Soda- good, bad, or just ugly?

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.

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

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

/thread

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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...

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)

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*

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.

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.