I occasionally have a coke. I prefer it over a beer or glass of wine! I used to drink a lot of it when I was in college and in my early 20s. I feel a lot less bloated for sure, but not really any other health benefits which makes me think I didn't really drink all that much. When I want something else to drink besides water I like to have watered down juice or flavored seltzer (peach, vanilla, and blueberry and my favorite)... but how do they make the seltzers so flavorful with no sugar?

Doesn't Soda Stream soda still affect your bones, though?

When I was younger my mother would never keep soda in the house, so I could only get it at friend's or family's houses, it became a 'special treat'. Now that I'm an adult I don't keep it in the house unless we're having a cookout or company or something. Wierd huh?

Despite my rich diet (I refuse to "diet") and taste testing of my delicious and prolific baking experiments, coupled with the fact that I do not work out, I've managed to stay a size 8 and be a normal sized girl. Some people say it's my genes, but I attribute it to the fact that I rarely drink anything but water or unsweetened tea.

Every once in a while I will crave a coke, mostly when I'm eating popcorn or chips, but I could not imagine drinking one everyday. So many of the "dieting" ladies at my office guzzle diet coke and crystal light, I have to wonder how that helps/hurts.

The sole reason I stopped drinking so much soda (I still have a diet coke when I want but nothing like before) was my teeth. Since I was a child I had my dentists telling me to stop soda and after root canal number 3 as an adult I finally listened. I know what a nightmare the acid is cokes are to your teeth but that's really the limit of reasons why I don't drink as much. The other health stuff here I just kind of wave off as "whatever."

amenity, I don't see why Soda Stream would affect your bones. All the machine does is add carbon dioxide to regular old tap water. You can flavor the water if you want, but you don't have to, and health effects would depend on what you used to flavor it. I've used Soda Stream's flavorings, which I didn't like much, and homemade juices, which I did. Osteoporosis/lower bone-density links to soda seem to focus on phosphoric acid and caffeine, not carbonation.

The only problem I have with this info graphic is that it repeatedly connects drinking soda with obesity. I worry about my family who drinks soda everyday but is not overweight. I know that soda impacts your health even if you are not overweight and I wish that was stressed more. If I were to share this with them they would say " but I'm not overweight" as an excuse to continue to drink soda.

Amyeliz, carbonated water is slightly acidic, so even without flavor it can still effect your TEETH, which might be the bones Amenity was wondering about. Drinking through a straw and rinsing your mouth with plain water after having soda water mitigate the effects, though. And it's nowhere near as bad for your teeth as your average soda, which has more added acids and sugar.

But that's just the dental effect. Carbonated water should have no effect on the bones inside your body. The only studies that show there *might* be an effect on bones were from phosphoric acid, which is in various sodas, but not carbonated water.

This may sound harsh and overly dramatic, but I'm convinced that diet coke causes cancer. I know a few people who have gotten so sick and they drank a lot of diet coke. A lot. Though their overall health wasn't great either.

I've never had soda in the house and we love our soda stream "penguin." When I was pregnant all I wanted was a coke though - and in my last trimester I allowed myself one a week.

I am working on quitting pop because of how the caffeine makes my stomach feel. I think it messes with the acidity in my stomach and gives me stomach aches.

On the other hand, I've always heard that quitting pop causes weight loss. Is this only when drinking regular pop or diet pop? Does anyone have any input? I just can't see how someone would lose more weight if they quit drinking diet pop.

@alyssasteffes: i have read a study correlating diet coke drinking with average weight, the result was that people who tend to drink more diet soda tend to weigh more than people who don't drink soda at all.
I can't remember where I read it but it was fairly recent, Google it and see what you find.

I loooove soda. My husband and I started keeping diet sodas made with Splenda (Publix brand) around the house instead of regular products like Coke. I was drinking Coke Zero instead of regular to help my waistline but quit drinking that after becoming pregnant because of the caffeine and questionable sweeteners. I just try to limit my intake now and try to drink from a straw when possible (the same as when I drink sports drinks like Gatorade...read they ruin tooth enamel as well).

I definitely lose inches from my waistline when I'm not drinking much soda, and I seem to have less cellulite as well (don't know if there has even been a study relating the two). But I could never completely give it up...too good.

We have and love soda stream. Water + fizzy water + booze is enough for me.

