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Dirty Soda Drinks Are Everywhere, But Doctors Warn of Health Risks: ‘Metabolic Disaster’
The latest beverage trend is far from clean — and it’s raising red flags with doctors.
Known as a “dirty soda,” it’s a soft drink that also includes a combination of added ingredients, such as flavored syrups, creamers, fruit juices and other garnishes. The result is a sweet beverage that’s a combination of a soda, mocktail and dessert.
Dirty sodas can easily deliver 250-400 calories and 55-70 grams of sugar in a single drink — which is often more than double the American Heart Association’s daily added sugar limit, according to Erin Palinski-Wade, a New Jersey-based registered dietitian.
“It’s more like a dessert beverage than a soft drink, even if people use diet soda as the base,” she told Fox News Digital.
The drinks are most dangerous for those with insulin resistance, prediabetes or diabetes, Palinski-Wade warned.
A New Study Finds Human Disease That Originates in Farmed Shrimp
In April of 2026, the Red Lobster seafood chain, responding to what it called “endless guest requests,” did a trial revival of its all-you-can-eat Endless Shrimp promotion in a bid to boost waning customer visits. Although the ploy was only a modest success, it’s not difficult to see how the company thought they were on to a winning strategy. Previous, wildly popular shrimp gorge-fests were blamed for Red Lobster’s bankruptcy in 2024 — an indicator not only of Americans’ enthusiasm for a bargain but their growing interest in eating seafood.
Shrimp is the marine species that we now eat the most of, collectively gobbling some 1.5 billion pounds a year. Its production, however, is fraught. Some 75 to 90 percent of our sea animal consumption comes from imported products and the majority of the shrimp we eat is farmed, usually in muddy ponds near coastal areas in India, Ecuador, Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand.
Shrimp farms are often built on the remains of mangrove forests razed to make way for aquaculture; they’re also responsible for river, ocean and groundwater pollution and increasing antibiotic resistance in humans due to the drugs added to ponds to combat pathogens.
In March of 2026, just a month before Red Lobster got ready to boil up thousands of pounds of these favored crustaceans in some of its restaurants, a group of researchers published a paper that gave public health experts a new reason to be concerned about shrimp.
Researchers Call for Urgent New Policies to Rein in Ultra-Processed Foods
Wide consumption of ultra-processed foods is the product of a corporate playbook drawn up by “Big Tobacco” decades ago that is contributing to a rising tide of health problems, according to a collection of papers published Wednesday by the American Journal of Public Health.
The authors argue that urgent policy changes are needed to address consumption of foods tied to chronic disease that trace back to the acquisition of food businesses by large tobacco industry players. Those companies used tactics perfected in developing addictive tobacco products to manipulate food contents in ways that may encourage addictive patterns of overconsumption, the authors of the papers assert.
The “addictive potential of food” is seen in ultra-processed foods that promote compulsive intake, according to an article in the collection by Nicholas Chartres, a researcher from the University of Sydney, Australia. “The evidence on the health harms of ultra-processed food (UPF) is unequivocal, and there is extensive evidence that processed junk food has been reformulated to promote over consumption and patterns of intake similar to those observed in nicotine dependence,” wrote Chartres, who also is affiliated with the Center to End Corporate Harm at the University of California – San Francisco. The university maintains a database of thousands of pages of confidential internal tobacco industry documents.
New Consumer Report Finds ‘Concerning Levels of Additives’ in Popular Snacks
Some of the snacks finding their way into American pantries contain “concerning levels of additives,” according to new findings by Consumer Reports and the food-scanning app Yuka. Researchers tested 40 popular grocery products, from baked goods to ice cream and potato chips, measuring concentrations of eight additives and two contaminants and comparing them to safety thresholds for daily consumption set by European and California health officials.
None of the products tested exceeded current guidelines set by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which routinely permits substances at levels “far higher than what other public health authorities consider safe,” according to Consumer Reports. Of the 13 products tested for Red Dye No. 40, a petroleum-derived synthetic food coloring, five contained enough in a single serving to exceed the daily safety level for children identified by the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA).
Considered more stringent than the FDA when it comes to assessing the risk of food dyes and additives, a 2021 OEHHA assessment found that synthetic food dyes are associated with “adverse neurobehavioral outcomes” in some children.
Is Your Bread Safe? Here’s What to Know After Florida Study Finds Pesticide in Store-Bought Bread
Florida health officials detected a controversial weed-killing chemical in six types of popular store-bought bread, sparking a clash between state leaders and independent toxicologists over consumer safety.
The Florida Department of Health recently stated it detected glyphosate — a pesticide commonly found in Roundup — in six types of popular, store-bought bread. Governor Ron DeSantis stated that a lot of leg work went into ensuring the testing was done in a scientifically rigorous way.
State Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo raised alarms, stating “Our testing found high levels of glyphosate in some popular bread brands.” Chronic exposure to glyphosate is linked to harmful gut microbiome changes, liver inflammation, and adverse neurologic effects.
Map Reveals States Where Americans Spend Most on Fast Food
Residents in a number of Southern states spend the largest share of their income on fast food, according to a new study. The report by the personal finance website WalletHub shows that buying just one fast food burger, a small pizza and a fried chicken sandwich costs residents in Mississippi 0.48 percent of their median monthly household income — the highest percentage in the nation. In contrast, it costs 0.27 percent of median monthly household incomes in New Jersey, the lowest share in the nation.
The findings come at a time of worsening cost of living for millions of Americans due to inflation caused by geopolitical events, including the war in Iran. The price of fast food restaurants also increased by around 60 percent between 2014 and 2024, far outpacing inflation, according to FinanceBuzz. This has made fast food less affordable for lower-income households across America.
