Exactly when and where I heard this escapes me at the moment, but, I have it stuck in my head that Dr. Pepper is so acidic that a person has to drink approximately 48 ounces of water to restore proper Ph levels for every 1 ounce of Dr. Pepper ingested. I've never actually investigated the numbers because I am not familiar with the chemistry behind Ph levels, but, if I recall correctly, it has to do with powers of 10 for each point below 7. In other words, if my Ph level is at 6, I have to drink 1 ounce of water to get it back to 7. If it's at 5, I have to drink 10 ounces. I could be totally wrong, but, I never claimed to be a chemistry buff.

I searched around and found this link:

http://www.dentalgentlecare.com/diet_soda.htm

In it I found some disturbing facts. Based on the list below (from the link) Dr. Pepper is not far above battery acid.

Substance Ph Sugar (grams)
Dr. Pepper 2.92 9.5
BATTERY ACID 1.00 0.0

In essence, Dr. Pepper, though not the worst of the bunch, is more like drinking battery acid than water. Scary indeed. Now, if only I can convince myself that this is serious enough to put off the caffeine to fight off the mid-afternoon energy slump.