112 Most Popular Soda Brands—Ranked!

By now, you're well aware that soda is, well, dangerous. It's the one drink you should simply refrain from sipping on whenever you can. In fact, it just might be contributing to that soda belly of yours.

In a study of about 1,000 adults over the course of six years, people who drank soda or other sugar-sweetened beverages gained an extra 1.8 pounds of visceral fat—the fat that sits inside your gut, damaging your internal organs and pushing your belly out. And visceral fat has been shown to increase your risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes, among other ills. Yikes.

So why is soda so good at making us look bad? It's the sugar. The American Heart Association recommends women consume no more than 25 grams or 6 teaspoons per day on sugar and men no more than 36 grams or 9 teaspoons per day.

This amount is about 20 grams less than the usual 45 grams of sugar found in many sodas and other sweetened beverages. And if it's not sugar, then it's artificial sweetener, which is 180 times sweeter than sugar and more damaging to your waistline.

To help you make better choices, we've ranked more than 100 of the most popular sodas. We looked at calories, sodium, carbs, sugar and examined each can's ingredients, and gave demerits to sodas with more chemicals and additives than those that were nutritionally similar.

Check out where your favorite fizzy drinks fall in our best and worst sodas list, ranked from worst to best. (Although, "best" still doesn't mean healthy!) And if you're looking for what you can add to your diet instead, here are The 100 Healthiest Foods on the Planet.

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Fanta Peach

Coming in at nearly 70 grams of sugar, eating a real peach is much cleaner for your health than this beverage!

Coca-Cola Cinnamon

Coca-Cola breaks out this cinnamon flavor during the holiday season, so you might be tempted to stock up on some bottles when you see them finally on store shelves. Just because it's a limited-time flavor doesn't excuse it from our list! The fact that one bottle is packing 240 calories and as much sugar as five chocolate-frosted donuts from Dunkin' are enough reasons to leave it alone.

Fanta Piña Colada

Fanta debuted this soda flavor in 2020 that was described as a drink that tastes like a vacation. During a year when traveling to a tropical island was off-limits, this soda seemed like a nice treat. Well, the sugar here is just through the roof, as you can only buy it in the 20 fl oz bottle size. (Although we have a very strong feeling a can of this stuff wouldn't be any better…)

Instead, add some actual fruit to your water and look back on photos from when you were able to travel freely to satisfy your vacation itch.

Surge

It's not uncommon for "sodium and potassium benzoate are added to some diet soft drinks and fruit drinks," Leslie Bonci, RD, tells us. Unfortunately—especially because Surge contains OJ—"they can form benzene, which is a carcinogen when combined with vitamin C, the ascorbic acid in juice or soda," she says.

Crush Pineapple

If you think choosing a fruit-based soda is a better option for your health, well, that's just not true. With 51 grams of sugar in one can, any variation of Crush soda is just a landfill of sugar. Plus, the pineapple flavor contains soybean oil, which has been linked to weight gain.

Sunkist Pineapple

The yellow color of this soda doesn't come from an actual pineapple. That's all thanks to additives Yellow #5 and Yellow #6, with Yellow #5 even causing allergic-type reactions in some.

Crush Peach

If you ate 12 chocolate glazed munchkins from Dunkin', you would still consume less sugar than one can of Crush Peach soda. Eating an actual peach? That brings in just about 13 grams of natural sugar—no HFCS in sight.

Stewart's Cherries 'n Cream Soda

While the bright hue of this soda may lure drinkers in, with 46 grams of sugar, it's best to think twice before taking a sip. Instead, opt for actual strawberries with some whipped cream.

Sunkist Fruit Punch

Fruit punch is always a rather risky drink choice, as sugar tends to be high, so it's no surprise this fruit punch soda isn't necessarily the best option.

Fanta Pineapple

With this long list of ingredients, it's interesting to note that pineapple is not blatantly listed as a main component of this soft drink, but there are plenty of different types of sugar here.

