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CARBONATED DRINKS Poison in Disguise? CARBONATED DRINKS Poison ® in Disguise? Fizzy soft drinks, caffeinated colas and energy drinks contain a variety of harmful ingredients with detrimental side effects, and their consumption should be discouraged. e have come a long way since 1798, the year when the term "soda water" came into existence.' In fact, it took nearly another century for Charles Aderton of Waco, Texas, to invent the Dr Pepper soft drink in 1885. However, nowadays we are bombarded with a wide range of carbonated beverages being successively launched in global markets. These drinks are in many ways taking the place of traditional foodstuffs, thus causing a major health crisis. First things first. A look at the health fallouts of carbonated beverages must start by explaining what these are. Carbonated beverages, popularly known as soft drinks, fizzy drinks, sodas or soda pops, are drinks that contain dissolved carbon dioxide. The process of dissolving carbon dioxide in water, called carbonation, adds "fizz" to the drink. Soft drink consumers typically associate fizz with the bubbles present in the beverage that escape from the drink or appear as emulsions at the top of the bottle or can when it is opened as the carbon dioxide present within is depressurised. However, contrary to popular belief, the fizzy taste of most carbonated drinks is caused by the dilute carbonic acid inducing a slight burning sensation and is not caused by the presence of bubbles. This can be shown by drinking a carbonated drink in a hyperbaric (pressurised) chamber at the same pressure as the beverage. This gives much the same taste, but the bubbles are completely absent.” So much for their taste. What about their contents, aside from the dissolved carbon dioxide? An article titled "The Real Dangers of Soda to You and Your Children" by Dr Joseph Mercola with Rachael Droege indicates that one can of soda has about 10 teaspoons of sugar, 150 calories and 30-55 mg of caffeine, and is loaded with artificial food colours and sulphites.* A not-so-sweet habit Consider the sugar component first. Apparently, soft drink manufacturers are the largest single users of refined sugars in the United States. In fact, most sodas contain over 100 per cent of the RDA (recommended daily allowance) of sugars. No wonder, then, that carbonated soft drinks are the largest single source of calories in the American diet, providing about seven per cent of calories—a figure which increases to nine per cent when non-carbonated drinks are included as well. For teenagers, this figure zooms to 13 per cent of the total calorie intake considering both carbonated and non-carbonated soft drinks. While consumption of carbonated soft drinks in the USA in 2004 declined by seven per cent since 1998 when the figure stood at 56.1 US gallons [212.6 litres] per person per year, most Americans still consume far too many carbonated drinks.* According to the US National Soft Drink Association (NSDA), consumption of soft drinks is now over 600 12-fluid-ounce [355 mL] servings per person per year. Apparently, soda consumption in the USA has tripled for boys and doubled for girls since 1978. Young males aged 12 to 29 are the biggest consumers at over 160 gallons [606.4 litres] per year, almost two quarts [~1.9 litres] per day.’ The situation in the UK is not much better, either. Apparently, more than 5,560 million litres of carbonated soft drinks are consumed every year in the United Kingdom. ° Considering that the UK has a population of around 60.2 million, this implies a per-person consumption of over 92 litres per year. Australia is not far behind, either. Consumption data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics as well as industry data suggest that the intake of soft drinks in Australia has grown rapidly in the past 30 years from around 47.3 litres per person per year in 1969 to by Charu Bahri © December 2006 NEXUS + 27 Email: charubahri@gmail.com FEBRUARY — MARCH 2007 www.nexusmagazine.com