Carbonated Water.. Ouch!

A couple of years ago I managed to purchase a SodaStream machine to make my own carbonated water. Before I did that, because I do drink a lot of water (been thirsty all my life), I did look around to see if carbonated water is bad for you, and every single site I came across, did give me a similar answer..

My major concern was related to bones and teeth.. In the past two years I have consumed approximately 15 kg of carbon dioxide (about 5 litre of carbonated water per day), so I do have gain some further knowledge on the matter. If you do a Google search you can see the same results as I did..

Healthline site article N.1

It mentions taking a “detailed” look at the issue, but then in the specific section has:

A large observational study in over 2,500 people found that cola was the only beverage associated with significantly lower bone mineral density. Carbonated water appeared to have no effect on bone health (16Trusted Source).

But if you click on the trusted sourced, you can read that:

RESULTS:

Cola intake was associated with significantly lower (P < 0.001-0.05) BMD at each hip site, but not the spine, in women but not in men. The mean BMD of those with daily cola intake was 3.7% lower at the femoral neck and 5.4% lower at Ward’s area than of those who consumed <1 serving cola/mo. Similar results were seen for diet cola and, although weaker, for decaffeinated cola. No significant relations between noncola carbonated beverage consumption and BMD were observed. Total phosphorus intake was not significantly higher in daily cola consumers than in nonconsumers; however, the calcium-to-phosphorus ratios were lower.

CONCLUSIONS:

Intake of cola, but not of other carbonated soft drinks, is associated with low BMD in women. Additional research is needed to confirm these findings.

This was a test mainly aimed at Cola and the last sentence confirms that these findings are not confirmed.

Healtline site article N.2

In this article, while belonging to the same “company” the answer has somewhat changed but it is still based on that inconclusive article published by NCBI.

Does carbonation increase calcium loss in bones?

In a word: No. A 2006 studyTrusted Source involving 2,500 people set out to determine what effects consumption of colas and other carbonated beverages had on bone mineral density.

While researchers found that cola beverages were associated with low bone mineral density in women, other carbonated drinks didn’t appear to have the same effect. This is due to the fact that cola beverages have phosphorus, which can increase the loss of calcium from the body through the kidneys.

In a word: No??? But the finding were not conclusive.. Perhaps Healthline did conduct their own testing.. 😁

The Conversation site Article

Here there is only a mention being bad for your teeth, but not references or mentioning of the bones.

Claudia Hammond on BBC Future takes a different approach to the same question..

But if sparkling water doesn’t damage your stomach, how about your bones?  Does it weaken them? Again, the evidence so far suggests not. A small, Canadian study published in 2001 found that teenagers who drank lots of fizzy drinks (not sparkling water) had less calcium in their bones, but they couldn’t tell whether this was a problem with the drinks themselves or that it was because people who drank them might favour them instead of milk.

Unfortunately there is no link to such Canadian study and is more related to lack of calcium intake than carbonated water..

But towards the end of her article we can read that:

The authors hypothesise that the effect is probably down to caffeine and to the actions of phosphoric acid (not found in sparkling water) that are not yet well understood. It’s possible that it might somehow block calcium absorption – but no one yet knows how. Ten years later there is still disagreement over how diet affects bone health.

So as far as bones and stomachs go, so far drinking sparkling water seems to be fine. But how about teeth? Surely any acid, even a weak one, is going to erode the enamel on our teeth? Maybe not. Very little research has been done on sparkling water in particular…

“so far drinking sparkling water seems to be fine” based on what??? Too many contradictions in four lines of text IMO…

On self.com is pretty much of the same..

Bad for your teeth, but not really proven and points again to the same inconclusive study about Cola done in 2005 published by NCBI

But you got to love the ending of the article:

The bottom line: Unless you’ve got specific dental, digestive, or bone concerns and are drinking an absurd amount of sparkling water, there’s no need to rob yourself of this particular kind of perfection. Hopefully, it tastes even better with this knowledge in mind.

What knowledge?? I do have concerns and so far no “real proven” answers..

Prevention.com article written by Natalie Rizzo just confirms again the same story…

There are not enough studies on the teeth erosion to be conclusive and as far as bones, if you drink 1 litre of carbonated water, it has no effect on your bones.. Again, taken from the same 2005 article published by NCBI

You can read all the other hundreds site but as you can see is just a copy and paste from one article to the other, with very little variation.

So it seems that in 2020 nobody really still knows the effect of drinking large quantities of carbonated water.. Well I do! 😀

I can confirm based on my results, that drinking 5 litre of Carbonated water per day, will definitely create problems to your teeth, bones and kidneys… Is the situation reversible? Not sure. Time will tell, but as of Friday I’m off carbonated water for good and been drinking normal water with few drops of lemon.. The lower back pain has already gone down in intensity…