Rarely does a day go by without yet another health scare story in the national press involving soft drinks. In recent months we have seen articles linking them with conditions such as bowel cancer, teenage violence and heart disease.
It might be worrying if any of them were true. But these claims are based on scientific studies that have been shown to be incomplete, inadequate or simply misleading. Sadly, readers often only remember the attention-grabbing headlines rather than the facts; which is of no benefit to anybody whatsoever.
This is not to say that there is no place for reporting the science about soft drinks. Any product on the market deserves to be thoroughly examined and its manufacturers called upon to explain themselves when there is any doubt. But it can't be right when it is the myths and mistakes that dominate the debate and are uppermost in the public mind. It is time to set the record straight.
Your safety
To take perhaps the most common example, it is often written that people should steer clear of drinks containing E numbers because they might not be safe. This is the complete opposite of the truth. What an E number signifies is not that the ingredient is potentially harmful but actually that it has been tested to be safe. E numbers are awarded after an ingredient has been approved for use by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), and it continues to review this on a regular basis.
It is worth going to this much effort because of the benefits that different ingredients and additives can bring. They can protect the drinks from spoilage and give them a longer shelf-life, they can give a range of great flavours to the drinks, and they can add to drinks a sweet taste without the calories that come with sugar.
But you don't have to consume E numbers if you don't want to. The law requires every product to list its ingredients on the label. If, despite what I have written about the approved safety of all ingredients used, you would prefer to have a drink without one, you can. There's a wide range of drinks available, catering for every possible taste.
You will also find information about the nutritional content on the label, too, and each manufacturer posts it on its website. Calories and sugars are listed as a proportion of your recommended daily intake (known as the Guideline Daily Amount or GDA). If you want a drink with fewer calories or less sugar, simply look for the one with the lower number on the label.
Your health
Not only is it wrong to think that soft drinks are bad for your health, actually, in several ways, they can be positively good for you. Here's why.
First, there is hydration. It is important for your health to drink enough fluid each day to stay properly hydrated. If you don't, you could face headaches, loss of concentration and generally poor performance. EFSA recommends that adults should consume at least 2 litres of water a day to get the benefits of being properly hydrated; and water, of course, is the major component of all soft drinks.
Next, there is five a day. A glass of fruit juice can count as one of the five servings of fruit and vegetables everyone is supposed to eat each day (and a smoothie can count as two servings). There's an exotic array of flavours now available that makes reaching that 5 a day target a little bit easier.
But this isn't licence to over-indulge, though. The third health concern is the fight against obesity. To stay trim means to follow a balanced diet and keep your calorie intake in line with the exercise you take and the calories you burn. Too much of anything is not a good idea. Soft drinks make it easy: 62 per cent of the soft drinks market is made up of drinks which don't contain any added sugar, compared with only 30 per cent, 20 years ago.
So don't be put off by the bad headlines - they almost never capture the whole picture. The adverse publicity should not obscure the reality: soft drinks are a refreshing and enjoyable way to stay hydrated and, in a balanced diet, they can be good for you. Isn't that the truth?