Persuasive Speech Outline
Gyaneshwar Agrahari/ Stop drinking sugary drinks
Specific Purpose: To persuade my audience to stop or reduce the consumption of sugary drinks
like soda, fruit juices, and energy drinks.
Pattern of Organization: Monroe's Motivated Sequence
Introduction
I. How many of you get a sugar drink when you order food at a restaurant or get a
family pack of drinks every weekend at the store near your house?
II. Can you think a reason what makes you drink something you know has no zero health
benefits?
III. I prefer plain water to sugary drinks, use zero calorie sweetener, and eat things like
fruits, peanut butter, or honey to satisfy my sugar cravings.
IV. My goal today is to tell you about the disadvantages of drinks loaded with sugar and
inform you about the best available alternatives.
(Firstly, we need to understand why we are obsessed with sugary drinks, then their harms on
us, and finally how we can get overcome this addiction)
Body
I. Sugary drinks have become compulsory in our diets. (abc.com)
A. Obsession with sugar.
1. Sugar causes dopamine release ( Wexner Medical Center)
a. Pleasure
b. Hunger satisfaction
2. Caffeine (CNN Health)
a. Brain stimulator
b. Stress release
3. Fizz factor (CNN Health)
a. Makes drinks more exciting
b. Adds acidity that increases sugar craving
4. Convenience factor
a. Drinking easier than eating
b. Inexpensive
c. Suits the lifestyle
d. Marketing
1. Soda culture
a. Deals everywhere
b. Fast-food
2. Brands invest heavily (ehn.org)
a. More than a billion dollar every year (Environmental News)
b. Sponsor all major events
c. Top quality advertisements with the biggest celebrities
(Now that we know why we are obsessed with sugary drinks, we must not ignore the effect of this
obsession on us)
II. Along with having a bare minimum nutritional value, sugary drinks are enlisted as
factors of many health problems.
A. Physical Health Issues
1. Obesity (Health.nsw.gov.au)
a. Processed sugar equals empty calories, no fibers
b. Increases the daily calories intake substantially
c. Easily broken down into glucose and converted into fat if not used
d. Increases risk of heart disease and other serious health issues.
2. Dental health (rethinksugarydrink.org)
a. Bacteria in our mouths gets energy from sugar
b. Produce acid that leads enamel deterioration
3. Diabetes
a. Fatty liver (Harvard Health)
b. Insulin resistance (The Journal of Nutrition)
(Many restrict effects of sugary drinks to physical health, but there are many possible risks of
them on mental health)
B. Mental Health Issues
1. Mood disorder (nature.com)
a. Incident mood disorder in men
b. Recurrent mood disorder in men and women
Stress functioning (Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences)
a. Sugar can weaken one’s ability to respond to stress
b. Dependency on sugar increases
3. Depression
a. 23 percent more chances of clinical depression in men. (nature.com)
b. High Glycemic index cause depression in women (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
(pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
4. Brain Power
a. Impairs cognitive functions
b. Affects memory (royalsocietypublishing.org)
(Now that we know a lot about the negative impact of sugary drinks on our health, let’s look at
some healthy options, but before that, let me tell you about some marketing traps)
III. There are several healthy options we can choose to avoid sugary drinks
A. Do not fall in marketing traps.
1. Natural sugar is still sugar
a. Natural fruit juices do not have fibers
b. Without fiber, our body breaks down natural sugars too quickly.
2. Sugar is not the only unhealthy sweetener
a. High fructose corn syrup
b. Agave syrup, maple syrup
3. Diet Soda (pennmedicine.org)
a. Harmful, unnatural chemicals
b. Has the same impacts as regular soda
(Nevertheless, there are several healthy, inexpensive options to choose from)
B. Healthy options
1. Sweeteners
a. Stevia
b. Splenda
c. Natural honey
2. Drinks
a. Sparkling water
b. Homemade limewater
c. Homemade hot chocolate
d. Coconut water
(Overall, sugary drinks’ harmful effects weigh more than their taste and feeling of happiness or
satisfaction we get drinking them, so I urge people to minimalize their consumption)
Conclusion
I. Over last few decades, millions of people have become addicted to sugary drinks
II. Marketing and chemical effect of sugar and other substances in sugary drinks are some of
the main reasons behind rising global intake of sugary drinks.
III. There are numerous negative effects of such drinks on our physical and mental health
IV. There are many healthy options; however, one should choose wisely as the brands try to
trap the consumers to choose fake healthy drinks.
References
1. Carallo, K. & Salahi, L. (2011, Aug 31). Half of Americans consume sugary drink on a
daily basis. ABC News. https://abcnews.go.com/Health/half-americans-consuming-
sugary-drinks-day/story?id=14420039
2. Stephens, N. (2020, March 02). Can you be addicted to soda?. Wexner Medical Center.
https://wexnermedical.osu.edu/blog/addicted-to-soda
3. Drayer, L. (2019, October 28). Why Soda is so addictive- and some good alternative
bevarages. CNN Health. https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/28/health/soda-soft-drinks-
addictive-drayer-food-wellness/index.html
4. Petersen, K. (2020, June 24). Advertising for sugary drinks increased to $ 1billion from
2013 to 2018. Envirionmental Health News. https://www.ehn.org/sugar-soda-advertising-
2646244889.html
5. NSW Center for Health Nutrition. (2009, June). Soft drinks, weight status and health: a
review. The University of Sydney. https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/heal/Publications/soft-
drinks-report.pdf
6. Rethink Sugary Drink. Tooth decay. https://www.rethinksugarydrink.org.au/facts/tooth-
decay.html
7. Harvard Health Publishing. ( 2011, Sept 1). Abundance of fructose not good for the liver,
heart. https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/abundance-of-fructose-not-good-for-
the-liver-heart
8. Ma., J. (et.al). (2016, Dec) Sugar-sweetened beverage but not diet soda consumption is
positively associated with progression of insulin resistance and prediabetes. The Journal
of Nutrition. 146(12) 2544-2550
9. Knüppel, A., Shipley, M.J., Llewellyn, C.H. et al. Sugar intake from sweet food and
beverages, common mental disorder and depression: prospective findings from the
Whitehall II study. Sci Rep 7, 6287 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-05649-7
10. Vonne , M. (2016). Self-medication with sucrose. Current Opinion in Behavioral
Sciences. 9 Pages 78-83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2016.02.015.
11. Gangwisch JE, Hale L, Garcia L, Malaspina D, Opler MG, Payne ME, Rossom RC, Lane
D. (2015, Aug). High glycemic index diet as a risk factor for depression: analyses from
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12. Reichelt, A. (et.al). (2015, April). Impact of adolescent sucrose access on cognitive
control, recognition memory, and parvalbumin immunoreactivity. Learning Memory.
22(4), 215-224.
13. Stevenson RJ,(et.al). (2020). Hippocampal-dependent appetitive control is impaired by
experimental exposure to a Western-style diet. R. Soc. open sci. 7: 191338.
14. Penn Medicine.( 2017, March 1). Why diet soda is bad for you.
https://www.pennmedicine.org/updates/blogs/health-and-wellness/2017/march/diet-soda
