soft drink is a beverage that does not contain alcohol. Carbonated soft drinks are commonly known as soda, pop, tonic, or soda pop, in the United States, soda or pop in Canada, coke in the American South, fizzy drinks or pop in the United Kingdom and sometimes minerals in Ireland. The name "soft drink" specifies a lack of alcohol by way of contrast to the term "hard drink". The term "drink", while nominally neutral, sometimes carries connotations of alcoholic content. Beverages like colas, sparkling water, iced tea, lemonade, squash, and fruit punch are among the most common types of soft drinks, while hot chocolate, hot tea, coffee, milk, tap water, and milkshakes do not fall into this classification. Many carbonated soft drinks are optionally available in versions sweetened with sugars or with non-caloric sweeteners.

Packaging
In the United States, soft drinks are sold in two-liter bottles, 1 L, 0.5 L, 24, 20 and 12 U.S. fluid ounce bottles, 12 U.S. fluid ounce cans, and short eight-ounce cans. Cans are packaged in a variety of quantities such as six packs, 12 packs and cases of 24, 36, and 360. With the advent of energy drinks sold in eight-ounce cans in the USA, some soft drinks are now sold in similarly sized cans. It is also common for carbonated soft drinks to be served as fountain drinks in which carbonation is added to a concentrate immediately prior to serving. In Europe, various systems are in use: plastic and glass bottles containing two, 1.5, one, 0.5, 0.35, 0.33 liters and aluminum cans of 0.33, 0.35, and 0.25 liters. Several countries have standard recycled packaging with a forfeit such as €0.15: the bottles are smelted and reused, cans are crushed and sold as scrap aluminum.
In Australia, soft drinks are usually sold in 375mL cans or glass or plastic bottles. Bottles are usually 390mL, 600mL, 1.25L or 2L. However, 1.5L bottles have more recently been used by the Coca-Cola Company.
In Canada, soft drinks are sold in cans of 236mL, 355mL, 473mL, and bottles of 591mL, 710mL, 1L, 1.89L, and 2L. The odd sizes are due to being the metric near-equivalents to eight, 12, 16, 20, 24, and 64 fluid ounces. This allows bottlers to use the same-sized containers as in the U.S. market. This is an example of a wider phenomenon in North America. Brands of more international soft drinks such as Fanta and Red Bull are more likely to come in round-figure capacities.

Nutritional value of non-diet soft drinks
Until the 1980s, soft drinks obtained nearly all of their food energy in the form of refined cane sugar or corn syrup. Today in the United States high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is used nearly exclusively as a sweetener because of its lower cost. However, HFCS has been criticized as having a number of detrimental effects on human health, such as promoting diabetes, hyperactivity, hypertension, and a host of other problems.[2] Although anecdotal evidence has been presented to support such claims, it is well known that the human body breaks sucrose down into glucose and fructose before it is absorbed by the intestines. Furthermore, simple sugars such as fructose are rapidly converted into the same intermediates as in glucose metabolism.
While the USDA recommended daily allotment (RDA) of added sugars is 10 teaspoons for a 2,000-calorie diet, many soft drinks contain more than this amount. Unless fortified, they also contain little to no vitamins, minerals, fiber, protein, or other essential nutrients. Many soft drinks contain food additives such as food coloring, artificial flavoring, emulsifiers, and preservatives.
Soft drinks may also displace other healthier choices in people's diets, such as water, milk, and fruit juice.

Studies showing a correlation between non-diet soft drinks and obesity
A study from Harvard shows that soft drinks may be responsible for the doubling of obesity in children in the United States over the last 15 years.
From 1991 and 1995, adolescent boys in the United States, on average, increased their intake of soft drinks from 345 mL to 570 mL. Most soft drinks are sweetened with sugar or corn syrup, and not artificial sweeteners. Dr. David Ludwig of the Boston Children's Hospital showed that school children drinking at least eight U.S. fluid ounces (240 mL) or more of regularly sweetened drinks daily will consume 835 calories (3,500 kilojoules) more than those avoiding soft drinks; i.e., children who drink soft drinks loaded with sugar tend to eat much more food than those who avoid soft drinks. Either those taking sugared drinks lack the same restraint on foods, or sugared drinks cause a rise in insulin that makes adolescents more hungry, causing them to eat more. Soft drinks (including diet soft drinks) are also typically consumed with other high-calorie foods such as fast food. Children who drink soft drinks regularly are therefore fatter on average, in addition to being more likely to develop diabetes later in life (see below).
This finding is controversial, however, as children in much of the Third World also consume large quantities of soft drinks containing sugar, and do not share the same obesity rates as American children, suggesting that other factors are involved aside from sugar consumption in soft drinks.Suggested factors include physical activity, and the fact that American soft drinks are sweetened with high fructose corn syrup instead of cane sugar.
In March 2006, Pediatrics published a paper Effects of Decreasing Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Consumption on Body Weight in Adolescents A Randomized, Controlled Pilot Study. This suggests that reducing consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages helped reduce body mass index in the heaviest teenagers. This was reported as drinking a single 330ml can a day of sugary drinks translated to more than 1lb of weight gain every month.

