Anothr Scary Fact about Soda Drinks

Drink Soda? Don't Do This For 1 Hour

If you drink a soda to quench your thirst, do not rush to brush after you drain that can.

Why? Carbonated drinks are highly acidic and have the potential to damage a tooth's enamel. Brushing right after you drink can exacerbate this. Instead, wait 30 to 60 minutes to brush, according to new research from dentists at Goettingen University in Germany. Waiting to brush after drinking a soda actually is three to five times more effective at protecting enamel from the erosive effects of carbonated drinks, reports Reuters.

Soda is so acidic that it can actually dissolve the upper layers of the tooth. Thomas Attin, director of the university's department for tooth protection, explained that waiting to brush allows the tooth enamel to mount its own defense against acidic erosion, typically through protective agents in the saliva that help repair and rebuild damaged tooth enamel. Brushing too soon not only destroys this opportunity, but also brushes off the affected layers of the teeth. The research, which was presented at the annual meeting of the German Association for Tooth Protection, was awarded a prize from chewing gum maker Wrigley.

Should you just give up soda altogether and drink juice instead? Maybe not. The dental school faculty at South Africa's University of Stellenbosch did a comparison test on the effects of orange juice, apple juice, Pepsi Cola, and Diet Pepsi. (Although these researchers used Pepsi products, the differences between them and other popular brands of soda--for the purposes of this test on dental health--are not significant.)

While fruit juices definitely provide more vitamins than soda, they are also acidic and that can cause demineralization and softening of the teeth.

HealthScoutNews reports the results: Orange juice and Pepsi were equally harmful to teeth, followed next by apple juice. Diet Pepsi was not only the least likely drink to soften the teeth, but also the least likely to cause cavities.

once i read that someone(can't remember who)made an experiment: he put a tooth in a glass of coke to see what happened,he left it there for one night, and the morning after the tooth had disappeared. when i read it I thought: "c'mon, it can't be true!!" , but... it's quite scary.

It is false....

http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/tooth.asp

it DID seem a bit too strange

skatepixie:

Interesting! Funny what we will believe!!

Okay, here is a quiz from the Discovery Channel Mythbusters fan site. These two clowns test out some of the wilder urban legends. The show never ceases to amuse me.

Mythbusters quiz

An aside, the myth we discussed, about pets dying from slurping up Swiffer (or whatever) cleaning fluid even made the local news here. Hey, those "consumer Reporters" gotta have something to talk about!

Be sure to check out the broadcast schedule of Mythbusters if interested. Some real doozies will soon be repeated!

when I was a kid the story was that researchers place a piece of ham in a glass of Coke and the coke dissolved the ham.

How about someone inventing a tasty soft drink that will eliminate fats and carbs when eaten with it???

The Mythbusters report that aluminum foil and Coke will clean your chrome bumper very nicely but that the other Coke myths are just myths. I watched that show segment and it was fascinating!

Before I forward any alarmist warning I receive from Internet friends I always check with sites like snopes and urbanlegend to find out whether it is a scam. It is amazing the stories people will invent, and I don't understand what the taletellers get out of all their effort.

I shop at Sams Club warehouse and got some Sparkling Ice.
It only has 1 carb and 3 calories and 1 g of surgar. It is made with Splenda. Also with juice and vit C and E. It is lightly carbonated. Taste good enough to kick that pop habit. www.talkingrain.com is on the bottle.
The grape fruit drink really taste like the fruit it self.
The bottles are returnable too like pop cans.

No matter what I hear about Soda, Fast Food, etc, I still eat and drink it. I'm in it for the taste, I'll worry about the effects later .

Gooooooo McDonalds! Even though my last meal at McDonalds totalled 1710 calories!
TV

Not only all that, My daughter's Dr. says Equal changes to formaldehyde in your body. It looks like they're trying to find things wrong with Splenda too. I am trying to cut back on the stuff with Equal but there's only one soda that has Splenda and it's terrible. Since I'm diabetic it seems as if they're trying to fix it so there's nothing I can have that's any good. Depressing.

Grgranny,

As a fellow diabetic, I can only sympathize about the artificial sweeteners. I now drink coffee and tea and iced tea without sugar or sweeteners. And I try to limit using and consuming them too.

On the other hand, have you ever heard of or tried stevia? It's made from a South American plant. Natives chewed it for its sweet taste. Over a hundred years ago, Westerners discovered the plant and figured out how to isolate the sweet taste with virtually no calories. There is only a subtle aftertaste, which I personally do not notice. I've been using it some. There are plenty of recipes out there using stevia as the sweetener.

As to safety: The Japanese have been using it extensively for 30 or 40 years, as no artificial sweeteners were approved there at that time. (don't know about now) Because of the heavy use, Japanese have done alot of medical research on stevia and have never come up with any of those cancer scares that seemed to pop up on this side of the Pacific with our artificial sweeteners. (remember Johnny Carson -- artificial sweeteners cause cancer in Canadian lab rats. Therefore, we shouldn't feed them artifical sweeteners.)

I guess the only thing we can do is try a variety of sweetening agents, natural and artificial. That way, we limit our exposure to any one product. So....bring on the applesauce, honey, apple juice, carrots and assorted other sweet fruits, veggies and juices!

edited to add: you can find stevia at the local garden center. I wouldn't want to have to grow my own, cuz using the leaves is sooo tedious, but at least you can sample the leaves and see if you like the taste. I grew some and have used the leaves for tea, herbal teas, especially good with mint tea.

stevia comes in various levels of refinement, so watch what you're using in recipes.

Thanks for the help. I had stevia and it tasted so bad I couldn't use it.

Grgranny,

Sorry you didn't like it. Plenty of people don't. I liked it and wasn't bothered by the aftertaste -- kinda like licorice. Then again, there are plenty of people who will only drink regular sodas because they don't like the taste of any of the artificial sweeteners.

Then there are the side effects some people get from some of the other "ose" sugars. Mannitol and Xylitol and the cast of thousands are only good for limited use if they tend to make you run to the bathroom! No sucking on those sugarless candies all day!

I don't take laxatives. Just buy some sugar free candy if I need to. Overdid it once and had terrible gas pains all night.