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Mug Cream Soda

You would have to down 12 servings of Reddi-Wip to equal the calorie count of Mug Cream Soda—and would still need to eat 12 Hershey's Kisses on top of that to equal the sugar count.

Mtn Dew Live Wire

This version of the Dew is "sparked with orange," both natural and artificial orange flavor, that is.

Mtn Dew Code Red

As we said, Europe and Japan have already banned the flame retardant brominated vegetable oil (BVO) out of their bubbly beverages. If you're truly trying to get a six-pack, don't do the Dew in any variation and instead scroll through this comprehensive list of foods that uncover your abs.

Mtn Dew

The lime-green color of this soda is enough to make you stop in your tracks. It's also loaded up with 46 grams of sugar in one can. If you end up drinking the 20 oz bottle yourself (which is very easy to do!), you're looking at 77 grams of sugar. Yikes.

Mtn Dew White Out

This version of the Dew was actually chosen by fans of the classic drink, so the flavor surely is something special. So what exactly is White Out soda? Well, it's described as "a white blast of smooth citrus flavored Mountain Dew" and it is foggy white in color. All we're getting from this nutrition breakdown and ingredients list is that it's something you just should avoid drinking!

Mtn Dew Voltage

This Dew flavor is said to be "charged with raspberry citrus flavor and ginseng." Again, don't let the mention of fruit and ginseng here trick you. Those 46 grams of sugar aren't doing your waistline any favors.

A&W Cream Soda

A&W traffics heavily in the nostalgia of the roadside restaurant—the company created the nation's first chain of them in 1923. But their cream soda is a mix of HFCS and artificial colors and flavors. This is not your grandparents' soda, in the worst way possible.

A&W Root Beer

You gotta love that label: This American classic claims it's "Made with Aged Vanilla" but we see no mention of "Vanilla Extract" in the ingredients list. Throw in two scoops of vanilla ice cream to make a Root Beer float, and you have more than two day's worth of sugar in one chilled mug.

Crush Cherry

Oh, caramel color. It's a very common additive you'll find in many sodas, coffee drinks, salad dressings, and soup, but it's also a potential carcinogen.

Crush Strawberry

There seems to be no mention of any actual strawberries in this ingredient list, with "natural" flavors coming in last behind HFCS, caramel color, and Red #40. You'll notice that it, along with many other sodas, contains the thickener gum acacia. It not only has been said to cause flatulence and stomach discomfort in some people when ingested in high quantities but according to A Consumer's Dictionary of Food Additives, it can also cause allergic reactions such as a skin rash or an asthmatic attack.

Mello Yello

This soda—like many others on this list—is sweetened with HFCS, which makes for a shocking sugar count. It's also colored with that pesky food dye, Yellow #5, a food dye that studies have linked to hyperactivity in children.

Stewart's Orange 'n Cream Soda

If you're looking for a refreshing summer treat with this classic flavor combo, you're better off eating the classic Creamsicle ice cream bar that's only 100 calories and 12 grams of sugar.

Stewart's Grape Soda

This soda sure won't taste like actual grapes and it contains Blue #1, a food dye that the Center for Science in the Public Interest recommended consumers be wary of.

Sunkist Grape

Real question—does grape soda ever even taste like actual grapes?

Dr. Brown's Cream Soda

This soda has more calories than a Mountain Dew (though with less artificial colors, thus the better ranking).

Sunkist Berry Lemonade

A berry lemonade flavored soda might sound refreshing. But coming in with more sugar than you would get from 14 Oreo Thin cookies, you're just looking at a sugar overload.

Norka Cherry-Strawberry

This is another example of don't let the colorful packaging fool you. This oh-so-sweet soda is chock-full of sugar and toxic ingredients.

Dr. Brown's Root Beer

You know when you add some Mentos to a two-liter Diet Coke and the whole thing explodes? (Don't try that at home.) That's thanks to the Gum Acacia in the candy, which is listed in A Consumer's Dictionary of Food Additives as a natural emulsifier and is in the soda, too. Despite its weird name, it's probably the most natural ingredient in this sugar juice.

