Why should I drink less soda?

Soda is full of caffeine and high fructose corn syrup. In addition to contributing to weight gain, soda increases your risk of a variety of chronic diseases. If we start by switching one can of soda for water each day, it will help us lose 10 pounds.

Sodas are a beverage that's main ingredient is sugar and some varieties also have a good amount of caffeine. The calories from soda do not contain any additional nutrients, vitamins or minerals, that aid in body functions and health. Drinking less soda and replacing it with water, which contains no calories and is needed to hydrate the body, will reduce your overall calorie consumption daily and over a span of time will help you reduce your weight.

A healthy diet includes 8-10 - 8 oz glasses of water daily. Replacing that with other sugar laden beverages, sodas that offer no other nutritional value is consuming a large amount of empty calories; and will cause you to gain weight.

NOTE: Empty Calories -- Also known as a discretionary calorie, an "empty calorie" has the same energy content as any other calorie but lacks many accompanying nutrients such as vitamins, dietary minerals, antioxidants, amino acids, or dietary fiber. Although carbohydrates, fats and water are also nutrients, they are typically ignored for this analysis, with the exception of essential fatty acids.