The Dangers of Soda

[jhlurie]

http://gerd.msn.com/article.aspx?aid=5

Study? There's always a study... this one links soda consumption to esophageal cancer and doesn't seem to care which variety it is. Ultimately they blame our old friend GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease), which is tied to esophageal cancer.

However, doctors employed by the National Soft Drink Association don't seem as concerned, when they were asked.

[FistFullaRoux]

People tend to forget that the overwhelming portion of soda is water. Some doctors say that you shouldn't even count it as part of your fluid intake.

It's all horse hockey.

Certain people should maybe avoid sodas. My wife, following gastric bypass, was told to never drink soda again, but only because it can stretch the new stomach. Not because it would kill her or anything.

Obviously, people who have to avoid sugar for whatever reason should avoid the ones with sugar, but there are plenty of other options out there for the non-sugar people.

As far as all of the rumors about sodas, cops do not carry a botttle of it in their car to clean blood off the road, it will not dissolve a tooth or a nail in a matter of days (or even years), Coke and aspirin will not get you high, Pop Rocks and Coke will not make you explode, etc. etc, etc.

Just like everything else, it's a matter of moderation. People worry too much about nothing.

[Lexica]

As far as all of the rumors about sodas, cops do not carry a botttle of it in their car to clean blood off the road, it will not dissolve a tooth or a nail in a matter of days (or even years), Coke and aspirin will not get you high, Pop Rocks and Coke will not make you explode, etc. etc, etc.

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Coca-Cola will dissolve years of accumulated seasoning/gunk/light rust off cast iron pans. I know this first-hand, as I've used it to do so myself. (Line an appropriately-sized trash can with something waterproof, put your gunky cast iron pans into it and pour in enough Coke to submerge completely. Wait overnight, and when you pull the pans out they won't require more than a good swipe with a paper towel to get down to clean metal. Proceed to re-season according to your preferred method.)

I figure that there's only so much sugar I should be consuming over the course of a day, and I'd much rather get it in a form other than sweetened fizzy flavored water. Plus I think that as time goes by we're going to learn that high-fructose corn syrup really is bad for health (at least in the quantities it's consumed in the US), as well as not tasting very good.

[Suzanne F]

People tend to forget that the overwhelming portion of soda is water. Some doctors say that you shouldn't even count it as part of your fluid intake.

It's all horse hockey.

Certain people should maybe avoid sodas. My wife, following gastric bypass, was told to never drink soda again, but only because it can stretch the new stomach. Not because it would kill her or anything.

Obviously, people who have to avoid sugar for whatever reason should avoid the ones with sugar, but there are plenty of other options out there for the non-sugar people.

As far as all of the rumors about sodas, cops do not carry a botttle of it in their car to clean blood off the road, it will not dissolve a tooth or a nail in a matter of days (or even years), Coke and aspirin will not get you high, Pop Rocks and Coke will not make you explode, etc. etc, etc.

Just like everything else, it's a matter of moderation. People worry too much about nothing.

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Well, yeah, but there is no moderation in the product itself. Regular sodas may have the equivalent of as much as 12 teaspoonfuls of sugar -- that's ONE QUARTER CUP, FOLKS. Do we really know the longterm effect of ingesting the equivalent in artificial sweeteners (6 packets of Sweet N Low, Equal, etc.)? And anyway, what good does carbon dioxide do a body -- maybe that's the supposed GERD culprit? -- besides helping you to make rude noises?

[Jason Perlow]

This is all alarmist crap. Jews have been drinking seltzer since time immemoriam, and I've never heard of there being a disproportionate amount of espohogeal cancer and GERD in that group.

[FistFullaRoux]

People tend to forget that the overwhelming portion of soda is water. Some doctors say that you shouldn't even count it as part of your fluid intake.

It's all horse hockey.

Certain people should maybe avoid sodas. My wife, following gastric bypass, was told to never drink soda again, but only because it can stretch the new stomach. Not because it would kill her or anything.

Obviously, people who have to avoid sugar for whatever reason should avoid the ones with sugar, but there are plenty of other options out there for the non-sugar people.

As far as all of the rumors about sodas, cops do not carry a botttle of it in their car to clean blood off the road, it will not dissolve a tooth or a nail in a matter of days (or even years), Coke and aspirin will not get you high, Pop Rocks and Coke will not make you explode, etc. etc, etc.

