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Help for Soda Lovers

What to do when you're a softie for soft drinks

Catherine Gregorczyk says she's an addict -- a soda addict, that is.

"It's hard going out with friends who are more health-conscious than I am and who drink water all the time when all I ever want is a Coke," says Gregorczyk, 22, a recent Purdue University graduate.

Gregorczyk says she even had "a bit of a panic attack" while in Europe last summer, because her beloved Coke is harder to find in some countries "and is way more expensive." She was happy to pay the extra price, though, for the "sugar boost" soda gives her. But is Gregorczyk really addicted to sodas? Not in the clinical sense, says Elisabetta Politi, MPH, RD, CDE, nutrition manager of the Duke University Diet and Fitness Center.

Liz Marr, MS, RD, agrees. "People have an affinity for certain foods, and they develop food habits, but that's not the same thing as an addiction," says Marr, a principal with Marr Barr Communications, a Colorado-based public relations firm specializing in nutrition and health issues.

Still, soda lovers will testify that it can be awfully hard to give up the fizzy stuff. One reason is that when we consume something sweet, the taste triggers our brains to release chemicals called opioids -- which make us crave more pleasurable tastes, says Politi.

So why would anyone want to swear off soft drinks? Experts say that, while soda has few useful nutrients, it is among the many sources of excess calories contributing to the U.S. obesity epidemic. Several recent studies bear out the idea that drinking too many sodas can affect your health:

• Research presented at an American Diabetes Association gathering this summer found that women who went from drinking less than one, non-diet soda a day to one or more daily sodas were nearly twice as likely to develop type 2 diabetes over a four-year period as women who drank less than one soft drink a day. (The women who drank more soda also gained more weight over the same period.)
• A study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism suggested that fructose, a sweetener found naturally in fruit juice and typically used in concentrated amounts in soft drinks, may induce a hormonal response in the body that promotes weight gain.
• Soft drinks, especially light-colored drinks, and canned iced tea appear to "aggressively" erode teeth enamel in laboratory tests -- and it didn't matter whether they were diet drinks or regular ones, according to a study published in General Dentistry.

All this is important because soda is a significant part of the American diet. Of the $80-billion-a-year beverage industry in the U.S., $64 billion is spent on carbonated soft drinks, says John Sicher, editor and publisher of Beverage Digest. Regular soda accounts for 72.6% of those sales; diet soda for 27.4%.

Sales of diet soda have been on the rise in the last few years, says Sicher. But growing even more quickly are bottled waters and sports drinks, he says, observing that consumers are looking for beverages that fit in with their health goals.

No Need to Go Cold Turkey

Soda is certainly not an ideal drink from a health standpoint -- it offers no nutritional value and can be high in sugar, sodium, and caffeine. But the good news, experts say, is that if you truly love it, there's no need to give it up completely.

If you generally watch what you eat and are reasonably active, a soda or two a day isn't going to derail your efforts, says Tavis Piattoly, RD, director of performance enhancement at Ochsner Clinic's Elmwood Fitness Center in New Orleans.

But if you regularly drink two, three, or more cans a day, the added sugar can pile on the pounds "unless, of course, the soft drinks are planned into an overall diet of moderation, variety, and of course, exercise," says Dee Sandquist, RD, manager of nutrition and diabetes at the Southwest Washington Medical Center in Vancouver, Wash.

Keep in mind that when you're trying to adopt a healthier diet, it's not a good idea to completely deprive yourself of treats, Marr says.

"A very Spartan diet without some of your favorite foods is not sustainable," she says. "I encourage people to figure out how to include their favorite foods into their diet."

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