Everyday Systems

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2 ... 162254.htm

I do still drink diet soda. It waxes and wanes. I like unsweet tea just fine, but my husband is addicted and drinks tons of the stuff. I wish I could get him OFF it. It would also help me to not to have it around. There have been various studies with not good things to say about diet soda. Maybe this one will help him quit.

Thanks for posting.

Wow. Glad it plays such a small role in my intake these days, though the damage may have already been done. Used to buy diet Coke by the case just for ME. Two things finally got my attention years ago: reading that cola drinks were so highly correlated with osteoporosis and a report by a guy who worked in a warehouse saying that they found nearly dissolved rat bodies that got trapped under a fallen palate of diet cola overnight. The bones and skin were left but almost nothing else. Sure, it doesn't stay in my stummy for hours, but even illogical metaphors can be useful for unnecessary habits.

Hard science can be useful, too...

Not to freak anyone out, but I worked in a mine store room where we dropped a pallet of regular cola and the next day found dissolved mice. It doesn't have to be diet.

I guess your thread was where I read that story! I remembered it as diet, but that probably doesn't make a difference.

ironchef wrote:Not to freak anyone out, but I worked in a mine store room where we dropped a pallet of regular cola and the next day found dissolved mice. It doesn't have to be diet.

I just finished drinking a coke. 😱
Soda....I have a love/ hate relationship with it. Its the only habit I can't kick.

I'm not a defender of sugary sodas, but I think the dissolved rodent body stories are a bit overblown...sodas contain citric and phosphoric acids and, yes, if you submerge something in it for a great period of time it will break it down...but when you ingest soda the acids pass through your system pretty quickly, and you already have some serious acids in your gut (so your gut isn't afraid of a little citric or phosphoric acid passing through).

We'd all agree that water is optimal and a lot of these studies are still heavy on correlations, so it's something to think about but not freak about IMO

The mouse story is just an odd thing that happened to me 20ish years ago. My understanding of what happened to the mice is the same as the way you can use cola to shine a coin - essentially the carbonic and phosphoric acids, given enough time, can start to dissolve things. It's nothing to do with sugar content (as far as I know).

As our stomachs contain acids for dissolving our foods, I don't see why it would cause a problem. It probably is more likely to be bad for teeth, but no one is holding cola in their mouth for hours on end (the mice were in there overnight, so, maybe 10 hours). The bones, tails, paws, any hard areas were still there, so teeth can probably take it!

Whether it's for the wrong reasons or not, I'm still grateful I've mostly kicked the soda habit. I don't eschew all modern foods, but this one delivers so little real value that it's a very small loss. However it took me years to surrender, so if it's still someone's joy, so be it.