I own a beverage company here in Boulder, Colorado. Periodically, the question of “Is carbonation ok for me?” comes up in our emails. The question always stems from two concerns that have been floating around the Internet:
1. Does carbonated water weaken bones or leach minerals?
2. Does carbonated water have too much sodium?
On bones: there isn’t a shread of scientific evidence that points to carbonated water having any effect, at all, on bones. Nor is there any conceivable means by which it could. Carbonation is simply carbon dioxide—CO2—which is a natural and extremely important part of human biology; it is our main way of balancing internal pH.
It is believed that the original fear around bone loss and fizzy drinks came from an ingredient used in some cokes and sodas, called phosphorous. Phosphorous may in fact leach calcium from the body. But many fizzy drinks don’t contain a speck of it. More importantly, it has nothing to do with the carbonation. Again, carbonation is simply CO2 gas. Nothing else.
On excess sodium: again, there’s no correlation at all with carbonated water and sodium. There is zero sodium in most fizzy drinks.
The original question was more about sodas and pops in general. But since the question often revolves around the safety of the bubbles, I wanted to point out that carbonation is nothing more than carbon dioxide, something we produce every time we breath. It doesn’t leach minerals and it doesn’t contain salt.

— bt_1

My mother-in-law drinks a lot of coke. She died last year at the age of 91.

— Anonymous

Watered down coke and ginger ale is good for kids when they have fever, and tummy aches. I never warmed it. Ginger ale is good when anyone has a cold or flue, also seven up, and coke. When you have stomach ache from bad food, you need lots of liquids to clean you out.

Roswell, NM

__ Anonymous

— Anonymous

"Nutrition experts once believed caffeine could be the culprit."

And then they proclaimed it loudly from the rooftops as a "gospel truth". Just as they did when Eggs were thought to be evil because of dietary cholesterol.. And Peanut Butter... Red Meat... And then they were proved wrong.

And still a lot of them trumpet it as "gospel truth", and will continue to do so for years to come.

In fact, there's so much utter garbage being spouted by so-called "nutrition experts" that a sensible person might just be better of disregarding everything they have to say entirely.. because it'll all change in 5 years.. then change back.. then change again.. because these people don't know what they claim to know, period.

A sensible person just *might* find it more beneficial to eat a sensible diet. Eat your veg, some whole grains, a bit of meat here and there.. and avoid just about everything "processed" by the commercial foods industry that you can. Because regardless of any of the claims made.. our diet has very visibly and obviously gotten much lower quality since we started getting everything pre-packaged.

Go with that, you can't really go that far wrong.. And if you're counting grams of this or that.. you've just got way too much time on your hands and an unhealthy obsession.

— Anonymous

I love soda but I gave it up for lent and think that I will try to drink less .but I like Ice tea and I drink Tetley and it is decaffinated. And now that the information is came out I may just continue not to drink cola. But I have a quested If I drink ginger is that better then the cola.Tana Medlock tanamedlock@yahoo.com

— Anonymous