Let's think about soda.

Soda is one of those junk foods that somehow misses the "junk" qualification because it's a liquid. I don't know why this mentality persists, but it does. We all know that cheese curls and ice cream are full of sugar and salt and high fructose corn syrup and fat; if not to be totally avoided, we know they should be on our "limit" list. When it comes to soda (or energy drinks or what have you), we’re not so sure. Either that, or we are sure, and we just look the other way.

I had begun to phase soda from my life years ago. I was still drinking soda, but I started to drink cranberry juice instead. Fruit juice is sweet and flavorful, possibly even more than soda, but it also counts as a fruit serving, which was part of the appeal.

I was also aware that fruit juices could potentially count as water, depending on who you asked; there was no way soda would ever qualify. When I was younger, I hated water. It tasted bad to me. So I can sympathize with the people who feel the need to buy brightly colored bottles of stuff touting itself as some variety of “water.”

Finally, I went cold turkey. There was no soda on East Amatuli, one of the seven Barren Islands in Alaska where I worked with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Two months on an island 60 miles out of port means that you pack in all your food, and pack out all your trash. Soda is not worth the hassle. It doesn’t hydrate or nourish you, and it’s heavy.

We had plenty of things to drink: milk (in boxes), juice from concentrate, Gatorade in powdered form. And of course, water.

Three things I’ve come to understand about soda.

1. It has no nutritional value. It cannot nourish. And anything one has to digest that doesn’t nourish is a strain on the digestive system. This doesn’t mean one shouldn’t drink it, necessarily, but it requires one to understand: soda is more like candy than anything else in the food kingdom. Would you eat a candy bar every day? (Yes, I include diet soda. Would you believe that a zero-calorie candy bar is any healthier for you than a normal one?)
2. It ruins the taste buds. The constant sweetness of soda on the tongue can potentially spoil the intricate flavors of other foods and beverages (in my humble opinion.) I’d be willing to guess that this is why I used to hate the taste of water: not because the water tasted bad, but perhaps because it could never compare to the taste of soda.
3. It’s full of strange ingredients. Who knows the effects of these things on the body? Have any conclusive studies been done? You can find a plethora of stories about how chronic illnesses mysteriously disappear or lessen when soda consumption is stopped…
   

I haven’t been entirely soda-abstinent. If a friend offers me a rum and coke, I’m going to drink it. To be honest, though, I’ve stopped craving it. Chocolate is another story, but soda no longer appeals. The thing that does appeal is water. And it tastes fine, now.

But why oh why am I blogging about soda in a blog devoted to ecological consciousness?

It’s pretty simple. Actually, it’s all about simplicity. Processed foods are always going to be more harmful to the environment. Always. And I can’t think of anything more processed than soda, except for perhaps some strains of cheese that are enveloped, individually sliced, in shrink-wrap packaging. It takes a good deal more energy to produce soda, and all the wonderful chemicals contained therein, than it does to make some fruit juice, or better yet, run some water from the faucet.

When you hear an environmentalist going on about “simplify, simplify, simplify,” this is what is meant. Simpler is always going to be better for the environment. Fewer processed foods. Local business. Less kitsch on your shelf. There’s no need to simplify to the point of nothing, but take a good look around. Life got pretty complicated for Americans in the last century or so. ‘Bout time to consider if they’re complications worth having.