If you’re on a health kick, sparkling water may well be your drink of choice.
It’s good for your health and your figure, right?
It turns out that there are two very good reasons why it’s not as healthy as you think.
According to experts, carbonated water can rot your teeth and make you fat.
The bubbles come from adding carbon dioxide under pressure and the result is water that contains weak carbonic acid.
Adam Thorne, a dentist in London’s Harley Street, said that can have a damaging effect on your teeth.
He told the Daily Mail: “Most people have no idea that fizzy water is extremely acidic, it’s pH3 on the acidity scale. The bubbles erode your tooth enamel – and over time this causes painful, yellow cracked teeth.”
However, US expert Edmond R. Hewlett, spokesperson for the American Dental Association, disagrees.
He told Food Network that the unflavored water is fine and that it is added flavorings that make it more acidic.
He said: “It is the flavoring and not the carbonation that lowers the pH (increases the acidity) to a level that can potentially erode tooth enamel with frequent consumption.”
“Laboratory studies have shown that (unflavored) waters, be they still or sparkling, have very low erosive potential and do not pose a risk to tooth enamel.”
However, he did concede that more research needs to be done to assess the effect of plain sparkling water.
Earlier this year, scientists revealed that fizzy water could actually make you fatter, even though it has no calories.
Research suggests that the carbon dioxide in the drink can make you feel more empty than you are and trigger a “hunger hormone.”
This means you end up eating more than you would have done if you had swigged some still water instead.
Scientists from Birzeit University in the Palestinian West Bank noting that the hunger hormone ghrelin spikes in people after drinking sparkling water.
People who had sparkling water for breakfast were found to have six times the ghrelin level of those who had still water.
Last year we revealed that your zero calorie diet drink can also make you pile on the pounds, by messing with the bacteria in your gut.