By Michael J. Critelli | MakeUsWell Newsletter, 

One of the more revealing food trends of the moment is not a new snack, diet, supplement, or restaurant concept. It is a beverage trend: taking drinks that are already sweet and adding even more sugar, cream, syrups, fruit purées, coconut cream, energy drinks, and other dessert-like ingredients.

The Wall Street Journal recently reported on the rise of “dirty soda,” a trend that began with customized sodas and has spread through social media, influencers, celebrities, and fast-growing beverage chains. The basic idea is simple: start with soda, lemonade, an energy drink, or another sweet beverage, and then add flavored syrups, cream, fruit, or candy-like flavor combinations. The result is marketed as fun, personalized, indulgent, and visually appealing.

That is exactly why the trend matters.

The health issue is not that someone occasionally enjoys a sweet drink. Most people can fit an occasional treat into a healthy life. The deeper concern is that social media can convert an occasional indulgence into a normalized daily habit. A drink becomes a lifestyle accessory. A sugar-heavy beverage becomes something to post, customize, share, and imitate. What once might have been understood as dessert is reframed as refreshment.

The Crumbl “Charger” drink controversy is a useful example. Some versions reportedly combine soda, energy drinks, flavored syrups, fruit purées, and cream. One 32-ounce version has been reported to contain as much as 186 grams of sugar, far more than recommended for an entire day. That is not simply a beverage. Nutritionally, it is closer to a dessert-plus-energy-drink combination.

This matters because beverages are one of the easiest ways to consume large amounts of sugar without feeling full. Solid foods usually trigger some satiety. Sugary drinks often do not. A person can drink hundreds of calories and many teaspoons of added sugar quickly, then still eat a normal meal afterward. That is one reason sugar-sweetened beverages have long been a major public health concern.

The new twist is that some of these drinks start with a sweet base and then add more sweetness. A regular soda already contains substantial sugar. When syrups, sweet cream, fruit purées, coconut cream, or sweetened energy drinks are added, the sugar content can climb rapidly. The immediate effect is a blood sugar spike. For people with insulin resistance, prediabetes, diabetes, or metabolic syndrome, that spike can be especially problematic. But the concern is broader than diabetes. Frequent high-sugar beverage consumption is associated with weight gain, fatty liver disease, higher cardiovascular risk, tooth decay, and patterns of craving that make healthier choices harder over time.

The spread of dirty sodas through large national franchises raises an additional concern. When a niche beverage is available only at a specialty shop, it is more likely to remain an occasional treat. 

But when McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Sonic, Crumbl, or other chains with broad reach begin offering versions of these drinks, they become part of everyday routines. The risk is habit formation. A drink that was once a novelty after a special trip can become something purchased on the way to work, after school, with lunch, or as a daily afternoon reward.

There is also a behavioral effect. These drinks train taste preferences. The more frequently people consume extremely sweet beverages, the less satisfying water, unsweetened tea, plain coffee, or naturally flavored drinks may seem. Over time, the baseline for “normal sweetness” shifts upward. That is especially concerning for children and adolescents, whose food preferences and reward patterns are still forming.

Influencer culture intensifies the problem because it separates the moment of consumption from the long-term consequence. The camera captures the colorful drink, the first sip, the enthusiastic reaction, and the sense of belonging. It does not capture elevated triglycerides, dental decay, weight gain, insulin resistance, or the gradual loss of taste for less sweet foods.

The answer is not prohibition. It is context and transparency. These beverages should be understood as treats, not hydration. Consumers should know how much added sugar, caffeine, and saturated fat they are getting. Parents should recognize that a customized soda may be nutritionally closer to a milkshake than to a beverage.

The larger lesson is that not every food trend is harmless because it looks fun. In a country already struggling with obesity, diabetes, and chronic disease, the normalization of heavily sweetened beverages moves us in the wrong direction. The issue is not moral failure by consumers. It is a food environment that keeps making the unhealthy choice more exciting, more social, more visible, and more convenient than the healthy one.

Healthier cultures are not built only by telling people to exercise more willpower. They are built by making the better choice easier to recognize, easier to choose, and easier to enjoy. 

In this case, the key to health is to keep an occasional pleasureful experience, like consuming “dirty soda,” from becoming a daily habit.