A daily sugary drink habit may not seem like a big deal. In the scope of vices, surely it’s not as serious as all those other bad-for-you things the government makes PSAs about, like alcohol and stoner sloths.

But it turns out that consuming sugar-laden drinks on the regular can have some pretty dismal effects on your body. In fact, it’s been shown to increase your risk of obesity, diabetes and a whole host of other diseases.

But if you were to kick the habit, what would happen to your body? We looked at the science to find out.

Weight Loss

“Sugar-sweetened drinks (like soft drinks, sports drinks, fruit drinks, and energy drinks) contain calories [kilojoules] from added sugar (or free sugars) and usually no other nutritional value,” says dietitian, public health nutritionist, and Curtin University Adjunct Research Fellow Dr Christina Pollard. “People do not experience ‘fullness’ when they drink soft drinks and tend to drink large volumes without reducing their food intake, so they contribute excess calories.”

And that’s not all.

“A study we undertook in Western Australia and South Australia found that drinking greater amounts [of soft drink] increased the likelihood of being obese or overweight,” she says.

So, it follows that cutting out soft drinks will equal a decrease in calorie consumption and therefore keep your waistline in check, right? Bingo. Even cutting out one soft drink per day can help prevent a ballooning belly.

Heart Health

A regular soft drink habit is bad news for your heart, too.

A US study found that men who drank one sugary drink per day had a 20 percent higher risk of having a heart attack than those who infrequently drank sugary drinks. Similarly, a study which measured the effects of sugary drinks on women found that those who drank over two servings of sugary beverages per day had a 40 percent higher risk of having a heart attack than those who didn’t.

“The World Health Organization recommendation is to restrict free sugars to 25 to 50g per day for better health outcomes, so, over time, there would be a reduced risk of diseases related to being overweight such as some cancers, diabetes and heart disease,” says Dr Pollard.

Dental Health

Dentists hate soft drinks for a reason: the high sugar content increases the risk of dental decay.

The sugars in soft drinks bind with bacteria in your mouth to produce acid, which causes the erosion of enamel (the protective outside layer of your teeth). This, combined with the acids and preservatives already contained in soft drinks and even diet soft drinks can also lead to cavities.

If you cut sugary drinks from your diet, you’ll be giving your teeth a much-needed break from constant attack.

Your Brain

New research is delving into the effects of soft drink on the brain, and it makes for alarming reading.

In 2017, scientists found that regular consumers of sugary drinks were more likely to have smaller brain volume, poorer memory, and a smaller hippocampus (the area of the brain that controls learning and memory) than those who avoided them.

While you might be tempted to just opt for diet soda instead, another study published last year found that people who consumed diet soft drinks daily were three times as likely to develop dementia or have a stroke as those who did not.

While it’s still early days and research around the issues demonstrates association rather than cause-and-effect, we reckon it can’t hurt to cut down on soft drinks, just in case.

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(Lead image: rawpixel)

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Find out how much sugar you’re consuming by visiting the Sugary Drinks Calculator.