Well, it's an entirely artificial concoction. Chemicals, preservatives, tons of sugar or synthetic sugar substitute, plus caffeine in most cases (although that's not really an issue for me since I get my caffeine via coffee). Linked to tooth decay, diabetes, etc.
And I'll admit I'm no nutritionist or doctor, but anything with an ingredients list you can't pronounce just can't be good for you.
Now don't take this entirely as directed at you, but I really get very frustrated by the general perception that "chemicals and synthetic" are all bad. You'll forgive me I hope, but all of my education and background in biology, chemistry and toxicology tells me you just might be reading too damn many web pages. Interestingly CSPI is about the worst example of activist based reporting you could get on the topic. What they really are is a lobby organization that targets corporations on the basis of really ****** science.
I'll go to the trouble if you'd like, but I can show that most of their claims are bogus:
Caffeine in pop is certainly there, though you'd have to drink about 10 cans of pop to get the same dose you get in a single cup of coffee. Interestingly Mountain Dew is the worst of the bunch, but in Canada it has no caffeine. Still, tea and coffee are far, far more loaded than any pop out there. Interesting too that coffee is ok but pop is bad. Ever seen a list of the "chemicals" in coffee? Lots of names you can't pronounce in there, far, far more than in a can of soda pop. Plenty more carcinogens as well, all entirely natural in origin. Of course there in such a low dose that it really doesn't matter as the basic tenet of toxicology is that the dose makes the poison. Still coffee's about as bad as you can get.
Preservatives are bad? Really? Damn, hope you're eating nothing but all organic and natural food. Watch out for the botulinum,
E. coli and all those other good, natural things.
How much sugar you put in your coffee? Eat any candy bars, breakfast cereal or anything else like that? Sure hope not, because that **** will make you fat (don't worry Jesse, it's as much his age as anything else. I weighed 165 at his age
).
As for all of CSPI's claims of obesity and other bull****, that's nothing more than an absolution of personal responsibility on the parts of CSPI, parents and anyone else not willing to take responsibility for putting that much junk food in your mouth. Been there, done that. I consumed enough pop to elevate my weight by 15 pounds. Is that the fault of anyone but me? Nope, but in the day and age of litigation we live in it's certainly not the poor innocent victim's fault. Keep watching, they're already suing McD's and Pepsi and Coke won't be far behind.
Drinking juice are ya? Lots of sugar in there. Somewhere between 70-100 calories for the juice box, equating roughly to a can of cola (non-diet). So what's the good part again? Oh yeah, all the vitamins that coincidentally restrict themselves to vitamin C. Of course you get 100% of your daily requirement from a single juice box, so you're pissing the rest of it out for the whole day. I'd certainly agree that it's a good way to get your daily dose of the vitamin, but there are other ways.
Oddly the page you linked states this:
Adding in noncarbonated soft drinks (including fruit drinks, ades, iced teas, and the like) adds thousands of more empty calories to the diet each year.
And you said this:
Now I'm drinking a lot of water, lemonade, and fruit juice.
Hmmm.
As for diabetes, well if your calorie consumption is so huge it might just not be the pop that's causing it. You see, if you're really so overweight as to fire up juvenile (or otherwise) diabetes, I'm going to guaran-damn-tee you that your calorie consumption is from more than just pop. Lemme guess, Supersize me was a truthful documentary? Here's just a notion, if you eat 5000 calories of
anything every day for a month your ass is going to be fat whether it's McDonalds, Subway, Coca-cola or if you could possibly consume that much, carrots.
As for the synthetic issue, I could go on for hours. Hope you're not taking any supplements or the like, lots of synthetic **** in there. Any processed food? Antibiotics (synthetic carriers?)?
Tooth decay? Brush your ******* teeth people, it's really not that complicated. Tooth decay (where's Dressel?) is caused by bacteria, not sugar. The bacteria feed on the sugar. Take the sugar (or other foods stuck in those gaps in your teeth) out of the equation and you're pretty much a lock for a whole lot less (dare I say none?) tooth decay. You are I presume aware that vegetables have sugar in them? Leave that **** between your teeth and you'll get tooth decay too. Damn, let's ban vegetables now
Here's a little clue to what science means and how folks like those at CSPI use it:
The empty calories of soft drinks are likely contributing to health problems, particularly overweight and obesity.
Frequent consumption of soft drinks may also increase the risk of osteoporosis
Frequent consumers of soft drinks may also be at a higher risk of kidney stones and a slightly higher risk of heart disease.
All those words I bolded are called hedge words - CSPI has to make use of them because there isn't conclusive proof of what they want you to believe. There may be trends, most likely not statistically significant (meaning they are as much chance as anything else). They're qualifiers so they don't have to prove what they say. You and darn near everyone else ignores those words, reading only the intent, not the content of the statement.
Your grandparents (maybe your great-grandparents in this case) had it right - everything in moderation and nothing to excess. Don't forget to enjoy life and don't obsess.
