As my screen name implies, I’m new. Forgive me if this subject has been broached already. My newb status won’t let me search the board’s archives.
Does drinking soda (pop, if you will) lead to osteoperosis or a general weakening of internal bones in general?
Google is not helping me and I couldn’t find any comforting words from the Master.
The idea that the mild acid caused by carbonation some how works its way into your blood stream and dissolves your bones just seems ludicrous. What uptake system and the digestive barrier allows this acid introduction? Why wouldn’t you die of the disrupted pH balance first? My understanding was that the body cannot withstand a drastic change in the pH of the blood. Dissolving teeth I can understand (The Simpsons is too cool not to have some nugget of truth), but even this minor effect seems dependent on the drinker consuming huge quantities and not brushing their teeth.
Perhaps proponents of this idea take the tangent that the mild acid attaches to calcium present in consumed foods thereby making it unavailable for digestion and absorbtion. The websites google has turned up are so frustrating that I quickly give up trying to tease out any actual science. So, in the very long haul, a person who drinks massive quantities of soda may run in to some mild problems? Is this a fair assessment? Or is there some suspected interference soda causes in the hormonal regulation of blood calcium concentration? My understanding is that calcium balance is a tightly regulated system, like blood pH. If soda interfered, wouldn’t neurological problems be the first symptom and not weakened bones?
I’d completely forgotten about snopes.
Thank you, that does confirm most of my suspicions, but it doesn’t answer the question of whether soda has actually been proven to weaken bones. It implies “no,” but is there any actual data one way or the other?
Sorry I don’t have any cites handy, but a recent report on the local news (not the best source, I know) said that it’s not that soda weakens the bones, it’s that we’re not drinking as much milk as we used to because soda is so readily available.
Soda water is a weak acid - carbonic acid from the carbon dioxide - and acid dissolves bones. So putting bones in soda will slowly dissolve them.
Since soda dissolves bone in the petri dish ipse ergo facto abracadabra hocus pocus it must dissolve them when introduced into the bloodstream via the stomach.
Which makes you wonder what we humans did before the domestication of cows?
BTW, welcome Pullet! Are you in the tasty chicken-raising industry by any chance?
Thank you for the welcome, FordPerfect! Yes, the chickens are quite tastey
And thank you all for your contributions. I figured this theory was ScareLore, like Samclem mentioned. I was just curious if anyone had done any actual scientific research. My guess is it’s just too stupid a theory for anyone to fund research for. Which is saying something. I was hoping, though, to have a scientific journal to wave in the face of the next person I hear spouting the evils of soda. Guess I’ll just have to smack them instead.
I knew I could turn to the millions for help.
Oh, IIRC, before the domestication of cows, which was dang early, people drank mostly water or fermented stuff like ale, sobe, etc. Depends on their particular locality.
Upon hearing of this as a child my scientific, inquiring mind wanted to know.
I took an uncooked chicken leg, stripped off the flesh then placed the bone in a cup of Coca-Cola. After about 4 days, the bone became flexible, after about 7 days, it was disolved into a weird slimey ooze.
Phosphoric acid can be pretty wicked, my mother was informed by a plumber that dumping a can of cola down your drain once a month will dissolve some of the crap that builds up on pipes.
Ah ha! Thank you, Snoopy. I think that’s as close as I’m going to get, but it’s from a reputabel source, so it’s close enough. 'Preciate it.
Chao Goes Mu, while I don’t question the results of your experiment, I do wonder if your method is directly translatable. It’s not like your blood stream becomes soda when you drink soda. Furthermore, the link Snoopy provided contests that the amount of phosphorus in soda is minimal compaired to other common foods. And, even if you did injest significant portions, you’d get the problems I mentioned in the OP before your bones started dissolving. Phosphorus levels are intimately linked to several important biological process besides just growing bones.
Great plumber knowledge aside, I think we can chalk up the “soda dissolves your bones myth” to utter hype along with everything else cited in the snopes article.
Theres no way it does it via introducing acid into the blood stream.
All aspects of blood from PH to osmolarity are extremely tightly regulated. If your PH goes outside of a certain narrow PH range you die. Theres no point in worrying about your bones then.
I absolutely agree with you, while the bone did disolve in the cup o’ cola, I certainly wouldn’t think that that means that drinking soda would do the same thing to our bones. Introducing phosphoric acid into a living biological entity would have no bearing. I also have to take into account it was a little tiny chicken leg bone. Now how much soda and how much soak time would it require to disolve a human femur? I wonder if it’s even possible. I’m not about to touch that one.
