Part 2: Phosphoric Acid

Picky eaters love soda pop! Don’t think toddlers and preschoolers drink much pop? Soft drinks provide more added sugar in a typical 2-year-old’s diet than cookies, candies, and ice cream combined. Yikes!

More than 15 billion gallons of soda pop were sold in 2000. That’s least one 12-ounce can per day for every man, woman, and child in America. But, kids drink more soda pop than their parents. In the past 10 years, soft drink consumption among children has almost doubled in the United States.

Sugar, primarily high fructose corn syrup, is only one of the many health concerns with soda pop. Phosphoric acid is an additive in most soft drinks and we never hear about it.

It’s the active ingredient giving soft drinks a sharper flavor and it helps to keep the carbonated bubbles from going flat. Phosphoric acid slows the growth of molds and bacteria, which would otherwise rapidly multiply in the sugary liquid.

Improved flavor and keeping bacteria in check are good enough, but phosphoric acid robs the body of vital nutrients, as it increases the loss of magnesium and calcium in the urine. It also dissolves the calcium in enamel. Obviously, weakened enamel makes it easier for bacteria to enter the teeth, causing cavities in children.

Avah knows healthy drinks like water, milk, and fruit juice are yummy, too.

While parents may believe that sugar is the primary culprit of soft drink’s adverse effects on tooth decay, enamel erosion occurs whether the soft drink is sweetened with sugar or artificial sweeteners. According to a report published in General Dentistry, phosphoric acid in soft drinks causes tooth enamel erosion, even when occasionally consumed.

“Drinking any type of soft drink poses risk to the health of your teeth,” said Kenton Ross, a dentist and spokesman for the Academy of General Dentistry. “My patients are shocked to hear that many of the soft drinks they consume contain nine to 12 teaspoons of sugar, and have an acidity that approaches the level of battery acid,” Ross said.

With less calcium available, the bones become more porous and prone to fracture. Phosphorus is a major contributor to the rising increase in osteoporosis. Recent human studies suggest that girls who drink more soda pop are more prone to broken bones. Even a few cans of soda pop per day can be damaging, especially when they are consumed during the critical bone-building years of adolescence and childhood.

Dr. Bess Dawson-Huges, a bone-disease expert at the Tufts University in Boston, said, she’s especially concerned about teenage girls. “Most girls have inadequate calcium intakes, which makes them candidates for osteoporosis when they’re older and may increase their risk for broken bones today.”

The pH of most soda pop is very acidic 2.8. As I discuss in Healthy Kids and pH Levels, for health people need to eat more alkaline foods. Soda pop is a highly acidic drink which does the opposite. There is an easy solution: replace soft drinks with healthful drinks, like water, milk, and fruit juices.

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Carbonated Soft Drinks
Soda Pop Part 1: High Fructose Corn Syrup

To beat the heat, we often reach for an ice-cold can of soda pop! Today, more than a quarter of ALL drinks consumed in the U.S. are carbonated drinks.

Most parents are in denial about the amount of soda pop their children regularly drink. Studies have found over half, 56 percent, of 8-year-olds down soft drinks daily. Even picky eaters love sodas.

Would you allow your child to eat 17 teaspoons of sugar? Never!… unless your child drinks a soda. During summer it’s easy to let down our guard, because a can of pop is so refreshing (and easy). Soda has been dubbed, “liquid candy” and rightly so, as soda pop is the number one source of sugar in our kids’ diets.

Ethan and John beat the heat in the sprinklers.

According to government data, carbonated drinks contribute about 10 percent of the calories in the American diet. Carbonated drinks have replaced fruit juice, milk, and even water in our daily routine. Studies have linked soda to obesity, tooth decay, osteoporosis, and even heart disease. Carbonated drinks contain High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS). There are so many problems with HFCS that it’s hard to know where to begin. Yes, there’s a huge campaign to try to undo the negative aspects of the High Fructose Corn Syrup, but don’t be fooled.

According to the Corn Refiners Association, there has been a misunderstanding about HFCS. They say, “High fructose corn syrup meets the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s requirements for use of the term natural. It is made from corn, a natural grain product and contains no artificial or synthetic ingredients or color additives.” They also say that HFCS has the same number of calories as sugar, so it’s okay to eat.

Sounds like HFCS is really a health food! Not so fast. According to physicians Mehmet Oz and Michael Roisen, high-fructose corn syrup is the worst sweetener added to our food supply. In their book, You: The Owner’s Manual, they state: “One of the biggest evil influences on our diet is the presence of high-fructose corn syrup, a sugar substitute that itself is a sugar found in soft drinks and many other sweet, processed foods. The problem is that HCFS inhibits leptin secretion, so you never get the message that you’re full. And it never shuts off gherin, so, even though you have food in your stomach, you constantly get the message that you’re hungry.”

Other studies by researchers at UC Davis and the University of Michigan have shown that consuming fructose, which is more readily converted to fat by the liver, increases the levels of fat in the bloodstream in the form of triglycerides. And unlike other types of carbohydrate made up of glucose, fructose does not stimulate the pancreas to produce insulin.

