Okay, I admit club soda doesn't have much value in the raw food world or nutritional matter of any sort, but it is carbonated water and I am particurally hooked on it, especially since I gave up drinking. I was reading about it, though, and my instincts went awry when I read the following:

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Carbonated water, also known as soda water, sparkling water, or seltzer water, is plain water into which carbon dioxide gas has been dissolved. The process of dissolving carbon dioxide gas is called carbonation. It results in the formation of carbonic acid (which has the chemical formula H2CO3).

In the past, soda water was produced in the home by "charging" a refillable seltzer bottle by filling it with water and then adding sodium bicarbonate. Club soda may be identical to plain carbonated water or it may contain a small amount of table salt, sodium citrate, sodium bicarbonate, potassium bicarbonate, potassium sulfate, or disodium phosphate, depending on the bottler. These additives are included to emulate the slightly salty taste of homemade soda water.

Joseph Priestley first discovered a method of impregnating water with carbon dioxide when he suspended a bowl of water above a beer vat at a local Leeds brewery. The air blanketing the fermenting beer—called variously 'fixed air' and 'mephitic air'—was known to kill mice suspended in it. Priestley found water thus treated had a pleasant taste and he offered it to friends as a refreshing drink. In 1772 Priestley published a paper entitled Impregnating Water with Fixed Air in which he describes dripping oil of vitriol (or sulfuric acid as it is now called) onto chalk to produce carbon dioxide gas, and encouraging the gas to dissolve into an agitated bowl of water.....(there is more - see wikipedia.org).

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So if I reading this correctly, club soda is made with carbon dioxide, which is exactly the same toxin that our bodies are trying to eliminate?

Does anyone know much about the subject or have any insight?

Thanks!

Amy