The FastDay Forum

I was told this fact today, by a lady who said she always had half of lager at lunch, because carbonated drinks were bad for bones, because of the way the bubbles were forced into the drinks.
I sat there swigging lime and soda and pondering on this, as I drink a lot of no-added sugar lemonade.

Can anybody tell me if this is true, or an urban myth? At the age of 64, should I not be drinking anything fizzy (except obviously lager, which I do not intend to do!)? I would find water a terribly dull substitute and I don't drink tea (and coffee only in the morning).
Obviously, as one gets older, one should take care of one's skeletal structures!!
What a conundrum...

I would also be very interested in the reply. I have been drinking lime and soda as I have had to cut back on my coffee. I have googled it and the verdict was that it is not terribly good for you. I also worry about the sodium in soda water? Is it a high enough level to cause problems? Aaarrgh more pitfalls.

From my understanding it depends what exactly you are drinking. Carbonated water often contains calcium and magnesium which should be fine but colas,diet colas and anything else with caffeine or sugar seem to be the problem not the carbonation process. There appears to be a load of disinformation out there re-carbonated drinks.

Ballerina x

[carorees]

I think your friend has got confused. It is coke and similar drinks that are bad for the bones due to the phosphoric acid which does indeed leach calcium from the bones.

I found this paper: http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/84/4/936.full
that shows colas but not other carbonated beverages are associated with low bone mineral density.

Phew, thanks for that

Phew from me, too. Many thanks @carorees, I knew you'd give a sensible answer and it's much appreciated.
At one/two lime and sodas a week, I'm not too bothered, but it's the lemonade I'd find it hard to do without. Never have colas in the house.

We use a SodaStream gadget which may be of interest. It forces CO2 bubbles into water. We drink a lot of fizzy water especially on fast days. It tastes lovely using our filtered tap water. We add a lemon slice and/or a squeeze of lemon juice.

Bad news for me, diet coke is my 'can't bear any more water/tea/coffee' drink. I only have a maximum of three cans a week... Hmm.

yes, I believe carorees is right - I read a paper a few years back (don't ask me to find it!!) that found that children drinking a moderate amount of cola (the brown ones only) were three times more likely to get fractures than kids who didn't - you can imagine that one got sat on by the cola industry (no names!!) pretty fast. Due to the phosphoric acid I believe.

@Katharina did you know you could make a quite decent facsimile of champagne with your SodaStream? Look it up on the internet. It's fun.

@swan51 Thank you for the idea. I have googled it and am amazed: Heston Blumenthal among others making "champagne" credibly, among many others! I will have a go soon.