The Dangers of Pop

WARNING: Drink Pop with Caution

    Here's a pop recipe: Take battery acid, mix in 10 teaspoons of sugar; add dark tooth staining color; mix in your favorite flavoring; then drink slowly all day to etch and dissolve enamel and decay your teeth!     Sound preposterous? The following pops have a Ph (acid index) closer to that of battery acid than that of water (neutral Ph 7): Diet Coke, Diet Dr. Pepper, Diet Mountain Dew, Grape Minute Maid Soda, Mountain Dew, Fresca, Orange Slice, Diet Pepsi, Nestea, Surge, Gatorade, Dr. Pepper, Squirt, Hawaiian Fruit Punch, Orange Minute Maid Soda, Classic Coke, and Pepsi.     That's why years ago colas were used to clean the rust off bumpers! A better choice of pops with lower acid that are less destructive to tooth structure include Root Beer and 7-Up.  Pop, along with other acidic drinks and improper homecare, demineralizes teeth leading to decay. Treatments such as MI Paste and Flouride can be used to help prevent this decay.      And besides the acidity, the large amounts of sugar can cause other health problems. Mayo Clinic recently published an article relating all carbonated beverages to the development of a fatty liver which is also seen in the consumption of alcohol. So, sip pop at your own risk

   © 2004 David H. Brown

*General Denistry 2007