Just like everything else, it's a matter of moderation. People worry too much about nothing.

←

Well, yeah, but there is no moderation in the product itself. Regular sodas may have the equivalent of as much as 12 teaspoonfuls of sugar -- that's ONE QUARTER CUP, FOLKS. Do we really know the longterm effect of ingesting the equivalent in artificial sweeteners (6 packets of Sweet N Low, Equal, etc.)? And anyway, what good does carbon dioxide do a body -- maybe that's the supposed GERD culprit? -- besides helping you to make rude noises?

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The carbonation is a major flavor and texture component. OK, they have sugar in them. Bourbon has alcohol in it too, and most people know that they shouldn't drink too much of that. People just haven't really gotten the message about moderation in sodas, since they are such active advertisers.

Most sodas have less than that 12 teaspoons per serving. The major brands are more like 7-9 teaspoons per serving. 3.75 to 4 calories per gram times the 4 grams per teaspoon.

Fat (like the butter and olive oil that we throw about with wild abandon) has 9 calories per gram. 4 grams per teaspoon.

So gram for gram, sugars have 4 calories and fats have 9 calories. Which is worse? Sugar has it's health benefits and risks, just like fats, salt, and any other thing.

The dangers of soda? I don't think so. It's certainly not health food. But everything we do in this life is risky.

Lighten up. Cut back on the butter a bit, save your arteries, and have a soda.

[Andrew Fenton]

Lighten up. Cut back on the butter a bit, save your arteries, and have a soda.

No no: skip the soda, eat the butter, and wash it down with a glass of delicious, artery-clearing red wine.

Or something like that, anyway.

[bloviatrix]

This is all alarmist crap. Jews have been drinking seltzer since time immemoriam, and I've never heard of there being a disproportionate amount of espohogeal cancer and GERD in that group.

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You know, I always wonder where seltzer fits into this spectrum. One one hand it is a form of soda. On the other hand, all it contains is water and CO2 and nothing else.

[Jason Perlow]

This is all alarmist crap. Jews have been drinking seltzer since time immemoriam, and I've never heard of there being a disproportionate amount of espohogeal cancer and GERD in that group.

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You know, I always wonder where seltzer fits into this spectrum. One one hand it is a form of soda. On the other hand, all it contains is water and CO2 and nothing else.

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I drink 2 or 3 16oz bottles of carbonated Poland Spring every day, and a can or two of Soda/Coke/whatever. Been doing it for years. Never gotten any symptoms of GERD.

Belches? Farting? Sure. GERD, no.

[NulloModo]

I used to have awful Gerd, which completely went away when I started doing the low-carb thing, and I think the culprit was sodas. I don't drink Diet sodas now, but I used to down a sixpack or more of coke per day, so suddenly eliminating that could have been the issue.

Some people have a problem with the combination of alcohol and soda. My father can drink his rum, or his coke, but if he combines them he gets bad Gerd as well.

In addition to the carbonation a soda has a fair bit of acid as well, so perhaps that is how it differs from the selzter water.

[petite tête de chou]

What about diet sodas? I could drink ALOT of those and not bat an eye.

It seems like the artificial sweeteners are supposed to give lab rats some type of cancer.

Ahhh well, guess I'll take a jog in my wheel and ruminate on my impending doom.

[FistFullaRoux]

Look, None of the arguments hold up, except for the one about avoiding excess sugar. And even that is overblown.

Coke (for example) is less acidic than orange juice. It is less acidic by volume than your normal stomach acid. If anything, the acid in sodas would DILUTE the normal acid in your stomach. The carbonation will make you feel full, and could aggravate an existing stomach problem, but only because of the pressure the carbonation place on those tissues. It's not the acid, it's the CO2 that's in solution in the carbonated water. Burp, and everything is back to normal.

Grape juice (on average) is close to 5% sugar by weight, and is 84% water.

Wine is something like 6% alcohol (which used to be sugar) and still has 2 or 3% of the sugar left, with 91% water.

Coke is 3.5% sugar by weight and 89% water.

Wine and fruit juice are supposed to be good for you. Yet they have more acid and sugar than sodas do????

Edited to add that I may be over symplifying things a bit. There are compunds in wine that are supposed to be good for you, and that could be argued to out weigh the sugar and acid. Fine.

But the point is that sodas are seen as some artificial nightmare, when they really are mostly harmless.

