Molar-ity - A Small Lesson in Chemistry

I don't know if this has been studied in any peer review journals, but drawing from my knowledge of science, it seems that this would work.

After you drink a soda/pop/high fructose corn syrup infused carbonated phosphoric acid beverage, whatever your chosen vernacular, swish your mouth with water a couple of times - hell, drink a full glass of water, swishing as you go.

Why, you ask? Well, my friend, read on! I'll try not to make this too complex - you have my apologies if I do. I don't know the scientific knowledge of my readership either, so if I sound condescending, than I am sorry.

Phosphoric acid, which is the main acid in most dark pops, is highly acidic; we're talking a pH of 1-2.5 - think battery acid. Yes, you may not consider it when you drink it, pop is acid - that in and of itself is hard to wrap your mind around sometimes - millions of people drink highly sugared acid as a treat.

Now, acid is present as free radical hydrogen molecules in an aqueous solution - the more hydrogens, the more acidic the solution (the chemical equation for phosphoric acid is H3PO4, although the amount of oxidation [loss of hydrogen] varies in solution, you can see that the chemical has 3 potential acid hydrogens). Molarity in a chemical solution is the concentration of molecules of a given chemical in that solution. High molarity of phosphoric acid means that there's fewer water molecules and more chemical molecules, in our case with pop, we have high concentration of phosphoric acid molecules relative to the amount of water and other constituents of saliva.

I don't have a can of pop in front of me, but I know that the main ingredient is water, so one, maybe two, of those hydrogens per phosphoric acid molecule are floating around in there. When you drink pop, however, the higher molarity of acid in pop changes the pH of your saliva, effectively turning your mouth acidic (more so). If you drink some water after you finish the pop (dentist tip: every time you sip, it takes 20 minutes for your body to bring your oral pH to equilibrium - thanks, Dr. Wintheiser), the molarity of your newly acidic mouth, I postulate, should drop dramatically, and while the pH of your mouth will still be low, your body can more easily tune the pH back to its normal level.

Unfortunately, I can't think of what to do about the sugar. Sugar is also the big enemy in tooth decay. The bacteria in your mouth use it to make acid to dissolve your enamel, leading to cavities. You may suggest drinking sugar free pop to get around it, and that's fine, but I prefer to veer away from aspartame and other man-made chemicals as much as possible.

So there you have it a somewhat quick lesson in chemistry. Hope it didn't read like a Ben Stein lecture.

Iced Pop

It took many years, but I now know why people put ice in their soda. Horrible habits throughout my younger years prevented such a realization until recently, when I changed diet, I had an epiphany. I used to drink pop in copious amounts and I hated ice in my pop because it watered it down and quickened the loss of carbonation. Now that I don't drink pop daily and I've cut out sugared cereals (except on occasion) I find that there's just too much sugar in them. I had to reduce my intake of those wonderful carbohydrates to realize just how much is in some of the foods I used to love. Now pop is too sweet and syrupy and is merely an occasion. Besides, the high sugar content in pop is a shock to your system, especially if you drink it on an empty stomach. That and the fact that it's bad for your teeth, means pop should be really cut out of everyone's diet. I struggled for a long time to kick my heavy pop addiction. I learned a few things about myself and pop over the years. My huge intake of soda as an adolescent was tied to my other rather large intake of salty snack foods. I rarely drank pop if it wasn't to wash down those foods. My first step was to limit my intake of pop, so I have worked hard to stop snacking so heavily on crap food. I waver on this and have snacks every now and again, but I do try to eat healthier. The other thing I wanted to know was what about pop was so appealing to me? I found that carbonation is what kept me coming back, so now I enjoy carbonated waters instead. I really like the Canada Dry Lime and Raspberry flavored waters.

Did you know that bacteria in your mouth convert the sugars in pop into acid to further erode at your enamel and create opportunities for cavities? Have you ever looked at the ingredients in pop? It always astounds me that it's merely sugar dissolved in acid, unless you are drinking ginger ale or Sprite. Even Gatorade has a low pH. It's amazing that we drink acid as a treat.