21 replies to this topic

[fermin25]

Well I am a loyal coke drinker since some years ago. I have heard about all the harmful about the coke and all the diseases that it can cause to our health. But until today I have no evidence about this. So I decided to start this topic to learn a little more about this popular drink and if it is harmful or not?

I have years drinking Coke in the lunch. It taste is awesome and it takes sugar so sometimes when I fell tired I drink a little coke and it stimulates me and give me more strength to do my work or study. So I know that the coke is a drug like the coffe but I don´t know if it is harmful and can cause some diseases like cancer or tumors or something like that or can harm to the kidney system. I am studying medicine and I never heard a real and serious study about the harmful or benefits effect of Coke. So please can someone tell me if the Coke is really harmful or not???

Please.

[Shahrukh]

Nah, I don't think so.
I drink a lot of coke too. Nothing happened to me.

In addition, I was visiting a doctor and he said drinking 1-2 glasses per day is not a problem.
Of course, over-dosage of everything is harmful...

[DodgyPhil]

Fear mongers and readers of tabloid newspapers can pretty much create a bad image for anything. I know there's a campaign on the internet that says people shouldn't drink milk because it gives you bowel cancer (???) and there seems to be loads of government funded scientific research labs that publish weekly reports condemning various meats.
Pretty much any food or drink-stuff that is accused of being bad for your health is harmless. Sure, Coca Cola will cause your teeth to rot- if you happen to be holding a mouthful of the drink for about 30 minutes a day. Cigarettes and Coffee stain the teeth about a thousand times worse..
Coca Cola contains some caffeine and quite a lot of sugar, but in comparison to most candy on the market and the average espresso it's nothing.
In terms of harmful chemicals, definitely not. Coca Cola is acidic and sugary, but most of it is natural. If you're really averse to chemicals, you should check out: Pepsi Raw. They've just introduced it to England, and while it tastes like crap, it's made with pure Cane Sugar.

I wouldn't worry about drinking Coca Cola, or any other product that's legally and openly sold (I'm excluding Alcohol and Tobacco for obvious reasons). Most of the research that condemns products like this doesn't really give a fair comparison. Your mouth is in greater danger when you're eating acidic fruit like lemons and oranges than artificially flavoured treats like Coke and Chocolate Cakes. Have fun, and drink up!

[Shahrukh]

DodgyPhil, on 18 July 2010 - 05:40 PM, said:

Fear mongers and readers of tabloid newspapers can pretty much create a bad image for anything.

Yup.
Some people at my place say that drinking Coke makes your complexion darker and drinking milk makes it fairer!
While this is true for milk, because of its nutrients not its colour, its totally not true about Coke making you darker.

And sometimes, when a person gets some ailment, he blames it on his habits that he doesn't like. Or some of his companions blame it on such a habit.
So, if you mother doesn't like you drinking Coke and you happen to have sore throats often, she'll say its the Coke.

[tinoymalayil]

I think it may harmful.Because every coca cola bottle we can see that Caffine is inside..Caffine is harmful to our body.That's why doctors prescribing drinking too much coffee is not googd for your body.

[Shahrukh]

SK, on 22 July 2010 - 12:07 PM, said:

I think DIET Coke is far worse for you than, say, classic Coke in a glass bottle with cane sugar.

In my experience, I have observed that a lot of diet Coke drinkers are overweight. Why?

Their feeling on the subject is that they can drink lots more diet soda than regular soda because it has 1/2 the calories or zero calories or other such BS....

It turns out that their bodies are way too smart to let a zero calorie drink go un-metabolized. Eventually, they adapt to the new formulation in the diet soda, and their bodies treat it as though it is a pure sugar drink--only they aren't drinking one or two. They are drinking it all day long.

I know several people, personally, that have dropped 20-30+ pounds just giving up diet soda with no other change to their habits.

I don't think there is anything wrong with enjoying a Coke at lunchtime (I am against high-fructose corn syrup/excess sugar in my own diet so I don't drink soda too often, but again, moderation is key), and I happen to think that a pure sugar Coke in a glass bottle is delicious...

Just remember to take it in moderation (as you should take everything), and if you are worried about your teeth, wash your mouth out with some plain water after you finish your soda...

I agree with that. But thats not Coke's fault. Its the drinker's fault.

[rpgsearcherz]

SK, on 22 July 2010 - 12:07 PM, said:

I think DIET Coke is far worse for you than, say, classic Coke in a glass bottle with cane sugar.

In my experience, I have observed that a lot of diet Coke drinkers are overweight. Why?

Their feeling on the subject is that they can drink lots more diet soda than regular soda because it has 1/2 the calories or zero calories or other such BS....

