soda pop & osteoporosis

Americans have a pathological obsession with soda pop (our per-capita consumption is approaching a gallon a week)!  A recent study said that soda pop is the number one source of calories for the under-25 crowd.  It’s an ugly addiction that rivals that of any drug.  However, we also happen to have the worst rate of osteoporosis in the world as well —- and the drugs that Big Pharma has come up with as the solution for this problem, are actually CAUSING OSTEOPOROSIS.  We all know that there is a direct correlation to SODA CONSUMPTION & OBESITY (ESPECIALLY DIET SODA).  But is there a correlation between soda pop and osteoporosis?  You betcha there is!

Bone is a living and dynamic tissue that responds to mechanical stresses and loads by becoming stronger.  This is why lack of weight-bearing exercise —- STRENGTH TRAINING (not a lack of dietary calcium) is considered to be the number one cause of osteoporosis.  And we all know that there is not a more sedentary people on the planet than Americans. 

But let’s move beyond this issue of “sedentary” for a moment and talk about the effects of acidity.  Your body likes a pH of about 7.  This is smack dab in the middle of a pH chart, and considered “neutral” (see chart below).  As an over-generalized rule, most healthy foods tend to be alkali (above 7), while most unhealthy foods tend to be acidic (below 7) — the more acidic a food is, the worse it is for you.  This is a big reason that sick people are almost always acidic.  The chart below comes from the University of Minnesota’s School of Dentistry, and is a list of the most acidic brands of soda. 

Be aware that a pH scale is analog.  This means that each number is a factor of 10 times greater or less than the numbers next to it.  For example; milk is 10 times more acidic than pure water, and the banana is 10 times more acidic than milk.  This means that a banana is 100 times more acidic than pure water.  What can we say about soda pop?  If it is, on average, pH 3, then it’s 10,000 times more acidic than pure water.  If it is pH 2.5, it will be about 50,000 times more acidic than pure water.  Why am I talking about 2.5 pH soda?  Stay with me for a moment.

Two of the most common soda brands (Pepsi & Coke) both have pH’s right at an almost absurd pH of 2.5 (approximately 50,000 times more acidic than pure water).  Forget, for a moment, that diseases thrive in acidic environments (read our posts on SUGAR FEEDING CANCER).  Let’s try and figure out how soda pop or other acidic foods cause osteoporosis.

Many of us have used vinegar to clean mineral (calcium) deposits from our shower heads.  Just take a plastic baggie full of vinegar, put it on the shower head, rubber band it in place, let it sit over night, and presto!  The next morning the softened calcium deposit wipes off as easily as bacon grease from a stove top!  Although this is not the exact mechanism that soda consumption causes osteoporosis, you should be starting to get the picture.  Acid dissolves calcium!

BUFFERING STRONG ACIDS:
So, why don’t I immediately die when I drink a Pepsi —- after all, it is 50,000 times more acidic than water?  It is because your body was created with a series of internal pumps and buffers to blunt the effects of strong acids.  This is because you will die if your body cannot maintain a slightly alkali blood pH of between the narrow range of 7.35 and 7.45.  Any higher or lower, and you rapidly run the risk of extreme consequences (including Rigor Mortis!).  If you drink just one 12 ounce can of Pepsi or Coke (and in this age of the “Big Gulp“, who drinks just 12 ounces any more?), it will take four (4) gallons of alkali water (pH 9) to buffer this acid.  I personally don’t know very many people who chase their soda pop with a five gallon bucket of water!  So what does your body do to survive this acid insult if gallons and gallons of alkali water are not readily available?  It has to get buffering power from somewhere else — quickly.  So it steals buffering power in the form of calcium from the easiest available source(s)

Think for a moment.  When it comes to heartburn and acid indigestion / reflux, we have all been brain washed to think in terms of Rolaids Spells Relief, and Tums for the Tummy; but what is it in those products that buffers or neutralizes acid?  Calcium!  Calcium Carbonate — the same kind of calcium found found in limestone, oyster shells, or egg shells.  Calcium Carbonate has another name you might be more familiar with — chalk.  By the way, calcium from rocks and shells is a terrible source of dietary calcium (HERE), unless you enjoy hardened arteries and arthritis.  Only use calcium supplements that comes from raw (cold processed) bone (HERE)!

When you drink SODA — yes even DIET SODA, your body explodes into action to buffer the extremely high acid that is invading the system.  It needs buffering power and it needs it quick.  Where does it get it?  It gets it from the most readily available sources of calcium that it can find —- calcium from blood, bone, and DNA.  So, every time you drink soda (or eat other high acid content foods — SUGAR, white flour, etc), your body is robbing Peter to pay Paul.  It is stealing calcium from vital parts of the body, and using it to buffer the effects of the soda.  This is why I urge women (particularly small women, or women who used to be small) to avoid soda at all costs.  If you don’t, the medical community will use a bone density test to sell you on the fact that you have Osteoporosis, and need one of the so-called “BONE BUILDING DRUGS” — drugs that actually CAUSE OSTEOPOROSIS!