Study: Soft Drink Ingredient Sodium Benzoate May Lead to Cirrhosis, Parkinson's

New findings regarding the dangers to health by soft drinks has caused fear in the UK and is sure to cause concern in other parts of the world, according to a report published in the Irish Independent.

According to recent research, carried out by Sheffield University in the UK, a preservative that is commonly found in soft drinks can cause essential parts of human DNA to stop working, leading to serious health problems.

The health problems most commonly thought to arise from this preservative are not what most would associated with drinking a soda or fruit juice, but more with the aging process and excessive alcohol consumption.

Many of us know today that too much soda should be avoided as it can lead to dental problems. But the new research reveals that the preservative commonly found in soft drinks can also lead to cirrhosis and Parkinson's.

The head expert that worked on the study, Peter Piper, took a close look at this common preservative, known as E211, otherwise called sodium benzoate. Piper told the Independent that "these chemicals have the ability to cause severe damage to DNA in the mitochondria to the point that they totally inactivate it, they knock it out altogether. The mitochondria consumes the oxygen to give you energy and if you damage it then the cell starts to malfunction very seriously."

Sodium benzoate or E211 has been used in soft drinks for many years. This isn't the first time this commonly used preservative has been the subject of controversy. Last year it was causing fear over its potential to cause cancer if it was combined with vitamin C. It was found that when E211 was combined with Vitamin C, a carcinogenic was created, called benzene. Last year the Food Standards Agency in the UK investigated a number of soft drinks that had this combination and found four to have unsafe levels of benzene. As a result these four drinks were taken from store shelves.