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Nowadays soft drinks become fashion.

Is it a good fashion or bad for our health?

If it is bad for health than how it can affect our health and which organ is mostly affected by this activity?

Carey Gregory
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Rahat Batool
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    Soft drinks are obviously unhealthy because of the amount of sugar they contain. As far as I know, soft drinks don’t contain any substance you can get addicted to, so you won’t see withdrawal syndromes etc. Really, the way to do it is to stop drinking soft drinks. – Narusan Apr 14 '18 at 06:22
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    I edited your question to remove the request for medical advice. Such requests are off topic here. – Carey Gregory Apr 14 '18 at 17:04
  • Some soft drinks can be bad for your stomach because of their acid content. Coca Cola, for instance, contains--in addition to carbonic acid--phosphoric acid. The carbonic acid occurs because of a reaction between CO2 and H20 to form carbonic acid, H2CO3. It's the carbonic acid that gives carbonated soft drinks that "bite" and why flat soda doesn't have it. – BillDOe Apr 14 '18 at 17:43
  • Soft drinks are nothing but sugar water with some flavorings added and sometimes caffeine. They have no redeeming qualities whatsoever. They rot your teeth and make you fat, and that's about the best that can be said about them. – Carey Gregory Apr 15 '18 at 03:54
  • @BillDOe - with that theory, surely citric acid in fruit etc. would pose problems for the stomach and what about folic acid.... – Chris Rogers Apr 15 '18 at 09:01
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    @Narusan-in-coma caffeine is an addictive substance in Colas and other soft drinks, which many people struggle with getting off of. Also, there is quite a bit of discussion about the addictive properties of sugar, which I have explored in both academic presentations and personal experience, and definitely agree that there's at least something valid to that theory - if not quite a bit. – DoctorWhom Apr 17 '18 at 00:22
  • @DoctorWhom Thanks, totally forgot about caffeine. I‘m neither coffee nor cola drinker, so that’s why I overlooked it. I haven’t heard about addictive properties of sugar. Does an elevated d-glucose concentration lead to endorphin release or in whatvway is the addiction caused? I might ask that as a question, actually.... – Narusan Apr 17 '18 at 06:20

1 Answers1

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Short and sweet (pun intended)

Soft drinks generally contain a lot of sugar. As a general rule, there’s 10.6g of sugar per 100ml of Coca-Cola Classic. So the health effects of drinking soft drinks are the same as eating sugar.

Not so short and sweet

As a general rule, there’s 10.6g of sugar per 100ml of Coca-Cola Classic. There are 4g of sugar per teaspoon so this equates to just over 2.5 teaspoons of sugar for every 100ml.

Standard can sizes are different around the world.

Here in the UK the standard can size is 330ml and that equates to 35g of sugar equalling just over 8.5 teaspoons of sugar.

In the US the standard can size is 12 US fl oz or 355ml. This equates to 37.6g of sugar equalling just short of 9.5 teaspoons of sugar. This can contains 150 calories which is practically all from sugar.

Coca Cola nutrition facts Sources include: USDA

So the health effects of drinking soft drinks are the same as eating sugar. Those which are of the 'diet' variety often contain aspartame which is covered by the question on here Are artificial sweeteners safe?.

Chris Rogers
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