drink" makes you go for it.  Do you not feel good when you think of breakfast of healthy food complimented by a tall glass of fruit juice?

Now for some feel good factors. Fruit juices offer great taste and health benefits that are found naturally. They are nutritious,  with nutrients such as vitamin C, calcium and vitamin D. The natural sugar found in fruits are very benificial and for most of them, you do not need to add much sugar too.  You can make fruit shake ( to cool ) to smoothies ( when hungry) to juices (when drinking water is boring). Right from lassi to badam milk to combination of different fruits or one single fruit to our good ol neembu paani ...the choices innumerable. Add honey if you do not want sugar, it is healthy too. Add one or two mint leaves to make it look more attractive and imagine keeping it near a bottle of pepsi. Which one would you choose?

There is one interesting thing you can do with melon. Cut out a square from the melon as it is & keep aside. Put sugar in the melon & cover back with the cut piece. Refrigrate for 3-4 hrs. Take out & pour into glasses. Serve chilled.

Bahut bore kar diya aapko...time to refresh myself witha drink..naa naa... FRUIT DRINK !!!!

PS: There is nothing new I am writing which you do not know, but it is nice to remind ourselves about this ones in a while and switch over to a healthy lifestyle, atleast for sometime and changing from colas, soda drink to non-carbonated drinks especially ones made at home is one of the easiest things.