When I learned about the connection between carbonation and bone density loss, I cut my soda intake almost completely. I was mostly good about keeping up with that for the past several years, but got a little lazy this past year or so, allowing the occasional Dr. Pepper to sneak into my lunch or ginger ale into my dinner.

Now, after reading about a new-to-me connection between soda and cancer, I’ve decided it’s over. We’re breaking up for good, me and soda.

Admittedly, the highest risk factors involve diet soda and prolonged heat exposure, and I don’t drink diet soda, and the sodas I buy may or may not have been exposed to heat during their distribution process. So I may not be much at risk on this issue.

But you know what? It’s not so much that. It’s all the little things. Like how it likes to make me belch (very unattractive!). Like how the high sugar content skews my sense of taste. And so on. Soda is just plain wrong for me. And I think it’s high time we both accepted that and got on with our lives.

Time to get serious about eliminating soda

13 thoughts on “Time to get serious about eliminating soda

  • March 13, 2006 at 2:09 pm
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    Oh, cool. It’s always good to know that there are good reasons not to consume something you don’t care for, anyway. 😉

    -J

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  • March 13, 2006 at 2:32 pm
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    I’ve given up about 99% of my pop consumption for various reasons. First I gave up diet pop because the artificial sweeteners taste like crap and make me feel unwell in various ways. Then I gave up most sugary pop because of my hypoglycemia issues and the more I hear about health issues related to pop and/or sugar, the more I’m glad I stay away.

    I do occasionally have a root beer if I find one made without high fructose corn syrup. I’ve completely lost my taste for colas and Dr. Pepper after going so long without them and I never cared much for 7-up/Sprite-type drinks but I miss root beer sometimes.

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  • March 13, 2006 at 2:57 pm
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    Good for you! I gave up sodas a long time ago and the funny thing is that when I taste on now it’s disgusting….maybe that will happen for you too.

    But since then I have started drinking coffee…go fig…I need to drop that one…

    Mary
    (Metroblogging)

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  • March 13, 2006 at 3:11 pm
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    Looks to be a Nutrasweet-specific issue, as well, which doesn’t surprise me. I stick to Splenda for a reason.

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  • March 13, 2006 at 3:21 pm
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    I don’t drink any diet soda at all and now I’m even more glad I don’t.

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  • March 13, 2006 at 4:30 pm
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    Good for you. I quit soda cold turkey (in favor of water) maybe 6 or 7 years ago; it was hard at first but I haven’t wanted any in a long time. When I have one now (which is maybe once or twice a year), it tastes too sweet and the carbonation weirds me out.

    Good luck with the quitting.

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  • March 13, 2006 at 5:06 pm
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    Wow. I’d already eliminated most sodas for their high sugar content (diabetes *gallops* in my family so I don’t need to hit my system that hard, and I never did get the hang of diet) and caffeine (aggravates a chronic pain condition I have) but I have kept drinking fizzy water. Man, if carbonation is a problem too I’m stuck! Waaaaah! Herbal tea for me!

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  • March 14, 2006 at 1:18 pm
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    Diet sodas are terrible for you, even worse than normal sodas. The artificial sweetner triggers the same insulin reaction that sugared sodas do, so your body stores the extra sugar. Except that there isn’t any extra soda there, so the insulin reaction crashes faster and harder, causing a strong craving for sugar.

    And, of course, the artificial sweetners are horrible for you.

    The bone density loss is actually not meaningful in a normal healthy active person. Far FAR more important is weight bearing exercise. Calcium and vitamin D supplements have been found to be almost neglible in bone density. Your body is specifically designed to keep the acidity of what you eat and drink from affecting your blood chemistry, so the whole losing bone density because of the acid/carbination in soda isn’t really much of an affect. The only thing that has been consistently found to help increase or at least maintain bone density is consistent and regular weight bearing exercise. All data indicates that iron bone training when done correctly radically increases bone density, but it’s never been specifically studied so it’s all just hearsay.

    So, yes, everyone should stop drinking sodas because they are horrible for your health. But bone density loss isn’t one of the reasons you should stop. Bone density loss is the reason everyone should do exercise that involves moving around.

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  • March 14, 2006 at 1:31 pm
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    Root beer, mm. Yeah. I’ll have to work one of those in every so often, I’m afraid. 🙂

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  • March 14, 2006 at 1:31 pm
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    LOVE coffee. Love it! Not giving it up yet.

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  • March 14, 2006 at 1:33 pm
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    First of all, hilarious icon. Does that suggest that you made up your mind on the hair issue?

    Secondly, thanks for the info, I’d not heard that put into perspective. I’ve been a little lazy about exercise lately, too, so that’s great encouragement to get back to it.

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  • March 14, 2006 at 1:44 pm
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    I have sort of made up my mind. The current plan is to grow it all out long, then probably cut it into a mohawk which I’ll keep tied back in a topknot. Certainly I’ll have a mohawk again when I go to China next summer.

    Exercise is good…and for bone density you don’t even have to do that much,but it has to be weight bearing, so you have to be up and moving around not riding an exercise bike or whatever. We have several great stories about people and bone density from kung fu. The best documented was a woman that had been diagnosed with osteoperosis and was in her 60s. It was slowly getting better while she was on the drugs and faster when she started taking kung fu. Then she got to black belt and started doing iron bone training and the very next year her doctor said she “miraculously no longer had osteoperosis” and her bone density was actually very good for her age. And I’ll bet if she keeps up the training her bone density will continue to get better.

    Reply

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