Stop Soda Pop: Five Reasons Not to Drink Soda

A few years ago, during a New Year’s Eve celebration, my friend Curt and I both vowed to stop soda pop. We realized that we drank way too many soft drinks and made a joint resolution to give up drinking soda. I caved first, lasting only a week or so without my sugar and caffeine fix. While out to dinner one night, I was slurping on a soda and thought it tasted odd. “This soda tastes funny,” I complained, though it was probably just the particular restaurant’s syrup to soda water ratio. “Does it taste like guilt?” Curt deadpanned while he was still high on his resolution horse. Guilt, indeed – and high fructose corn syrup, the apparent downfall of contemporary American processed food.

Several years later and many gallons of soda since, I’ve finally come around to curtailing the Coke. Doing away with the Dr. Pepper. Minimizing the Mountain Dew. And so on. I’m not entirely soda-free, but now I average about two servings a week as compared with, you know, the five a day I used to consume. So what were the reasons behind my behavior change?

Stop Soda Pop – Reason #1: That much sugar and coloring isn’t good for your teeth. Every dentist I’ve ever met pleads with people to quit drinking soda pop – and for good reason. The links between tooth decay and soda are well-established in the literature and obvious to anyone who’s observed liquid Coke in a chemistry class. The enamel of our teeth is remarkably strong but not indestructible, especially with this stuff washing against it. And even if you drink diet soda with a substitute sweetener, you’re still taking in caramel coloring with most brands, including the ever-popular Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi.

Stop Soda Pop – Reason #2: Soda isn’t good for the rest of your body either. Besides the increasingly explored link between high fructose corn syrup and American obesity, there are questions about how heavy soda consumption reduces the effectiveness of some antibiotics and how it indirectly increases kids’ likelihood for osteoporosis (because they’re replacing milk with soft drinks and thus lacking calcium). While we can’t believe every anti-soda claim, if even a fraction of them are true, we need to change our habits.

Stop Soda Pop – Reason #3: Soda pop gets expensive. If you add up the amount of money you spend on soda at home, work, restaurants, sporting events, etc., you might be surprised. Granted, buying soda in bulk at the grocery store and taking it home is cheaper than buying it for public consumption at inflated pricesâÂ?¦but either way, the dollars add up when you consume month after month. And for as much soda pop as we Americans drink, it’s not always what we most want. It’s just familiar and convenient – especially when it’s included with a meal on the go or when it’s sitting in your fridge in an easy-to-grab can. I admittedly drink a lot of coffee, but at least I slowly savor espresso drinks (as opposed to gulping down soda like someone’s trying to steal it).

Stop Soda Pop – Reason #4: Soda pop really lines the pockets of “The Man.” If you’ve read Eric Schlosser’s tightly argued book, Fast Food Nation, then you know that soda is one of the highest profit margin items at restaurants – specifically at fast food restaurants. When you compare the pennies that it costs McDonalds (and all their peers) to provide a cup, ice, syrup, and carbonated water and weigh it against the $1 or more that you regularly pay for soda pop, it seems like usury. The same can be said for soda that you purchase in the grocery store. It’s not that the soda itself or the production is terribly costly per unit; it’s all that advertising you’re really paying for. Millions and millions and millions of dollars are spent on ads, promotions, packaging, and the like. I agree that it’s hard to consume anything in America without lining the pockets of “The Man,” but soda pop remains one of the most commercialized, egregious examples of parting people and their money for a product that’s not even good for them.

Stop Soda Pop – Reason #5: There are too many other options, including better thirst quenchers. Water, of course, is the ultimate in healthy beverages, and very few of us drink the full amount we should everyday. There are also real juices, vitamin waters, Gatorade, and tea (“real” tea – not supersweet iced tea from syrup or powder). While those beverages aren’t perfect, they’re almost always better for you than soda and just as, if not more, thirst-quenching.