When you choose a sugary soda instead of alcohol every day, you may think you're doing your liver a favor. But that daily soft drink can be harmful, especially to your liver — as damaging as alcohol can be. Once it reaches the liver, the sugar in beverages can get converted into fat that's stored in liver cells.
Aerated/fizzy drinks (soda/ cola etc)
And obesity can affect your liver by increasing fatty accumulation in liver( Fatty liver). Also, soda offers a deadly combination of sugar and refined carbohydrates(also called empty calories) that are detrimental for liver health.
However, numerous studies have found a link between drinking too much diet soda and having serious health conditions, including diabetes, fatty liver, dementia, heart disease, and stroke. In this article, learn about the links between diet soda and health, as well as whether it is more healthful than regular soda.
In conclusion, drinking soda every day can have negative effects on your body, including weight gain, increased risk of diabetes, tooth decay, dehydration, and increased risk of heart disease. Choosing filtered water as an alternative is a great way to stay hydrated and promote overall health and wellness.
For optimal health, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommend consuming no more than 6 tsp of added sugar daily. By drinking just one serving of cola a day, a person will easily exceed this amount.
While you can get away with a drink every now and then, dietitians agree that alcohol does the most liver damage out of any beverage. "Alcohol is the worst drink for your liver as it makes it harder on the liver to break down and remove toxins from the body," says Minerva Valencia, RD.
Barring complications, the liver can repair itself completely and, within a month, the patient will show no signs of damage. However, sometimes the liver gets overwhelmed and can't repair itself completely, especially if it's still under attack from a virus, drug, or alcohol.
Some studies show that sugar can be as damaging to the liver as alcohol, even if you're not overweight. It's one more reason to limit foods with added sugars, such as soda, pastries, and candy.
Eat high potassium foods: Potassium helps to cleanse the liver, so loading up on potassium-rich foods is key. Some of these foods include sweet potatoes, spinach, avocados, wild-caught salmon, bananas, and white beans.
"Alcohol is the worst drink for your liver as it makes it harder on the liver to break down and remove toxins from the body," says Minerva Valencia, RD. "Alcohol is known to cause damage to this vital organ, but a wide variety of alcoholic drinks can also pose health risks," says Janet Coleman, RD at TheConsumerMag.
Eggs. Many don't know that eggs are a food that's good for fatty liver. This is because eggs are rich in choline, which plays a role in transporting and lowering LDL or “bad” cholesterol.
Too Much Alcohol
Alcoholic fatty liver, which causes liver inflammation (alcoholic hepatitis), eventual scarring (cirrhosis) and even liver cancer, is a process that begins on as little as four drinks a day for men and two for women. By the time you show symptoms, your liver may be damaged beyond repair.
The liver is very resilient and capable of regenerating itself. Each time your liver filters alcohol, some of the liver cells die. The liver can develop new cells, but prolonged alcohol misuse (drinking too much) over many years can reduce its ability to regenerate.
The liver has a unique capacity among organs to regenerate itself after damage. A liver can regrow to a normal size even after up to 90% of it has been removed. But the liver isn't invincible. Many diseases and exposures can harm it beyond the point of repair.
Healing can begin as early as a few days to weeks after you stop drinking, but if the damage is severe, healing can take several months. In some cases, “if the damage to the liver has been long-term, it may not be reversible,” warns Dr. Stein.
As far as toxicity is concerned, alcohol has more troubling implications on your health than soft drinks. When you ingest a particular food or drink, it raises the level of sugar in your blood. This is the glycaemic index and a score between 0-100 is ascribed to all foods and drinks according to the sugar boost.
It is estimated that alcohol-related fatty liver disease develops in 90% of people who drink more than 40g of alcohol (or four units) per day. That's roughly the equivalent of two medium (175ml) glasses of 12% ABV wine, or less than two pints of regular strength (4% ABV) beer.
Drinking a reasonable amount of diet soda a day, such as a can or two, isn't likely to hurt you. The artificial sweeteners and other chemicals currently used in diet soda are safe for most people, and there's no credible evidence that these ingredients cause cancer.
An occasional diet soft drink won't kill you, but a daily — or even an every-other-day — habit may wreak havoc on your taste buds, making it harder for you to lose or maintain a healthy weight, points out Coates.