‘Sugary drinks, desserts and sweets highly damaging for health’

Islamabad:The sale of almost all kinds of sugary drinks including soft drinks, juices, ‘sharbats’, sugar based fruit drinks, heavily sweetened soda water, butter milk and sugarcane juices along with desserts registered a tremendous increase on Eid days.

Every year in summer, particularly on Eid days, there is a great increase in the consumption of sugary drinks, desserts and a variety of sweets that, according to many health experts, is because of unawareness among the public on how damaging the sugar-based dishes are for health. In extreme hot weather conditions like the one persisting, the majority of our population take huge quantities of sugary drinks without knowing that the consumption of sugar sweetened beverages is a major cause of obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart diseases and osteoporosis (softening of bones).

Health experts say that it is time to make the public aware of the health hazards, the sugary drinks, sugar based desserts and sweets cause. Experts believe that sugary drinks contribute greatly to the rapid growth of diabetes and obesity. Individuals who have one or more servings of a sugary drink per day may have double the risk of developing diabetes than the individuals who rarely have sugary drinks. Researchers have found a link between consumption of sugary drinks and heart disease.

Apart from weight gain, the effects of sugar sweetened beverages on blood sugar, high cholesterol fractions, and inflammatory factors throughout the body are likely to enhance the chances of heart disease. Caffeine in soft drinks may cause an increase in the heart beat, cardiac arrhythmias, weak memory, hypertension and stomach ulcer. Diet drinks contain artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, saccharin and sucralose which can cause migraine, depression, and bladder cancer.

Experts say that it is time for the individuals to shift to better choices of beverages that may help fight and prevent obesity, diabetes, heart disease and osteoporosis. Water, of course, is the best beverage option. It delivers everything the body needs with zero calories. One should drink at least 10 to 12 glasses of safe water per day. Boiled water is better. In addition to simple water, one can take water with lemon and butter milk without sugar.