There’s a lot to unpack about Hulu’s The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, but the internet has been particularly fixated on one storyline: the cast’s obsession with soda.
In episode five, the girls of MomTok head to Utah hotspot Swig, the drive-thru soda chain that gained TikTok fame all on its own. However, what shocked viewers was the sheer amount of sugary soda Demi, Layla, and Mayci consume on a weekly basis. In fact, some of the girls copped to drinking a 44-ounce soda up to six times a week.
“We don’t drink alcohol or do drugs, so [soda is] kind of our vice,” Demi says in the episode, before ordering her own signature drink: a sparkling water concoction with sugar-free coconut, vanilla, raspberry, pineapple, and coconut cream.
The other women are seen throughout the series sipping from the styrofoam Swig cups, all the while professing the same stance (for the most part) on caffeine and alcohol. However, from a purely health standpoint, the soda habit isn’t exactly good for you either.
Tonal coach and nutrition expert Ackeem Emmons says there are “numerous health concerns that come along with regular soda consumption [and] at the top of the list is adding excessive sugar in your overall diet. Added sugars can affect your cardiovascular health, cause obesity, and even lead to diabetes.”
Not only is the sugar content concerning, but there’s also the fact that they’re not consuming it in moderation.
“Normally we are recommended to drink 6-8 cups of water per day,” Emmons tells Delish. “Consuming 6-8 cups of soda per day is not taking moderation, or the harmful effects into consideration.”
Even the sugar-free syrup that Demi adds to her drink could be concerning, he says. Many products that are labeled sugar-free are harmful for other reasons, like the ratio of carbs versus dietary fiber.
“Based on the proportions of these two, it will dictate how much of the carbohydrates will be converted into sugar,” Emmons adds. “Another red flag to be aware of with these sugar-free products, is the replacement of sugar with sugar alcohol. Another harmful chemical to ingest into the body. ”
And while the cast might avoid coffee for religious reasons, it’s actually healthier than all that soda. Coffee has nutrients like B12, niacin, magnesium, and potassium, as well as other antioxidants. Not to mention the high amount of caffeine in their 44-ounce sodas (between 132mg and 184mg) versus a regular-size coffee (95mg in one cup).
Megan Schaltegger is an NYC-based writer. She loves strong coffee, eating her way through the Manhattan food scene, and her dog, Murray. She promises not to talk about herself in third person IRL.