Maybe four times a year I'll have one of the not so sweet soda's like Dry. And enjoy it. But regular soda is way for me to enjoy anymore.

Trish, that's true but most people don't wash lemon juice over their teeth a handful of times per day. People who love to eat lemons and things have worse enamel troubles.

Every sip of soda you take you're just washing a sweet and acidic wash over your teeth. Compound that by how many sodas the average soda drinker has in a day, it builds up. Don't you remember one kid in your elementary school science projects doing the experiment with soaking teeth in coke? They dissolve in a matter of days. Kind of scary.

But yes, you are right. In fact, my dentist told me to stay away from fruit juices and crystal light type things all as much as possible because they all have acids in them that wear teeth.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/29/diet-soda-weight-gain_n_886409.html

There are many studies directly correlating soda, specifically diet soda, with weight gain and dramatically larger waist sizes. Artificial sweeteners are NO GOOD. And soda does decrease bone density...

http://www.webmd.com/osteoporosis/features/soda-osteoporosis

I used to drink way more soda than I should - and then I developed a bladder disease. Now, I drink ice water and sometimes tea and that is it (not even alcohol, at least until my bladder is healed in a couple of years)... And after a year of no soda - I find that I no longer like the taste. I'd much rather drink juice or coffee (sigh - not yet) or something else that is healthy than waste my calories on super processed crap.

the chart would be fair if it showed a comparison with juice and other drinks. Drinks don't have to be carbonated to be bad for you. Snapple has most of the things mentioned too. So does a cup of coffee or OJ. And apple juice that kids drink in schools.

We have soda stream too, and love it.

Crraaaaap. Sodaholic here. Hardcore. And I've known all this stuff forevs. I just can't kick the habit. Coming from a person who's kicked smoking AND drinking alcohol. I'm addicted, and I don't mean that jokingly.

Oh yeah, and all the talk about teeth and bones, but no one has mentioned the effects of ALL carbonated beverages on the esophagus. EVen the infographic ignores it. When I was trying to motivate myself to quit soda, I became more worried about the esophagus stuff than the tooth/bones/weight stuff (and the other things I never considered-- kidney a reproductive stuff, too?).

What I found is that ALL fizzy drinks, including beer and yes, carbonated water, can be very harmful if drunk in excess. If you drink them too much, and are constantly burping and giving yourself indigestion because of it, you're running the risk of developing esophageal cancer. From what I read, anyway.

Mama Gigi, you arent being dramatic. Diet sodas contain aspartame -- an artificial sweetener proven to cause cancer in rodents.

i drink like 4 cans of seltzer water....is this as bad as drinking say...4 diet coke?

To be fair, rodents get tumors spontaneously and frequently. Here's some references.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1477518
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7724835

In short, if it gives a rodent a tumor that doesn't mean it will give a human a tumor.

The comment about caffeine, sugar-spiking and the blockade of adenosine receptors being akin to the actions of heroin is simply absurd. It is one of the most consistent and inaccurate bastardizations of pharmacology I see on a regular basis. Shameless abuse of science to appeal to a higher authority than infographics.

"Don't you remember one kid in your elementary school science projects doing the experiment with soaking teeth in coke? They dissolve in a matter of days. Kind of scary."

Scary and a bit disingenuous. I don't soak my teeth in Coke for days at a time. Even heavy Coke drinkers occasionally run something else through their mouths in the course of a day. Chips, perhaps. ;)

Yes, acid food is bad for your teeth. Soaking a tooth or penny in Coke or any other acidic liquid is not an accurate demonstration.

My husband kinda makes our own soda using fizzy water (he has a CO2 tank and carbonation cap for brewing) and juices. The best is lemon juice, grated ginger and maybe a 1/4 cup sugar shaken up in a 2LT bottle for home made ginger-ale! Or just half a glass of juice and half fizzy water. Way healthier than soda!

It's the acids they add to soda that make them a major threat to your teeth. Commercial sodas should never be consumed on a regular basis.

I'd usually rather have a nice glass of fresh water, anyhow.

Aspartame causes tinnitus. If I eat or drink something containing aspartame, my ears will be ringing within an hour or two. Really unpleasant. I won't touch the junk.

