Sugary drinks are a ubiquitous part of life, it seems. You can’t go to any restaurant or grocery store without seeing shelves lined with soda unless you’re specifically looking for health stores that avoid stocking them. The truth is that even one soda is too much and will start contributing to bad issues with your health. Here, we’re going to look at some of the most convincing reasons for you to cut soda out of your life and look for healthier drinks to take your time.

Soda and your blood sugar

Even if you’re mindful of the sugary foods that you eat, drinking soda even two or three times a day is enough to put you at risk of consuming enough sugar to eventually lead to diabetes. Type-2 diabetes occurs as a result of reduced insulin production from the pancreas because it has trouble keeping up with the strain it’s being put under. Diabetes is a serious, lifelong chronic health issue that has to be managed closely, and has ties to other conditions such as dementia, as well.

Soda and your heart

The insulin that the pancreas produces when you drink soda can lead to inflammation if you do it too often. This inflammation can be one of the leading causes of heart disease by putting further strain on your heart. Cutting back on sugar is, in fact, one of the most effective ways to prevent heart disease.

Soda and your teeth

While you might not be able to easily see the effects of soda on your blood sugar and heart, you can definitely see how it impacts your teeth. All that sugar causes bacteria in the mouth to spread and release acid, which causes tooth decay. Routine dental care is essential to make sure that you’re taking good care of your teeth. Any dentist will tell you that soda can undermine even the most thorough oral care routines.

Soda and your weight

While not the only indicator of health that there is, there’s no denying that being overweight does contribute to your risk of health issues, including heart disease and diabetes as mentioned above, not to mention the increased strain on bones and joints leading to a higher likelihood of arthritis. The calorie count of soda is reason enough to be wary of it, but there is also the fact that soda makes us hungrier and that sugar is harder to burn than fat which can make it truly antithetical to any kind of weight management efforts.

Soda and hydration

The single best replacement for soda is, of course, to drink more water. The two may as well be opposites because soda can actually lead to dehydration. Not only does it mean you’re less likely to drink water, but the caffeine in most soda drinks causes us to urinate more, which can expel water when we otherwise wouldn’t.

Hopefully, the tips above make it clear just how bad sugary soda can be for your body, and why it’s important to start treating the impacts it might have already had on you, as well as to start eliminating it from your diet.