Soda Ingredients

Soda is carbonated water that is flavored and sweetened with sugar or artificial sweeteners. They have become a part of Western culture and are accompanied with the favorite fast foods like hamburgers, french fries and pizzas. The new fad today is 'Diet Soda' that claims to have less amount of sugar.

There are studies that show soda is very bad for your health. They claim it causes dental caries, obesity, diabetes, dehydration, lowering of immunity, calcium loss, depletion of minerals, osteoporosis, deprivation of oxygen to the body parts, etc., the list is endless.

So what are these sods ingredients that can cause the innumerable health problems and yet we cannot stop ourselves from drinking them? Is it the attractive colors like orange, green, black, brown, pink, etc. that make you have a sip of the artificial taste? Or is it the tangling taste that plays with our taste buds?

Let us learn about the various ingredients of soda to help us answer our doubt.

Soda ingredients basically consists of water, sweeteners, an acid and some flavor. The extra or optional ingredients include fruit or fruit juice, carbon dioxide, preservatives and color. 86% of carbonated drink or soda consists of water. The sugar added to soda is mostly sucrose that is made up of two simple sugars, fructose and glucose.

This sugar provides about 17kJ/g of energy to the body. There are many other artificial sweeteners added like aspartame. This aspartame is about 200 times sweeter than sugar, so the manufactures add very little of it to the soda.

The natural flavors added are derived from fruits, vegetables, nuts, leaves, herbs, spices, etc. The sodas that are added with natural ingredients require preservatives to prevent spoilage. The artificial flavor added can give you many choices and flavors. There are many artificial flavors that mimic natural flavors very well.

The preservatives added like citric acid and phosphoric acids help not only in preventing spoilage, but giving a distinct tartness or bite to the drink. If there is too much citrus acid or phosphoric acid in the blood, you will need calcium to help normalize the pH of the blood.

The calcium is leached from the bones that leads to osteoporosis. Thus, many teenagers complain of weak bones due to excessive soda drinking.

Caffeine is an age-old ingredient of soda which is nothing but extracted cola leaf and cola nut.

Excessive caffeine in the body can cause dehydration of the body. It will also lead to large-scale depletion of minerals from the body. The bubbly appeal of soda drinks is due to carbon dioxide. The process called carbonation that occurs under pressure and chilled temperatures helps adding the bubbles to the soft drink.

This makes the drink refreshing and adds the zing in soda. The carbonated water ingested with every soda bottle decreases the oxygen in blood by 25% for up to 3 hours.

There are many sodas available in the market and each and every brand has some specific and common ingredients. Let us have a look at some of the popular ingredients that are commonly used:

• Carbonated Water
• Fructose corn syrup or sucrose
• Caramel color
• Phosphoric acid
• Natural flavors
• Caffeine
• Citric acid
• Sodium citrate
• Sodium benzonate
• Modified food starch
• Ester gum
• Red 40
• Yellow 5
• Malic acid

Let us get more specific and have a look at some of the ingredients that make up a few of our favorite drinks:

Diet Coke
Carbonated water, colour (caramel E150d), sweeteners (aspartame, acesulfame-K), phosphoric acid, citric acid, flavorings (including caffeine). Contains a source of phenylalanine.

Mirinda (Orange)
Carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, citric acid, modified food starch, ascorbic acid and calcium disodium edta (to protect flavor), sodium citrate, potassium benzoate and potassium sorbate (preserve freshness), glycerol ester of wood rosin, natural flavors, yellow 6.

Mountain Dew
Carbonated water, sugar, phosphoric acid, high fructose corn syrup, caramel color, caffeine, citric acid, natural flavor.

Pepsi
Carbonated water, sodium benzoate (preserves freshness), high fructose corn syrup, citric acid, natural flavors, caffeine, sodium citrate, erythorbic acid (preserves freshness), gum arabic, concentrated orange juice, calcium disodium edta (to protect flavor), yellow 5, brominated vegetable oil.

It is not necessary that all ingredients are used by your favorite soda brands. They may use some common ingredients and some special ingredients that give a distinct taste to their brand. Sodas are generally high in calories, sugars and sodium content. Soda consumption has been linked to weight gain by many studies.

Elevated blood pressure, liver and kidney damage, etc. are also found to be prevalent in people who drink excessive sodas. Studies have found that dental enamel, the outer covering of teeth that protects them from tooth decay get eroded due to soda intake.

The enamel is broken down by phosphoric and citric acids making teeth 3 to 11 times more prone to decay and damage.

Sodas are great drinks to drink when eating fast food or watching a movie. But they do have their repercussions and health disadvantages.

So if you drink a lot of these sodas, you better cut off your intake, if you do not want to end up in a hospital or become obese. Maybe you should take up drinking water, coconut water or even fresh fruit juices to quench your thirst for some punch.

Nothing is bad when taken in a limit. You should drink soda, but avoid over consumption. After all, it's a question of your own health.