7 Healthiest Sodas and Carbonated Beverages to Drink

You probably never thought you’d hear “soda” and “healthy” in the same sentence, unless there was "not" sandwiched between. But there is such a thing as the healthiest sodas.

But we’re not talking about a 12oz Coca-Cola clocking 39g sugar. You can drop-kick that right out of your fridge, because the latest beverage revolution is riding the coattails of healthified junk foods. Brands are prioritizing health and wellness, creating healthy sodas and carbonated beverages with fewer than 6g sugar and added benefits like probiotics and adaptogens.

If you're someone who can’t cut soda out altogether from your diet, these healthy soft drinks highlighted below are way more virtuous and dare we say even tastier.

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Best-Tasting Healthy Soda: Olipop Lemon Lime

Olipop is a new-age fizzy tonic that boasts prebiotics, plant fiber, and botanicals, which not only taste great but also help your digestive health. The best part is its lineup of flavors only contain between 2 to 5g sugar and 45 calories per can. Who needs Sprite when Olipop Lemon Lime is better for you—and arguably more crushable.

Best Prebiotic Healthy Soda: Poppi Classic Cola

If you want to ditch Coke and Pepsi, Poppi Classic Cola is a better-for-you prebiotic soda great for gut health and an extra immunity boost. Each can has real, clean ingredients and boasts fewer than 25 calories and 5g sugar. All contain the brand's star ingredient: pure, unfiltered apple cider vinegar. The brand offers other classic and fruit flavors, too, and 90 percent less sugar than other sodas.

Most Unique Healthy Soda: United Sodas Toasted Coconut

United Sodas is a modern healthy soda brand that tastes as good as it looks. It's reminiscent of your favorite sparkling water due to its lightly carbonated fizz and low sugar, but comes in surprising flavors such as Blackberry Jam and Pear Elderflower, but Toasted Coconut is our favorite. Each drink clocks in under 30 calories, contains no artificial ingredients, and is organically sweetened, making it the perfect alternative for health-conscious soda lovers.

Best Healthy Soda Substitute for Alcohol: Kin Euphorics Energizing Flow

Kin Euphorics Energizing Flow Spritz is a sparkling bev (marketed as a "nonalcoholic social drink") with ingredients intended to rouse your mind and invigorate energy levels. Kin Spritz is crafted with fresh citrus, warm spice, hibiscus, ginger, and caffeine plus adaptogens like rhodiola rosea and nootropics like GABA, which work in tandem to get you through your morning or afternoon slump.

Best Probiotic Healthy Soda: Culture Pop Ginger Lemon & Turmeric

Culture Pop sodas are made with only organic juices, spices, and probiotics, making this soda functional, not just delicious. They have unique flavors like Orange Mango Chili & Lime, Wild Berries Basil & Lime, and Pink Grapefruit Ginger & Juniper. Crack open our favorite—Ginger Lemon & Turmeric—for a refreshing sip with a slight spicy bite.

Best Healthy Soda With Hemp Extract: Recess Peach Ginger

As far as healthy carbonated drinks go, Recess Peach Ginger helps calm the mind and lift your mood with a functional blend of magnesium, ginseng, L-theanine, lemon balm, and active B6. Made with natural ingredients and sweetened with real fruit, each can has 5g natural sugar and fewer than 20 calories.

Best Do-it-All Healthy Soda: Mighty Pop Pineapple Grapefruit

Mighty Pop boasts ingredients that boost your entire immune system with pre-, pro-, and postbiotic ingredients. The brand's sodas taste great, too—especially Pineapple Grapefruit. And rest assured, with 30 calories and only 2g of added sugar, it's not breaking the health bank.

How Bad Is Soda for Your Health?

American adults consume an average of 17 teaspoons of added sugar every day (68g sugar), according to the CDC. That's more than two to three times the recommended amount for men and women, respectively. Adults should limit their added sugar intake to no more than 6 teaspoons (24g sugar) each day, per the American Heart Association.

One major contributor of those added sugars are soft drinks and sugar-sweetened beverages. You shouldn’t be drinking majority of your calories anyway, so this is an easy way to dial in your nutrition.

Soda isn't good for anyone’s health, primarily because of its sugar content. Conventional soda is the leading cause of added sugar in American’s diets, according to the CDC. Too much sugar over time can have adverse effects on a person’s health and contribute to negative health outcomes like weight gain, obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, kidney diseases, non-alcoholic liver disease, tooth decay and cavities, and gout. In addition, soda is a source of empty calories and offers little nutritional value.

Soda doesn’t make a person feel full in the same way eating the same amount of calories in real food would. So, in addition to consuming a sugary beverage, many continue to consume high-caloric foods despite consuming these high-caloric beverages. There’s also evidence that sugar-loaded beverages may increase appetite for foods that are also high in calories leading to weight gain and potentially even more negative health consequences over time.

Obesity and diabetes are major health concerns in the U.S., and there's no question our diet and lifestyle play major roles in both diseases. One major contributor is excessive caloric intake in the form of added sugars found in a lot of processed foods.

Prioritize water as your main source of hydration throughout the day; while there are alternative drinks besides water to keep you hydrated, plain h2O has no sugar or calories. For workouts, opt for low-sugar sports drinks and electrolyte powders to rehydrate post-workout. Think of it this way: You know pounding sugary cocktails during a night out will give you a monster hangover the next day and do your waistline no favors (hence the importance of choosing the healthiest drinks to order at the bar), so apply the same logic to your everyday beverages.

Which Soft Drink Is Least Harmful and Most Harmful?

If you're curious which soda has the least calories, reach for Starry. Here’s what traditional 12oz sodas will cost you in terms of calories and added sugar:

• Starry: 130 calories, 37g sugar

• Sprite: 140 calories, 38g sugar

• Dr. Pepper: 150 calories, 39g sugar

• Coca-Cola: 140 calories, 39g sugar

• Pepsi: 150 calories, 41g sugar

• Fanta Orange: 160 calories, 44 grams sugar

• Mountain Dew: 170 calories, 46 grams sugar

Is Diet Soda Healthy?

There's the belief that diet soda is healthy soda. However, that's largely a misconception.

Diet sodas replace all the added sugars with artificial ingredients and other additives. Instead of sugar, artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, cyclamates, saccharin, acesulfame-k, or sucralose are used to sweeten them without all the calories.

There are observational studies and very few quality research studies that link diet sodas to negative health outcomes like weight gain, diabetes, heart disease and cancer, but much of the research is conflicting. Overall, more high-quality research is needed to determine the true effects of diet soda on weight loss and the negative effects that some propose.

Although the evidence on whether diet sodas and artificial sweeteners are bad for you is anything but conclusive, here are some considerations we do know about diet soda:

1. Diet sodas contain little to no calories but also provide no nutritional value either.

2. People often assume that diet sodas can afford them high-caloric food items, which may lead to an overconsumption of calories and weight gain.

3. When it comes to diet soda, it’s best to err on the side of caution and instead of consuming it daily, drink it occasionally.