Calcium, Kids & pH
That kids are drinking so many soft drinks isn’t good fo a lot of reasons. Here’s how cola and it’s acidic content relate to calcium and bone health.
Studies show that teen girls who drink cola beverages are three times as likely to get bone fractures as teen girls who don’t. And more athletic girls are five times as likely to break bones as girls who don’t drink cola.
If you look at the label of Coke or Pepsi, you’ll see phosphoric acid listed among the ingredients. Dr. Pepper contains phosphoric acid, too. Ginger Ale and many others list citric acid. Mountain Dew lists lactic acid. And of course, all list carbonated water which is carbon dioxide dissolved in water or carbonic acid.
pH is a way of determining the acidity or alkalinity of a solution by measuring the concentration of hydrogen ions it contains. If it has a low pH it is acidic. If it has a high pH it is alkaline. The pH scale ranges from 1-14 with 7 being neutral. As far as body chemistry is concerned, we need to maintain a slightly alkaline pH of 7.4 to stay healthy.
Eating enough fruits and vegetables is one way to help keep our system alkaline. Fruits and vegetables will, for example, help buffer acid meat proteins.
Minerals can also help neutralize acids. To buffer the acidic effects of anything we consume, minerals such as sodium, potassium, magnesium, and calcium are pulled from our system.
Now here’s where this gets interesting.
To prevent damage to the urinary tract, anything with a pH lower than about 5 can’t be excreted by the kidneys.
A 12 ounce can of cola with a pH of 2.8 to 3.2 would require some 100 liters of urine to bring it up to a pH of 5. That’s more than 26 gallons of urine!
Since that isn’t going to happen, what the body does is go the mineral route, first with easily accessible sodium, potassium and carbonate, and later with magnesium and calcium. To bring the pH up to 5, it uses the mineral equivalent of 4 Tums tablets, drawn from the body, mostly from the bones.
So Coke machines in schools may supply districts with needed funds, but there are many health issues at stake not the least of which is bone fractures now and osteoporosis later on, for teen-aged girls who drink cola.
