Her Active Life

Click here for the Lead Stories

Fight Osteoporosis: Drink Less Soda

Posted April 30, 2008 at 04:00 PM by Alexandra Haller

Section: Her Health, Her Nutrition, Her News

The battle for your bone health rages on. New research says too many soft drinks are linked with adverse consequences on your calcium and vitamin D levels.  There are a few possibilities for how exactly sodas interfere with bone density, but any way you look at it, the message is clear that it’s time to put the Coke and Pepsi down. According to the National Osteoporosis Foundation, the majority of Americans are already at an increased risk of developing osteoporosis.  Factor in too many sodas and you have a recipe for bone fractures.

The correlation between an increased consumption of sodas (especially, colas) and bone density could be due to one of three possibilities.

First, the more pop someone drinks, the less nutritious their beverage consumption is. When you choose sodas over milk or calcium-fortified orange juice, you simply aren’t getting the calcium punch that your body needs.

Another theory is the caffeine content. According to the Osteoporosis Education Project, “excessive caffeine contributes to bone breakdown and may be a factor in the development of osteoporosis.”

A third potential reason could be related to the phosphoric acid in soft drinks.

Phosphoric acid can cause an imbalance in the body as the body seeks to neutralize the acid with calcium. If there isn’t enough calcium in the diet, the body will take calcium from the bones.
“Phosphate is in milk, but milk also contains calcium and vitamin D. In soft drinks, there is just phosphoric acid and no calcium. Extra overzealous drinking may lead to a phosphoric acid imbalance, and if there’s not enough calcium, the body goes to the bones to restore the balance,” explained Dr. Primal Kaur, director of the Osteoporosis Center at Temple University Health Sciences Center in Philadelphia.

In a recent study to be published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Tufts University Researchers, studied 2,500 people to determine the link between cola consumption and bone density.  They “found that cola consumption by women was associated with lower bone mineral density at three hip sites, regardless of age, menopause, total calcium and vitamin D intake. The women reported drinking an average of five carbonated drinks a week, four of which were colas.”

So what can you do to prevent bone loss?

(1) Drink a moderate amount of colas.
(2) Make a concentrated effort to get calcium and vitamin D from your foods and sun exposure.
(3) Don’t forget the importance of exercise. You don’t need to run a marathon but a 30 minute walk everyday has numerous health benefits.

See the article at Medline Plus for more information.

3 comments, add yours | Permalink | Share this article

Tags: bone density, caffeine, calcium, colas, exercise, osteoporosis, phosphoric acid, pop, soda, vitamin d

Like what you see? Subscribe to our feed!

3 Responses to “Fight Osteoporosis: Drink Less Soda” (Leave a reply)