The reason you would use buttermilk is because you need an activating agent to baking soda. Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) needs an acid to enable it to give off the gas that enlarges a batter’s bubbles. This acid can be buttermilk, or yogurt. Careful because too much baking soda and not enough acid to activate it all means that you’ll have non-activated soda left over, which will create a bitter taste. Baking powder already contains an activation ingredient and therefore you can use regular milk instead of buttermilk and not notice a difference. It all depends on what your recipe call for as an ingredient, don't use baking soda without an acid to activate the taste will suffer and so will your stomach once the bread reaches stomach acids!

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