Edited December 1, 2004 by FistFullaRoux (log)

[NulloModo]

I don't think anyone will argue that there is anything evil about sodas in moderation, but it seems to me that soda is one of the foods most easily consumed in much greater than moderate quantities for many people.

If you had one soda a day, or a couple a week or something, I doubt it would be a problem. But if you (like most people do when consuming sodas) take down several at a time (what with huge bottles everywhere, free refills at most restaurants, and etc) you are easily consuming a full cup or more of sugar, as well as lots of the chemicals (which may or may not be all that bad).

As per wine and grape juice (which BTW is increasingly being seen as not that healthy when overconsumed, fruit juices that is, at least most of what litter store shelves, which are maybe 1% juice and then 10% HFCS) neither of these are healthy when you drink an entire bottle in a day.

The problem with soda is that as you are drinking it instead of eating it, it is really easy to not realize how much you are taking in. Personally I will down four or five glasses of something with dinner. If I stick with water (which is what I have been doing for the past year or so) it is no problem. If I make those beers or sodas, I could easily be drinking more calories/sugar/etc than I am eating.

[FistFullaRoux]

That's why I said mostly harmless. Anyone can go overboard on anything. Skinny people have bad hearts and high cholesterol. Fat guys and drunks live to be 98 and more.

Jim Fixx died at 52. Healthy as a horse until he keeled over. Florence Joiner at 38. Top fitness levels until the end. Pete Marvich at 40. The list goes on and on.

Life's short. I'll have a Pepsi, easy on the ice. And maybe a refill.

[Suzanne F]

Okay, health claims (or anti-health claims) aside: I don't understand why people like sodas so much because to me, almost all of them taste NASTY. I like a Coca-Cola maybe once or twice a year (provided I've got something really salty to eat with it), and Fresca makes a rare but acceptable mixer. And I'm not above a cranberry juice spritzer made with seltzer. But I find that standard-issue ginger ale is tasteless, root beer is nothing but sweet -- I just don't get any gustatory pleasure from drinking that stuff.

So even if, for argument's sake, there may not be a health risk, why not just stick with water (I'll even grant you bottled water, for locales with unpleasant-tasting stuff)? Why defend soda drinking so vehemently when it has no nutritional value AND an unpleasant taste, to boot?

[Kim WB]

my son's pediatrician had baby teeth in a jar, and would add soda to it, on your next visit you could see how much the teeth had disentegrated. fun fun fun. The enamel would come off in just a few days of soaking in the cola. I have NO IDEA of the scientific validity of this, but it sure worked to minimize my kids soda intake.

[docsconz]

I agree that anything in moderation including soda is ok if one can define moderation. I certainly wouldn't legislate against the right to drink soda if one wants. Unlike Suzanne I like the taste of many sodas. I used to drink them a lot,but now I do so only rarely. I personally find little redeeming value in them health wise, while there is still a lot potentially negative with them. I think the biggest problem with them is that people have come to drink sodas "like water". That adds up calories and chemicals very quickly.

While I wouldn't be too quick to condemn the soda habit, I certainly wouldn't recommend it.

[jhlurie]

This is all alarmist crap. Jews have been drinking seltzer since time immemoriam, and I've never heard of there being a disproportionate amount of espohogeal cancer and GERD in that group.

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You know, I always wonder where seltzer fits into this spectrum. One one hand it is a form of soda. On the other hand, all it contains is water and CO2 and nothing else.

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IF GERD was a real serious concern, then Selzer would be as bad (or worse) than anything, unless some case can be made for some of the other possible ingredients exacerbating GERD (I doubt it). Whether or not GERD really contributes to espohogeal cancer is a real question, but likely one that can't be answered by a single study.

As for Jason's statement... maybe Jews have been Seltzerized for so long they've gained a evolutionary advantage in terms of dealing with GERD. Or not.

As for the endless "acid" arguments, I agree with FistFullaRoux that they are total bullshit. So a Coke can eat away paint? So what? Our stomachs are designed to take it for the most part.

One important thing to me would seem to be the idea of not drinking soda by itself. Drinking it while also eating food would seem to be much safer than drinking it on an empty stomach.

