The other day I was sitting at work casually drinking my all time favorite beverage – diet coke. I was reading through the contents in its tiny little box of ingredients and came across a few ingredients that I did not really know too much about. So given.. I work at an office, with a computer.. GOOGLE was just screaming at me to find out.
STOP
Here is a little fundmental tip for the day. : IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE WORRIED ABOUT WHAT YOU ARE PUTTING INTO YOUR BODY AND HAVE IT RUIN YOUR FAVORITE SOFT DRINK DO NOT GOOGLE THE INGREDIENTS!
So. with that said we move on!
Here is a list of the few ingredient I personally decided to look up on google… ( why.. who really knows, but being curious and a curious writer who thought hey this would make a perfect blog post i went for it )
phosphoric acid : a crystalline acid obtained by treating phosphates w/ sulfuric acid and used in fertilizer, soap, rust proofing metals, and soft drinks..
potassium benzoate : the potassium salt of benzoic acid, is a food preservative that inhibits the growth of mold, year, and some bacteria ( in other words reasons som soft drinks do not seem to mold for LONG periods of time )
benzoic acid : a white crystalline substance present in benzoin and other plant resins and used as food preservatives
OKAY .
Not that we have gone through this small list here.. Let’s get to my main point of why I found this so shocking. NOT only are we consuming things that potentially do not mold due to preservatives ( whether plant based or not ), but we are potentially consuming an ingredient that is used in fertilizer. Now, you may be thinking, okay fertilizer is a preservative to help things grow in the farm industry. Though all of this is true and it is not as ‘scary’ as one may deem, what bothered me the most was the fact that phosphoric acid is used in regards to RUST PROOFING METALS.
Reasons why this is scary to me is because growing up we are always told to stay away from rusty metals because it can lead to serious illnesses, hence the main reason for TETNUS SHOTS. We are always made aware of the side effects of rust, rust dust, etc , but yet, here we are consuming something that has an ingredient that can be used on rust proofing metals.
Last I have checked, to rust proof any kind of metal it would require a mixture of chemicals and ingredients to do so and who knows if they are dangerous to human exposure.. yet here we are CONSUMING one of the ingredients.
Now I may be over reacting, yes, but these are my personal thoughts when I see things like this. It’s not the sugar intent or the additive sugars that are potentially dangerous to us, its the ingredients that we can barely pronounce let alone know what they are right off hand that could be potentially dangerous to us that most companies do not want to shine light on.
Will I continue drinking my soft drinks? Yes
Do I agree with the ingredients ? NO
This fundamental of life post isn’t to turn you away from soft drinks and scare you with definitions on ingredients. It is to remind you that it is OK to stop and check the ingredients that you are putting into your body and deeming it okay for your personal preference to continue to consume. I personally love soft drinks and after this I will still drink them, but I do plan on cutting down immensely on my intake and focusing my attention more towards healthier options, like water or my all time favorite – tea.!
Sometimes making the decision to look into something that may worry you or potentially ruin something for you is alright. you have the right to look into your curiosities and make the mental decisions whether something is good for you or not. Not everyone is the same so everyone’s choices will be different, but it is OKAY to have different opinions and look at things in different ways. Sometimes even the smallest thing like ingredients in a diet coke can be an eye opener to learning something new and making healthier positive life choices for yourself if that is the route you choose to go or just being more aware of what you are consuming.
Whatever you decide to do in life, it is okay to be curious and ask questions and look into the answers of all of your questions, whether it ends up being an answer you like or not, at least you know and you continue to let your mind grow and learn and expand to being open to the many questions of the world and not being fearful of your curiosities.
Fundamentals Of Life 