A fizzy drink, often called a soda, is a drink that contains carbonated water, a sweetener and a natural or artificial flavouring. The sweetener may be sugar (Europe), corn syrup (N America) or fruit juice.
Some natural mineral waters are gassy. These were seen as health drinks and were popular in the 18th century. In 1767, Englishman Joseph Priestley discovered a method of getting water to take up carbon dioxide.
Priestley found that water treated with carbon dioxide had a pleasant taste.
Scientists in England and Sweden then found ways of making this happen on a large scale. Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius started to add flavours (spices, juices, and wine) to carbonated water in the late eighteenth century.
In the 1770s, Thomas Henry from Manchester, England, was the first to sell artificial mineral water to the public as a health drink. He called it 'Bewley's Mephitic Julep'.
Johann Jacob Schweppe developed a similar process at more of less the same time. He founded the Schweppes Company in Geneva in 1783, then moved his factory to London in 1792 because there was a bigger market for selling it. Schweppes was appointed the official supplier of carbonated water to the Royal Family.
Cola is a sweetened, carbonated soft drink, derived from drinks that originally contained caffeine from the kola nut and cocaine from coca leaves. Most colas now use other ingredients with a similar taste. Pharmacist John Pemberton invented Coca-Cola in 1886. His non-alcoholic recipe was popular at a time when some people did not approve of alcoholic drinks. It soon became a world-wide success.
Modern colas usually contain caramel colour, caffeine and sweeteners such as sugar (Europe) or high fructose corn syrup (North America).
Is sparkling water, soda or cola good or bad for you?
Sparkling water is plain water which has bubbles (of a gas called carbon dioxide) injected into it. The gas dissolves under pressure in the drink, and it is only when you take the cap off that the bubbles come out of the water and make it fizzy.
Sparkling water is not at all the same as fizzing soda drinks made with fruit juice, or colas. Fizzy sodas and colas have large amounts of sugar in them, and that can make you fat. The sugars also help bacteria grow in your mouth and can cause tooth decay.
But some are also a hundred times more acid than sparkling water, and this can destroy the enamel on your teeth, giving tooth problems. So if you must have sodas, and especially colas, don’t swill the drink around your mouth, and even think of using a straw.
Because sparkling water keeps on giving off gases when it reaches your stomach, it tends of blow you out, making you feel more full. In this way it can help people who need to be on a diet want to eat less food. A soda does the same thing, but because it may contain much sugar, it does not help to reduce weight, and may do the opposite.
Like everything else, drinking sodas and colas can be enjoyable, and there is no reason to give them up. But they need to be drunk in moderate quantities, rather than as the only drink all day long.
