Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by p1necone 2687 days ago
I asked what you were claiming was bad because I can't find any evidence that any of the things you listed are bad, the worst thing I can think of is the addictive properties of caffeine.

> Soda is not equally as healthy/the same as juice. Whether marginally, or not, my point is that juice is healthier than soda

I said almost, there is of course some tiny amount of dietary fiber in orange juice, and vitamin C (which would only have an effect if you were deficient). The downsides due to the large amount of sugar, and acid on your teeth would be roughly the same for both.

> what were you looking for? "artificial colours, artificial preservatives, artificial sweeteners"

Which ones? Your repeated use of the word artificial is why I believe you are succumbing to the "artificial = bad" fallacy.

> "phosphoric acid" From Wikipedia: "Products such as soft drinks that contain phosphoric acid pose no threat to human health in general."

I'm not going to do any more research than this, I only have so much energy for internet comment arguments, but feel free to provide justification for your claims.

I'm very tempted to invoke Hitchens Razor here.

1 comments

> Which ones? Your repeated use of the word artificial is why I believe you are succumbing to the "artificial = bad" fallacy.

I opted to generalize in those instances. As there are a multitude of artificial colours/preservatives/sweeteners used in the soda industry.

Sure I could have said E150d/E102 instead of artificial colours. Or sodium benzoate/etda instead of artificial preservatives. Or acesulfame potassium/sucralose instead of artificial sweeteners.

However, someone could then point out "well X mainstream soda I drink doesn't have all those". Which could be accurate, as the formulas and ingredients of sodas vary.

However, the vast majority of mainstream sodas use at least one of those _types_ of ingredients.

Listing them all out felt unnecessary, I assumed the reader would have heard of or seen an example(s) of each/some and understand my point.

There are a few others per category that are widely used in the soda industry, so it would be a decently long list - to the point where such a list would likely detract from the point (or not, from your perspective)

Edit:

> "phosphoric acid" From Wikipedia: "Products such as soft drinks that contain phosphoric acid pose no threat to human health in general."

Phosphoric acid has been linked to kidney stones and osteoporosis. Does that mean everyone who drinks a coke will get a kidney stone and break their limbs? No.

If you could avoid drinking a coke/mountain dew every morning and have fruit juice instead, would you live a radically healthier life? Probably not, but it's healthier.

As I have mentioned earlier, it could just be marginally, but I think it's quite strange to suggest they are equally as heathy/bad as each other - which you appear to support