A-Treat Blue Razz

This raspberry-flavored drink has more sugar than three Dunkin Donuts glazed donuts. If that isn't a red flag, we don't know what is.

RC Cola

Its name refers to "royal crown cola" and it was developed by a pharmacist. With HFCS, caramel color, and 42 grams of sugar in one can, there are much better soda options out there for you.

Jarritos Mandarin Soda

That Yellow 6 and Red 40 seems to be a repeat combo offender. And for 45 grams of sugar, ditch the fizzy stuff and go for a fresh mandarin orange instead.

Stewart's Key Lime Soda

With this list of ingredients, you're much better off making a key lime pie and eating that instead!

Sun Drop Caffeine Free

The caffeine-free version of this citrus pop was created because of consumers' requests for one in 2002, but it comes in with more calories than the original flavor.

Sun Drop

Despite its name and flavor, this soda isn't an orange hue like you would expect. Still, it contains Yellow 5, which gives it that distinct color.

Sun Drop Cherry Lemon Citrus

The cherry lemon flavor is really packing when it comes to the ingredients—caramel color, Red 40, and Yellow 5. No thanks.

Mountain Dew Pitch Black

This soda takes classic Mountain Dew and ramps it up with a twist of citrus and dark fruit flavors, but we're not seeing any actual fruit listed here!

Fanta Berry

If you just ate some actual blueberries, you wouldn't consume any Blue 1, like you get from this soda.

Dr. Brown's Black Cherry

Dr. Brown's Black Cherry would horrify most doctors—and not just because of the sweet stuff. Like Stewart's cherry flavor—and many of the colored sodas here—this one has the artificial color Red 40.

Crush Watermelon

Sipping on a watermelon soda can't be all that bad, right? Sorry to disappoint, but you're much better off simply eating watermelon or adding the fruit to some water than sipping on this sugar-filled soda.

Barq's Root Beer

Barq's Root Beer overall has a slightly less horrifying chemical profile than its competition.

Barq's Creme Soda

Barq's creme soda fairs slighting better than its root beer, thanks to being 5 milligrams less in sodium.

Barq's Red Creme Soda

Does anyone even know what red creme flavor is? It's for sure not a natural combination!

Fanta Grape

Liquefy a bag of Skittles to equal the sweetness of this can of corn syrup, citric acid, and artificial colors. In fact, that bag of Skittles has similar ingredients, including Red 40.

Fanta Orange

After a long day of hard work and play, do you like to sit back and relax and crack open a can of Glycerol Ester Of Rosin? The wood resin is added to fruit sodas to help the fruit-flavored oils mix better with the water. While it's not necessarily harmful, let us repeat: you're drinking oil and water.

Mtn Dew Major Melon

The latest addition to the Dew line-up is eye-catching and welcomes customers to "experience the never-ending funhouse at Major Melon land through a burst of watermelon flavor." Interesting how watermelon isn't listed anywhere on the ingredients list…

Fanta Strawberry

We're not so sure what the 100% natural flavors are that are boasted about on the can, but there must be some strawberry in here then, in the midst of all those other additives.

Stewart's Wishniak Black Cherry

With more sugar than seven Chewy Chips Ahoy cookies, Stewart's Black Cherry would be a "Not That!" because of the sweetness alone—it's one of the most caloric on this list. And, like many of the soda found here, it also contains the additive caramel coloring.

Boylan Shirley Temple

This childhood favorite is even cuter in a bottle, and although it is high in calories and sugar, it scores lower on the list for fewer ingredients and its use of fruit and veggie juice for coloring rather than artificial dyes.

Stewart's Cream Soda

43 grams of sugar in one soda is a whole lot, even if it is Stewart's. This childhood favorite can stay on the shelf.

Crush Orange

Orange is the original flavor of Crush sodas, but the amount of sugar, the Yellow 6, and Red 40? All just, well, crushing stuff.