It turns out that their bodies are way too smart to let a zero calorie drink go un-metabolized. Eventually, they adapt to the new formulation in the diet soda, and their bodies treat it as though it is a pure sugar drink--only they aren't drinking one or two. They are drinking it all day long.

I know several people, personally, that have dropped 20-30+ pounds just giving up diet soda with no other change to their habits.

I don't think there is anything wrong with enjoying a Coke at lunchtime (I am against high-fructose corn syrup/excess sugar in my own diet so I don't drink soda too often, but again, moderation is key), and I happen to think that a pure sugar Coke in a glass bottle is delicious...

Just remember to take it in moderation (as you should take everything), and if you are worried about your teeth, wash your mouth out with some plain water after you finish your soda...

I disagree with your view of how the diet coke is bad because a lot of people who drink it are overweight. Why would you go on a diet if you *weren't* overweight? That's the whole point of it.

[mahesh2k]

Be it coke or pepsi or other drinks the problem is in pesticide contained in it. The amount in it makes worst for the drinkers. In india coke and pepsi found guilty of adding amount which way above acceptable level. Besides that in india they don't care for the storage of the drinks. You'll find that these drinks are there for more than 2 years and i don't know how they managed to drink all that. There are many legal cases against coke and pepsi in india. They infected rivers and water reserves with their poison and now they have large percentage of pesticides in it.

Still people drink all that and life goes on.

[Shahrukh]

mahesh2k, on 27 July 2010 - 01:46 PM, said:

Be it coke or pepsi or other drinks the problem is in pesticide contained in it. The amount in it makes worst for the drinkers. In india coke and pepsi found guilty of adding amount which way above acceptable level. Besides that in india they don't care for the storage of the drinks. You'll find that these drinks are there for more than 2 years and i don't know how they managed to drink all that. There are many legal cases against coke and pepsi in india. They infected rivers and water reserves with their poison and now they have large percentage of pesticides in it.

Still people drink all that and life goes on.

Thats not good. I always check the expiry date.
Again, storage is not the drink's fault. Anything handled like that would go bad.

[mahesh2k]

Quote

Thats not good. I always check the expiry date.
Again, storage is not the drink's fault. Anything handled like that would go bad.

The point is that the expiry dates printed and the original creation of that liquid both differ. I mean they may create the liquid on different date and will try to preserve upto some date as per mentioned in another date. Besides that many liquid containers in multiplex and other restaurants don't have expiry date as we get them without bottles.

Even after such issues people drink it and are manged to survive in that pesticide and other infections. I think people developed the resistance against pesticide and storage infection.

[rpgsearcherz]

I don't think the amount of time cokes sit around in storage really matters. As far as I know they are preserved in a way that even after 30 years it would still be okay to drink -- it might just taste a little "flat."

[mahesh2k]

Not true. Pesticide percentage does have effect on liquid after X time. Preservatives doesn't remain in effect for more than year. That's why there is expiry date for the product. I agree about flat taste of it but there is more to that.

[buxgoddess]

tinoymalayil, on 20 July 2010 - 03:37 AM, said:

I think it may harmful.Because every coca cola bottle we can see that Caffine is inside..Caffine is harmful to our body.That's why doctors prescribing drinking too much coffee is not googd for your body.

The debate that whether Coke is good or bad is still on the laboratories and taking the rounds every now and then. In India the coke has taken a new name - the toilet cleaner. The fact that if you use coke as your toilet cleaner the toilet looks more refreshing than other brands. It has been found to be true to a large extent.
Baba Ramdev has himself challenged the claims of the coke company of the quality control in production and the quantity of items that are added that could lead to health hazards. It was found in the national laboratory tests that there is excess amount of chemicals present that leads to serious illness specially among children.
In another case the left government went on to say that the coke company is a curse on mankind. Brinda karat went against Baba Ramdev as saying that the medicines it has contain animal bone extracts. But on the matter of coke and the drinks of its kind said that they are chemically killers and economically butchers. The fact that a bottle of coke that sells of Rs 10 actually costs about Rs 1.50 only. And add transportation and cooling charges ammounts to Rs 2.65 only. Now see the profit and that is why these coke companies endorse the big guns in the fields of sports and entrtainment all with the money from the common people who are cheated to pay much more than justified.

[rpgsearcherz]

mahesh2k, on 28 July 2010 - 07:26 AM, said:

Not true. Pesticide percentage does have effect on liquid after X time. Preservatives doesn't remain in effect for more than year. That's why there is expiry date for the product. I agree about flat taste of it but there is more to that.

