Soft Drinks are unhealthy and bad for you.

Hello and thanks for posting this debate. I'd like to note that English is not my first language and that this is my first debate. I apologize in advance for any grammar or debate structure errors. I will start by showing that it is we are debating. My opponent makes the claim that ‘soft drinks are bad unhealthy and bad for you’. I’ll go about showing that most of the arguments against soft drinks are based on incomplete truths or outright myths, and that as many other types of foods, soft drinks’ healthiness depends largely on the drinker’s diet, while also rebutting Pro. Let’s define the language used by my opponent and see what we need to look for in determining if Pro is right or wrong. Definitions: Soft drink – a beverage that typically contains water, usually a sweetener, and usually a flavoring agent. http://en.wikipedia.org... Unhealthy – not conducive to health http://www.merriam-webster.com... Bad – failing to reach an acceptable standard http://www.merriam-webster.com... By Merriam-Webster’s definition, unhealthy could be understood not necessarily as damaging to a person’s health, but only not improving it, referring so as to remain in a current health status. I assume unhealthy in the sense that it is harmful to your health because the Pro also argues that they are ‘bad for you’ and in the context of his arguments. The consumption of sugar-sweetened soft drinks is associated with obesity, type 2 diabetes, and other obesity related diseases. My argument is that soft drinks are one of many foods with high sugar content. To be nutritionally healthy, one has to consume a recommended amount of sugar and calories. These associations with obesity and its resulting diseases, such as diabetes, are correlated with high sugar consumption and high calorie diets, not soft drinks per se. Obesity is mainly caused by an unhealthy lifestyle and soft drinks will not cause obesity if consumed in amounts that do not surpass the recommended daily calorie and sugar intake. Americans level of obesity is tied to a very unhealthy lifestyle caused by a poor diet in general, and low levels of exercise. I argue later about the specificity of the American population's health and its relation to soft drink consumption. The calorie and sugar content in an average soft drink is under their respective recommended daily intake. For them to reach unhealthy levels, excess amount need to be drank. One could maybe argue that soft drinks are unhealthy if the consumption of the average ration surpasses daily recommendations of its ingredients, but this is not the case. I will ignore the following arguments for several reasons and give a rebuttal about the rest later: -‘The sugar in a normal Coca-Cola can make you vomit if it is eaten itself.’ Correlation does not imply causation. Assuming the cause of vomiting is the amount of sugar eaten and no other causes of nausea by sugar such as hypoglycemia or hyperglycemia. Proof is needed so that this argument can be taken as true for the general population. Even the nausea itself could be triggered by so many arbitrary reasons that singling out pure sugar as a cause of vomiting would require very specific experiments. Lastly, even assuming it does indeed trigger vomiting, vomit does not mean that you are eating something unhealthy. Maybe for this argument to be more relevant to our debate, the normal Coca-Cola should be the one triggering the vomit. -‘Soft-Drinks account for a nearly 13% of total calories. An average American drinks 50 gallons of soft drink a year.’ A percent of an unknown total amount of calories gives no base to the rest of the consumed foods and its healthiness. Volumes of soft drink in a group only means a particular population has the habit of consuming an amount of soft drink. Even if the American population is known to have high indexes of obesity, the volume of soft drinks does not cause an amount of daily calorie intake which is the main correlation to obesity. Soft drinks have a high variance in its caloric and sugar content, they can go from 0 to the hundreds (caloric units and grams respectively). -‘Think about the amount of sugar you are drinking. The result is deadly. This leads to diabetes and eventually death.’ High daily sugar intake is deadly. Sugar intake effects cannot be generalized without a specific amount and the health status of the person taking it. The average amount of sugar in a can of soft drink does not surpass the recommended daily intake, so soft drinks, because of their sugar, cannot be deadly. -‘Secondly, calcium is important for the maintenance of strong bones. Without calcium, our bones will slowly rot and it can't maintain the sufficient integrity of teeth’ The lack of an ingredient in a soft drink has nothing to do with the lack of calcium in a diet. I will give a formal rebuttal in the next round of the unhealthiness of soft drinks assuming an average ration. http://en.wikipedia.org...http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov...http://en.wikipedia.org...http://www.sugarstacks.com...http://en.wikipedia.org...http://en.wikipedia.org...