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Carbonated drinks: myths and reality
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
The high average daily temperature predicted by weather forecasters for the summer of 2012 may become a serious test for the body. The heat significantly complicates the body's heat transfer, creating the risk of overheating and the threat of heat stroke, and also threatens serious dehydration.
To ensure a stable body temperature and prevent overheating, the body needs to maintain a water balance in which fluid intake is equal to its loss.
Water consumption is determined not only by climatic conditions, but also by the level of physical activity and the type of human constitution. On average, under normal conditions, an adult's need for water is 40 ml/kg of body weight per day, for infants this value is higher - 120-150 ml/kg of body weight per day. So, for example, a person weighing 60 kilograms is supposed to consume about 2.4 liters of liquid per day. Half of the daily fluid intake comes from drinks.
To quench your thirst, not only the amount of water is important, but also its taste. It is useful to drink drinks that quench your thirst by increasing salivation, such as green tea, bread kvass, fruit drink, carbonated drinks.
The information that periodically appears about the dangers of certain drinks has nothing to do with their real impact on health, but is a consequence of general illiteracy. People are scared and consider carbonated soft drinks almost poison. But this is not true at all. For example, the same carbonated drinks are on the same level with juices in terms of sugar content. In terms of acidity, too. And there is nothing scary about them or even something special that is not found in other drinks or products.
One of the world's leading experts in the field of the impact of food on health, Professor of the Department of Toxicology at Gazi University (Ankara, Turkey) Ali Esat Karakaya noted that food additives can be used in the food industry only after a comprehensive study of their properties and establishing the complete safety of using each specific additive.
Officially approved additives are classified and assigned their own E-number. "E is a sign that the additive has been studied and tested for safety," said Professor Karakaya.
According to data cited by Spanish gastroenterologist Enrique Rey from the Complutense University of Madrid (La Universidad Complutense), contrary to popular belief, carbonation and the small amount of citric and orthophosphoric acids contained in drinks do not have a significant effect on the physiology of the upper digestive tract and do not stimulate the development of common gastrointestinal diseases.
The acidity of most soft drinks, including carbonated ones, is tens of times weaker than the natural acidity of the human stomach. Therefore, according to Enrique Rey, our stomach is well prepared for such an environment. He also noted that carbonated drinks can relieve symptoms in most patients with stomach disorders.
More than 90 percent of any soft drink is ordinary water, and therefore, first of all, the quality, safety and taste of the drink depend on the degree of its purity and level of preparation.
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