What is your favorite soda? Coke? Do you know what's in soda? Reducing your soda consumption can be the start of a healthy lifestyle. Studies show that soda, although it tastes good, has many negative effects that outweigh the positive effects. Carbonated drinks, especially diet drinks, are harmful to the health of the body. My cousin's teacher did an experiment with coke. He put a tooth in coke and left it for at least a week. At the next checkup the tooth had disintegrated. The coke had corroded his tooth. If this can happen to a tooth, imagine what it does to your body. How healthy are these drinks, which provide lots of sugar, calories and caffeine but no significant nutritional value? And what happens if you drink a lot of them at an early age? Soda is a sugary, carbonated, acidic drink, often containing caffeine. The average American consumes forty-five gallons of soda per person per year. Adults are also equally vulnerable to tooth decay due to excessive soda consumption, even if they have good enamel and well-calcified teeth. In America, soda producers are the largest users of sugar. There are at least ten teaspoons in each 12-ounce can, providing the maximum recommended intake of sugar per day. Sugar creates insulin which tells the body to store all carbohydrates as fat. The sugar in soda can cause high cholesterol levels, heart disease, diabetes, weight gain and premature aging. (Mercola) Sugar isn't the only thing in soda that's bad for your teeth, but the acids in many soft drinks eat away at enamel and make your teeth more vulnerable. The pH, a measure of the acidity or alkalinity of a solution, of normal and diet drinks, varies from 2.47 to 3.35, the lower the pH the more acidic it is. The pH in our mouth is normally between 6.2 and 7, slightly more acidic than water. A pH of 5.2 to 5.5 or lower can dissolve the hard enamel of our teeth. Phosphoric acid is present in all soda and interferes with the utilization of calcium which can lead to osteoporosis. Phosphoric acid also neutralizes hydrochloric acid and therefore digestion cannot occur properly. Aspartame is another ingredient in soft drinks, especially Diet Soda. Aspartame is carcinogenic and becomes methyl alcohol also known as methanol. In large quantities aspartame can cause someone who drinks diet soda, consistently, to feel depressed, fatigued, dehydrated and/or hungry.