Hidden ingredient linked to heart risk
It's an ingredient hiding in both diet and regular sodas. You'll also find it in everything from store-bought iced tea to canned and bottled coffee drinks.
Unlike the additives that regularly make headlines for how bad they are -- like sugar and artificial sweeteners -- this compound gets almost no attention at all.
In fact, the food industry is working overtime to make sure you never hear a peep about phosphate... and that you won't even know how much of it you're drinking.
But it's time to change that.
Phosphates stop the ingredients in drinks from separating. Without them, you might have to shake a soda before popping the top -- but of course that would leave you showered in soda rather than drinking it.
But you're actually better off NOT drinking it at all, because the latest research shows how the phosphate used in soft drinks could set the stage for heart disease and an early death.
The more of this stuff you get from food and drink, the higher your blood pressure, according to the new study on rats.
Within just three months, getting double the recommended levels of phosphates -- an amount easy to reach, given how much it's used in soft drinks -- will stimulate your sympathetic nerves.
And that isn't good.
The sympathetic nerves are part of your body's stress response, which causes blood pressure levels to rise.
While you may need that during times of true stress -- especially when the "fight or flight" response kicks in -- you don't need it the rest of the time.
And if those levels remain elevated, you risk everything linked to chronic high blood pressure -- including heart attack and stroke.
This new study was on lab rats, but your own stress response works in a very similar way, right down to the role that sympathetic nerves play in the process.
And if you think that's bad (and believe me, it IS bad), wait 'til you see the other risks linked to folks who drink phosphate-laden sodas.
This stuff can also suck calcium and magnesium right out of your body -- leading to joint pain and even osteoarthritis, especially in older women.
You know what you need to do here: Give up those soft drinks.
And it's not just sodas, either -- because it's time to give up bottled teas and coffees as well.
Brew your own instead. It's cheaper, safer, and -- if you ask me -- tastes better, too.