It may come as no surprise that a can of fizzy drink isn’t the healthiest beverage to reach for when you’re thirsty, but former UK pharmacist and blogger Niraj of The Renegade Pharmacist has worked out exactly what it does to your body, and it ain’t good.
Within the first ten minutes of drinking one 330mL can, 10 teaspoons of sugar hits your internal system. That’s more than 100 percent of your recommended daily intake in one go. And according to Niraj, the sugar hit is so intense that it should cause you to vomit, but the phosphoric acid in Coke “cuts the flavour” so you can keep the bubbly liquid down. Yikes.
image courtesy of therenegadepharmacist.com
The Renegade Pharmacist broke it down further:
At 20 minutes: Your blood sugar spikes, causing an insulin burst. Your liver responds to this by turning any sugar it can get its hands on into fat.
Did you know? This induces a condition known as insulin resistance – an underlying defect in heart disease and in type 2 diabetes. It’s really common in obese and overweight people.
At 40 minutes: Caffeine absorption is complete. Your pupils dilate and your blood pressure rises (a response to your liver dumping huge amounts of sugar into your bloodstream). The adenosine receptors in your brain are now blocked, preventing drowsiness and making you highly alert.
At 45 minutes: Your body ups dopamine production, stimulating the pleasure centres of your brain. Physically, this is the same way heroin works.
At 60 minutes: The phosphoric acid binds calcium, magnesium and zinc in your lower intestine, providing a further boost in metabolism. This is compounded by high doses of sugar and artificial sweeteners, also increasing the urinary excretion of calcium.
After 60 minutes: The caffeine’s diuretic properties make you need to pee. You’ll evacuate the bonded calcium, magnesium and zinc that was headed to your bones as well as sodium, electrolytes and water.
The sugar rave dies down, and you’ll start to crash. You may become irritable and/or sluggish. Oh, and you’ll probably want another Coke.
And if you thought you’d be safe drinking the Diet version instead, think again…
image courtesy of therenegadepharmacist.com
Within the first ten minutes, the phosphoric acid attaches to the enamel in your teeth while the artificial sweetener aspartame hits your system, which tricks your body into thinking it’s processing sugar. At 20 minutes, Diet Coke triggers insulin storage and at 40, the combination of caffeine and aspartame create an addictive high similar to cocaine. At the 60-minute mark, your body, unlike regular Coke, may still be craving sweets and so the cycle continues.
Well, that’s decided then – we’ll be laying off the fizz!
Did you know about these side effects of soft drink?
