No soft Drinks, drink plain water

With the urban population especially more focused on health, it seems the average youngsters of today are moving away from the sugary soft drinks. According to industry sources, social media platforms are playing an important role in making people aware of the importance of drinking simple plain water or even fresh juices with no added sugar.

At the same time, there has been an intense campaign against soft and carbonated drinks, in the wake of increasing number of people with obesity and diabetics worldwide.

“Especially, the youngsters are getting health-conscious. As per our daily audit, there are more people opting for the bottled water, instead of packaged soft drinks,” said an executive of a company dealing with soft beverages and bottled water.

He added, “There will be always extra demand for clean and bottled drinking in our weather conditions, but extra emphasis on lifestyle ailments like diabetics is adding to that extra demand.”

Ashraf Mohammed, a restaurant manager of over 30 years in Oman, said, “Number of people asking for soft drinks has come down in comparison with the demand for bottle water, irrespective of the weather conditions.”

He added the number of Omani youngsters asking for packaged juices is on decline.

“They prefer fresh juices over bottled soft drinks these days.”

As per a report, the demand for bottle water has been growing at around six per cent in recent years.

“One of the major factors driving the market growth is the rising health consciousness among consumers and the growth in the travel industry,” the report said.

“I have completely moved away from the bottled water over health concerns, especially obesity, diabetes and heart ailments. Water seems to be a safer option,” said Moshin al Balushi, who was once addicted to carbonated drinks.

“I had no count of the number of cans that I used to consume a day. It used to accompany all my major and small meals. I feel much better and so the acidity related issues,” he said.

Vinod Nair