Back in the day, water seemed to be the easiest beverage to drink. Nowadays, in many cases water has been pushed back and been replaced in favor of flavored sodas and juices.
“There’s a lot of concern at the amount of soda that students are drinking; there are alternatives. Sometimes people will think of juice as a healthy alternative because it relates to the idea of fruit. But if you look at soda and juice they both have a lot of sugar in them,” Debbie Conover, coordinator of Student Health Services, said.
Recently, a national survey out of Penn State was conducted in which research was done on college students and how many soft drinks they are consuming, Conover said.
“They were talking about, at Penn State, that their students were approximately consuming 250,000 gallons of soft drinks from the fountain on the campus alone. At EC, I don’t know the specific numbers, but this gives us a general number,” Conover said.
As far as drinking soda is concerned here, students are drinking too much, Thomas Hicks, contemporary health instructor, said.
“They can be found drinking them in the classroom as well as walking on campus, so my guess is that they are drinking too many sodas; quite possibly drinking one, two or three a day,” Hicks said.
“Students seem to drink a lot of sodas. Quite often because it’s cheap, they go to maybe fast food or vending machines,” Conover said.
Students may not be aware of the adverse side effects that these specific beverages might bring.
“The study out of Penn State actually is in fact concerned about the students drinking so much soda and concerned about some of the things that should be on the labels of soda such as things regarding obesity and the negative effects of consumption,” Conover said.
Finishing too many sodas can lead to osteoporosis and bone fracture, Conover said.
“Quite often with people who drink too much soda, they’re starting to get gastrointestinal (GI) distress. They usually don’t know it’s from the soda,” Conover said.
In an article written by Kimberly Park, for aolhealth.com in November 2009, she stated that people who consume about two cans of soda a day increase their risk for developing a fatty liver by as much as 80 percent.
It’s also good to keep in the back of your mind that the caffeine in soda increases their stomach acid as well, Conover said.
“The other thing with sodas is that dentists are reporting an increase of rotten teeth because the sodas are eroding teeth,” Conover said.
A lot of sugar can also be found in fruit juices and have been very detrimental to teeth of test animals as compared to that of soda because there is so much sugar in fruit juices, Conover said.
“I have a lot more energy when I drink water as opposed to soda, and I am not a huge juice person because they are really too sweet,” Jennifer Moran, 18, biology, said.
Soda is the easy choice. They have much more flavor so people are more drawn to them as opposed to water but they should be drinking water, Moran said. People generally know what the better option is although most tend to think flavor over health.
“A lot of people prefer soda over water which is pretty sad. You think it’s going to quench your thirst, but it really makes you more thirsty,” Koby Krikac, 17, Liberal Studies, said.
Students can be swayed because of the price of a beverage since fountain drinks tend to be lower in price as opposed to a bottle of water, Brittney Venegas, 19, computer science major, said.
“I think it’s more of a personal choice that we have to decide ourselves to drink more water, even though soda is probably cheaper,” Moran said.
Students like Venegas do not enjoy the taste of water and said that she needs to at least add a packet of sugar to give it some flavor.
“This is the only way I can drink water. Other than that, I pretty much just drink anything flavored like: Cherry Pepsi, orange soda, fruit punch or Slurpees,” Venegas said.
Although students are aware that sodas and other sugar flavored beverages can be bad for one’s overall health, they claim to make this choice because of the easy accessibility they have in obtaining it.
“I know that I’m not making the best choices as far as what I drink, but I don’t feel unhealthy,” Venegas said. “I think something has to happen first before I make more of a commitment to water.”