Carbonated Drinks: Myths and Reality
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Forecasted by the weather forecasters for the summer of 2012, the high average daily temperature can become a serious test for the body. Heat significantly hinders the heat transfer of the body, creating a risk of overheating and the threat of heat stroke, and also threatens serious dehydration.
To ensure a stable body temperature and prevent overheating in the body, it is necessary to maintain a water balance, in which the fluid intake is equal to its losses.
Consumption of water is determined not only by climatic conditions, but also by the level of physical activity, by the type of the human constitution. On average, under normal conditions, the adult's need for water is 40 ml / kg of body weight per day, in infants this value is higher - 120-150 ml / kg of body weight per day. So, for example, a person with a body weight of 60 kilograms is supposed to consume about 2.4 liters of fluid per day. Half of the daily norm of liquid comes with drinks.
To quench your thirst matters not only the amount of water, but also its taste qualities. It is useful to drink beverages that quench your thirst, enhancing salivation, for example, green tea, bread kvass, mors, fizzy drinks.
Periodically appearing information about the dangers of these or those drinks is not related to their actual health effects, but is a consequence of general illiteracy. People are frightened and consider carbonated soft drinks almost a poison. But this is not so. For example, the same carbonated beverages for sugar content are on a par with juices. On the level of acidity - too. And in them there is nothing terrible or even something special, which is not present in other beverages or products.
One of the world's leading experts in the field of health effects of foodstuffs, Professor of the Department of Toxicology of the University of Gazi (Ankara, Turkey) Ali Esat Karakay noted that food additives can be used in the food industry only after a comprehensive study of their properties and establishing the complete safety of the use of each particular additive .
Officially permitted supplements are classified, they are assigned their own E-number. "E is a sign of the study and validity of the supplement for safety," Professor Karakay said.
According to data provided by the Spanish gastroenterologist Enrique Rey of the Universidad Complutense of Madrid, contrary to popular belief, the carbonation and a small amount of citric and orthophosphoric acids contained in beverages do not have a significant effect on the physiology of the upper digestive tract and do not stimulate the development of common diseases of the gastrointestinal tract.
Acidity of most non-alcoholic beverages, including carbonated beverages, is ten times weaker than the natural acidity of the human stomach. Therefore, according to Enrique Ray, our stomach is well prepared for such an environment. He also noted that carbonated drinks can alleviate the symptoms in most patients with stomach disorders.
More than 90 percent of any soft drink is ordinary water, and therefore, first of all, the quality, safety and taste of the drink depend on the degree of its purity and the level of preparation.
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