Soft drinks are non-alcoholic carbonated beverages containing flavorings, sweeteners and other ingredients. Depending on the sweetener used, soft drinks may or may not contain calories. Soft drinks include regular, diet, low-calorie, mid-calorie, flavored, caffeinated and caffeine-free drinks.

Soft drinks are carbonated by adding carbon dioxide into a beverage solution under pressure. Opening a soft-drink container releases the carbon dioxide in the form of bubbles. These bubbles intensify the flavor of the beverage.

Most regular and mid-calorie carbonated soft drinks sold in the U.S. are sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), a calorie-containing carbohydrate that provides 4 calories per gram. A 12-ounce serving of regular cola-type soft drinks contain about 140 calories, or 11 calories per ounce. Mid-calorie cola-type soft drinks generally contain about half that much. Diet soft drinks contain virtually no calories and are flavored with low-calorie sweeteners, including acesulfame potassium, aspartame, saccharin and sucralose. Learn more about sweeteners.

Soft drinks also contain small amounts of sodium, primarily from the water used in the soft drink plus nutritionally insignificant amounts of potassium and phosphorus.

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