What's in your soft drink?

What’s in your soft drink?

For most people, soft drinks are the main source of sugar in their diet.  While sugar may taste good, there are no nutritional benefits to these empty calories. 

There are 8-12 teaspoons of sugar in every soft drink. Could you imagine adding 8-12 teaspoons of sugar to a cup of coffee or tea?  One 12 ounce soft drink per day calculates out to fifteen pounds of added weight per year!

What effects does all this sugar have on your health?  Besides the added weight, it affects your heart and contributes to diabetes.

So are diet soft drinks a good alternative?  No.  Your brain is fooled that sugar is on the way and is expecting the calories.   With the expectation of more calories that you will not be receiving, you are likely to eat more.

Each can of soda contains 50 milligrams of caffeine.  This amount of caffeine can produce an adrenalin rush.  When it wears off you tend to feel tired and reach for more soda for more caffeine.  Nice trick isn’t it?

And what do soft drinks do to your teeth?  I thought you would never ask.  The phosphoric acid in diet and regular sodas dissolve the enamel of your teeth in minutes.  We use this same acid for seconds, and then rinse it off with copious amounts of water to etch teeth so we can bond a restorative material to your teeth.

This bathing of your teeth with acid can be the cause of tooth sensitivity and the cause of your dentistry to fail and break.

Want to try an experiment? Get a tooth; hopefully one that fell out, not one that was extracted from drinking too much soda.  Place it in the soda overnight.  You will wake to see that most of the tooth, if not all of the tooth is gone.  Magic?  No, Chemistry.  Acid dissolves teeth.  So what is the best choice for a beverage?  Water.  Imagine that.

If you have any questions or if you need help in managing oral health, please feel free to contact us.

Drs. Carl Steinberg and Gerald Weger
215-735-8844
www.DentistryinPhiladelphia.com