@HouseonClintonAve I think your doctor is probably the best person to ask about this and not the folks who read a fancy blog about cooking. No offense, but there are a lot of varying opinions and assertions here and the truth is probably somewhere in the middle. Instead of looking to the media and insurance companies for advice on our health, it's probably best to talk to people who actually know what they're talking about.

Is there any good reason to ever pick soda over water?

Have you ever put some citric acid in baking soda water? It totally fizzes over with a chemical reaction. Kind doesn't want me to put drinks loaded with the stuff in my kid's bodies!!

A can full of chemicals. Yummy.

A colleague of mine once asked for a diet coke in an Italian restaurant. The waiter put on a really disgusted face and said "We have wine and water. Which do you want?"
Seriously, it's not surprising that you gain wait if you constantly add calories to your normal diet, be it soda, juices or alcoholic drinks.

I must admit it's quite difficult for me to get American obsession about sodas. I do understand kids liking it, but adults? A fizzy, sugar or saccharine loaded stuff? Makes you bloated, burp and constantly thirsty. Ruins your teeth (so you spend extra $$ for whitening procedures at dentist's office). My in-laws did not drink anything except sodas, punches (this is even weirder; I tried it it tastes like crap) all their lives, never water; until they had severe health issues, but completely refuse to relate it to soda ("it's just soda, for god's sake"). So they were forced to quit, but struggle a lot. Instead they drink gallons of sweet tea - which is not much better - lots of sugar and caffeine. They are both obese.
Coming from post-soviet country I never had coke while growing up, first try was at age 22. Never was keen for it and don't have any craving for it what so ever. If I am thirsty I take water.

I've been soda free since June 3, 2009. Stopped cold turkey one day when I realized just how much I drank. Used to be a 6 cans of Coke per day guy, then changed to 3-4 20oz bottles of Coke Zero per day for a few years before deciding enough was enough. I've not had a soda of any sort since that June 3. I feel much better since stopping soda and primarily drinking water. I'll have the occasional tea (usually one glass per week) and never drink coffee. I sleep better, my weight is lower and more consistent, I'm rarely excessively thirsty, and I like telling people that I don't drink soda.

Ha ha LOL....I love that the Soda Stream ad showed up on this post.

I love an occasional soda because it is so yummycrackalicious. However, I was told by a urologist--who treated me for UTIs--that soda is a no-no when it comes to bladder health. Other bladder irritants include citrus juices, coffee, tea, alcohol, and spicy foods.

I don't know. I must have regenerating tooth enamel because I drank so much soda as a kid (not so much anymore) and I eat so many acidic foods I should have no teeth left but I've never had a cavity.

"Aspartame causes tinnitus. If I eat or drink something containing aspartame, my ears will be ringing within an hour or two. Really unpleasant. I won't touch the junk."

Aspartame cured me of a diet soda habit quickly. I used to wince and drink saccarine sodas (aftertaste, blech). I drank my first can of soda with aspartame on an empty stomach between classes in college. During the following class, my hands started to shake and I could see in my mind what I wanted to say but I couldn't make the words come out of my mouth correctly. I wasn't sure if it was really the Aspartame and tried diet sodas on a couple of different occasions. Same thing. If I'm given a diet soda by mistake when I've eaten or am eating, the reaction is milder but in the same vein. I KNOW what I want to say but I can't get the words to come out, along with shaky hands.

No more aspartame for me.

I thought about getting the Soda Stream at one point, until I found out they they put Sucralose in all of their flavors, diet or not (except their Sparkling Naturals, which honestly doesn't appeal to me). Sucralose (Splenda) is just as bad for you as any other artificial sweetener. If they switch to plain old sugar, or Truvia for their diet options, I might spend the money.

I stopped a large Diet Coke habit in late November or 2010. I had been drinking a 20 oz first thing in the morning, then 2-3 more throughout the day, and another glass with dinner.

One day I just thought, "I'm done with this, I don't want that anymore." I drink a ton of water, a cup of coffee every morning (with real sugar and real half-n-half), and unsweetened iced tea if we're eating out.

No idea if it it was the Diet Coke or increased work stress, but I lost over 25 pounds since then & am still losing (without trying, and in some cases with trying to STOP losing).

But like smoking or drinking, no one can make you quit. You have to want to do it and be ready to do it.

