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Comment by MichailP | Hacker News Reader

Is this true? I once heard that carbonated water is bad for liver, but never found facts to support this (until this paper). Can someone more knowledgeable please comment? People may be destroying their liver and thinking they are doing something good for their health by drinking mineral (carbonated) water...

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"I once heard that carbonated water is bad for liver"

The biochemistry sounds rather improbable.

This paper still doesn't support that conclusion. It's widely agreed (thus far) that carbonation is harmless. Whether or not this study legitimately challenges that is impossible to say without seeing the actual study.

The claim is:

     1. dissolved CO2 is in drink. Is drunk.
     2. When liquid containing CO2 is in stomach, H2CO3 drops out of solution to CO2 and H2O.
     3. The pressure on the stomach cells with CO2 cause them to release Ghrelin
     4. When Ghrelin reaches brain, causes hunger sensation
     5. Person eats reacting to hunger sensation

If that's the case, I feel like saying it induce's hunger / impede's satiation would be a more accurate title.

Hunger? That's it? OK. Thanks. For me, CW mostly causes me to... drink more CW. Whereas if ghrelin were to do more than cause hunger, that would be rather interesting then.

Oh: "Besides regulating appetite, ghrelin also plays a significant role in regulating the distribution and rate of use of energy.[6]" -wikipedia

Why would pressure on your stomach increase your appetite? Shouldn't it be the opposite?

I found an IPFS link to the paper. I'm no biochemist, that's for sure.

But to answer your question, it seems that gheberlin is released when pressure is applied. When that hormone hits the brain, the brain interprets it to be "Hunger".

It seems ghrelin production stops when the stomach is stretched. That might be significantly different from the effects of gas pressure.

People have been drinking carbonated water for over a hundred years now (maybe even two hundred years actually). If there was a strong link between carbonation and damage to your body we would have seen it by now.

"People have been drinking carbonated water for over a hundred years now (maybe even two hundred years actually)."

There are naturally carbonated springs all over the world. I used to drink from one in Guffey, Colorado when I was a kid - it tasted like a glass of water with two alka-seltzer tablets in it. I think Soda Springs, Colorado is named for one.

Perrier comes from one[1].

People have been drinking carbonated water for more than 100-200 years.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perrier

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