(Rolling my eyes.)

Over two hundred million soft drinks are consumed in this country each year, Actually they are anything but soft on your body, except for your teeth. A Cornell University study showed that soft drinks can completely erode tooth enamel and make teeth as soft as mush within two days.

The ingredient that is the culprit here is a horrific concoction called phosphoric acid. These drinks also contain malic acid, carbonic acid, and erythorbic acid, among other things.

The malic and and citric acids to be found naturally in fruits and vegetables are of a nature that turns alkaline in the system. The ones found in soft drinks remain acid because they are fractionated and usually extracted with heat. Your pH balance can be thrown into turmoil just by reading the label of a soft drink!

There are several other harmful ingredients to be found in these drinks as well, plus refined white sugar, about 5 teaspoons per eight-ounce serving.

The only difference between regular and diet sodas is that instead of sugar a substitute is used, so harmful that each container has to have a warning label just like cigarettes. Plus most sodas have the old nemesis, caffeine.

Some of the additives used are coal-tar derivatives, another carcinogen.

When soft drinks are taken with food, it leads to fermentation instead of good digestion. Aside from tricking your body into thinking they taste good, there are no benefits in sodas.

It’s almost criminal that such a lethal beverage is so routinely circulated in our “food” supply yet alone available for our children. The caffeine should be reason enough not to give it to children. It’s interesting that most parents won’t allow their children to drink coffee, but they allow caffeinated soft drinks.

The Foundation for Nutritional Research came to the conclusion that states, “Cola is loaded with habit-forming caffeine so that once the victim becomes accustomed to the stimulant, he cannot very well get along without it. There is only one reason for putting caffeine in a soft drink – to make it habit-forming.” Hey, that sounds like the cigarette trials.

Here again, direction is what is of primary concern. If you can cut down on this non-nutritious, empty-caloried conglomeration of acids and cancer-causing chemicals, by all means do.

There are many carbonated waters on the market that although not ideal (because of the high salt content and inorganic minerals) are far better than “soft” drinks.