[docsconz]

One potential difference between most sodas and seltzer is the amount of calcium they contain. I will admit that I do not know how much calcium different sodas may or may not contain, but calcium is a potent stimulator of gastric acid secretion, which may and often does exacerbate reflux symptoms. It is for this reason that OTC meds like TUMS or Rolaids are a poor choice for people suffering from heartburn or GERD. Since they initially act as buffers they help in the short term until further gastric acid release is stimulated at which point it can become a vicious cycle as someone can take even more to counter the renewed symptoms. So if anyone does know the calcium content of various sodas I would be curious. If high this may explain why some people seem to have a greater problem with soda and GERD. If this relationship holds, it is also likely that the H2-antagonists like Pepcid, Prevacid, Nexium etc. would reduce or prevent the problem.

[bloviatrix]

As for Jason's statement... maybe Jews have been Seltzerized for so long they've gained a evolutionary advantage in terms of dealing with GERD.  Or not.

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Ain't evolution grand?

[FistFullaRoux]

One potential difference between most sodas and seltzer is the amount of calcium they contain. I will admit that I do not know how much calcium different sodas may or may not contain, but calcium is a potent stimulator of gastric acid secretion, which may and often does exacerbate reflux symptoms. It is for this reason that OTC meds like TUMS or Rolaids are a poor choice for people suffering from heartburn or GERD. Since they initially act as buffers they help in the short term until further gastric acid release is stimulated at which point it can become a vicious cycle as someone can take even more to counter the renewed symptoms. So if anyone does know the calcium content of various sodas I would be curious. If high this may explain why some people seem to have a greater problem with soda and GERD. If this relationship holds, it is also likely that the H2-antagonists like Pepcid, Prevacid, Nexium etc. would reduce or prevent the problem.

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Calcium content for sodas seems to be something like 2-5 mg per 100g, with most at 3mg. Tonic water has 1mg.

http://www.jdhodges.com/nutritional-inform...ood-group-1400/

edited to add - the link above is an easier to read version of the USDA data, which is available here.

Edited December 2, 2004 by FistFullaRoux (log)

[docsconz]

One potential difference between most sodas and seltzer is the amount of calcium they contain. I will admit that I do not know how much calcium different sodas may or may not contain, but calcium is a potent stimulator of gastric acid secretion, which may and often does exacerbate reflux symptoms. It is for this reason that OTC meds like TUMS or Rolaids are a poor choice for people suffering from heartburn or GERD. Since they initially act as buffers they help in the short term until further gastric acid release is stimulated at which point it can become a vicious cycle as someone can take even more to counter the renewed symptoms. So if anyone does know the calcium content of various sodas I would be curious. If high this may explain why some people seem to have a greater problem with soda and GERD. If this relationship holds, it is also likely that the H2-antagonists like Pepcid, Prevacid, Nexium etc. would reduce or prevent the problem.

←

Calcium content for sodas seems to be something like 2-5 mg per 100g, with most at 3mg. Tonic water has 1mg.

http://www.jdhodges.com/nutritional-inform...ood-group-1400/

edited to add - the link above is an easier to read version of the USDA data, which is available here.

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Interesting link - thank you. I don't know if the amount or form of calcium is significant or not, but it is an interesting question.

On a different note here is another interesting link.

[Dani Mc]

my son's pediatrician had baby teeth in  a jar, and would add soda to it, on your next visit you could see  how much the teeth had disentegrated. fun fun fun.  The enamel would come off in just a few days of soaking in the cola.  I have NO IDEA of the scientific validity of this, but it sure worked to minimize my kids soda intake.

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Yeah, but who soaks their teeth in soda all day? I find that brushing my teeth, or at least rinsing with water after drinking a coke is quite enough to keep my teeth from disolving slowly.

I don't drink diet soda anymore because I think the artificial sweeteners were making me more bloaty than a regular soda. I don't drink really drink a whole lot of ANY soda anymore because I'd rather spend those calories on something fun-like a margarita.

[Toliver]

Most dieticians argue against sodas simply because they are empty calories. The body doesn't gain much, nutritionally speaking, from them except for added calories.

They also argue against consuming fruit juices since more can be nutritionally gained by eating an orange than by just drinking a glass of orange juice. Apple juice is little more than sugar water and can rot the teeth just as fast as soda.

[mjr_inthegardens]

I drank a shiatload of soda when I was a kid and I in part blame it for the degree of difficulty I have had with my teeth over the years ...

I don't think I would let my kids drink as much soda. We used to have a fridge filled with cans of CC.

-mjr