Sparkling water this decade is like baby formula of the 2010s; the target of a strange culture war that claims it has evidence of a public health crisis. A recent paper during the Clinical Nutrition II Poster Session of the Nutrition 2026 conference didn't defend sparkling water, but it conceded it's at least better for your teeth than soda or orange juice.
When the mouth’s pH drops below about 5.5, acids begin to dissolve tooth enamel. The authors compared the effects of different beverages on mouth acidity and found that sparkling water lowers the mouth’s pH, but less so than high-calorie drinks like soda. Other drinks that cause enamel damage are apple, grapefruit, lemon, and orange juices.
The targets were sugar-sweetened soda, regular sparkling water, calcium-fortified sparkling water and plain water in 20 adults. They measured how their mouths responded in real time and found that the soda made the mouth the most acidic, leading to a salivary pH that was significantly lower than that of water at both 2 and 20 minutes after consumption. Sparkling water caused a temporary decrease in salivary pH at 2 minutes and calcium-fortified sparkling water showed a decrease at 5 minutes. For both beverages, salivary pH returned to near baseline levels by 20 minutes.
After both the soda and the sparkling waters, saliva quickly restored the mouth’s acidity to normal, keeping pH above the level that causes enamel damage.
Sparkling water instead of soda may help lower the risk of enamel erosion but the best way to reduce risk from acidic beverages, soda or fruit juice, is to use a straw.
Presentation: Are Unsweetened Sparkling Waters a Safer Alternative to Soda? A Salivary pH Investigation, by Wajiha Zulfiqar, Purdue University, and Cordelia A. Running, MSc, PhD, Purdue University