Peter Havel, a nutrition researcher at UC Davis, who studies the metabolic effects of fructose, has also shown that fructose fails to increase the production of leptin a hormone produced by the body’s fat cells. Both insulin and leptin act as signals to the brain to turn down the appetite and control body weight. And in another metabolic twist, Havel’s research shows that fructose does not appear to suppress the production of ghrelin, a hormone that increases hunger and appetite. “Because fructose in isolation doesn’t activate the hormones that regulate body weight as do other types of carbohydrate composed of glucose, consuming a diet high in fructose could lead to taking in more calories and, over time, to weight gain,” he says.

Researchers are finding new problems with high fructose corn syrup. A study in Journal of the National Cancer Institutesuggests that women whose diet was high in total carbohydrate and fructose intake had an increased risk of colorectal cancer.

Dr. Mel Heyman, chief of pediatric gastroenterology and nutrition at UCSF, is seeing sick children whose bodies have been overloaded with fructose from naturally occurring fructose in fruit juice combined with soda and processed food.

“The way the body handles glucose is different than fructose, Heyman says, “It can overload the intestines’ ability to absorb carbohydrate by giving it too much fructose. That can cause cramps, bloating, and loose stools.”

If you were to avoid only one sugar, HFCS would be the one! Replace sodas in your family’s diet with healthful alternatives: water, milk, 100 percent fruit juice (then dilute), homemade lemonade and fizzy drinks (half fruit juice and half carbonated seltzer water with no added sugars).

Look for Thursday’s blog: Part 2 Soda Pop: Phosphoric Acid

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For a synopsis of Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater, Click Here.

This vital topic concerning our children’s health is studied by the Kaiser Foundation. The study found that 34 percent of ads targeting children are for candy and snacks, 28 percent are for sugarcoated cereals, and 10 percent are for fast foods. Only 4 percent are for dairy products and a measly 1 percent for healthful fruit juices. With a third of our children overweight or obese and the greater probability of these children facing diabetics and heart disease as adults, this data is useful.

Phoebe & Mille sit in my recliner to watch TV.
I fast-forward through the commercials and
they love the healthy food I make for them!
Click Here to find out what I feed them.

What does this study have to do with picky eaters? Everything!

> Surprisingly, skinny picky eaters and overweight children share the same diet. They love junk foods: the very foods highlighted in TV commercials. Almost without exception, skinny picky eaters grow up to be overweight, because their diets don’t change, but their metabolism does.

> While TV ads factor in the decline in our children’s health, it’s only one factor. Certainly, TV ads influence our children’s food preferences, but what you purchase and stock in the kitchen, the frequency of eating out, what you prepare for snacks and meals, and how much exercise your children get are just as important.

> Baby Bites explains how children’s poor eating habits can be transformed through multi-sensory learning, positive discipline, and whole foods. The Baby Bite Steps incorporate multi-sensory learning techniques into your child’s mealtime experience. In only one week, the most resistant picky eater will be eating new foods!

Click Here to purchase Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater.

Let’s face it, many aren’t bold enough to go cold turkey. Today, we’ll be content to tackle the sugar monster by looking at ways to limit the intake of added sugars. That way when you eat sugar, it’ll be on purpose.

When foods loaded with added sugars aren’t readily available, you won’t be tempted to eat them and your kids won’t either. You can restrict impact the sugar monster has on your family when your pantry is stocked with nutritious foods, so you’ll have plenty of healthy snacking options. Get in the habit of reading labels, you’ll be amazed at how much sugar is in the processed foods you purchase.

Now for the good news! Taste buds have a type of thermostat. What you’ve eaten in the preceding week affects your taste buds. Your preferences today are affected by what you ate yesterday. So, when you and your children (especially picky eaters) stop eating sugar, your taste buds adjust and whole food will become more flavorful! You’ll be amazed at how sweet an orange or an apple can be, when your palette adjusts.

Soda pop

You can’t talk about the sugar monster without mentioning soda pop. One-third of consumed sugars conceal themselves in your kid’s favorite drink.

A report, by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, correctly labeled soft drinks as “liquid candy.” There’s no nutritional value whatsoever in soft drinks. A child who drinks one can of soda pop ingests ten to sixteen teaspoons of sugar – from only one can!

Twenty-five years ago, teenagers drank twice as much milk as soda pop. Today, that’s flipped, teenagers drink twice as much soda pop as milk and 56% of eight-year-olds down a can of soft drink every day!

Soda pop is worse than candy for children, as soft drinks replace nourishing drinks like milk, fruit juices, and water. Soft drinks further rob the body of vital nutrients as Phosphoric Acid increases the loss of magnesium and calcium in the urine, leading to weaker bones. This is a concern, because of the peak bone-building years in childhood and adolescence.

Also, beware of the sugar monster, who also hides in fruit drinks. The juice content of fruit drinks range between a measly high of 27 to 3%. Koolaide, of course has absolutely no juice.

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the Sugar Monster by making whole foods fun!