Crush Grape

With HFCS, Red 40, and Blue 1 in this soda, we think you'd be better off getting real grape flavor from, well, grapes.

RC Cherry Cola

At 160 calories, these RC drinks weigh in on the more calorie-heavy side of the regular soda options. In fact, for only 30 calories more you could have an entire Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut, and save yourself 33 grams of sugar in the process.

Coca-Cola Vanilla

It's probably a good idea to pass on this vanilla coke, if we're being honest here!6254a4d1642c605c54bf1cab17d50f1e

Cherry Coca-Cola

By now, you might start to see some of the most popular sodas for what they really are: carbonated water, HFCS, some acids, and little else. This classic—once made with real cherry juice—is, unfortunately, a variation on a common blend.

Sunkist

What do you get when you combine carbonated water with High Fructose Corn Syrup and a host of hard-to-pronounce chemicals? This citrus-inspired sip. It gets its alluring orange color from Yellow 5 and Red 40.

Mug's Root Beer

Quillaia extract? The best (and worst) part of researching these sodas is coming across the many ingredients soda manufacturers add to their concoctions. Quillaia is another tree bark, and it helps your root beer foam up, as A Consumer's Dictionary of Food Additives points out. Be more scared of the sugar here—you're basically drinking five root beer-flavored Dum Dums mixed with additives.

Wild Cherry Pepsi

Nothing wild here—just the same ingredients as most sodas, and as much sugar as more than three cups of cherries (without containing any cherries).

Cheerwine

But yes, there strikes HFCS, yet again, in the canned version.

Virgil's Handcrafted Root Beer

The root beer is this brand's original flavor and is actually brewed by hand in small batches.

Virgil's Handcrafted Vanilla Cream Soda

All-natural bourbon vanilla is said on the soda's site to be the secret to this cream soda's distinct flavor.

Virgil's Handcrafted Orange Soda

The website claims, "Only the finest Spanish oranges make a sweet enough juice with just the right citrus zest to flavor this creamy, bold classic," and with minimum ingredients, we just might believe it.

Virgil's Handcrafted Black Cherry

The black cherries here add a tart and tangy flavor to this soda.

Dr Pepper Cherry

Malic acid is found in here, and according to A Consumer's Dictionary of Food Additives, it's used as a way to compensate for the lack of fruit in artificially sweetened fruit, so there really isn't much actual cherry in this drink.

Crush Grapefruit

Our childhood nostalgia is crushed: This kid-favorite brand has no actual grapefruit. On the bright side, it has no BVO.

Hansen's Root Beer

Although this ingredients list isn't as long as others, it still contains caramel color and a high amount of sugar. Pass!

Pepsi-Cola

The perennial #2 in the cola wars carries 5 grams more sugar than a 3 Musketeers bar. Let that sink in: One of America's most popular sodas has that much sugar. Instead of drinking this, make a weight loss smoothie!

Pepsi Vanilla

Adding a twist of vanilla to Pepsi doesn't change anything and suddenly make it any better for you.

Pepsi Real Sugar

Sugar is the master of disguise. Maltodextrin, brown rice syrup, dextrose, sucrose—the list goes on. But its most well-known costume, as you know after reading this far, is High Fructose Corn Syrup. Pepsi's hoping you forget it's all the same sweet stuff, heavily marketing that this version is formulated with sugar and no HFCS. But in a review of five studies comparing the effects of sugar and HFCS, there was no difference found in changes in blood glucose levels, lipid levels, or appetite between table sugar consumption and HFCS consumption. In other words, your body can't tell one from the other—they're both just sugar.

Dr Pepper

No, an actual doctor didn't create this soda but if one did, we like to think there would be a lot less sugar and more natural ingredients.

Hansen's Original Cola

Kola nuts are a bonus, but all those acids and caramel color knock this soda down.

IBC Root Beer

This soda is now owned by the Dr Pepper/Snapple group and is said to have a "satisfying richness" in flavor.

