Sugar Can Be Bad for You!

So take a listen to this. That is a sound many of us hear every single day, and some of us hear it many times a day. You know, we hear many times about the dangers of smoking. We hear about the dangers of drugs. But what we do not hear about is the danger that is inside of this. What is this? This fizzy liquid is soda pop. Hi, I am Jared. Welcome to Fun Science Demos. And the big idea today is that the stuff inside here can actually make us unhealthy. And we wanted to take a closer look at what is inside of here to see how that happens. So what is inside here that is so unhealthy for us? The answer is sugar. Did you ever wonder how much sugar actually is in one can of soda pop? We are going to zoom in on this scale so you can see how much sugar is in one can of soda pop. So the label tells us there is 39 grams of sugar in one can of soda pop. Let us see what 39 grams of sugar looks like. So I am going to start spooning the sugar onto my scale. I want you to watch the numbers. So we are at about 21. We are at 29. Remember, 39 is what we want to see. We are at 38.3. That is about 39 grams. Think about that. 39 grams of sugar. That is like me taking the sugar and pouring it into my water, stirring it up, and then drinking the entire cup. Through science we have discovered that our bodies need a little bit of sugar, but not this much sugar. So why does our body need that little bit of sugar? To answer that question we are going to see another demonstration. Our bodies burn sugar for energy. To show you that I am going to blow sugar across a flame. Now this is something you do not want to do without an adult around, and you always want to make sure you have your safety glasses on. So here we go. Light my flame. Take my sugar. That was pretty cool. So what just happened there? Well, sugar burns, and our bodies burn sugar for a source of energy. The problem comes in when we put too much sugar into our bodies, and our bodies cannot burn that sugar up. And that is when sugar becomes very unhealthy. Most people do not even think about all the sugar that is in the different things that we drink. Things like iced tea. Take a look at how much sugar is actually in this iced tea. Things like sports drinks. Look at all that sugar. Juice boxes. A lot of sugar. And then finally soda pop. There is so much sugar in all the different things we drink that our body cannot possibly burn up all that sugar. So what happens? Well, our body then turns that extra sugar into fat. That fat makes a lot of people overweight. All this extra sugar can also lead to diabetes. All that extra sugar is also really bad for our teeth and can lead to lots of cavities. So we have taken a closer look at the sugar that is in all these different drinks. Let us take a closer look at what is inside this. This is a bottle of water. And believe it or not, this water has no sugar in it. It is a great healthy alternative to drinking all of these other drinks. Now remember I did say that our bodies actually use a little bit of sugar for energy. What are some other ways we can get that little bit of sugar in a healthier way? Well, fruit. Fruit has sugar in it, but it also has a lot of healthy things mixed in with that sugar that is really good for our bodies. Science helps us learn about our world and we can use that learning to make healthier decisions. A good healthy decision would be to not eat all of the sugar and turn to some healthier alternatives like fruit and water. Science is so cool. If you want to learn more about science and health, check out our links in the video description. Thanks for watching.