I stopped drinking soda pop when I was 16 as a new year's resolution. I'm now 25 and have been soda-free for almost 10 years (aside from allowing myself a little tonic with my gin). The strange thing is that after not drinking it for so long, even the smell of soda pop seems sickeningly sugary and sticky.

At 57, I thought I could never give up coke but thankfully I did. Then I lost 40 pounds but that was by avoiding other carbs, too.

Soda pop is murderous, whether diet or not.

Nowadays when I see people drinking pop it's weird - I actually have a thought like "what? they actually drink that stuff?"

I guess what I want to say is, we're conditioned to think it's so much a part of life. But once you kick the habit, and regain your health, it suddenly is so clear that it's like drinking antifreeze or something - unimaginable. I highly encourage people to do their best to give it up. If you do so in conjunction with avoiding other carbs (including so-called "good carbs"), even just for a week, there's a good chance it will be WAY easier than you thought it would be. This is because carbs are what cause carb cravings. In my case, going without carbs for EVEN ONE DAY made my evening food cravings to away entirely. I used to be a non-stop eater, especially later in the day. Now I have to remind myself to eat at all.

Coke and Pepsi are poison and should be treated as such. Think of them as treacherous, abusive "friends." Do you really want friends like that?

I've never drank much soda. I wasn't allowed to growing up and never drank much after leaving home since I didn't much care for it and was too cheap/broke to spend money on it. Plus now I don't eat or drink anything with corn syrup in it, since it almost undoubtedly comes from genetically modified corn and I try to avoid all GMOs. Very occasionally I'll have an organic soda in a glass bottle, but that is a very rare treat. Much better on the body and the budget to drink water!

I just don't like the taste of soda anymore. I used to when I was younger, but for some reason my adult stomach can't handle it. I prefer water, with a little lemon or even sparkling water with a teaspoon or two of syrup.

I usually don't drink sugary soda but when I am having pizza, i gotta have Coke zero.

i quit recently and it has been pretty good so far. in the past a number of things have tripped me up, starting with migraines from the caffeine withdrawal. this time i had a plan: drink water and green tea (caffeine) until the sugar cravings passed and frankly, until all that carbon was out of my digestive system. i've been trying to ween off the green tea (bottled) for a few days. did have a migraine this morning and took 1/2 a dose of excedrin. mostly, i have been drinking water since friday. even at the office which is RARE.

i notice i have to take my belt in another notch. kinda awesome. weight loss is only slight so far. but i've been trying to eat better too, and not late at night.

on teeth: my dentist told me that every time you sip a sugary drink, you feed the bacteria that work away at your enamel about 30 mins. worth of energy. so, if you sip every 15 mins. throughout the day, you give the bacteria the energy to drill on your teeth nonstop. he told me to drink it in a sitting and rinse with water afterward, at least.

this i cannot do. i've been sipping mtn. dew through the day for 15 years. but i have finally managed to quit! soon i'll figure out how to ween off the caffeinated tea (home brewed) and get on with it.

(and i was really happy to see an ad for organic agave nectar from domino sugar co. today!)

i'll add that people outside the u.s perhaps fail to understand the intense advertising and marketing we have subjected to all our lives. the logos are ubiquitous and the advertising sets the bar for every other kind of anything. coca cola was the #1 best advertiser of the 20th century. we live a nation where means of communication are perfected and everpresent. our television programming is now 24-hours a day. americans can be reached by any and every means of communication: tv, radio, internet (including blogs), movies, movie theaters and every available surface from automobiles to public benches.

as a people, we are besieged by emotionally messages meant to induce us to buy things. meant to make us believe that we need those things. that is our consumer culture.

if you're going to judge us, at least acknowledge that this machine was set in motion before the vast majority of us were ever born. we are indoctrinated.
and i say this as one who holds a b.a. in advertising.

@lady: it's true, I was amazed how much soda americans were drinking compared with europeans the first time I went to the States. personally I don't like sodas as they're too sweet for my taste (and I cannot stand aspartame) but I occasionally drink a Coca Cola when I've got stomach ache and it works!

Lady 3 - not to mention that sometimes soda is the only alternative available to coffee. As a child (when I loathed soda because we never had it at home so the whole fizzy thing grossed me out) I can remember family parties and even Catholic Order of Forester parties where the only options were soda or coffee. The same sometimes holds true for vending machines. If you want a cold beverage to carry around...soda machines abound but water isn't always an option.

