Here we will look at alcohol vs soda to see which one is worse. For some reason in certain spaces people debate this (even though the real reason is known), so let’s look at some real life truths about each one to see which one is better. Most individuals or their family members have consumed alcohol and soda alike at some point in their life.
This means that this discussion of which one is better than the other would definitely come up. First off, both alcohol and soda have been under the radar of negative reviews by many individuals for a long time. Unfortunately both are also sometimes advertised by companies, gurus, videos on YouTube, and other sources as good.
This is not to say that there is a flip side of people from other sources that have a lot of bad things to say about both, because there are.
Many different comparisons will be made here for soda vs alcohol, and vice-versa, but let’s touch on the most important one first:
Soda vs Alcohol: Which is better socially?
From a social perspective, soda is a beverage that is enjoyed by many individuals across the world. It is a sweet and sour carbonated beverage that has made its way into almost every restaurant, grocery store, and convenience store. It is even sold at small convenience stores on the side, in these stores that only serve a purpose of fueling an individuals gas for their vehicles.
However, if we were to look at soda in the household, it is there, but it is just consumed regularly as a person so desires. It isn’t the main highlight of many social gathering like alcohol is. Carbonated beverages show up everywhere, but they don’t really have a direct way of bonding individuals together socially.
Alcohol on the other hand, is perceived by many (and often advertised as such) as an alcoholic beverage that has an effect on the bonds between human beings. It is often bought by many individuals as a go to for parties, concerts, holidays, weddings, celebrations, and many other social events.
It is used to ‘spice up’ the social events and make them better. Commonly this causes intoxication and addiction over time to the point that an individual cannot go to a social gathering without drinking alcohol. Everything that would be considered fun to them isn’t, unless alcohol is always involved. Even in some activities where alcohol is perceived as a bad option to include it.
However, because alcohol is used this way and has this effect, it is one of the leading causes of crime related incidents across the world. Since, we are comparing alcohol to soda, it is only fair to include this portion when they are compared to one another. It wouldn’t be a fair comparison to ignore the elephant in the room.
Alcohol can cause addictions to occur, which can lead to excessive drinking. This excessive drinking usually causes individuals to do things that they would usually not do. Unfortunately, most of these things end up in violence and sometimes jail time.
Some individuals are so heavily influenced by alcohol (not just intoxicated, but influenced socially) that they drink while driving. Doing this is illegal and obviously dangerous, which can even result in death. These things happen far too often to just push it off as an uncommon thing in the comparison.
Because alcohol is a drug, it is also paired with other dangerous substances that have left individuals permanently unresponsive. Individuals don’t usually begin their drinking endeavors for just flavor, but for the effects it has on the mind and body. Soda doesn’t have any real evidence to support it having these same effects as alcohol.
Even though some individuals have claimed that alcohol has made their social events better, usually it is only for the person/people drinking the alcohol. Oftentimes from the perspective of family members and other individuals at these social gathering, they cross their fingers and hope that nothing goes wrong.
This isn’t even mentioning the lesser effects of alcohol, which cause individuals to say hurtful and unnecessary things to their loved ones while they are intoxicated. This usually incites negative moods, arguing, and more, which is definitely not good in social encounters.
Alcohol may be the reason why some individuals bond just to share “a” drink, but it is the main beverage that also breaks their bonds with their loved ones. It is seen as a fun drink by some, but it is unhealthy in more than one ways, not just by what is in it.
When soda is compared to alcohol in these real life situations that occur regularly across the world, soda is clearly better than alcohol. Soda is the big winner.
Alcohol vs Soda: Nutritional Benefits
Many may already know this, but it is important to mention this again: both alcohol and most soda beverages are empty calories. They have little to no nutritional benefits. This means that even if the two were combined to make a soda alcoholic beverage, it would not provide any real nutrients to the body.
Sodas however, can be made by simply adding carbonation to juice. If it is a juice made from real fruits that was carbonated, then it would be healthier than alcohol, without adding anything extra into it to make it more nutritious.
