Is Sparkling Water Healthier Than Soda?

This question pops up online quite a bit, so I decided to work through it one step at a time. What is in a soda versus what is in a sparkling water? Soda tends to be a lot of sugar, thirty, forty, fifty grams, plus artificial flavorings. A true sparkling water is water and carbonation. That is the whole list, though you do want to check the label and make sure it is not just some promotional use of the word water. Then there are the teeth rumors. I have heard people pass these on, that sparkling water is super acidic and going to hurt your teeth. I am not a dentist, but basic common sense helps here. Soda has the sugar, the flavorings, the carbonation, and the acidity all attacking your enamel at once. Sparkling water has a relatively mild carbonation and none of the rest. The part I enjoyed most was the minerals. Water sitting in an aquifer for decades or even centuries soaks in the minerality of the rock layers it passes through. Magnesium, silica, calcium. There are a couple of sparkling mineral waters out there getting close to as much calcium as a cup of skim milk. And none of that adds a single calorie. In the US, if the total dissolved solids get over 250, it can be called a mineral water on the label. Unlike my container rabbit hole, I did not come out of this one with more questions than answers. I don't think the jury is out on this anymore. Sparkling water wins.