Mama Gigi, I can't help but agree. A woman I work with drank diet soda out of a giant barrel all day long. She didn't like water, and claimed she got enough of it from the melting ice in her diet soda. She developed a benign brain tumor that had to be removed, and has since had to leave her job due to complications from the tumor and major depression.

We bought a Soda Stream a few months ago and it was one of the best purchases we've ever made! We're not big soda drinkers but we bought gallons of mineral water. By the time we ran out the first CO2 canister we'd already more than paid for the Soda Stream with what we saved buying bottled fizzy water. Now on our refilled canister at $15 for 60 litres we're really saving $! We loved it so much we've given 2 as gifts.
I like to put an herbal tea bag or two in my bottle before I pump in the CO2. In just a few minutes I have a wonderful "soda" with no calories or harmful ingredients.

We only had coke in the house for birthday parties when I was little. It was something you bought for your guests on special occasions. I never keep it in the house (out of habit from growing up, I guess). In college, I had to have a 3:00 Coke to make it through the long days, but I gradually weaned myself off of that. Now my co-workers make fun of me for re-filling my stainless steel water bottle five times a day.

I do still crave a Coca-Cola every once in a while (and have it), but almost any other soda tastes sickeningly sweet and syrupy to me. I find myself liking sweet flavors less and less as I get older and being drawn to slightly bitter flavors.

But oh my my, a ginger ale? Like a real ginger ale? Oh, weak in the knees for that stuff. Never keep it in the house, it wouldn't last two hours. Lucky for me they aren't in your average drink machine.

From what I understand about the diet soda-weight relationship (albeit, I read it in the NYT Sunday magazine, not exactly peer reviewed primary literature) is that the fake sugars don't trigger the feeling of satiation, so after drinking one diet soda, you're still unable to resist all kinds of other junk, whereas if you have a half of a real sugar (or HFCS, I suppose) soda, your ability to maintain your willpower might actually increase.

I'm 42 yrs old, and growing up my mom didn't allow soda. We only got it at someone else's home. I never grew a taste for it. It tasted too sweet. I still have only had a soda when travelling out of the country and the water is iffy. I sometimes forget to buy it when having a party or get together because I am so used to not even thinking about it.

alyssasteffes, diet soda tricks your body into thinking you are drinking a "sugary drink", so your body starts producing insulin to deal with all that sugar. When you body doesn't get any sugar (just the artificial sweeteners), your body's now full of useless insulin, so you start to feel hungry and you start eating to use up all that extra insulin. Diet isn't any better than regular soda.

I drink one Dr. Pepper a day. Everytime I try to cut back I feel depressed and get headaches. I know it is only one, but it is my crutch and I hate to give it up (okay, I'll have two if my kid is driving up the wall). I have never had alcohol, I have never smoked, and I've never had tea or coffee. I figure one Dr. Pepper a day is a small vice comparatively.

I became hooked while in university. We never drank soda as a child in Canada because it was really expensive. It is so cheap here in the states, everyone is pushing it on you. While I was pregnant, I stopped drinking soda (It made me sick). I was so proud of myself, but everywhere I went, there was soda. Every restaurant, at my in-laws, etc. Sometimes it is the only thing to drink (especially if you are getting fast food and want fries, the drink is basically free and they don't offer anything else). I feel like I don't really have a choice (maybe I'm just justifying).

I've never had a thing for soda [depite having two soda addics in the house who drink about a litre of coke per day, apiece.]. Save for the occasional half can of Dr Pepper or the tonic water in my G&T. I'd rather brew myself some unsweetened iced tea.

However, that Soda Stream business has piqued my interest.

Not all sodas are created equal. I am SO surprised that no one here drinks Zevia, a stevia soda. Zevia is the only soda I allow in my household. It contains no calories, no chemicals, no articifical sweeteners and no sugar. Oh, and no phosphoric acid either. It's a healthy soda, and thankfully, other than its natural citric acid on my teeth, doesn't apply to any of these concerns. I think I could tackle that last concern with a straw.