Calories
We are going to be pretty lenient with alcohol here and just use one of the lowest calorie ones around, vodka. For every shot of vodka, it would be around 85 calories. Other sources may say 100 calories, but it actually is less than this, since a shot is about 1.25 ounces to 1.5 ounces (44ml).
When drinking alcohol, most individual’s intentions is to get to some level of drunk. In order for this to happen with vodka, around 5 times to 9 times on average per person is what it would take. This means that 340 calories to 765 calories of alcohol would have to be consumed.
This is not talking about alcoholics, which need to drink more than their average to get intoxicated.
For soda versus alcohol in calories, the average person is said to consume 16 ounces to 32 ounces of soda per day. This is 185 to 370 calories. This again makes soda the winner as a better option in the terms of calories, especially since there are diet sodas and zero calorie soft drinks. There is no way that an alcohol can have zero calories.
Some alcohols, like everclear, have a large amount of calories. 2 to 3 shots is the average that most individuals would drink. It contains 285 calories per shot, which would be 570 calories to 855 calories on average from 2 to 3 shots.
Sugars
Soda has 49 grams to 98 grams of sugar based off the average 16 ounces to 32 ounces of soda that an individual would consume. Alcohol versus soda in the terms of sugar, has no sugar for most of the common beverages. This would be vodka and beer for example. Wine has a small fraction of sugar. Some alcohols contain around 20 grams of sugar.
Alcohol would be better overall in terms of sugar, if an individual isn’t consuming a diet or zero sugar soda, otherwise both would be equal, or diet soda would be better.
Carbs
Alcohol has little to no carbs, while soda has the same grams of carbs as it has sugar. Some alcohols, like beer, have 13 grams of carbs per can of beer.
The carbs are the sugar in the soda beverage. Basically it is the same thing. The carbs are not counted separately from the sugars.
Fats
Neither soda or alcohol contains any fat. Some alcohols contain small amounts.
However, alcohol is usually blamed more for making individuals obese and overweight than soda. It wins the title of the invention of the phrase “beer gut”. It is a saying used to describe mainly individuals who received most of the calories from drinking beer, which led to a protruding belly.
Health professionals say that a hard beer gut is a huge health problem that could be a sign of even more dangerous health risks.
Of course, getting belly fat can be caused by eating or drinking anything with too many calories too much, but it is called a beer gut for a reason. As already shown, alcohol contains a lot of calories. Individuals are capable of consuming a third to almost half their calories on average in alcohol alone. It would take much more soda to pull that off.
Health
The excessive (binge and long term) drinking of soda and alcohol have both been linked to detrimental health diseases. Of the two, you can decide which is worse.
For soda, individuals have linked it to risks of obesity, type 2 diabetes, kidney failure, and tooth decay.
For alcohol, individuals have linked it to risks of obesity, liver disease, heart disease, stroke, and possible cancer in various parts of the body.
Neither soda or alcohol are good for you, especially when consumed in excess, but soda is clearly better and healthier than alcohol. There are things that alcohol consumption can do to you that soda just cannot do.
Even the worst that has happened from individuals chronically drinking large amounts of soda at a time, happens less than the frequency of incidents involving alcohol consumption.
There are AA meetings/programs for a reason. You would be hard pressed to find a Soda Anonymous. There is also a reason why alcohol isn’t available for every age, and individuals are told to drink responsibly when consuming alcohol.
The dark side of alcohol can be found easily on the internet of stories of what it does, but soda just can’t be compared to this. Hopefully you were able to grab something from this article to better your self and your health. The article was designed to give a full review of both soda and alcohol.
I know there are individuals who always say, “Drinking doesn’t do that to me. You should see me when I’m out. I’m a happy drunk!”, but alcohol is a drug. The effects of drugs can hit psychologically to the point that human beings will defend them to the death if it means possibly risking losing it…
Being honest with yourself about the things in life is the best thing you can do for yourself. It is the only way to improve.
