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Soft Drinks

About Soft Drinks

Even though we might not think a lot about soft drinks, they do make up a huge part of our diet. This is especially true for young children and adolescents, who are young and active enough not to worry about regulating their sugar intake.

Generally, soft drinks include many different kinds of flavoured and artificially sweetened drinks that are non-alcoholic. Initially, people used the term soft drinks to differentiate sweetened and flavoured drinks from alcoholic drinks. In those days, people who were trying to change their drinking habits used to substitute it with soda. But today,  carbonated drinks are much more diverse and mainstream. This article will tell you everything you need to know about these drinks. Having a better understanding of them will help you make the right choices when you are shopping for them.

Different types of soft drinks

The world of drinks is ever-growing. Every so often, new manufacturers drop a new and innovative type of drink that may hit or miss. Those that become successful stay to see many more decades or even generations. Because of this, the classification of these drinks also changes. Today, it is possible to classify these drinks broadly into four different categories. This article will tell you everything you need to know about carbonated drinks. There are also a few tips that you can use when you are shopping for such products.

Carbonated soft drinks

Carbonated drinks first came into being in the eighteenth century. Today, most of the packaged drinks consumed in the world are carbonated drinks. And not surprisingly, Coca Cola is the most popular drink around the world, followed by Pepsi. However, there are other kinds of drinks as well besides colas. There are plenty of fruit flavoured sodas and low-calorie carbonated drinks. One thing that is common among all of these is the presence of dissolved carbon dioxide in these drinks. This carbon dioxide makes the drink fizzy and makes it more pleasurable to drink.

Fruit Juices

The second most popular category of soft drinks is fruit juices. Packaged fruit juices are of two types: those that contain the flesh of the fruit and those that do not. Packaged fruit juices that actually contain the fruit have a short shelf life. Such fruit juices can only last a few weeks or months before they go bad. The second type of juice is the most common one. Those juices use fruit concentrate instead of the actual fruit. With the help of preservatives, it is possible for such juices to last for well over a year. However, such drinks will not have much nutritional value.

Dilutables

This includes powder drink mixes, squashes, and other drink concentrates that you cannot drink as such. Unlike carbonated drinks and fruit juices, people purchase dilutables mostly for domestic use. There are a couple of reasons for the popularity of dilutables among household customers. Firstly, the drinks made using dilutables cost less for a cup compared to pre-packaged drinks. Secondly, you can store dilutables for a really long time even without refrigeration. Most dilutables, including squashes, are usually fruit-flavoured as well making it appealing to a wider population.

Sports drinks

Unlike fruit juices, colas, or dilutables, sports drinks do not try to fare well when it comes to taste. Rather sports drinks tend to concentrate on being more functional and provide hydration and replace salts lost through sweating. Depending on the formula of the drink, it is possible to divide sports drinks into three categories: hypertonic, isotonic, and hypotonic. Hypertonic drinks contain the most amount of calories. Isotonic drinks have less concentration of carbohydrates than hypertonic but pack more salt and sugar. Hypotonic drinks have the least amount of carbohydrates and contain the most amount of salt and sugar.

Tips on how to buy Soft Drinks

Choosing the right drink can be much harder than you might think. There are literally thousands of different options when it comes to buying a drink. There are juices, carbonated sodas, sparkling water, sports drinks, and energy drinks. So, you really need to be more specific when you are shopping for them. Also, picking the right one will be a lot easier if you know what factor to consider in them. Here are a few tips that you can follow while buying a soft drink .

  • Juices – When you shop for juices, you will come across really juices and “juice drinks”. The difference between the two is that the first one contains real fruit while the second one uses a fruit concentrate to add flavour to the drink. If you want to make sure, check the list of ingredients to check if it uses fruit pulp. Sometimes, fruit drinks might have a very small amount of fruit pulp.
  • Sports drinks – There are many different types of drinks, and they can often be confusing for people. When people hear about sports drinks, they make an assumption that all of them are the same. However, the ingredients and the concentration of the ingredients vary between them. Choose a drink that has the composition that your body requires and also depends on the sports that you are doing.
  • Colas – Colas are mostly just flavoured carbonated water. The difference between the two different cola products is in the colour and the flavour. Furthermore, the amount of fizz in them might also differ. At the end, which cola to buy comes down to your personal preference. However, these days, there are healthier sugar-free colas as well. So, if you want to reduce your calorie consumption, get sugar free colas instead of regular ones.
  • Energy drinks – Some people confuse energy drinks with being sports drinks. But the composition of a typical energy drink is not the same as sports drinks. Probably the factor that differentiates energy drinks from sports drinks is that the former will contain some form of psychoactive components like caffeine or tea extract. Some of them will also contain taurine as well, which is a compound that improves muscle performance.

For humans, eating and drinking is not just a means of acquiring nutrition. It is also a social and recreational practice that people often love to do. More often than not, drinks are recreational drinks. But there are plenty of other recreational drinks as well, including coffee, tea, and juices. The best part is that you can find all of them easily using our shopping search engine . That way you can compare the prices of different products and pick the best one among them. Finally, don’t forget to check out other amazing products from the Food & Beverage category.

Question & Answer

Are soft drinks bad for you?

It is not possible to answer this question without breaking down drinks into different categories. The word “soft drinks” means fresh juices, fruit drinks, sodas, energy drinks, and many more. Some of them can provide a lot of nutrition to the body. However, one thing that is common among all of these is that they all contain a lot of sugar unless it is a specific sugar-free variety. Even though sugar, in and of itself, is not bad, consuming too much of it is really harmful to the body. So, if you are having a glass of soft drink once in a while, there is nothing wrong with that. But if you have it every day, you might be consuming too much sugar than your body can process.

Are soft drinks acidic?

Not all drinks are acidic. In fact, most of them are not acidic. But all types that have dissolved carbon in them are acidic in nature. The high amount of carbon dioxide in carbonated drinks causes the formation of carbonic acid in these drinks. But the concentration of this acid in the drink will be very small, and the amount of sugar in the drink will mask the sourness of carbonic acid. Another thing to keep in mind is that carbonic acid is not stable. Therefore, if all the carbon dioxide in the drink escapes out, the concentration of carbonic acid in it goes down.

Are soft drinks vegan?

The two most popular drinks around the world, i.e. Coca Cola and Pepsi, are vegan. But that doesn’t mean all types of drinks are vegan. This is because some of the ingredients in these drinks are derived from animals. Such ingredients include stabilisers, dyes, nutrients, and sweeteners. The most common non-vegan stabiliser is the Ester Gum. Not all ester gum has to be non-vegan. But most companies use ester gum derived from animals by-products. Another common non-vegan ingredient is cochineal, which is a food dye.

If you are looking to buy these drinks online in the UAE, look no further as you are in the right place. There are more than 500 shops and brands offering them on Shops.ae. These shops offer food and beverages from brands like Coca Cola, 7 Up, Barr, Jarritos, Mirinda, Mountain Dew, Big Red Soda, and Calpis.

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