Both of those things are straight-up improvements, even if they're not perfect. You can nit-pick every single thing all you want, but better is better.
And I will note that I drink a lot of tea and fruit juice, which also come in plastic bottles. Most drinks come in plastic or metal containers these days. Most of the time, I buy mine in plastic containers.
I wish it were different and I've lived without a car for more than a decade in the US. Try advocating for a less car dependent infrastructure in the US. It gets you mostly pissed on.
Individuals have limits on how much they can control given the larger context of the world they live in. Attacking my consumption of cola drinks as the focus willfully ignores my real point that styrofoam food containers are dramatically worse than plastic bottles.
Not complicated. US has normalized sugar addiction and obesity. Rest of the world sees this as fucking bizarre, like pretending that cigarettes are ok as long as you don't have cancer at the moment.
B. I have a genetic disorder. Diet coke contains extracts from the coca plant -- thus the name "Coca Cola" -- minus the hallucinogen cocaine. They have medicinal effects on the gut and lungs, both important systems significantly impacted by my genetic disorder.
C. Before someone else jumps up to tell me I'm evil incarnate, diet coke is the only thing I consume that contains sugar substitutes. I generally avoid them as well. And I drink no other cola drinks. Full stop.
I generally don't discuss this on HN. I don't intend to discuss it further in this thread. Note to self: I thought it was just a few of my relatives who were nutters who believe all sodas are the work of the devil and if you have any health issues and ever drink a single drop of cola, your health problems are entirely your fault for drinking colas. But, no, there are more people out there cast from the same mold.
Edit: comment not 100 percent accurate. I also drink ginger ale. Feeling like you need to defend your personal choices at gun point from judgy random internet strangers is not the best means to engage in meaningful discussion.
I live in a 100 year old building with lots of plumbing issues. I don't trust my tap water. I limit my consumption of it.
So, yes, I buy such drinks -- and consume them -- daily.
This is possibly a class issue. Lots of people in the world lack reliable access to clean water. There are entire charities devoted to trying to remedy that fact.
I didn't come here to ask a bunch of random internet strangers to tell me what a stupid fuck up they believe me to be for absolutely no reason and how easily they think they can solve my problems with a snap of their fingers.
I intended to make two points:
1. Given what a shit world we live in, harder plastic bottles are the lesser evil in many cases. They are much less poisonous than styrofoam containers, especially when hot consumables are put in styrofoam containers.
2. Gas fumes are a related threat, so the less exposure you have to gas fumes, the better.
That's a ridiculous analogy. What about suger-free sodas, or sparkling water without even artificial sweeteners? What about people who drink soda, but still don't go over the daily recommended sugar intake, and otherwise have healthy lifestyles?
I'd be willing to make two assumptions:
1. A gaping wound in your leg is probably less healthy than a moderately-high sugar consumption.
2. People who are concerned about nanoplastic intake are probably also concerned about deleterious health effects of things like sugar intake.
I think sparkling water is a great alternative, but I'm skeptical that all the fake sugars will turn out to be much better in the end. We seem to have a habit of replacing known bad things with things that we just haven't found out are bad yet.
If you're already in the middle of the healthy BMI range and not having trouble keeping a healthy weight, I don't think there's been a demonstrated harm.
> 1. A gaping wound in your leg is probably less healthy than a moderately-high sugar consumption.
I didn't saw they were equivalent, I just said they're similar. They're in fact two totally different categories of "unhealthy", which is why I used them. Because over a 20-year period, most stab wounds go away completely, while the effects of sugar intake tend to compound.