Free digital image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net/By Naypong

Are you still drinking soda regularly? If so, look in the mirror and understand the fat you see can be traced back to the amount of sugar and simple carbs you consume, and soda is one of the worst things you can have as part of your regular diet.

If you want to eat healthier, soda is the low-hanging fruit in terms of easy changes you can make. Just try substituting options that don’t have all the sugar. Water is best, but if you need some flavor, try juice mixed with water.

The video below talks about the “war on soda” and the many efforts to get soda out of schools or to eliminate huge soda drinks in places like New York in light of our obesity crisis. Some of you might not like the notion of anyone telling you what to drink, but if you have a brain and care about your long-term health, you should realize that drinking this sugar water is bad for you of you do it regularly. You don’t have to ban it from your life, or the lives of your kids, but use some common sense and stop drinking it on a daily basis.

Now there are even more reasons to kick your soda habit.

From caramel coloring to aluminum cans lined with BPA , these are just a 2 reasons to cut soda out of your diet.

Phosphoric acid which has been linked to accelerated aging and bone loss, excessive sugar, harsh chemicals and water pollution round out the list of reasons to eliminate nutritionally void beverages.

The artificial sweeteners used in diet sodas don’t break down in our bodies, nor do wastewater-treatment plants catch them before they enter waterways, researchers have found. In 2009, Swiss scientists tested water samples from wastewater-treatment plants, rivers and lakes in Switzerland and detected levels of acesulfame K, sucralose, and saccharin, all of which are, or have been, used in diet sodas.

Carmel coloring in soda poses a cancer risk.

This is just one more reason to avoid soft drinks.

As if high fructose corn syrup, food coloring, and preservatives don’t make soft drinks unattractive and unhealthy enough now the danger of cancer must be considered.

While toxicology studies show that 4-MI can cause cancer in lab animals, it’s not clear whether it’s a human carcinogen — or whether the amounts detected in sodas pose any kind of a threat.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) in February 2011 petitioned the FDA to ban this kind of caramel coloring. It also wanted the cosmetic additive renamed “chemically modified caramel coloring” or “ammonia-sulfite process caramel coloring.”

Could more than 2,600 deaths a year be prevented by taxing soda?

Some analysts think, yes.

In general, they assume that if the price of soda rises, people will buy less of it. “We assume that 40 percent of the calories saved by forgoing a sugary drink are replaced with other calories,” she says, meaning either calories from drinks such as milk or fruit juice or from food. “So for every 100 calories in soda avoided, only 60 calories are actually lost in the diet.”

This is not the first study to predict that a soda tax would be effective in reducing consumption. Yale University researchers concluded in this report that taxing sugary drinks would lead to economic benefits as well.

Using the funds that come from taxing unhealthy foods could be the answer to a host of health cost issues.