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Name: Sue
Status: Educator
Grade:  9-12
Location: VT
Country: United States
Date: March 2008
Question:
I teach Family & Consumer Science in Fairfax, Vermont. My mother is a registered nurse. We were talking about the nutrition in soda. She had seen a news show saying that the effervescent in soda has been shown to damage the body's cell walls. Is this true? Obviously as a teacher who teaches foods and nutrition I want to know the full information on food's effect on our body systems. I look forward to hearing from you.


Replies:
The pH of various solutions is shown below. Since soda water is not as acidic as orange juice, vinegar or lemon juice, I doubt that soda water is harmful to any body tissue. Recall that the lower the pH, the higher the acid concentration. The acid concentration in stomach acid is 100 times greater than soda water.

Solution, pH. Stomach acid, 1.5. Lemon Juice, 2.4. Vinegar, 2.8.
Orange juice, 3.0. Wine, 3.5. Soda Water, 3.5. Tomato Juice, 4.0 ...

Ron Baker, Ph.D.


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