According to my informant, whenever she had a cold as a child, her mother would give her seven up to drink in order to “burp up the toxins.” This doesn’t really ring true, but it’s also believed that the soda is easier on a sore throat and thus a good way of getting fluids. There is much speculation and quite a few different opinions on the matter, but it is this collector’s opinion that it may or may not be a psychological cure- meaning that because someone believes it to aid them in recovering quicker, they actually do.

My informant, as a mother of three, continues to use the folk remedy to this day with her own children.