When I first started watching my calories, I mentioned changing from regular soda to diet soda. Some folks immediately chided me that such stuff was Tooth Decay on Wheels. “It’s a lot more acidic than regular soda — it’ll rot your teeth right out.”<\/p>\n
I finally got around to googling on the subject, and, despite that claim being echoed in text at various sites (many of which are flogging their own Health Water, ahem), the only actual figures I found indicated that diet soda is less <\/i>acidic than regular pop — and, lacking sugar, is less conducive to cavity-creating bacteria.<\/p>\n
I was able to find a few<\/a> sites <\/a>with info on pH levels of sodas. Recalling that low pH is more acidic (battery acid is 1.0, water is 7.0), here are some comparisons (regular vs diet): Coke <\/b>(2.6 vs 3.4), Doctor Pepper <\/b>(2.9 vs 3.4), Pepsi <\/b>(2.5 vs 3.1), Mountain Dew <\/b>(3.2 vs 3.3), Barq’s <\/b>(4.6 vs 4.6).<\/p>\n In nearly all the the cases, the “real” soda has a more acidic pH than the diet version. <\/p>\n Diet sodas get a lot of attention on their acid content because, well, they don’t have sugar, and that’s the obvious thing to talk about with regular sodas<\/a>. (Indeed, it’s a lot harder to find pH for regular soda, except for vague warnings of the diabolical nature of Coke<\/a>).<\/p>\n All of which is not to say that diet soda is particularly good for you, or that the acids there are to be sneezed at. You should still brush your teeth, or flush your mouth out with water (or both) after a can of Diet Coke. All <\/i>soda is acidic.<\/p>\n But the idea that diet soda is more <\/i>acidic than its sugary counterpart seems to be — well, just plain wrong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When I first started watching my calories, I mentioned changing from regular soda to diet soda. Some folks immediately chided me that such stuff was Tooth Decay on Wheels. “It’s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":132204,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/12\/10\/so-maybe-its-time-to-switch-back-to-regular-soda.html","url_meta":{"origin":5219,"position":0},"title":"So maybe it's time to switch back to Regular Soda","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 10-Dec-16 11:37am","format":false,"excerpt":"Yeah, people have been kvetching about Aspartame (the only artificial sweetener that I can stand) since it was first introduced, but I've always thought, \"It's better than the calories. It's better than the calories. It's better than the ...\"Turns out, just from a weight loss\/gain perspective ... it's not. Various\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6157,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/05\/05\/same_song_forty.html","url_meta":{"origin":5219,"position":1},"title":"Same song, forty-seventh verse","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 5-May-04 7:03am","format":false,"excerpt":"Coke and Pepsi are rejiggering their soda lines again with new semi-diet drinks. The new drinks contain the standard high-fructose corn syrup that sweetens regular soda but in smaller amounts....","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28282,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/06\/14\/dagnabbit-dietary-news.html","url_meta":{"origin":5219,"position":2},"title":"Dagnabbit dietary news","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 14-Jun-12 3:14pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Given that changing from regular sugared soda to diet soda is a fantastic way of dropping your caloric intake, this is pretty discouraging news, if it pans out. \u00a0(Short form: diet sodas, by providing \"sweet\" with \"no calories\" teaches the brain to ignore some of the signals it uses in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13783,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/02\/18\/my-body-is-a-temple-i-only-put-real-sugar-into-it.html","url_meta":{"origin":5219,"position":3},"title":"“My body is a temple — I only put real sugar into it!”","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 18-Feb-09 10:55am","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, I used to say that, before I counted up how many calories were in a regular soda and realized that there were acceptable diet drinks (once you got used to them) on the market. But a bigger issue for regular soda drinkers has been the shift (since the mid-80s)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Coffee"","block_context":{"text":"Coffee","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/food-drink\/coffee"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9017,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/03\/06\/sugar_is_sweet.html","url_meta":{"origin":5219,"position":4},"title":"Sugar is sweet, and so are Yoo-hoo","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 6-Mar-06 6:32am","format":false,"excerpt":"Some new studies coming out (heard on NPR this morning, referenced here) noting that sugared sodas, fruit juices, and sports\/performance drinks add a huge number of calories to our diet,...","rel":"","context":"In "Food & Drink"","block_context":{"text":"Food & Drink","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/food-drink"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9741,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/11\/08\/the_real_thing_2.html","url_meta":{"origin":5219,"position":5},"title":"The Real Thing","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 8-Nov-06 8:49am","format":false,"excerpt":"You Are Coke A true original and classic, you represent the best of everything you can offer. Just the right amount of sweet, just the right amount of energy......","rel":"","context":"In "Food & Drink"","block_context":{"text":"Food & Drink","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/food-drink"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/images.blogthings.com\/whatkindofsodaareyouquiz\/coke.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5219\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}