Soft drink
Within a decade of the invention of carbonated water by Joseph Priestley in 1767, inventors in Europe had used his concept to produce the drink in greater quantities.
[6][7] Other less-used terms include carbonated drink, fizzy juice, lolly water, seltzer, coke, tonic, and mineral.
Over half of the survey respondents preferred the term "soda", which was dominant in the Northeastern United States, California, and the areas surrounding Milwaukee and St. Louis.
In the medieval Middle East, a variety of fruit-flavored soft drinks were widely drunk, such as sharbat, and were often sweetened with ingredients such as sugar, syrup and honey.
[19] In Tudor England, 'water imperial' was widely drunk; it was a sweetened drink with lemon flavor and containing cream of tartar.
Swedish chemist Torbern Bergman invented a generating apparatus that made carbonated water from chalk by the use of sulfuric acid.
Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius started to add flavors (spices, juices, and wine) to carbonated water in the late eighteenth century.
Thomas Henry, an apothecary from Manchester, was the first to sell artificial mineral water to the general public for medicinal purposes, beginning in the 1770s.
His recipe for 'Bewley's Mephitic Julep' consisted of 3 drachms of fossil alkali to a quart of water, and the manufacture had to 'throw in streams of fixed air until all the alkaline taste is destroyed'.
The drink consists of 1 US fl oz (30 ml) fruit syrup, 1/2 teaspoon of phosphoric acid, and enough carbonated water and ice to fill a glass.
[26] Soft drinks soon outgrew their origins in the medical world and became a widely consumed product, available cheaply for the masses.
[28] For the Great Exhibition of 1851 held at Hyde Park in London, Schweppes was designated the official drink supplier and sold over a million bottles of lemonade, ginger beer, Seltzer water and soda-water.
In The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, published in 1848, the caddish Huntingdon, recovering from months of debauchery, wakes at noon and gulps a bottle of soda-water.
[33] A study in the journal Obesity found that from 2003 to 2014 the proportion of Americans who drank a sugary beverage on a given day fell from approximately 62% to 50% for adults, and from 80% to 61% for children.
Soft drinks can be made at home by mixing a syrup or dry ingredients with carbonated water, or by Lacto-fermentation.
In the United States, soft drinks (as well as other products such as non-alcoholic beer) are allowed by law to contain up to 0.5% alcohol by volume.
The over-consumption of sugar-sweetened soft drinks is associated with obesity,[38][39][40][41] hypertension,[42] type 2 diabetes,[43] dental caries, and low nutrient levels.
[50] The consumption of sugar-sweetened soft drinks can also be associated with many weight-related diseases, including diabetes,[43] metabolic syndrome, and cardiovascular risk factors.
The United States Food and Drug Administration released its own test results of several soft drinks containing benzoates and ascorbic or erythorbic acid.
As of 2006, the FDA stated its belief that "the levels of benzene found in soft drinks and other beverages to date do not pose a safety concern for consumers".
[57] A study published in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology in 2013 concluded that consumption of soft drinks was associated with a 23% higher risk of developing kidney stones.
[58] In a 2019 study of 451,743 Europeans, those who had a consumption of soft drinks of two or more a day,[59] had a greater chance of all-cause mortality than those who drank less than one per month.
[65] On May 3, 2006, the Alliance for a Healthier Generation,[66] Cadbury Schweppes, the Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo, and the American Beverage Association announced new guidelines[67] that will voluntarily remove high-calorie soft drinks from all U.S. schools.
In 2008, Samantha K Graff published an article in the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science regarding the "First Amendment Implications of Restricting Food and Beverages Marketing in Schools".
To avoid a First Amendment challenge by corporations, public schools could create contracts that restrict the sale of certain product and advertising.
Public schools can also ban the selling of all food and drink products on campus, while not infringing on a corporation's right to free speech.
[70] In 2015, Terry-McElarth and colleagues published a study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine on regular soda policies and their effect on school drink availability and student consumption.
[72] Others say that taxes should help fund education to increase consumer awareness of the unhealthy effects of excessive soft drink consumption, and also help cover costs of caring for conditions resulting from overconsumption.
[76] In March 2013, New York City's mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed to ban the sale of non-diet soft drinks larger than 16 ounces, except in convenience stores and supermarkets.
[78][79] In 2022, amidst soaring rates of obesity and diabetes, the Mexican state of Oaxaca enacted a ban on sugary drinks, including notably Coca-Cola, but it was poorly enforced.
