Careful! Carbonated Drinks Lurking Our Children's Health

Carbonated drinks like soda must be familiar to our ears. Maybe we've even had drinks that have a sweet taste and sometimes tend to be gassy. Carbonated drinks are water that is 'injected' with carbon dioxide gas which causes bubbles to form in sparkling water. Soft drinks that we often encounter in minimarkets today generally contain carbon dioxide with a mixture of sugar, artificial sweeteners such as corn syrup, citric acid, caffeine in cola drinks and various other ingredients. With a variety of content in it, this drink tends to cause a sweet taste on the tongue. For this reason, consuming soft drinks is very tempting, especially on a hot and scorching day.

But, is it okay to consume this drink in large quantities and in the long term?, Is there a separate risk when we or our children are more tempted to drink this soft drink as a thirst quencher?. Especially for children who tend to prefer sweet foods and drinks, of course when they drink soft drinks, especially with an intensity that is quite often every day, it needs to be taken into consideration for us as parents to stop the habit of drinking soft drinks for our children.

Then what is the bad impact on the health of our children when consuming these soft drinks? Let's highlight one of the high contents of soft drinks, namely the sugar content and artificial sweeteners. Quoting from the Massachusetts Dental Society (MDS), 354 ml of soda contains about 10 teaspoons of sugar. In fact, the recommendation for sugar consumption for children aged 2-18 years is less than 6 teaspoons per day. That is, 354 ml of soda contains sugar that exceeds the daily intake limit. The sugar content of that amount if consumed intensively and continues to be excessive every day will increase the risk of tooth decay. The combination of acid and high sugar in soft drinks also causes tooth enamel to become eroded, cavities and erosion of teeth.

Not only increasing tooth decay, consuming soft drinks in children can also cause obesity. According to the Indonesian Pediatric Association (IDAI), a child is classified as obese if his weight is more than +3 SD on the growth chart. If you look at the sugar content in 354 ml of Carbonated drinks which is up to 10 teaspoons, the risk of children experiencing obesity is very large, of course it can happen. Especially if our children consume these soft drinks regularly every day and for a long period of time. Obesity will also eventually have an impact on children's health, such as their immune system resistance and of course also have an impact on their growth and development.

In addition to having an impact on dental health and a big risk of obesity, there are many other impacts on health when our children consume these soft drinks too often. For example, one of the ingredients commonly found in soft drinks, namely Phosphorus, can reduce calcium in the bones of growing children. Girls who drink soda frequently are known to be more prone to fractures. Therefore, it is important that from an early age children reduce or not consume soda drinks during their growth period.

The role of parents and children's environment is very important to overcome excessive intake in consuming food and drinks, especially food and drinks purchased outside. It is important to reduce soda consumption in children, and it starts with parents. Start by providing healthier drinks such as increasing consumption of water, natural fruit juices or milk. This is to provide comfort to our children that healthy drinks, especially when made at home, are much tastier than drinking soft drinks or other sweet drinks. The home environment and restrictions at home or in the school environment or in the children's play environment are very important for parents to do to avoid our children consuming carbonated drinks in excess.

by. Mezia Dewi Pratiwi, S.Pd, from BehaviorPals Center

Bibliography

https://hellosehat.com/nutrition/fact-gizi/effects-air-bercarbonasi-pada-body/

https://www.merdeka.com/trending/minuman -carbonated-or-soda-ketahui-5-dangers-for-health-kln.html

https://hellosehat.com/parenting/anak-6-ti-9-years/gizi-anak/anak-minum-soda/

https://lifestyle.kompas.com/read/2018/01/23/170000520/reason-why-don't-give-softdrink-to-child.