Which is better for your health soda or seltzer? Some seltzers have added ingredients, which is why it is very important to understand what ingredients are and how they impact your health. I chose one brand of soda and another brand of seltzer water, and I am going to compare the two. The soda I chose has a serving size of 12oz and a total of 140 calories per serving. The seltzer has a serving size of 8oz and it does not contain any calories at all. Calories are not the only factor used when determining health, there are other factors such as ingredients, nutrients, and the percent daily value for the different nutrients.
Seltzer:
The ingredients are carbonated water and natural flavor, which in this case is mandarin orange. Generally, the less ingredients in the product the healthier it is. This seltzer does not contain any added sugar or other ingredients, which is very good. I personally love this seltzer, because there is nothing unhealthy in it and it tastes like orange. I also love the other flavors that this company makes, because the seltzers have a sweet taste, however there is nothing unhealthy in it. If you are trying to kick that soda addiction, seltzer can be a great alternative, because it has a sweet flavor similar to soda, and it also has bubbles like soda, as opposed to drinking regular water.
I used to drink so much soda when I was in middle school and throughout high school. When I decided to change my diet, I noticed that once I got rid of my soda addiction, I did not even crave it anymore. I also do not crave added sugars as well since I decided to get rid of processed foods. For me, once I started eating healthy, all I crave is healthy food.
Soda:
There are many ingredients in this soda, which are: carbonated water, sucrose, caramel color, phosphoric acid, natural flavors, and caffeine. Sucrose is a disaccharide sugar, which means it is not broken down more during digestion. This is a simple carbohydrate because it does not require more energy to digest. However, polysaccharides are broken down further during digestion, which is also known as a complex carbohydrate because it takes much more energy to digest. Polysaccharides can benefit the digestive tract, because they get digested slowly. For example, they can promote satiety which reduces obesity risk, because you are not as hungry. Polysaccharides also help blood glucose control and they reduce cholesterol absorption.
Caffeine can be beneficial and harmful at the same time, because when taken in reasonable amounts before physical activity, your activity will benefit. When taken in large amounts caffeine can be very harmful because it increases your heart rate which puts more strain on your heart.
The sugar content in the soda is 39g per 12oz. The recommendation for added sugar is to consume less than 10% of calories from added sugars. When added sugar is consumed in excess diabetes is a possibility. The daily value for carbohydrates is 13% in this product. This means that one serving of this soda takes up about 13% of a person’s carbohydrate intake for the day. The recommendation is to consume between 45-65% of calories from carbohydrates, and at least half should be from whole grains.
Believe it or not, there is sodium in soda, even though it is sweet. People may think that just because something is sweet it does not contain any sodium. Sodium is also found in baked goods such as cookies and cakes, however that is another topic. In this soda, there are 45mg in a single serving. This is 2% of the daily value. The recommendation for sodium is to consume less than 2,300mg of sodium per day. Typically, people do not pay attention to the serving size of soda, they generally drink as much as they want. The size of the cup that people use too impacts the serving size, because if they use a big cup they will obviously consume more. Also, if a person uses a smaller cup, they might keep refilling the cup which will also cause the sodium and sugar intake to add up. This can be harmful to your health, because the sodium and sugar content adds up very quickly.
Overall, there are many factors that go into deciding if something is healthy or not. Nutrition is very complicated, because some foods and drinks may contain beneficial nutrients as well as harmful nutrients. It is very important to balance your diet by consuming a variety of different nutrients. Finally, I would recommend to try and decrease the amount of soda consumed and increase the amount of seltzer or water consumed.
