Soda fountains spew fecal filth

I've been fond of using an unprintable word to describe soda. Let's just say it has the same number of letters as "poop" and means the same thing.

Well, it turns out that may be more than just a colorful description, because a nauseating new study finds that fast food soda fountains are crawling with fecal bacteria.

You read that right -- in one end, out the other...and right back in again.

A study on 30 soda machines in Virginia's Roanoke Valley revealed coliform bacteria -- an indicator of fecal contamination -- in nearly half of the samples. And 70 percent of the beverages tested had some form of bacteria present -- including E. coli and species of Klebsiella, Staphylococcus, Stenotrophomonas, Candida, and Serratia.

I'm not going to quiz you on the names -- trust me, they're all sickening germs and you don't want them anywhere near your mouth.

I'm not done yet -- it gets worse. Researchers tested 11 kinds of antibiotics on these bacteria, and found most of them were resistant to at least one, according to the study published in the International Journal of Food Microbiology.

The researchers suggest eliminating self-service soda fountains -- as if low-wage fast-food workers are any cleaner than Joe Public. In fact, one of the researchers says workers may be contaminating the machines -- get this -- when they take them apart for "cleaning."
So what else do they suggest? More cleanings! If these things are being contaminated during rinsing to begin with, won't more cleanings make them even worse? Trust me, the kid at Taco Heaven who didn't wash his hands yesterday isn't going to change his filthy habits tomorrow.

Here's an obvious solution: Stop drinking soda. Period. There are plenty of reasons to skip this garbage, and this is just the newest -- and by far most disgusting -- one. The sugar alone is enough to rot your brain and body...and the fake sugars in the diet drinks are even worse.

And that's only the beginning.

Coke and other sodas contain phosphoric acid. You used to be able to watch it eat paint right off a car. You can't do that anymore -- not because the soda has gotten better, but because auto paint has gotten stronger.

But if it can do that to an old car, imagine what it does to your stomach, guts and bones.

You want to keep putting that junk inside you, be my guest. Just don't say I didn't warn you.

Bottoms up,
William Campbell Douglass II, M.D.