Soda- good, bad, or just ugly?

mactaffy84

So, I was wondering about sodas. Both diet and regular. My thought is that they are not very good for us. People seem to feel that only scientific studies from peer-reviewed journals are a basis for making such a determination, so I've included some that I came across. Seems like sodas might be not,so,healthy.

Any thoughts?


1. Ogden CL, Kit BK, Carroll MD, et al: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. NCHS Data Brief: Consumption of Sugar Drinks in the United States, 2005-2008. 2011. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db71.htm. Accessed
2. Fakhouri TH, Kit BK, Ogden CL: Consumption of diet drinks in the United States, 20092010. NCHS Data Brief 2012:1-8.
3. McGartland C, Robson PJ, Murray L, et al: Carbonated soft drink consumption and bone mineral density in adolescence: the Northern Ireland Young Hearts project. J Bone Miner Res 2003;18:1563-1569.
4. Tucker KL, Morita K, Qiao N, et al: Colas, but not other carbonated beverages, are associated with low bone mineral density in older women: The Framingham Osteoporosis Study. Am J Clin Nutr 2006;84:936-942.
5. Freiden J: Diet Soft Drinks Deplete Urinary Calcium. 2010. MedPage Today. http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/ENDO/20831. Accessed April 28, 2014.
6. Vondracek SF, Hansen LB, McDermott MT: Osteoporosis risk in premenopausal women. Pharmacotherapy 2009;29:305-317.
7. Calvo MS, Tucker KL: Is phosphorus intake that exceeds dietary requirements a risk factor in bone health? Ann N Y Acad Sci 2013;1301:29-35.
8. Kemi VE, Karkkainen MU, Karp HJ, et al: Increased calcium intake does not completely counteract the effects of increased phosphorus intake on bone: an acute dose-response study in healthy females. Br J Nutr 2008;99:832-839.
9. Kemi VE, Karkkainen MU, Lamberg-Allardt CJ: High phosphorus intakes acutely and negatively affect Ca and bone metabolism in a dose-dependent manner in healthy young females. Br J Nutr 2006;96:545-552.
10. Fowler SP, Williams K, Resendez RG, et al: Fueling the obesity epidemic? Artificially sweetened beverage use and long-term weight gain. Obesity (Silver Spring) 2008;16:1894-1900.
11. Swithers SE, Martin AA, Davidson TL: High-intensity sweeteners and energy balance. Physiol Behav 2010;100:55-62.
12. Diets High In Sodium And Artificially Sweetened Soda Linked To Kidney Function Decline. 2009. ScienceDaily. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091101132543.htm. Accessed
13. Fagherazzi G, Vilier A, Saes Sartorelli D, et al: Consumption of artificially and sugar-sweetened beverages and incident type 2 diabetes in the Etude Epidemiologique aupres des femmes de la Mutuelle Generale de l'Education Nationale-European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition cohort. Am J Clin Nutr 2013.

HerkMeOff

:indifferent: :indifferent:

SomeNights246

Just like all things - moderation is key. Thing with the internet is you can, really, pull up studies to argue any opinion.

I used to drink 1-2 two liters of doctor pepper a day. I gained a lot of weight doing so. That's... a LOT of calories. However, if you drink just 1 small bottle of dr pepper a day, that's only about 200 calories (give or take) and can be fit into the average diet without any consequences. Although, caffeine is addicting, so it's tough to limit it to one bottle.

Soda obviously isn't the most nutritious drink. But common sense goes a long way.

I'll just stay here and drink my diet Mountain Dew and enjoy it, too.

prattiger65

My thoughts are, I wish I weren't so lazy. If I weren't so lazy, I would post studies that say they are just fine in moderation. But alas, I am lazy. But good luck to you!

snazzyjazzy21

Excessive consumption of anything is bad for you. I drink diet once a week and I'm not dead yet...

Forty6and2

I drink Coke Zero all the time

kgeyser

I think that if you believe sodas are unhealthy and don't want to drink them, then don't drink them.

/thread

SpencersHeart

Are you trying to convince yourself that sodas are unhealthy?

tquill

Excessive consumption of anything is bad for you. I drink diet once a week and I'm not dead yet...

Yet... someday when you're between 80-100 years old... BAM! Then we'll know the soda was bad.

