Soda
I was thinking about doing a high post on legislating morality, "God given" rights, or invoking God's name for political purposes, but then I decided I would have a banana. Being organic matter that will rot, I usually put banana peels in the office trashcan and not my own personal receptacle. Upon depositing said peel in the big garbage bin, I noticed quite a few empty cans of soda. This notice gave birth to this decidely "lower" post on soda.
This got me thinking of how prevalent soda is in the U.S. I can't speak of other countries, because I haven't experienced them recently. I'm reminded of a church potluck we attended a couple of weeks ago. A little boy had been running around outside; he came in and proclaimed to his father that he was thirsty. So dad poured him a cup of soda. Surely this was a poor solution for relief of thirst.
If you want to be assured of riches galore, go embed yourself in the Coca Cola corporation.
I wonder why not many (if any) global warming proponents who hawk the alleged dangers of CO2 emissions go after soda companies. After all, these beverages are carbonated. As in CO2. Every time someone pops open a soda can to the tune of "KtSSSSsssssssssssii," there is more carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere. And with every emission of gas that follows from your own body as a result of drinking that soda, you increase your carbon dioxide contribution. Al Gore must stop drinking soda!
When I was little, I was dismayed that there was never as much soda in our house as some of my friend's houses. Now I am very glad that my mom didn't buy soda as much. But I was assured and soothed by the fact that soda was only a couple of steps and approximately π/2 radians (opening the fridge door) away from my grasp. Glad am I that I never developed a big soda addiction. Apparently lots of people find it hard to kick the unhealthy habit. To my limited knowledge, there are little to no health benefits from drinking soda, and it's easier on the budget to drink water. Concession is given to ginger ale, which serves the honorable dual purpose of being Harmony's stomach tonic and means of getting gigantic pills down her pinhole-sized esophagus (carbonation numbs her throat, thereby allowing passage of aforementioned pills).
In the end, you probably make more money than me (and can afford it), or have lived much longer than I have (and not yet suffered ill effects courtesy of it), or are much smarter than me (and so refute my claims), so I am nothing if not presumptuous to interfere with your right to drink soda. There is nothing morally wrong with drinking nutritionally void soda, so go ahead.
BTW, here's a weak chemistry lesson as to why flat soda is considered by many to be unpalatable:
H2CO3 is carbonic acid, which is pressurized and diluted into the soda concoction. It is responsible for that "sharp" soda taste. Upon depressurization (opening the can/bottle), carbonic acid decomposes to CO2 (which is responsible for the fizzy bubbles) and water. Water obviously serves to dilute the sugary mess that is soda, and the loss of carbonic acid leads to the declaration that the soda is now "flat" as opposed to "sharp."
Categories:
health
,
pop-culture
Ironically, my husband, Eaglewood, is one of the guys who installs, helps maintain and repairs the government-mandated CO2 monitors for soda factories! lol And, no, he isn't much of a soda drinker... anymore!
I am so very glad you and Harmony do not drink sodas & I am glad I kicked the habit while in college (first done for economic reasons & later realized the health benefits of water were so much better than sugary substitutes). I will add a couple more exceptions, caffeine drinks to keep you awake on long trips, or to wake you up in the morning as my husband does. There is less caffeine in sodas than brewed coffee.
Also, consider keeping soda cans, glass, paper, banana peels, apple cores, anything that can be recycled, out of the trash cans. I do take home from my work anything that we don't recycle at work that I can recycle at home. I know, everyone sees me as overboard on this, but I know I have saved lots of things from being trashed over my last 40 some odd years of my recycling. It helps that my parents, being raised during the depression, did not automatically throw things away, they always tried to fix or re-use as much as possible.
You totally made me laugh with that Al Gore line! :-)
I'm ashamed to admit that my no-soft drink stance has been violated. It's bad for my husband's kidneys, but they just brought Vanilla Coke back on the market. The man LOVES vanilla coke. So, being a very sweet wife (even though I'm slowly helping to further destroy his kidneys), I bought 5 12-packs for him.
Thankfully, he has remarkable self control, and he's going through them very slowly.
But yeah, just another reason that sodas aren't good for us. Kidney patients should avoid them, so I suppose the rest of us really should, too!
Harmony's mom,
We recycle whenever possible. However, I'm not so gung-ho about recycling that I'll take soda cans out of the communal trashcan at work ;)
Ewokgirl,
A little cheating here and there (hopefully) won't hurt too bad :D We all have our weak spots. Harmony and I have fast food every once in a while (out of necessity more than desire), and less frequently we give in to the Chinese food urge (out of desire more than necessity).
I don't remember the exact numbers, but the amount of soda children drink every day is shocking to me. Though, it would help explain the obese look of so many American kids. I enjoy the taste now and again but mostly it's far to sweet for me, and whenever I drink it, I can imagine it rotting my teeth and bones away.
I think my children have tasted (watered down) soda maybe 3 times in their life.
I commented on my last post, but I was afraid you wouldn't see it.
I wasn't meaning to be offensive with the "dog" comment. I hope you'll forgive me. I know you are both adorable because I've seen your wedding pictures. And even if you weren't, I'd like you anyway!
I love going places with my husband (I could just end it there...) and being asked for drink orders. We look at each other and usually one of us answer for the other -- "two waters." And since he can't stand lemons, I always get two. :-)
Sparkling apple cider is festive; that's my exception. Sparkling blueberry and (I assume) pomegranate juices are exquisite (and perhaps have some redeeming health benefits).
You should be careful about misplaced modifiers. While you're quite right, I imagine you did not want to describe yourself as "of organic matter that will rot." *grin*
I would like to add that I most certainly am organic matter that will rot. I would also like to pledge that I will be more careful about my grammar so to avoid public dressing downs.