A friendly reminder: kick the diet soda habit for the sake of your BONES!

Today I had my yearly visit to my OBGYN. After checking me over, as she does every year, she reminded me of the importance of getting my daily portions of fruits and vegetables, and at my age (37) the importance of maintaining my levels of calcium. Specifically, women my age should have 1000-1200 mg of calcium per day (a cup of yogurt has about 468 mg, a cup of low fat milk has about 300 mg).

This reminder emphasized for me, in a BIG way, the importance of letting people know that NONE of our ZEVIA flavors contain phosphoric acid. Phosphoric acid is added to many colas out on the market today (including Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi). This is especially an important thing to know for women, as explained by Osteoporosis-People.com:

"Why is phosphoric acid added to cola beverages? They call it a 'flavor enhancer'. It has no flavor, but it tingles our tongue... it has an acid 'bite', a tangy-ness that we like."

What does phosphoric do to calcium in our bodies? "Calcium is removed from the body by phosphoric acid, and the calcium we lose ultimately comes from our bones."

Remember: "We can lose bone faster than we can build new bone, and we can reach a point where we cannot catch up."

When creating ZEVIA cola (and all other flavors), we learned the dangers of phosphoric acid. In wanting to keep ZEVIA truly healthy, we sought a blend of natural acids that could provide the taste and sensation profile traditionally found through phosphoric acid. I am so happy we took the time to do this. As my doctor reminded me today, not only do we NEED calcium in our bones, we shouldn't be depleting it by something as apparently innocuous as drinking a diet soda.

Kick the diet soda habit - for the sake of your bones!!

- Jessica