There is not much good to say about soda pop, except for what they have taken out (see below.) Soda has been associated with diabetes, obesity, mood, and cognitive disorders, migraines, strokes, reflux, intestinal problems, pre-term deliveries, cancer, hypertension, and heart disease. Other than that, it is OK. (Other than that, what did you think of Dallas, Jackie?)
If you are not ready to quit you may have developed an addiction to it. Perhaps you should do what a dentist recommended after he documented how corrosive soda is to teeth enamel—he advises to drink soda pop with a straw to bypass our pearly whites! I say make the straw long enough so that it comes out your rear end.
There was a time when soda had a couple of silver linings: lithium in Seven Up, and Coca in Coca Cola. The former is a natural mineral associated with a lower risk of dementia, and the latter a cultivated plant in the family Erythroxylaceae. The Coca plant has a mild caffeine-like stimulating effect. It is used by natives in the Bolivian-Peruvian Altiplano to combat Altitude Sickness, not to be confused with Attitude Sickness. The latter condition afflicts those who think Mother Nature’s bounty should be refined, concentrated, adulterated with chemicals, modulated, and marketed for legal (soda, Lithium drug) and illegal (Cocaine) pharmaceutical purposes.
The moral of the story, other than quitting soda? Supplement lithium orotate, and chew coca leaves if you travel to Machu Picchu.
References
Straw to drink soda pop, J. Gen Dentistry May/June 2005
Association of lithium in drinking water with the incidence of dementia. JAMA Psychiatry. 2017 Aug 23. [Epub ahead of print]
References on specific problems with soda: send me an Email, or search Google Scholar.
