I was reading a rather surprising article related to soft drinks and root beer. In it, the article claims that root beer (the real kind, not artificial!) “are non-carbonated and do not contain the acids that harm teeth.” Out of curiosity, I decided to take a look at a list of pH values for various types of drinks that I enjoy:
| Drink | pH Value |
| Sprite | 3.42 |
| Flordia Orange Juice | 3.30-4.15 |
| Tea (brewed) | 7.2 |
| Brewed/Instant Coffee | 5.51 |
| Water | 7.0 |
| Milk | 6.4-6.8 |
What’s interesting is that the article from Science Daily states that “Researchers concluded that non-colas cause a greater amount of erosion than colas” because of the citric acid they contain. They don’t vilify orange juice, and it has a pH very similar to Sprite. (They are correct that most colas are pretty close to battery acid!)
In a somewhat ironic twist of fate, they do point out that sports drinks could be worse for your teeth than soda. Oh, what a cruel world!
So there’s your curio for the day. If you’re going to pick a soda to drink, choose Sprite!
Update: I know I’ve linked to this before, but I think it’s important to point out again. Stephan of wholehealthsource.blogspot.com has a couple of articles on preventing and potentially reversing tooth decay. The latter article was posted on April 1st and was not intended as an April Fool’s joke (that’s addressed in the comments).
