In our modern "enlightened years," the poor soft drink has been attacked as the initiator of all social ills. Our nation is fat - because of soft drinks.1 Our nation is diabetic - because of soft drinks.2 Our nation is weak and lazy - because of soft drinks. Our nation has lost its immunity to disease - because of soft drinks.3
Someone may even claim that soft drinks are the cause of our economic crisis!
To counter, we have created a myriad of "corrections" to the soft drink problem. We have diet soft drinks in all shapes and sizes. We have "diet", "low," and "zero" and "absolutely nothing." We have water flavored to taste like our favorite soft drink. We no longer use sugar, but so many other sweeteners.
Regrettably, the problem has only gotten worse. Diet soft drinks are now credited with more obesity that regular soft drinks ever were.4 Somehow, if our eagerness to fix our soft drinks, we created worse poison. We no longer use sugar, and are left with sweeteners that are now claimed to reduce or stop body functions, create toxic poisons, and cause cancer.5
In the midst, the poor soft drink has become the enemy of all societies good and moral. We blame it all of the soft drink, and none upon the amount consumed.6
I, for one, am a supporter of soft drinks. I do not admire them because they are fattening, or even because they are diet. I appreciate soft drinks precisely because they are soft.
Soft drinks are so common in our society that to simply ask someone if they would like a drink is generally recognized as referring to a soft drink. This varies, of course, by the context of location.
Before the days of our ill-fated soft drink, the word "drink" itself had one distinct meaning. It meant an alcoholic drink, or "hard" drink. To ask someone for a drink resulted in alcohol, in one form or another. An option aside from hard drinks, of course, was water. But in many eras of history, water itself was a carrier of more sickness and poison than our poor soft drink ever thought to invent. The alcoholic content of hard drinks was needed to purify the water, so again, your drink contained alcohol.7 Fruit juice was an option, but with lack of refrigeration, all fruit juice soon became "hard."
In various places, the primary exceptions would persist. Teas and coffees became the standard non-alcoholic drinks, but none ever attained to the social status deserving the title "drink." These, of course, became easier as pure water was more available. But now, with the option of purified water, there would soon be another competitor.
In the face of this optionless society, our culprit-of-social-ills, the soft drink, appeared. It was referred to as a soft drink, to clearly distinguish it from the hard drinks that ruled the world. Here, for the first time, one could choose flavors of beverages, without the encumbrances attached with alcohol. Soft drinks have since become widely popular. They have attained the title "drink". And for all their harm, no one has yet called for a prohibition.
1. http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060305/news_1n5soda.html
2. http://xpress.sfsu.edu/archives/news/001739.html
http://www.medfinds.com/healthnotes.php?org=medigrative%2Cmedigrative&page=newswire/newswire_2007_04_12_3.cfm
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/22/health/nutrition/22real.html?_r=1&em&ex=1201410000&en=66790a693871559a&ei=5087%0A
3. http://thetruthaboutsleep.com/soft-drinks-disease-in-a-can/21/
4. http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/319258/how_diet_soda_causes_weight_gain.html
5. http://www.docshop.com/2008/10/30/does-diet-soda-truly-lead-to-cancer/
http://www.healthandfitnessnaturally.com/archives/2008/05/entry_52.html
http://cbs2chicago.com/health/benzene.carcinogen.soda.2.328353.html
http://cancernewsnetwork.blogspot.com/2007/01/does-soda-cause-cancer.html
6. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19918336/
http://media.www.thetriangle.org/media/storage/paper689/news/2007/09/28/HealthAndFitness/Study.Diet.Soda.Causes.Problems-2999705.shtml
7. http://logosresourcepages.org/Believers/alcohol.htm
Someone may even claim that soft drinks are the cause of our economic crisis!
To counter, we have created a myriad of "corrections" to the soft drink problem. We have diet soft drinks in all shapes and sizes. We have "diet", "low," and "zero" and "absolutely nothing." We have water flavored to taste like our favorite soft drink. We no longer use sugar, but so many other sweeteners.
Regrettably, the problem has only gotten worse. Diet soft drinks are now credited with more obesity that regular soft drinks ever were.4 Somehow, if our eagerness to fix our soft drinks, we created worse poison. We no longer use sugar, and are left with sweeteners that are now claimed to reduce or stop body functions, create toxic poisons, and cause cancer.5
In the midst, the poor soft drink has become the enemy of all societies good and moral. We blame it all of the soft drink, and none upon the amount consumed.6
I, for one, am a supporter of soft drinks. I do not admire them because they are fattening, or even because they are diet. I appreciate soft drinks precisely because they are soft.
Soft drinks are so common in our society that to simply ask someone if they would like a drink is generally recognized as referring to a soft drink. This varies, of course, by the context of location.
Before the days of our ill-fated soft drink, the word "drink" itself had one distinct meaning. It meant an alcoholic drink, or "hard" drink. To ask someone for a drink resulted in alcohol, in one form or another. An option aside from hard drinks, of course, was water. But in many eras of history, water itself was a carrier of more sickness and poison than our poor soft drink ever thought to invent. The alcoholic content of hard drinks was needed to purify the water, so again, your drink contained alcohol.7 Fruit juice was an option, but with lack of refrigeration, all fruit juice soon became "hard."
In various places, the primary exceptions would persist. Teas and coffees became the standard non-alcoholic drinks, but none ever attained to the social status deserving the title "drink." These, of course, became easier as pure water was more available. But now, with the option of purified water, there would soon be another competitor.
In the face of this optionless society, our culprit-of-social-ills, the soft drink, appeared. It was referred to as a soft drink, to clearly distinguish it from the hard drinks that ruled the world. Here, for the first time, one could choose flavors of beverages, without the encumbrances attached with alcohol. Soft drinks have since become widely popular. They have attained the title "drink". And for all their harm, no one has yet called for a prohibition.
1. http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060305/news_1n5soda.html
2. http://xpress.sfsu.edu/archives/news/001739.html
http://www.medfinds.com/healthnotes.php?org=medigrative%2Cmedigrative&page=newswire/newswire_2007_04_12_3.cfm
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/22/health/nutrition/22real.html?_r=1&em&ex=1201410000&en=66790a693871559a&ei=5087%0A
3. http://thetruthaboutsleep.com/soft-drinks-disease-in-a-can/21/
4. http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/319258/how_diet_soda_causes_weight_gain.html
5. http://www.docshop.com/2008/10/30/does-diet-soda-truly-lead-to-cancer/
http://www.healthandfitnessnaturally.com/archives/2008/05/entry_52.html
http://cbs2chicago.com/health/benzene.carcinogen.soda.2.328353.html
http://cancernewsnetwork.blogspot.com/2007/01/does-soda-cause-cancer.html
6. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19918336/
http://media.www.thetriangle.org/media/storage/paper689/news/2007/09/28/HealthAndFitness/Study.Diet.Soda.Causes.Problems-2999705.shtml
7. http://logosresourcepages.org/Believers/alcohol.htm
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