Soft drinks and bone density

<h3 >Soft drinks and bone density</h3>

Research suggests a statistically significant inverse relationship between consumption of carbonated beverages and bone mineral density in young girls, which places them at increased risk of suffering fractures in the future.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_drink#cite_note-38" >[39]</a>

One hypothesis to explain this relationship is that the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosphoric_acid#Processed_food_use" title="Phosphoric acid" >phosphoric acid</a> contained in some soft drinks (colas) displaces calcium from the bones, lowering bone density of the skeleton and leading to weakened bones, or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osteoporosis" title="Osteoporosis" >osteoporosis</a>.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_drink#cite_note-Heaney2001-39" >[40]</a> However, calcium metabolism studies by Dr. Robert Heaney suggested that the net effect of carbonated soft drinks, (including colas, which use phosphoric acid as the acidulent) on calcium excretion in urine was negligible. Heaney concluded that carbonated soft drinks, which do not contain the nutrients needed for bone health, may displace other foods which do, and that the real issue is that people who drink a lot of soft drinks also tend to have an overall diet that is low in calcium.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_drink#cite_note-Heaney2001-39" >[40]</a> In the 1950s and 1960s there were attempts in France and Japan to ban the sale of Coca-Cola as dangerous since phosphates can block calcium absorption. However, these were unsuccessful as the amounts of phosphate were shown to be too small to have a significant effect.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_drink#cite_note-Phosphatesin-7" >[8]</a>