Soda May Age You as Much as Smoking

Re:Soda May Age You as Much as Smoking by vinceguidry on Tuesday October 21, 2014 @03:02PM (#8489109)

Pretty sure it's mostly due to marketing and also vertically integrated markets. You can't get away from soft drink advertising in the US. And the stuff is literally everywhere. In many (most?) restaurants, your beverage choices comprise soda and water.

I would not be surprised at all if soda alone accounted for a double-digit percentage of the obesity rate.

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Re:Soda May Age You as Much as Smoking by nerfhammer on Tuesday October 21, 2014 @05:00PM (#8489965)

It's the margins. Merchants will always push you to get soft drinks because that's where they get the biggest margin.

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Re:Soda May Age You as Much as Smoking by loganu on Tuesday October 21, 2014 @06:10PM (#8490441)

Exactly. Why would a movie theater, fast food chain, restaurant, or other place offer water as a default when they could sell you something with a 90% profit margin?

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Re:Soda May Age You as Much as Smoking by johnchristopher on Tuesday October 21, 2014 @03:11PM (#8489171)

> [..] In many (most?) restaurants, your beverage choices comprise soda and water.

This reminds me that in Belgium there's a fast food chain with menus for which the cashier can't swap the soda for water.

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Re:Soda May Age You as Much as Smoking by valarauca1 on Tuesday October 21, 2014 @03:17PM (#8489219)

This is true for a lot of US resturants (especially fast food) they don't have a button for water, instead they just ring up a soda, and fill it with water.

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Re:Soda May Age You as Much as Smoking by jfoutz on Tuesday October 21, 2014 @03:47PM (#8489443)

I think the majority of the cost is the packaging The concentrated soda and carbonation isn't free, but a tiny fraction of the cost of the cup, lid and straw.

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Re:Soda May Age You as Much as Smoking by chadzawistowski on Tuesday October 21, 2014 @04:55PM (#8489927)

My understanding was that restaurants in the US are required to provide free tap water. It may be a very small cup, but it should be available.

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Re:Soda May Age You as Much as Smoking by dguaraglia on Tuesday October 21, 2014 @08:12PM (#8490885)

You get the water, but you can't take the price of the soda off the menu item.

Say you get a "Big Kahuna Combo" at $4.95 from some joint. The combo comprises a hamburger, a bag of fries and medium soda. Let's say the supermarket price for the same amount of soda is $.95 and the water cost is $1.95 (yes, more.) You'd think the restaurant would be able to swap the soda for a bottle of water and charge you $5.95 for the combo. But the way their combos are created (there are many, many reasons why the combos include a soda, such as soda companies subsidizing the cost of the soda for having soda as the default drink in the menu) doesn't allow for customization. In that case you'll have to pay the full value of the combo + $1.95 for the bottled water. Or get the same combo, for $4.95, but replacing the soda for tap water.

That's what the parent meant.

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