Soda Stream (healthy or a gimmick)

Have you seen the commercial for the soda stream?

Healthy or Gimmick?

 

This is being touted as a revolutionary way to drink soda(pop). There is supposed to be 2 major reason why you would want to purchase this life changing counter top device.

1) The healthy way to drink soda

– The commercial never really dives deep into why this is supposed to be healthy. At initial glance it has significantly lower calories than your standard run of the mill can of soda. Typically a soda stream 12 oz glass has about 30 calories. A 12 oz bottle of coca cola has about 120 calories. In theory if you just can’t pull yourself away from the awesomeness that is soda then you need this life changing device. Lets dive a little deeper. How is the soda so much healthier per fluid oz? Simple it has sucralos aka splenda. Well then its not really much better for you. May as well just drink diet pop and not try to mask what is really going on here.

2) Save money

– This device will run you between $60-$100 USD. That is a steep startup to start saving money. The flavor bottles run about $6-$10 a bottle and it can make 30 liters of soda. Then you have to buy refill carbonation canisters that are about $25 and can fill about 6o liters. So in all a on the cheap end of things its going to cost you $12 + $25 ie $37 to make 60 liters of soda. Granted the price of a 2 liter of soda varies from region to region but generally between $1 and $2. Let assume you can buy soda on sale at $1 per 2 liter. 60 liters or 30 2-liters runs you $30 + $3 deposit if its 10 cents per bottle like here in MI. So $33 vs $37. In the grand scheme of things you are likely to spend $4 more to use the soda stream vs just regular run of the mill 2-liters at your local grocery store.

I wouldn’t inherently say that the soda stream is a scam but it certainly is more of a gimmick that healthy or life changing.