The Effects of drinking a Can of Cola (Coke, Pepsi etc)

[Isadora]

Oh yuck, its so bad for you! My MIL is addicted to coke big time, she does not go a day without a can of coke. Yet she complains that she isnt losing weight, feel like saying cut the coke out for one & you might be surpised.

We dont buy soft drink, we only buy it for special occassions like if we have people coming around for a bbq, party etc. I only give DD water in her cup, dont want to even go down the soft drink path, what she doesnt know wont hurt her right!?

[Visitor8]

just coke? or all fizzy drinks? Because I love my lime lift and my lime hartz mineral water

[Bathsheba]

And another bumpity bump as I wage my personal war on this evil "drink"!

[BellyBelly]

*bump*

[Bumperstump Cummerbund]

No, don't bump this - I feel guilty enough for the Coke I drank yesterday

[BellyBelly]

LOL. Those who came to the first BB conference will remember the great talk Tracey Habron gave about the effects of drinking coke on fertility. If you're TTC, it's one to definitely avoid for both people.

[Bathsheba]

I missed the segment on TV last night that showed an experiement which involved a teenage boy drinking a can of "V" caffinated energy drink and then hooking him up to an ecg heart monitor... they said that his heart rate was going "ectopic". Does anyone know what that means???

[Floweryfields]

Weird double post.

[Floweryfields]

Are you serious? Man...I love lollies, imagine what my body does then!

Was thinking the exact same thing! I am beginning to think that it is the sugar in stuff I am eating more so (or on top of) the fat that I am eating that is making me fat!

I hate coke, so that's never been an issue for me, just addicted to everything else that's bad for you!

[Madissun]

I never used to really drink Coke...But every now and then i crave it so i have a glass. It's not very often, but it's weird how you can crave something that you rarely have isn't it?

[Rouge]

I'm still killing myself slowly with diet carbonated beverages... I don't think that will ever change.

[Mr Squidipa]

sheesh i knew that coke was bad for you but not that bad just aswell i have pretty much stopped drinking it

[Roryrory]

I am always amazed at how may kids I see walking around my local shopping centre with a can of coke in their hands. "Oh but they whine until I give them one!" Yeah, and my three year kid asks for a fag so I gave him one, and my 20 month old wanted to watch "Amytiville Horror" so I let him. Yeah, real smart....

I missed the segment on TV last night that showed an experiement which involved a teenage boy drinking a can of "V" caffinated energy drink and then hooking him up to an ecg heart monitor... they said that his heart rate was going "ectopic".

Bath this is what my DH had - its where your heart beats super fast and irregularly, so much so that it becomes inefficient at pumping oxygenated blood through your body.

[Bathsheba]

Thanks for that Rory The stuff should just be banned if that's the case. I agree, kids just sometimes need to hear the word "no". The quick-fix that the parent gets from giving-in just turns into a longer lasting problem in the end... give the kid a sweet treat and you get probably an hours worth of grumpiness after the sugar high wears off... all for 5 minutes peace from nagging... not a good return for the investment if you ask me.

[Bathsheba]

[Nettie]

Thanks for bumping Bath - I hadn't seen this!

My SIL is addicted to the stuff, so I'm going to direct her to this

[Bathsheba]

There should be a separate thread for this article but here, another reason to quit drinking this evil stuff:

New research suggests that drinking lots of artificially sweetened beverages may be linked with an increased risk of premature births.

"It may be non-optimal for pregnant women to have high consumption of these types of products," Dr. Thorhallur I. Halldorsson of the Statens Serum Institut in Copenhagen, one of the researchers on the study, told Reuters Health.

"Diet" drinks are widely promoted as a healthy alternative to sugary sodas and juices, but Halldorsson and his colleagues note that there's been little research on the safety of regular consumption of artificial sweeteners in humans.

Soft drinks -- both artificially sweetened and sugar sweetened -- were recently linked to high blood pressure, the researchers add, which increases the risk of premature delivery. To investigate whether there might be a direct link, the researchers looked at nearly 60,000 Danish women who reported on their diet, including how many soft drinks they had each day, at around 25 weeks of pregnancy.

Around 5 percent of women delivered their babies before 37 weeks.

Women who had at least one serving of artificially sweetened soda a day while they were pregnant were 38 percent more likely to deliver preterm than women who drank no diet soda at all, the researchers report in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Women who had at least four diet sodas a day were nearly 80 percent more likely to deliver preterm. The association was the same for normal-weight and overweight women.


The researchers did not report the actual risk of premature babies in each group. However, according to the March of Dimes, one in eight babies -- or around 13 percent -- is born too soon. This means that if drinking diet soda does indeed increase risk - which must first be confirmed by other research teams -- a woman who drank at least one diet soda daily would have a 17 percent risk, while her risk would be around 22 percent if she drank four or more diet sodas.

In a statement, the Calorie Control Council, a lobbying group for companies that make and distribute low-calorie foods, called the study "misleading."

"This study may unduly alarm pregnant women. While this study is counter to the weight of the scientific evidence demonstrating that low-calorie sweeteners are safe for use in pregnancy, research has shown that overweight and obesity can negatively affect pregnancy outcomes," Beth Hubrich, a dietitian with the council, said in the statement. "Further, low-calorie sweeteners can help pregnant women enjoy the taste of sweets without excess calories, leaving room for nutritious foods and beverages without excess weight gain - something that has been shown to be harmful to both the mother and developing baby."

Because only diet soda was linked to preterm delivery, not sugar-sweetened soda, the findings suggest that the artificial sweetener itself, not soda drinking, could account for the relationship, the researchers say. However, they add, other possible causes for the link can't be ruled out.

The researchers didn't look at specific artificial sweeteners, and Halldorsson noted that many beverages contain more than one of these chemicals. However, he and his colleagues say, there is indirect evidence linking the sweetener aspartame to preterm delivery in animals.

Aspartame breaks down into methanol and other substances in the body, which can in turn be converted to toxic substances such as formaldehyde and formic acid, the researchers explain. And studies in non-human primates have linked even very low exposure to methanol to shortened pregnancy and labor complications.

While pregnant women who consume soft drinks shouldn't be alarmed by the findings, Halldorsson said, "what we are seeing warrants further attention."

According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, women who normally use the artificial sweeteners saccharin (Sweet n' Low), aspartame (NutraSweet), sucralose (Splenda) or acesulfame K (Sunett, Sweet One) can safely continue to do so "in moderation" during pregnancy.