Effect of soft drinks on bone

Introduction: Adolescence age group has significant impact of advertizing industry for use of soft drink and junk food. Present study is aimed to find out the alteration in the bone markers in medical and dental students, who regularly consume soft drinks. Materials and Methods: Students from our institute were divided (n = 200) in two groups. Group A – Students who consume 200 ml or less than 200 ml of soft drink in a week. Group B -Students consuming more than 200 ml of either ‘regular’ soft drink (B1) or ‘diet’ soft drink (B2) per day. Results: There is a significant decrease in the levels of bone density, calcium, phosphorous, vitamin D and increase in the activity of alkaline phosphatase in Group B2 than group A as well as B1. Conclusion: Diet soft drinks are consumed instead of regular soft drinks, the decrease in the pH due to phosphoric acid and aspartame; may lead to bone demineralization resulting into decreased bone density. Inhibition of 1alpha hydroxylase may get inhibited due to acid pH caused by phosphoric acid from soft drinks. These changes may lead to develop tendency of bone fractures in the future life. Keywords: Soft drinks, Bone density.