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Although I don’t drink much soda (or, as they call it where I grew up, “pop”), I do enjoy drinking sparkling, or carbonated, water and often recommend it as a healthful alternative to soda. But several of you have written with concerns that drinking carbonated water might be bad for you.
Is Carbonated Water Bad for You?
Sure enough, I did a quick Internet search and found several websites warning that drinking carbonated water will leech calcium from your bones, causing osteoporosis. Others claimed that carbonated beverages can harm the enamel on your teeth, irritate your stomach, or even cause cancer. Let’s sort fact from the fiction.
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Does Carbonated Water Leech Calcium from Your Bones?
Soda consumption—particularly cola consumption—has been linked to lower bone mineral density. However, it’s pretty clear that it has nothing to do with the carbonation itself. Researchers had one group of women drink one liter of still water every day while another group drank a liter of carbonated water. After eight weeks, the researchers could detect no difference between the groups when it came to markers for bone turnover.