Weird. I'll have to take a look at my Coke the next time I get one and see because I don't remember any expiration dates, . I thought they lasted forever,

[Soviet Rathe]

Yes,
it's not natural, anything that's not natural is not good for you and damages your body, the fact of the matter is; we were not meant to consume the stuff we do today, do you think Adam and Eve sat around drinking coke? nope.
I don't think there's anything to worry about though, the damage is minimal, it's no more bad for you then the other stuff you consume.
and as far as getting cancer and other diseases, No, there is nothing in coke that can hard you in that way...it's just not good for you.

aside from the fact if you leave a nail in a bottle of coke overnight, the nail will melt from the acid but that's just what I've been told.

[DodgyPhil]

Quote

aside from the fact if you leave a nail in a bottle of coke overnight, the nail will melt from the acid

I heard Coca Cola carried out the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center!
But seriously, all of these flesh/metal-melting rumours are false. My favourite was about the factory worker who fell into a vat of Coca Cola and was dissolved in 5 minutes. P'shaw!

[Quatrux]

Well, I think you don't need to drink to much coke or pepsi, as it might have some effect on you, but if you drink it sometimes, I don't see anything bad in it, if it's a true coke and not some alternative coke with some bad for your health minerals

I also heard, that some lemonades and other refreshing drinks are worst for your health than coke, as there's nothing to much bad for you in it unless you drink lots and lots of it? Also it depends on the country and how it's made, as I know the same coke is a bit different in different regions, like in Europe or Asia?

I personally don't drink coke unless I do a cocktail with some drink having alcohol

[Parubilla]

mahesh2k, on 27 July 2010 - 01:46 PM, said:

Be it coke or pepsi or other drinks the problem is in pesticide contained in it. The amount in it makes worst for the drinkers. In india coke and pepsi found guilty of adding amount which way above acceptable level. Besides that in india they don't care for the storage of the drinks. You'll find that these drinks are there for more than 2 years and i don't know how they managed to drink all that. There are many legal cases against coke and pepsi in india. They infected rivers and water reserves with their poison and now they have large percentage of pesticides in it.

Still people drink all that and life goes on.

I saw that documentary on tv about people complaining that Coke infected the water of a poor town in India, it was horrible to see how bad the water was not only for drinking but for any use, this case in particular turn out "well" because the people put a lawsuit against Coke company and won, they had to close down the plant but the damage was already done, because the population couldn't use the water of the town anymore. That's why it kind of make me mad when I see this Coke commercials saying enjoy life and stuff because it make me think about the people suffering the consequences from the production of this beverage.

I do think it's harmful for the body to drink sodas specially dark sodas, because here in Colombia for example they use Coke to clean up screws and machinery stuff, they put Coke in a glass and left the stuff in there for a couple hours (I don't know how many), and when they get the stuff out is totally clean, no grease no dirt no anything, so if the coke does that to a screw I can't imagine the damage caused to the stomach.

I try not to drink sodas but it is really hard not to drink them sometimes.

[Iniyila]

i think drinking small amount a day will not cause any problem but everyone knows that coke drinks are high on fructose or some scientists say they have High-Fructose Corn Syrup. this thing can have very bad effects like getting fat, fructose can produce more fat than any other sweetener in same amount of use and this can be really dangerous for your life. i have read another dangerous effect is "Inhibits copper metabolism" which can lead to bone fragility, this one will not show itself till you get old like above 60yr old and then you will find its effects like when you fall down from a very small height your bones brake. i should say all of these effects are not happening very soon, they will show themselves after you get old so till you are 30 or 40 you will not see any effects if you don't use too much. there are many issues related to caffeine too but i don't believe with drinking coke once a day any of that effects will harm you even if you get 100 years old so i don't think that amount of caffeine in cokes is harmful at all. anyway i was a coke addict but i have reduced its usage by once every three or four day so i suggest everyone to reduce its usage because it doesn't worth to harm yourself by coke.

[contactskn]

Dear friend I herewith don’t want to spell any companies name but I have read in a research paper that a person who regularly use such chilled soft drinks in spite of milk or tea leads a shorter life. As the chemical and preservatives used in such drinks are not normally used in prescribed proportion which leads health hazards in return, here I would like to state that the results as such are not instant or on spot but very slow so it is very difficult to diagnosis weather it is due to its regular use or due to some other facts what ever it is no body states is as good as milk and tea and on the other no body stated it as bad as tobacco or alcohol.

[iAssistant]

Well for me it is. I am not expert so maybe it depends on the body of the person. I am acidic so when I drink coke, it triggers it so I am not drinking that to save me from pain. I think you shouldn't wait for something to happen to you before you believe. You can start living a much healthier lifestyle.