Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Soda May Age You as Much as Smoking

time.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 259 posts

Re: Soda May Age You as Much as Smoking

#151

Post by Symbiote »

Afforess wrote: post #77
geoka9 wrote: post #9

It's hard for me to understand the whole soda phenomenon in Canada and the US. Is it as addictive as cigarettes? Does it make you crave for more? Or it simply tastes so good that you can't get enough of it? Why not eat a bunch of apples instead (if you don't care about the amount of sugar you consume)? Wouldn't they taste better?

I drink (diet) soda because I need caffeine in the mornings. I am not a morning person and never have been. Without caffeine, I will not be mentally alert before 11am. I hate the taste of coffee, so soda it is.

How about tea?

Twice the caffeine of cola, but half the caffeine of coffee.

Re: Soda May Age You as Much as Smoking

#152

Post by pkroll »

bluecalm wrote: post #120
aragot wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Water? Like out of the toilet!? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387808/quotes?item=qt1722899

Seriously though, some of the descriptions of culture of drinking soda in this thread make me think of that movie. For last 15 years I had soda maybe 10 times and it was usually like few sips. I just can't phantom a world where soda is what you drink when you are a thirsty or to meals. I don't remember people I eat out with ordering soda to their meals either. It's usually water, tea, coffee, sometimes fruit juice.

I drink far more Coke Vanilla Zero than could possibly be good for someone when at home, and yet when eating out I generally get iced tea with no sweetener. You may know a closet soda addict and not even realize it. :)

Re: Soda May Age You as Much as Smoking

#153

Post by r00fus »

tjr wrote: post #17
geoka9 wrote: post #9

It's hard for me to understand the whole soda phenomenon in Canada and the US. Is it as addictive as cigarettes? Does it make you crave for more? Or it simply tastes so good that you can't get enough of it? Why not eat a bunch of apples instead (if you don't care about the amount of sugar you consume)? Wouldn't they taste better?

For some people, it seems to be. I suspect part of the issue is how abundantly available it is. For example, you go to the theater, and you can either buy a single bottle of water, or a cup of soda with free refills. Many restaurants offer only local tap water as a water choice, which varies in good taste. Lots of vending machines offer only soda, no water, again leaving the water-drinkers to search for a hopefully-c…

> Many restaurants offer only local tap water as a water choice

Amusingly in my neck of the woods, my wife and I noticed a few years ago that most of the Korean restaurants had high-quality filtered water (some advertised local water stores, others we could just taste it).

Makes a huge difference IMHO - too bad more places don't offer good local filtered water - it's cheap and makes the food taste better.

Re: Soda May Age You as Much as Smoking

#154

Post by vonmoltke »

novalis78 wrote: post #60
lazythrowaway wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

America definitely drinks more soda than anyone else: http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/map_of_the_... . 3x as much as most central European countries.

Notwithstanding the golden "correlation != causation" adage, I found that only two things are truly consumed in much larger quantities in America than any other country I know: soda and high fructose corn syrup...at the same time being the only country with a 35% obesity rate...hmmmm

Oh really?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/09/mexico-obesity_n_35...

Relevant numbers from the article:

US obesity rate: 31.8% Mexican obesity rate: 32.8%

Also, Mexican soda exclusively uses cane sugar. I buy Mexican Coke for the new times I drink regular soda for that reason.

Re: Soda May Age You as Much as Smoking

#155

Post by Symbiote »

boydjd wrote: post #75
novalis78 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That question - in and by itself - gives you away as an American. As a central European who grew up on water, fruit juice (80-60% water thinned) and tea (green, herb and on and off black) it made me chuckle. I have never seen so much soda consumption anywhere on this planet before coming to the US.

A lot of the "fruit juice" (in America, at least) contains just as much HFCS as soda. I don't know if this is the case in the rest of the world or in this study though.

Of the ~20 countries I've visited I think only the US had HFCS in the fruit juice. (It tastes funny/unfamiliar, so I notice.)

Instead they contain sugar, natural or added, and about as much as cola (~10%). The cola also has sugar instead of HFCS.

Re: Soda May Age You as Much as Smoking

#156

Post by TheSoftwareGuy »

nilkn wrote: post #14

Not to mention it can cause diabetes and it's horrible for your teeth. For me, it also caused acne. Soda's really, really bad for you, and I think at this point it would be viewed the same way that smoking is viewed if it weren't for the fact that soda affects only the consumer whereas cigarettes produce second-hand smoke and a suffocating odor that fills the room. Maybe 2050's Mad Men will shock its viewers with how…

>I think at this point it would be viewed the same way that smoking is viewed if it weren't for the fact that soda affects only the consumer whereas cigarettes produce second-hand smoke and a suffocating odor that fills the room.

And the addiction, don't forget that horrible, crippling addiction.

Re: Soda May Age You as Much as Smoking

#157

Post by loganu »

nerfhammer wrote: post #113
vinceguidry wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty sure it's mostly due to marketing and also vertically integrated markets. You can't get away from soft drink advertising in the US. And the stuff is literally everywhere. In many (most?) restaurants, your beverage choices comprise soda and water. I would not be surprised at all if soda alone accounted for a double-digit percentage of the obesity rate.

It's the margins. Merchants will always push you to get soft drinks because that's where they get the biggest margin.

Exactly. Why would a movie theater, fast food chain, restaurant, or other place offer water as a default when they could sell you something with a 90% profit margin?

Re: Soda May Age You as Much as Smoking

#158

Post by theoh »

mikeyouse wrote: post #150
pc2g4d wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fruit juice may be good for your telomeres, but there are plenty of other reasons to be suspicious of it---"bro-science" it is not. For example, Google "fruit juice and obesity" or see http://blogs.plos.org/obesitypanacea/2012/03/09/shout-it-fro... And besides, who says a "bro" can't science? ;)

> And besides, who says a "bro" can't science? ;) Very fair point. I guess I've been exposed to too many paleo "all sugar is equally evil" bros lately. They can certainly science with the rest of them. Hell, Kary Mullis won a Nobel for inventing PCR which he practically did from his surf board. Although his later absurdity^ re: AIDS / Astrology / Climate Change might give some more credence to keeping the bros out of…

Absurdism is something quite different...

Re: Soda May Age You as Much as Smoking

#159

Post by therealdrag0 »

xrange wrote: post #119
jhallenworld wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many fruit juices have potassium, which should help with heart health by counteracting the too much sodium we eat. Not sure why it would have any effect on telomeres though.

>too much sodium we eat. I thought sodium was coming back into style in the latest nutrition fads. http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/05/15/183883415/eating... https://www.google.com/search?q=low+salt+diet+bad

From what I've heard, low salt is bad, but there is still an ideal potassium to salt ratio.

Re: Soda May Age You as Much as Smoking

#160

Post by mikeyouse »

theoh wrote: post #158
mikeyouse wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And besides, who says a "bro" can't science? ;) Very fair point. I guess I've been exposed to too many paleo "all sugar is equally evil" bros lately. They can certainly science with the rest of them. Hell, Kary Mullis won a Nobel for inventing PCR which he practically did from his surf board. Although his later absurdity^ re: AIDS / Astrology / Climate Change might give some more credence to keeping the bros out of…

Absurdism is something quite different...

Yeah, wow, thanks for the correction.. Can you tell that the Myth of Sisyphus is on my bedside table right now?
Post reply on HN