It’s easy to vilify delicious foods because of their exorbitant calorie counts, hefty fat content, and terrifying levels of sugar. However, every once in a while a food comes around that really does earn its evil reputation. This week, that food isn’t actually a food. It’s one of America’s favorite drinks: Coke.
An eye-opening infographic compiled by The Renegade Pharmacist recently made its way around the internet, and the internet promptly freaked out.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably know that regular Coke has a ton of sugar in it, and the diet version isn’t much better with its aspartame aftertaste. According to the infographic, your body experiences some scary changes that start when the contents of that can hit your stomach. One can is 100% of your recommended daily intake of sugar (10 teaspoons!).
According to an article published by Business Insider, the human race consumes a mind-boggling 1.7 billion servings of Coke products every single day.
Here’s a quick, frightening rundown of what happens to your body after you drink a can of Coca-Cola:
- You experience a blood sugar spike, and your body turns that extra sugar into fat.
- The rush of caffeine increases your blood pressure, and sugar fills your bloodstream.
- Your brain reacts to the sugar in the same way it would if you used heroin.
- The drink’s phosphoric acid leeches essential minerals from your body.
- The diuretic properties of caffeine kick in and those valuable minerals exit your body.
- You experience a post-Coke sugar crash and feel sluggish and tired.
Whoa!
It feels like Coke wages a war inside your body by stealing beneficial minerals like calcium, zinc, and magnesium and then punishes you even further with a sugar crash and some extra fat cells.
If the facts in this infographic have made you think twice about cracking open another frosty can of Coca-Cola, that’s a start! Choose drinks that provide beneficial hydration and nutrients without the sugar and the inevitable sugar crash.