Stewart's Birch Beer Soda

Yucca extract is something different compared to other sodas on this list, but still, it's chock-full of the typical unhealthy soda ingredients.

Maine Root. Mexicane Cola

Seeing organic sugar cane is a nice change from HFCS, but phosphoric acid is made from phosphate rock, so that's just something to keep in mind.

Maine Root. Root Beer & Maine Root. Ginger Brew

This soda is basically the same nutrition-wise as the one above it, but comes out in a better spot thanks to its somewhat cleaner list of ingredients.

Dr Pepper and Cream Soda

The combination of Dr Pepper and rich cream soda might take you back to your childhood with just one sip, but that's all you should have. One can comes packing with nearly 40 grams of sugar creating a combination you're going to want to stay away from.

Fanta Fruit Punch

Looking at this list of ingredients, we're not seeing many that signify that there is any legit fruit here.

Coca-Cola Orange Vanilla

Orange and vanilla and Coke? Not the best combination.

Coca-Cola Cherry Vanilla

And neither is the cherry vanilla flavor.

Fanta Green Apple

38 grams of sugar is quite a lot, whereas eating a cup of green apple slices comes in at only 11 grams of all-natural sugar.

Stewart's Root Beer

Although this soda was developed to be "the best-tasting root beer," it certainly isn't doing you any favors health-wise. If you wouldn't eat three and half bowls of Apple Jacks, then you should stay away from this root beer. That's the sugar equivalent of what's in a 12-ounce can.

Pibb Xtra

A "spicy" cherry soda found mostly in the South—or in Coke Freestyle machines—Pibb Xtra contains propylene glycol, a preservative, thickening agent, and stabilizer that is found in antifreeze and cosmetics. The soda ranks well because of its calorie count, but we can't recommend you drink it!

7Up Cherry

No caramel color—ranking goes up! Red 40—ranking goes down.

Coca-Cola Original

Coca-Cola's flagship drink is actually less harmful than most of the soda's on this list. That doesn't mean you should drink it every day though.

7Up

Best part of clear sodas: no caramel color. Worst part: They're still sodas, and otherwise contain the same ingredients as the rest. This classic, now distributed by the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, has lost market share since its 80s heyday, but remains a crisp drink that's not much better than a Coke.

Dr Pepper Cherry Vanilla

We're not seeing any cherry or vanilla listed that high on the list of ingredients in this soda. Any doctor would most likely tell you to skip out on Dr Pepper.

Vernors Ginger Soda

This soda claims to have an "authentic bold taste," but we wish there was more actual ginger prominently used here.

Squirt Grapefruit Soda

Squirt soda was invented in 1938 by Herb Bishop in Phoenix, Arizona, so it's been around for a while! And while there still is HFCS, it is a lower percentage.

Jones Cream Soda

Although it's a bit higher in calories, this cream soda is made with pure can sugar and not HFCS, making it a better for you option if cream soda is your favorite flavor.

Schweppes Raspberry Ginger Ale

If only there was actual raspberry in this soda, and we don't just mean in the "natural flavors."

Sierra Mist Natural Lemon-Lime Soda, Made with Real Sugar

This caffeine-free drink is back in its original glory! In July 2018, Sierra Mist returned to its natural formula from 2010, made with real sugar and no stevia.

Canada Dry Cranberry Ginger Ale

Not seeing any sign of cranberry here, but there is Red 40, which creates the red hue.

Canada Dry Ginger Ale and Lemonade

The label touts that it's "made from real ginger & with real juice," but the only place we guess that ginger might be lurking is in the "natural flavors."

Canada Dry Blackberry Ginger Ale

Blackberries are high in vitamin K and are one of the best high-fiber foods you can eat to help your weight-loss goals. But drinking this isn't going to give you those same benefits!

Canada Dry Green Tea Ginger Ale

It's nice to see green tea actually listed as an ingredient rather high up on the nutrition breakdown of this soda. But again, don't let that trick you into thinking it's a "healthy" beverage choice!