In all seriousness... just looking at the first study:

"Sugar drinks have been linked to poor diet quality, weight gain, obesity, and, in adults, type 2 diabetes"

I'm inclined to think a lot of unhealthy people also drink soda... along with a bad diet. What about comparing healthy individuals that drink it vs healthy individuals that don't?

Also, correlation doesn't prove causation.

walk757

Definitely ugly, give the soda up!

Smirnoff65

I work for a company that makes soda drinks for a lot of the major companies such as CocaCola and GSK (Lucozade) the amount of sugar in the form of glucose that I see going in to their mixes has put me off drinking their products at all, I do admit though I am partial to Coke Zero even with all the chemicals that go in to it.

AndreaFitness

Just don't drink soda, period. It's not natural. Straight up chemicals.

takumaku

The caffeine, carbonation, and acid in soda is very bad for me. Had to wean myself off of pop/soda because of Crohn's/Ulcers.

nikkineidigh

I drink nothing but water for nearly twelve months. I have stopped drinking pop before I started zumba. I am still on a diet, I still drink water

Sbrn_

Ugly.

They're not good or bad. If you like them drink them, if you don't don't. I very rarely do but that's only because I hate fizzy things.

ellendavis47

Bad for us according to new nutrition information

snazzyjazzy21

Just don't drink soda, period. It's not natural. Straight up chemicals.

Better watch out, that H2O is gonna kill ya...

Forty6and2

I work for a company that makes soda drinks for a lot of the major companies such as CocaCola and GSK (Lucozade) the amount of sugar in the form of glucose that I see going in to their mixes has put me off drinking their products at all, I do admit though I am partial to Coke Zero even with all the chemicals that go in to it.

It's got to be better than that dihydrogen monoxide stuff.

12bfree

I can't think of anything good about a soda pop. Personally I prefer water. Sometimes with a squeeze of lemon. Occasionally I'll drink a diet coke but I can't think of anything good about it. Maybe a wasp trap.

Strokingdiction

So, I was wondering about sodas. Both diet and regular. My thought is that they are not very good for us. People seem to feel that only scientific studies from peer-reviewed journals are a basis for making such a determination, so I've included some that I came across. Seems like sodas might be not,so,healthy.

Any thoughts?


... lots o studies ...

I could link a thousand studies that difinitively tell me how bad alcohol is for the human body, especially in excess.

I'm still going to enjoy a little bit of my favorite alcohol. I might even mix it with some soda. Oh no, that might lead to:

cpdiminish

Of course, you'd have to define healthy or unhealthy before you could have an absolute answer.

But soda doesn't contain any nutrients (or so few that they don't much matter), so I don't see how they could ever be considered healthy.

Every time I see a thread or comment where someone claims that soda isn't bad for you, I can't help but wonder how much the beverage industry is paying them.

Most sodas contain enough artificial colors and flavors to definitely put them on the "bad" list, and that is before you even begin to look at the form of sweetener used.

FlaxMilk

Almost nothing cheers me up more quickly than a perfect hit of diet soda. It's one of the things that I don't care if it's healthy or unhealthy.

snazzyjazzy21

Of course, you'd have to define healthy or unhealthy before you could have an absolute answer.

But soda doesn't contain any nutrients (or so few that they don't much matter), so I don't see how they could ever be considered healthy.

Every time I see a thread or comment where someone claims that soda isn't bad for you, I can't help but wonder how much the beverage industry is paying them.

Most sodas contain enough artificial colors and flavors to definitely put them on the "bad" list, and that is before you even begin to look at the form of sweetener used.

I disagree, normal soda has carbs. Carbs is a macro, right?

And diet soda contains no nutrients. Kinda like water...

JessieSky

I cut out soda altogether; never could stand the taste of diet but now even regular tastes disgusting to me. They're obviously not healthy for you, but if it's something you really enjoy, moderation is the key.

amejia79

Stay away from both! See some studies below regarding regular and diet soda!

Replacing caloric beverages with water or diet beverages for weight loss in adults: main results of the Choose Healthy Options Consciously Everyday (CHOICE) randomized clinical trial
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/95/3/555.long
Summary: No difference in weight

The effect of sucrose- and aspartame-sweetened drinks on energy intake, hunger and food choice of female, moderately restrained eaters.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9023599
Summary: "These results suggest that in females with eating restraint, substituting sucrose-sweetened drinks for diet drinks does not reduce total energy intake and may even result in a higher intake during the subsequent day."

