Cadbury Schweppes' ludicrous and deceptive claims that 7Up is is 100 percent natural, unfortunately, must be working. In looking to turn around dropping sales of its flagship diet soft drink product, Coca-Cola plans to launch a new product, Diet Coke Plus, allegedly fortified with vitamins and minerals, next spring.

No wonder, considering the fortunes of multi-national soft drink bottlers (among them Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Cadbury) are under attack more than ever before from the makers of energy drinks with catchy names like Cocaine.

Hard to imagine bottlers could claim any carbonated soft drink, particularly one of the diet variety, does your health any good as it can double your obesity risks, not to mention one extra can of soda a day adds as much as 15 pounds to your weight over year's time.

By the way, that's only a fraction of the many health-harming effects associated with soft drinks, including cancer, osteoporosis and liver damage. In your journey to optimize your health, one of the easiest things you can do to strengthen it is to make the switch to clean fresh water.