Canada Dry Ginger Ale

Our moms used to give this to us when we had a tummy ache. Now as adults, we get a tummy ache looking at it. The tagline is "Real Ginger, Real Taste" but the main ingredients here are carbonated water and HFCS. But with lower calories than the rest, it ranks rather well on this list.

Dr. Brown's Cel Ray

The healthiest-sounding soda on this list nearly is. But unfortunately for the fans of this one, Cel Ray blends actual celery seed extract with HFCS.

Hansen's Key Lime Twist

This soda doesn't have a laundry list of ingredients, which is refreshing to see, but still, it will set you back a decent amount of sugar.

Reed's Ginger Beer

While the sugar isn't the lowest in this soda, the list of ingredients is pretty clean overall, making it a better-for-you choice.

Seagram's Ginger Ale

This soda doesn't seem like it's all that bad but it does still have one big caveat: Lisa Moskovitz, RD, founder of The NY Nutrition Group, says "…high fructose corn syrup, which has been shown to increase appetite and, over time, lead to health problems such as obesity and diabetes." Yeah, yeah, you knew it was bad, but hear us again: HFCS is bad! Still, Seagram's Ginger Ale has a lower calorie count than most.

Blue Sky Root Beer

Blue Sky prides itself on being a simple soda that is "crafted for real" as its website states.

Seagram's Tonic Water

This soda isn't nearly as high in calories as others on this list, but there's that HFCS and still 32 grams of sugar, so keep that in mind when cracking open one of these cans.

Schweppes Ginger Ale

This soda has as much HFCS-derived sugar as 10 croissants, and we don't see ginger on the actual list, unfortunately.

Blue Sky Cola

This is a truly classic cola. Well, as classic as soda can get, as there is still caramel color, but no HFCS!

Ale 8 Cherry

Props to Ale 8 for being the only cherry soda here that doesn't use red dye 40 to give their pop a bold hue. This Kentucky-based brand swaps the red dye with natural colors from fruit and vegetable juices, and unlike many of the ginger ales the list, it actually includes fresh ginger in their brew.

Blue Sky Lemon Lime

A short list of ingredients and cane sugar? If you really need to sip on a lemon-lime soda, this is the best one.

Sprite

Although Sprite is on the lower end of calories and sugar in one can, it still has a long list of ingredients including HFCS. It's a soda Often promoted by the athletes, but we can't really imagine LeBron and friends guzzling a can of carbonated corn syrup before a game…

Blue Sky Black Cherry

If you want to sip on something cherry-flavored, this is the soda you go for, as it's the least offensive of the other options on this list.

Moxie

Known for its distinguished bitter flavor, this soda was one of the first to be mass-produced in the U.S. Whether or not you like the unique taste of this old fashioned cola, it isn't the worst thing you could drink for your health. In fact, gentian root extractives, the ingredient that gives it its bitter flavor, is actually used for medicinal properties, and has been shown to calm an upset stomach.

Orangina

Yes, there is some orange and mandarin pulp in here, and it's great to see the absence of HCFS. With 24 grams of sugar—21 of which are added sugars—it's not a drink we would recommend you have every day. But once in a while, go for it!

Dry Sparkling Ginger

A small list of ingredients is something we can get behind. The ginger flavor is promised to be "bold and spicy," too.

Dry Sparkling Vanilla

The vanilla variation of this soda sneaks ahead of its ginger sister flavor, thanks to it being 5 calories less. Think of this drink as the better-for-you cream soda.

Coca-Cola Life

Although Coke Life is sweetened with stevia, it's certainly not a "diet" beverage. A can of this still packs 24 grams of sugar and is 90 calories. Still, that's much less than other traditional colas on the market. And the ingredients are pretty simple, too—sweetened with cane sugar and stevia, there's no HFCS, which is a bonus. At less than 100 calories a can, this is definitely the best of the regular sodas (although that still doesn't make it healthy!)