Wednesday #40 - I'll Have Soda With My Sunrise

The other morning, I got chastised for drinking a soda, and it got me thinking: what's wrong with soda in the morning? Isn't it just like coffee or orange juice, only carbonated? With this thought in mind, I started doing some research (on Wikipedia), and after discussing it with some friends, I've got some arguments for soda.

Sugar

     Okay, why on earth is sugar a concern for early morning consumption? There's tons of sugar in juices, so how is starting off the day with apple juice any worse than starting off the day with a soda. In fact, according to Google, apple juice has 24 g of sugar in an 8 oz. serving, and 8 oz. of Coke has 25g of sugar (according to the site Sugar Stacks). This means that if you were to consume the same volume of either juice or soda, you'd be taking in roughly the same amount of sugar. How much is the gram going to matter if it gets burned up turning on your brain in the morning, just like it would were it a juice? 

Caffeine

     Alright, here's an important one: caffeine. It's a drug, a brain affecting substance (and an addictive one at that), it could really mess you up (not really, but some people think that, and it's kinda true). In order to acquire the same amount of caffeine from a single 8 oz. (273 mL) cup of coffee, you'd have to end up drinking an entire liter of Coke. That's around a quart of soda just to get as much of the drug from coffee. If you're a caffeine addict, then sure, that sounds awesome, but what about the fat?

Fat

     Coffee's got fat, if you put creamer in it, and it seems like most people put at least a little bit in theirs, while Coke (or any soda for that matter) has no fat in it whatsoever. How's that for an argument. If you don't want to believe me, then ask your expanding, hyper active waistline, which is just waiting for it's next fix.

Acidity

     Now, this one is the real kicker. Acidity could really bring down soda, because it could deteriorate your teeth (especially after you brushed them (hopefully)), so I couldn't leave this with any suspicion as to my data. So, I went to the lab, and tested out the acidity of Coke, Sprite, and Orange Juice, trying to see which had the lowest pH (and therefore which was the most acidic). I found this information by titrating the liquids with a soln of NaOH after putting several drops of the indicator phenolphthalein. By determining the amount of base needed to turn the soln basic, I could find out the pH of the liquid in question. After doing some calculations with the data I gathered, it turns out that Orange Juice actually had the higher concentration of H+ ions (which are responsible for acidic behavior), meaning that your teeth would be less damaged by Coke then it would Juice.

Conclusion

     After looking over the data points, it would seem that soda really isn't that bad of a thing to be drinking in the morning, and in some cases, it might be the smarter alternative as opposed to juices or coffee. But that still raises the question of why we think it bad to drink a soda early in the morning, and scold those who do. Could it be that there's some aspect of a soda ignore by this analysis that could be responsible for this phenomenon? Or is it simply a social stigma that we've accepted without giving much thought to.

Your Kisses only go lip-deep

and go no further more

They only brush then run away

like the wave upon the shore

Your embraces never seem to last

but instead are rushed with haste

their warm, soft feel

only a fleeting taste

You love seems to be mundane

and much like clockwork

a nice word here, a nudge there

but what other feelings lurk?

-JD Galuardi

"What's fair maybe fair, but it isn't always right." -Anonymous