I drink a diet coke almost every day and it does not make me crave sugary/bad stuff later. It's weird, I don't have much of a taste for sweet at all, just diet coke. I love it. I don't like regular coke at all. I know it's bad, but I have pretty much eliminated everything else bad and unhealthy from my life/diet (well, besides wine/beer, but that doesn't count) and I am not giving up my diet cokes. Only a can or fountain though, bottles aren't good.

I don't really appreciate the diagram's emphasis on weight either. I only drink water. Ever, because I prefer it. And I'm still overweight. I also do not overeat, only eat fresh whole foods, I cook at home, organic when I can get it, exercise, avoid HFCS and preservatives. I'm still moderately overweight and yep, healthy. A lot of times people assume that your weight is indicative of one's health and that just isn't substantiated by research or observance. A thin person drinking a ton of soda and eats crap food is a lot less healthy than me. The assumption people make by looking at me is irritating.

I hardly ever drink soda. But every 3 months or so I crave a fountain soda. So I have one.

For the past few years I've only had soda maybe once every few months. I haven't noticed any differences other than in my wallet.

I've been drinking various flavors of Zevia for several months now, it's fantastic, no calories, no sugar, no aspartame, no high fructose corn syrup and no sodium benzoate. You can have your soda guilt free. The only issue is finding stores that carry it.

After drinking at least one 20oz bottle of Pepsi or Coke (never diet, ew, ew. It tastes like floor cleaner.) every day since high school, I quit altogether at 23. I did it for my teeth, mostly, and though I can't say I've lost weight (I'm pretty skinny anyway)- I found that I don't really gain weight when back then it seemed like I was getting heavier very slowly. Come to think of it, I am ingesting about 240 calories and 65(!!) grams of sugar less per day than I was back then. I do miss being buoyed by the dose of sugar and caffeine, though, but now when I look at soda, it isn't even a food to me. It might as well be a bottle of gasoline. It's made of processed junk not found in nature and I think my body is better off without it. I do sometimes crave soda intensely, and when I do, I buy a bottle and drink maybe a quarter of it. I throw the rest out before I get a chance to miss it. I know it's a waste of money, and that keeps me from doing it too often.

I believe soda truly is addictive. You are regularly dosing your body with caffeine and sugar/aspertame and whatever other things are in there that your body gets used to having. It isn't easy to go cold turkey, and not just because you crave the taste if it. Your body misses the chemical effect the soda has on you. When I craved soda, I would feel incredibly thirsty and think only a Coke or Pepsi could fix it, and of course it didn't.

It took the reality of having to pay out of pocket for the care of my already pretty bad teeth to quit soda, but two years later, my weight is maintained and I really think I am healthier.

@Lady J, the tea contains the same molecule called caffeine, but it's teine (? "théine" in french) in this case and it is not chemically bound in the same manner as caffeine (if I remember me tea classes well). It is less damaging to health.
In addition, tea provides numerous health benefits.
If you really want to quit all caffeine, you just have to make a first brew of your tea for 30 seconds, and you throw that water, and make a new brew (of the same leaves, indeed). Almost all the caffeine is gone.

My parents were fairly strict with us as children, never any soda in the house, not too many junk foods (until we were teens), I remember not even TRYING chips until I was about 8 or 9. When I finally did drink soda, the carbonation was way too much for my stomach even though I liked the taste. Even today beer and soda is very heavy in my stomach, I don't drink it often, if at all. I definitely credit my parents on my adult healthy eating choices and will choose water over anything else. I bring water with lemon every morning to work but if I'm out I don't put lemon in, you never know if they've washed it before putting it in your glass. :(

Makes me shake my head when people drink soda and complain about their weight. There's is so much scientific knowledge out there, easy to acquire, that can help one take control of their health in whatever way they want.

I had a 1 can daily diet Pepsi habit throughout my entire undergraduate degree. There was a little mom n' pop convenience store on my way home from campus, the cans were 75 cents, I'd have a little chat with the owner....it was all very nice.

I stopped for about a year and a half after I graduated, but I'm leading up to starting graduate school now and I find myself craving it again. Something about reading scientific literature just triggers that need in me.

Wow. I can't believe you can diagnose cancer so easily! What a great medical breakthrough! Someone you know drinks soda?!?! And has cancer?!?! Why, it's the soda, of course!

Should I experience any medical problems, I'll be sure to post them on this site for diagnosis.