FOOD VALUE OF SOFT DRINKS

Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 144, 21 June 1922, Page 13

FOOD VALUE OF SOFT DRINKS

Professor L.\ B. Allyn, American food chemist, has been lecturing on the nutritive value of soft drinks. He declares that soft drinks have, on the average, about 9 per cent, of carbohydrate matter in form of sugars and various extractives, and in some cases soluble protein. Approaching the matter from a different angle," he pointed out that an Boz bottle of soft drink carries about 87 calories, or about the amount contained in an average restaurant portion of, sliced banana; 87 calories is declared to be no small matter, and there are plenty of foods which, pound for pound, do not show a proportion more than that. Furthermore, soft drinks have other uses than the furnishing of heat units to the body. .Many of them carry no inconsiderable amounts of oTganic or fruit acids, such as citric, tartaric, malic, phosphoric, etc., allot which are utilised by the body, in maintaining what is known as the acid alkali balance. Most fruit acids form alkaline bases in the body, thus tending to relieve acid conditions. Those ■ drinks carrying pure flavouring materials perform an important function as flavour, though it« condimental effect acts as a gentle appetiser and tends to promote a more thorough and easy digestion of food. Soft drinks of the bitter or bitter-sweet varieties, almost without exception, exhibit mild tonic properties and induce a sense of invigoration or well-being. Even the carbon dioxide, with which all sparkling beverages are charged, is not without its nutritive significance. Reasonable quantities of carbonated beverages exert a tonic effect upon the mucous lining of the stomach, and in addition have slight diuretic action. They relieve thirst more readily than plain water of correspondine temperature. Place your orders for so?t drinks with Dixon's, Ltd., Fitz-herbert-street, Palmerston North.