Fizzy drinks, what's the issue?

I hate our tap water, it tastes like chlorine. I sniff it and think no thanks.

I do drink tea at home - tap water flavour is disguised. I do drink fizzy water with ginger cordial a lot though.

My main dislike is diet drinks where sugar is replaced by sweeteners. Sweeteners in general are a bugbear of mine. Coke is not good for your body, but I am sure sweeteners are not something anyone should be imbibing.

Maybe the problem is that many people don't actually drink sparkling water on its own - its often mixed with sugary cordial or they add orange or lemon which are acidic and bad for the teeth.

I took the enamel off my teeth by drinking too many fizzy (low cal) drinks when I was younger, according to my dentist at the time.

Nothing is good for the enamel, fgs! What a load of nonsense!

Not really, because you have to breathe air, you can't really stop yourself.

You have a choice whether to drink or not. Yes, you'll get dehydrated if you drink too little, but it's not like you have to be drinking every second of the day like breathing.

World Health Organisation - tooth decay WHO tooth decay
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/sugars-and-dental-caries

A former colleague’s daughter had bad tooth erosion from drinking too much fruit juice. They were giving it to her to drink multiple times a day thinking the vitamins etc were good for her and not realising that the naturally occurring sugars would also cause erosion and decay.

Sounds like a myth to me. I live in Germany and a lot of children like "Sprüdelwasser" aka fizzy water.

A lot of high sugar drinks like coke, fizzy orange etc will have high acid content because the sourness combined with the sweet is what gives it the good taste. So it's worth avoiding overly sweet drinks because the combination of acid eroding enamel and sugar feeding the plaque-creating bacteria is very bad for your teeth. But they are OK to have in moderation.

Sparkling water is very slightly more acidic than still. But much closer to neutral than orange juice or lemonade for example.

I also should have said that I think juice is a million times worse for teeth and bodies than fizzy drinks. That’s not backed up by research and maybe slightly exaggerated also.

Water doesn’t taste of ‘nothing’, the tap water here tastes horrible like chlorine bleach, it’s revolting. I don’t like the taste of any type of water.

i can tolerate hot water but it still doesn’t taste of nothing (to me).

I hate anything that sparkles as I choked on fizzy Epsom salts when I was a kid !

Interesting to read some of these replies - I was told years ago that it was the acidity of fizzy drinks that affected the teeth, rather than sugar. I drank a lot of sugar-free fizzy drinks as a student and since then I’ve had a few fractured teeth, the dentist blamed the drinks. It was about 15 years ago so I had no idea about the more recent studies.

She sounds intelligent.

Carbonated drinks erode the enamel on the teeth regardless of how acidic they are when consumed in large enough quantities.
It’s not just carbonated drinks though, I always remember my dentist telling me about the massive increase in enamel erosion due to protein powder drinks and people not dissolving the powder properly.

Who knows? Anyone with sense😅

Cant believe you’re even entertaining that.

the water from my tap tastes of chlorine.

They drink sparkling water routinely in Germany over tap water & doesn’t seem to cause a problem.

it’s contact with plaque that causes decay so anyone sipping sugary fizzy drinks over a day runs the risk of lots of decay /fillings.

Ha Ha - it didn’t sound snippy to me!

I’m not like that re biscuits and things I promise! I know the word “treat” is grating but I couldn’t think of a better word.

If it's a case of no water or sparkling water I can't see the problem. Some places the water tastes so vile!

Apparently fizzy water is fine; it is slightly more acidic but not to the extent it does anythign terrible to your teeth. https://www.mouthhealthy.org/nutrition/the-truth-about-sparkling-water-and-your-teeth#:~:text=So%2C%20Is%20Sparkling%20Water%20Affecting,just%20water%20to%20your%20teeth.

Is that proven science?

I've been drinking "diet" fizzy drinks for the last 50 years since before I was even a teenager. Started with "One Cal" then "Tab" in the 70s before the big brands started making their own versions. I used to drink 2 or 3 cans a day, but now down to just 1 or 2. I've no problems with my teeth - just a handful of small fillings over the decades, and teeth are still looking pretty good (I don't smoke so they've not gone brown and are still creamy/white in colour). I can't remember the last filling I've had - must be at least a decade ago.

But the thing is that I brush my teeth 3 times per day, so perhaps it's the brushing (or lack of) that is giving false outcomes??

But surely that’s like saying you don’t like breathing air that doesn’t smell of anything?

I hate drinking water! I don’t mind sparkling but I have to force myself to drink plain tap water. It absolutely does have a taste. I drink water (ugh) with meals or to hydrate. Loose leaf tea or fresh coffee otherwise.

I don't like water either. There's just something about the non-taste that annoys me and I would rather drink milk in preference.

Oh, I LOVE it. We’ve got a SodaStream so you can make it really, really fizzy, so it hurts your mouth – the carbonated equivalent of a vindaloo. I drink it far more than I should, it feels more quenching than flat.

It's like when extremely slim celebrities are asked about their diet, and their daily 'indulgence' is always a handful of almonds, or a couple of squares of really good dark chocolate...