It is estimated that most people think that bubble water is harmful to health, but is this statement really reasonable?
Let's start with the stomach. Carbonated drinks are made by pressurizing water with carbon dioxide, so they will contain a weakly acidic substance-carbonic acid. If you take this drink in large quantities, you will burp or have indigestion. But what if you drink it in moderation? Will it still hurt your digestive system?
The result seems to be just the opposite. In a small-scale double-blind randomized trial, patients with frequent dyspepsia or constipation drank boiled water and soaked water 15 days respectively. Then they received a series of physical examinations. The two conditions of the group who drank soaked water improved, while the group who drank boiled water did not change at all.
If you drink a lot of frothy water, you may feel bloating. Japanese researchers have found that we can make full use of this side effect and make it work for us. They let a group of women fast for one night, and then slowly drink boiled water or soda water. It was found that as long as 250 ml of foaming water was drunk, 900 ml of gas would be released. So it is not surprising that these women's stomachs are slightly swollen. So although they didn't eat, they still felt full. They won't feel sick, and because bubble water will increase your satiety, you can avoid overeating in this way.
Bone problems?
The Framingham Heart Study, which started at 1948, explored more risk factors of heart disease by following a group of patients all the year round. Now, some of their descendants are involved in the study of Framingham osteoporosis. This comprehensive study is conducted every four years and is led by researchers at Tufts University in Boston. In 2006, the team investigated the relationship between bone mineral density and carbonated drinks. * * * 2,500 volunteers participated in this study, and the researchers conducted a detailed study on the types of drinks they drank.
They found that women who drank cola-flavored carbonated drinks three times a week (excluding men) had lower hip bone density. Other carbonated drinks won't have any effect. The researchers put forward a hypothesis that this effect is probably due to the effect of caffeine and phosphoric acid (not contained in sparkling water), but the latter has not been fully understood by human beings. This may hinder the absorption of calcium to some extent-but no one knows the specific mechanism. 10 years later, people still have not reached an agreement on the way that diet affects bone health.
It can be seen that drinking bubbly water does not seem to have adverse effects on bones and stomach. But what about teeth? Do acidic substances (even weak acidic substances) corrode enamel? Maybe not. Although there is little research on soda water, there are many researches on other carbonated drinks. Barry Owens of the College of Stomatology, University of Tennessee, conducted a study in 2007 to compare the effects of different carbonated drinks. According to his research, the original coke is the most acidic, followed by diet coke, and then coffee.
Cumulative effect:
He believes that the key lies not only in the pH value of the beverage itself, but also in how high the acidity of the beverage can be maintained in the presence of saliva and other substances that may affect the acidity-the so-called "buffering capacity". They ranked the buffering capacity of different drinks by evaluation: carbonated drinks without fruit as raw materials, such as cola, are the most acidic (Diet Coke is slightly better), followed by carbonated drinks with fruit as raw materials, juice and coffee. In other words, some carbonated drinks will destroy the hardness of enamel.
Poonam Jain of the School of Dentistry of Southern Illinois University conducted another experiment: he soaked the extracted enamel in different soft drinks for 6 hours, 24 hours and 48 hours respectively, and found that the enamel began to corrode. Some people think that this is quite different from the scene in real life, because it is impossible for us to keep the drink in our mouth for a long time. However, even if each cup lasts only a few seconds, it will still have a significant impact because of years of accumulation.
The picture shows that the corrosion of sweet carbonated drinks will accumulate over time (Source: Getty Images) A case study published in 2009 showed that the front teeth of a 25-year-old bank employee were corroded after drinking carbonated drinks for a long time. He used to drink 0.5 liters of coke every day for four years in a row, and then increased the amount to 1.5 liters every day for three years, plus some juice. This intake is enough to shock everyone. But it depends on the way you drink. According to the study, the man would hold the drink in his mouth for a few seconds at a time, and savor the taste carefully before swallowing it. Swedish researchers compared several ways of drinking beverages, such as short-term sipping, long-term sipping, gulping and sucking, and found that the longer the beverage stays in the mouth, the higher the acidity of the mouth. However, if the beverage is directly sucked to the back of the mouth with a straw, the probability of damage is much lower.
But what about sparkling mineral water? Catriona Brown of Birmingham University soaked human teeth with no signs of corrosion in bubble water with different tastes for 30 minutes to observe the reaction. The surface of these teeth was coated with a layer of varnish, leaving a test area with a diameter of about half a centimeter without varnish. They found that these drinks have the same effect on teeth, sometimes even more obvious than orange juice-scientists already know that orange juice can soften enamel. Lemon, lime and grape-flavored soda are the most sour, probably because they use citric acid to improve the taste.
The research shows that the acidity of sparkling water is only 1% of that of sweet carbonated drinks, so flavored sparkling water will not be as harmless as boiled water. But what about the tasteless bubble water? There is little research on this issue. However, at 200 1, the Birmingham team tested seven different brands of sparkling mineral water, and then poured them on isolated teeth to observe the reaction. They found that the pH value of soft drinks is between 5 and 6 (so the acidity is not as high as 2.5 of some cola drinks), while the pH value of boiled water is 7, which is neutral. In other words, bubble water is indeed weakly acidic as many people guess. However, the corrosive effect of this weakly acidic beverage is only 1% of other carbonated beverages. Of course, the oral environment is different from the jar, but at present, the evidence about the harm of bubble water to human health is not conclusive.
Therefore, for people who don't want to drink boiled water any more, although the bubbling water is weakly acidic, there is no conclusive evidence that it will cause harm to your bones, stomach and teeth. But if you don't want to take risks, try not to let it touch your teeth. Next time someone asks you "boiled water or bubbling water", maybe you should also ask for a straw.