'The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives' stars call dirty soda a vice. It's 'liquid Satan,' one doctor says.
Three young women with long extensions and Utah curls step out of a white SUV for a midday pick-me-up at Swig. Before entering the soda shop, where they’ll order their favorite dirty soda concoctions, one of them exclaims, “I just need my Mormon crack.” That, for her, is something called a “Bloody Wild.” It’s a Mountain Dew with mango and strawberry puree with a spack of coconut cream.
“Six out of the seven days of the week, I’m having at least one 44-ounce soda,” Layla Taylor, one of eight women featured on Hulu’s new reality show The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, said during Episode 5. “I’m probably only going to live to like 50, but it makes me happy.”
For the Mormon cast members, they say their predilection for soda comes at least in part from the rules established by the Church of Latter-day Saints. “We don't drink alcohol or do drugs,” said Demi Engemann on the show, “so [soda] is kind of our vice.”
Dr. Danielle Kelvas, a primary care physician at the HCG Institute, tells Yahoo Life that these beverages could be worse than those off-limits items. “Soda is liquid Satan,” she says.
What is dirty soda?
According to Swig, which claims to be the "home of the original dirty soda," dirty soda started "simply as a splash of coconut in your favorite drink." The offerings differ depending on the shop but generally a "dirty soda" is a soda that's mixed with flavored syrups and creams.
One of the reality show’s stars, Mayci Neeley, told Cosmopolitan that her current favorite order from FiiZ (another Utah hot spot) is called “Berry Bad Doctor.” I tracked it down on their online menu to find that it’s made up of Dr Pepper, cream, raspberry purée and coconut and vanilla syrups. The nutritional facts of each beverage are also listed on the website.
A 16-ounce cup of Neeley’s favorite comes in at 231 calories with 44 grams of sugar. But as some of the cast members copped to drinking a full 44-ounces at a time, that would bring her beverage closer to 635 calories and 121 grams of sugar in one cup.
Why is it so bad?
Soda alone isn’t great for you, according to Kristine Dilley, a nutritionist at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. “It is high in refined sugars and calories and does not provide any additional nutrients of benefit,” she tells Yahoo Life. “Per the Swig menu, diet soda is an option in some drinks, which would eliminate the calories and sugar of regular soda, but would include non-nutritive sweeteners.”
Making it “dirty” essentially means making it worse. “Adding additional flavors and creamers to sodas that are already high in sugar content would likely increase not only the sugar content … but would also introduce added fats,” Lena Bakovic, a dietitian at Top Nutrition Coaching, tells Yahoo Life. “It is known that diets which are high in calories sourced from sugary beverages like these sodas and additional added sugar content are correlated with the presence of what is known as metabolic syndrome.” This puts an individual at higher risk for chronic health conditions like obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
While coffee and tea are usually avoided in Mormon culture, Bakovic says that caffeine is likely present in a lot of these drinks with soda as the base. “A 12-ounce serving or one can of Dr Pepper contains 41 mg of caffeine, while a 12-ounce serving of Coca Cola has 33 mg,” she says. That’s generally lower than the caffeine content of an 8-ounce cup of coffee or black tea; however, it adds up.
“Large servings [of soda] such as 44-ounces do not only provide plenty of empty calories and caloric density, but they can also contribute caffeine intake above the daily recommendation of 400 mg,” says Bakovic; especially for someone who would enjoy this beverage in addition to their regular daily coffee. “It is widely recognized that high amounts of caffeine consumption increase blood pressure and heart rate, which may be harmful to cardiovascular health as well as the nervous system.”
Should you drink it?
The resounding answer by experts is no. Especially considering that the healthiest option would be to forgo the soda part altogether. “Swig does offer water as a base for their ‘Refresher’ section so this combined with either sugar-free flavorings or real fruit could create a much healthier, lower-calorie option,” says Dilley.
Neely’s “Berry Bad Doctor,” for one, would be nothing without the Dr Pepper, cream and flavored syrups. But maybe Engemann, whose favorite drink from Swig has a base of sparkling water, is on to something.