Added Sugar is The Single Worst Ingredient in The Diet. Period.
http://authoritynutrition.com/sugar-the-worst-ingredient-in-the-diet/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+AuthorityNutrition+(Authority+Nutrition)

Strokingdiction

Of course, you'd have to define healthy or unhealthy before you could have an absolute answer.

But soda doesn't contain any nutrients (or so few that they don't much matter), so I don't see how they could ever be considered healthy.

Every time I see a thread or comment where someone claims that soda isn't bad for you, I can't help but wonder how much the beverage industry is paying them.

Most sodas contain enough artificial colors and flavors to definitely put them on the "bad" list, and that is before you even begin to look at the form of sweetener used.

Really? You think they're worried about what people say on some internet forum and would spend money to plant 'moles' on MFP.

Here:

establishingaplace

There is nothing in the world better for an upset stomach than a ginger soda, the kind with the chunks of ginger floating around.

*waits patiently for $10 check to arrive from Big Soda*

redversustheblue

Of course, you'd have to define healthy or unhealthy before you could have an absolute answer.

But soda doesn't contain any nutrients (or so few that they don't much matter), so I don't see how they could ever be considered healthy.

Every time I see a thread or comment where someone claims that soda isn't bad for you, I can't help but wonder how much the beverage industry is paying them.

Most sodas contain enough artificial colors and flavors to definitely put them on the "bad" list, and that is before you even begin to look at the form of sweetener used.

Really? You think they're worried about what people say on some internet forum and would spend money to plant 'moles' on MFP.

Here:

Man I wish Diet Dr. Pepper was paying me. Any Diet Dr. Pepper executives out there reading this, please feel free to contact me with your offers.

Seriously though, moderation. I drink 64-100oz of water everyday and I also usually drink a diet soda a day. Not planning on giving it up.

ubernym

This is a weird question. Soda is too broad a term, for one, and some folks are throwing around scare words like "not natural" and "full of chemicals".

Newsflash: Everything. Is. Full. Of. Chemicals.

Don't be afraid of chemicals. YOU are full of chemicals! Here's a list, in order from most present to least present,of the
average human's chemical (ooh scary!) composition:

oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, phosphorous,
potassium, sulfur, sodium, chlorine, magnesium, boron, chromium,
cobalt, copper, fluorine, iodine, iron, manganese, molybdenum, selenium,
silicon, tin, vanadium, zinc

These are chemicals that are inside your body right this very second. And they've been there for a long, long time. It's completely natural.

Marketers and other folks with compromised morals love terms like "natural," "organic", "no artificial x", blah blah blah. More often than not, I'd wager, these proclamations are merely paying lip service to some idealized (and ultimately false) notion of "true health"...some pristine state of ultimate human potential that you haven't yet obtained but you *just might* if only you could stop doing that one horrible thing you do and HEY BY THE WAY I totally have a book to sell to you about that, or a new all-natural product to help you get off your horrible chemical addictions. Just sign right here. Yes, that's right...don't worry the blood dries quickly.

I kid, I kid.

But seriously. Is salt bad for you? Is sugar bad for you? Is caffeine for you? The answer is as always: it depends.

Here's an anecdote for you (meaning my results don't represent all results). I drink TONS and TONS of Diet Mt. Dew, Diet Coke, Coke Zero, every single day. I never drink sugar soda. I also stick to my meal plan. Over the past 7 months I lost 45 pounds. I never stopped drinking soda. I merely restricted myself to diet. Does that mean I got a lot more sodium than I needed? Yes, definitely. So I eased up on the salt in my foods to compensate a little.

Is drinking that much caffeine great for me? I honestly don't know, I can only say that it hasn't caused me any problems yet, so I'll continue to use it as an aid to keep me from eating all the potato chips in one sitting. That's how I use diet soda. It's a tool to keep me on track, because at a MACRO level it's just flavored water. Getting your macros right is the primary concern. Once you've got those down you can focus on fixing your micros, take that next step. But if you prematurely fret over the micros you may end up getting so overwhelmed that you give up and make no progress at all!

Moderation works both ways.

Good health and good fitness, ultimately, are about understanding *your own personal* responses to eating AND exercising. Everyone will be different. Getting to grips with your body's mental-physical feedback system is what will ultimately help you decide what you can and cannot eat.

Derpes

VoodooSyxx

Regular soda? Nope. I've been there and was drinking a 12 pack or two a day. I have no desire to get back on that sugar roller coaster.

I'll have a can of Coke Zero once a day or every other day though.