Is Club Soda Good for You?

Club soda gives you the bubbly feel without adding sugar.
Image Credit: Kanawa_Studio/iStock/GettyImages

Club soda is a popular way for many people to stay hydrated. Club soda benefits, along with benefits from other unflavored fizzy waters, include that bubbly taste many people prefer, without the added sugar or calories that come from sweetened flavorings. Club soda and its fizzy counterparts can be good for you, but there are some caveats.

Advertisement

Tip

Club soda, sparkling water and seltzer water can help your body stay hydrated, just like plain water does. It may actually help you feel more full, as well. Concerns about damage to teeth, however, are mostly overblown, but it does contain added sodium.

Video of the Day

What Is Club Soda?

Club soda, often referred to as soda water, is carbonated water with salt added to it. For example, Schweppes has sodium bicarbonate, sodium chloride and potassium sulfate. One of those is baking soda, while another is table salt. These salts help neutralize the acidity of club soda and give it more of the flavor of carbonated waters that occur naturally. It is not, however, seltzer water, even though the two are often used interchangeably. Seltzer water is carbonated water with no other added ingredients.

Advertisement

Video of the Day

Club soda, sparkling water, seltzer water, fizzy water, carbonated water and mineral water are all terms used for carbonated water. The term carbonated water probably gives the clearest picture of how aerated water occurs.

Sometimes, carbonated water occurs naturally in springs. Perrier is one example. Perrier comes from springs enriched with minerals and infused with carbon dioxide gas.

Advertisement

Read more: What Are the Benefits of Carbonated Water?

History of Soda Water

In the 18th century, Joseph Priestly lived near a brewery in Leeds, England, where he noticed vapors, or fixed air as he called the process, coming from the brewery. He realized this was the same gas that formed the effervescence in naturally occurring spring water. Priestly's story is told in a May 2018 article published by McGill University.

Advertisement

Resorts in Europe were serving this effervescent water as cures for illnesses, and Priestly wondered if he could cause ordinary water to react with a similar fizz in some way. Acid on marble produced a similar reaction, so he tried combining sulfuric acid and chalk to form a gas. This gas was carbon dioxide.

He collected the gas in a pig's bladder and figured out how to combine it with water to make it carbonated. He wrote "Directions for Impregnating Water With Fixed Air." His so-called soda water gained a following. It worked especially well on ship voyages, improving the flavor of the stored water that was served weeks or months after being collected from springs.

Advertisement

Scottish physician John Noon then developed a glass system for carbonating the water, which solved the problem of the odd taste from the pig's bladder. This is when soda water's popularity really took off.

Early Health Claims

In the 18th and 19th centuries, soda water was wrongly thought to prevent scurvy and other diseases, according to the McGill article. About the only way for carbonated water to prevent scurvy, which is caused by a vitamin C deficiency, would be to add some juice high in vitamin C to the soda water. Lemon juice would be a good way to add vitamin C while adding minimal calories.

Advertisement

Advertisement

The water may have been considered healthful because its effervescence keeps it aerated, which helps it taste better. That may be because any stagnant water after a few days loses some of its oxygen, and because refrigerated water holds more dissolved gases, like carbon dioxide.

This effervescent water has been popular for bathing in since Roman times, according to a February 2017 transcript of a Science History Institute podcast. Unproven claims of sparkling water benefits included the ability to heal tumors, joint pain and skin conditions.

Advertisement

Club Soda Study Findings

Today, scientific studies can test health claims, and here's some of the science around club soda and soda water:

  • Carbonated water can induce feelings of fullness, according to a study published in July 2017 in the Journal of Nutritional Science and Vitaminology.
  • Another 2017 study seems to contradict this. A study in the September/October 2017 issue of Obesity Research & Clinical Practice indicates carbonated water can stimulate the appetite. The study found that rats who drank fizzy drinks had higher levels of the hunger hormone ghrelin. This study, unlike the study above, has not been replicated in humans.
  • Carbonated water seems to hydrate people about as well as plain water, according to a March 2016 study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. So if you need that bubbly, slightly salty taste in order to drink water, club soda can be a good alternative to plain water.
  • A February 2016 study in the Journal of Applied Physiology showed that carbonated water may help with swallowing.

Advertisement

Read more: Is Carbonated Water Bad for You?

Little Dental Erosion

There has been some concern over the effect of carbonated water on teeth enamel. While there is some correlation between sodas with flavor and sugar and erosion of the enamel covering teeth, a study published in a 2016 edition of the Journal of the American Dental Association showed only minimal tooth enamel erosion from those who drank Canada Dry Club Soda.

Advertisement

Soda can cause dental erosion if it is fairly acidic. The acid level researchers considered to be erosive or extremely erosive were those with pH levels below 3.99. Canada Dry Club Soda has a pH of 5.24.

So if it's the fizz you're looking for, but you want to wean yourself off sugary or diet sodas, club soda doesn't have the same amount of acidic wear on your teeth enamel that flavored sodas are shown to have.

Club Soda and Bone Density

Some older studies, including this October 2006 study from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, show a link between colas and lower bone mineral density. But this finding, according to a Harvard Health Publishing article updated in April 2019, has not translated to other carbonated drinks.

The conclusion to the 2006 study, which called for further research, found no such link between other carbonated drinks and bone mineral density.

Read more: Carbonated Water vs Flat Water for Healthy Kidneys

Any Club Soda Side Effects?

Of potentially negative club soda side effects, there is one, and that comes from the added sodium content. Club soda does contain sodium. If your doctor has recommended you limit sodium in your diet, you may want to consider seltzer water or check the label of the club soda of your choice to see how much sodium it contains.

For example, a 12-ounce can of Seagram's Club Soda contains 35 milligrams of sodium. An 8-ounce serving of Canada Dry Club Soda, on the other hand, contains 115 milligrams of sodium. A 12-ounce serving of Schweppes Club Soda has 95 milligrams of sodium.

According to the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, most people need about 500 milligrams of sodium a day for vital functions. A typical American, on the other hand, takes in about 3,400 milligrams of sodium, much more than is needed. Too much sodium can make the kidneys work too hard, all of which, over time, can lead to high blood pressure, heart attacks and stroke.

To know if you're at risk, it's best to inform your doctor how much club soda you drink.

Advertisement

Advertisement

references

Report an Issue

screenshot of the current page

Screenshot loading...