Refreshing, fizzy, tasty and it’s a satisfying compliment with almost every meal. Soda, soft drinks or pop, whatever you want to call it, we all agree that it’s delicious. But did you know that it’s actually much better used in other ways than drinking it? Soda, cola in particular, can be used to easily remove tough stains such as oil or blood from clothing, gum from hair, and rust and burnt foods from any metal. Cola can even be used to clean car battery terminals or your car’s engine.

The reason why sodas are able to be utilized in this fashion is because of the carbonation combined with certain ingredients, such as phosphoric acid (yes there is a small amount of acid in your can of soda), which work together to break down stains or rust or other things. So if that’s all the case, then what is soda doing to our insides when we drink it?

The ingredients and chemicals in soft drinks interfere with your body’s ability to absorb nutrients, specifically calcium, which can lead to osteoporosis, cavities and bone softening. Another reason to not drink soda would be the consistent ties to tooth decay and gum disease, and because of the high sugar, sodium and caffeine content in soda, it dehydrates the body and over a long period of time can cause chronic dehydration.

In one 16 oz can of soda is your entire daily value of sugar. That is the same amount of sugar as eating five bowls of those sugary cereals that you barely ever ate as a kid because your parents said they were “bad for you.”

In the 1990s, 1 out of 5 Americans were considered obese. Now it’s 1 out of 3, and obesity rate is only escalating. Shockingly, a study done at Harvard University showed that each serving of soda you consume per day increases your chances of obesity 1.6 times.

Most everyone knows that soda is bad for you, but we choose to ignore it. Health experts all over the world are telling us to stop drinking it and to stop drinking it now, but we drink it anyway. Why do we do that? It’s because soda is a cheap refresher that isn’t water. Although tap water is practically free and unlimited as a resource, we choose to drink pop over water because water isn’t sugary enough for us. The human brain reacts to sugar as it does when it receives other rewards-based substances. Like an addiction, it feels good to eat sugar, so the body craves more of it.

Thankfully, like any other addiction, the first step to getting over it is admitting that it’s a problem that needs to stop. So do yourself a favor, and stop.