Soft drinks linked to weight gain and type 2 diabetes
In 2004, an eight-year study of 50,000 nurses showed a correlation that suggests drinking one or more sugar-sweetened beverages (such as soft drinks and fruit punches) per day increases one's risk of developing diabetes by 80% versus those who drink less than one such drink per month. This finding was independent of other lifestyle factors. It concludes, "Higher consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages is associated with a greater magnitude of weight gain and an increased risk for development of type 2 diabetes in women, possibly by providing excessive calories and large amounts of rapidly absorbable sugars.".

Soft drinks and dental decay
Most soft drinks contain high concentration of simple carbohydrates - glucose, fructose, sucrose and other simple sugars. Oral bacteria ferment carbohydrates and produce acid, which dissolves tooth enamel during the dental decay process; thus, sweetened beverages are likely to increase risk of dental caries. The risk is greater if the frequency of consumption is high.A large number of soft drinks are acidic and some may have a pH of 3.0 or even lower. Drinking acidic drinks over a long period of time and continuous sipping can therefore erode the tooth enamel. Drinking through a straw is often advised by dentists as the drink is then swallowed from the back of the mouth and does not come into contact with the teeth as much. It has also been suggested that brushing teeth right after drinking soft drinks should be avoided as this can result in additional erosion to the teeth due to the presence of acid.

Soft drinks and sleep
According to one report, soft drinks with caffeine can disrupt children's sleep and leave them feeling tired during the day.

Soft drinks and bone density
There has been a hypothesis that the phosphoric acid contained in some soft drinks (colas) displaces calcium from the bones, lowering bone density of the skeleton and leading to conditions such as osteoporosis and very weak bones. However, calcium metabolism studies by leading calcium and bone expert Dr. Robert Heaney determined that the net effect of carbonated soft drinks, (including colas, which use phosphoric acid as the acidulent) on calcium retention was negligible. He concluded that it is likely that colas prominence in observational studies is due to their prominence in the marketplace, and that the real issue is that people who drink a lot of soft drinks also tend to have an overall diet that is low in calcium. (Source: Heaney RP, Rafferty K. Carbonated beverages and urinary calcium excretion. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2001,74:;343-347.)

Banning
In recent years, debate on whether soft drink vending machines should be allowed in school has been on the rise. Proponents believe that soft drinks are a significant contributor to childhood obesity and tooth decay, and that allowing soft drink sales in schools encourages children to believe they are safe to consume in moderate to large quantities. Proponents note that children are not always mature enough to understand the consequences of their own food choices, and should not be routinely exposed to the temptation of cheap, readily available soft drinks. They also argue that schools have a responsibility to look after the health of the children in their care, and that allowing children easy access to soft drinks violates that responsibility. Opponents believe that obesity is a complex issue and soft drinks are not the only cause. They also note the immense amount of funding soft drink sales bring to schools. Some people take the middle ground, saying that soft drink machines should be allowed in schools, but that they should not be the only option available. They propose that when soft drink vending machines are made available in school grounds, the schools should be required to provide children with a choice of alternative drinks (such as fruit juice, flavored water and milk) at a comparable price. Fruit drinks are often available, with a fruit juice content of less than 100%, and additives such as water and flavorings and colorings. Fruit drinks sometimes contain as much carbohydrate as the soft drinks they replace.
On 3 May 2006, the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, Cadbury Schweppes, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and the American Beverage Association announced new School Beverage Guidelines that will voluntarily remove high-calorie soft drinks from all US schools.
On 19 May 2006, UK Education Secretary Alan Johnson announced new minimum nutrition standards for school food. Amongst a wide range of measures, from September 2006, school lunches will be free from carbonated drinks. Schools will also end the sale of junk food (including carbonated drinks) in vending machines and tuck shops. See the Department for Education and Skills press notice for details.
In August 2006, after a controversial new report about the presence of pesticides in soft drinks sold in India, many state governments have issued a ban of the sale of soft drinks in schools. Kerala has issued a complete ban on the sale or manufacture of soft drinks altogether. In return, the soft drink companies like Coca Cola and Pepsi have issued ads in the media regarding the safety of consumption of the drinks. Since there is yet no enforcementof the agreed standards by Bureau of Indian Standards, the governing body to oversee the safety levels, in soft drinks in India, it is to be seen how this situation is to be resolved.