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Wednesday, June 23, 2010 - 2:15 pm ET
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Updated Post: What Happens to Your Body If You Drink a Coke Right Now?

Hey, Blisstree Reader! We recently updated this Coke post, and also just posted two brand-new ones: What Happens to Your Body After You Drink a Coke Every Day, For a Long Time and Drink Diet Coke For Good Health? Not So Much., which many of you commented on wanting to know more about. Read on, and check out these other new posts, below.

Have you ever wondered why Coke comes with a smile? Because it gets you high. They removed the cocaine almost 100 years ago. Why? It was redundant.
Coke

  • In the first 10 minutes: 10 teaspoons of sugar hit your system. (100% of your recommended daily intake.) You don’t immediately vomit from the overwhelming sweetness because phosphoric acid cuts the flavor, allowing you to keep it down.
  • 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. (And there’s plenty of that at this particular moment.)
  • 40 minutes: Caffeine absorption is complete. Your pupils dilate; your blood pressure rises; as a response, your liver dumps more sugar into your bloodstream. The adenosine receptors in your brain are now blocked, preventing drowsiness.
  • 45 minutes: Your body ups your dopamine production, stimulating the pleasure centers of your brain. This is physically the same way heroin works, by the way.
  • > 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.
  • > 60 minutes: The caffeine’s diuretic properties come into play. (It makes you have to pee.) It is now assured that you’ll evacuate the bonded calcium, magnesium, and zinc that was headed to your bones as well as sodium, electrolytes, and water.
  • > 60 minutes: As the rave inside you dies down, you’ll start to have a sugar crash. You may become irritable and/or sluggish. You’ve also now, literally, pissed away all the water that was in the Coke. But not before infusing it with valuable nutrients your body could have used for things like hydrating your system, or building strong bones and teeth.

This will all be followed by a caffeine crash in the next few hours. (As little as two if you’re a smoker.) Want to know what happens after that? Check out what happens to your body after you drink a coke, every day for a long time.

Coke itself isn’t the enemy here. It’s the dynamic combo of massive sugar doses combined with caffeine and phosphoric acid, which are found in almost all sodas. Moderation, people!

photo: Thinkstock

This post was originally written by Liz Lewis.

683 Comments

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  1. By gooshIN
    9 days ago

    @PharmD

    you are a complete moron…high fructose corn syrup is not by any means a natural product…it is an artificial product. Have you ever left coke out for days an end? Or any soda with corn syrup in it…Watch what happens to the fluid… Coca Cola uses a sweetener that is terrible for the human body…It doesn’t even know what to do with it.

    Reply

  2. By ally
    10 days ago

    fantastic! really scared me!

    Reply

  3. By Dr. Diaz
    16 days ago

    Could you provide the primary source of this information? Seems to me a little bit exaggerated.

    Reply

  4. By A Non
    37 days ago

    “Your body ups your dopamine production, stimulating the pleasure centers of your brain. This is physically the same way heroin works, by the way”
    – Thats the way your body makes you experience pleasure any time your happy, by the way.

    Reply

  5. By stuart venables
    53 days ago

    thankyou

    Reply

  6. By RandallMcR
    58 days ago

    I like the bit where they compare it to Herion. makes coke seem a hell of a lot more-ish…

    Reply

  7. By Kacie
    60 days ago

    Fantastic post! I really enjoyed reading this article. Im definitely addicted, its a problem :)
    http://www.coloncleansebenefit.com

    Reply

  8. By james
    60 days ago

    As far as my knowledge is concern this soft drink is very fetal for our health. Due to using chemical and carbon dioxide and other ingredients harm our health and fitness so we should not have this soft drink.
    http://www.acaiberrysolution.com/

    Reply

  9. By Frida
    62 days ago

    I think you’re way overstating a lot of this. Caffeine being a diuretic is an urban legend. It actually has about as much diuretic effect as water: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/health/nutrition/04real.html.

    Reply

    • By Linn Garden
      22 days ago

      Look up http://www.dorway.com and read the facts about the poison that soda drinks really are

  10. By demonkid83
    63 days ago

    wow

    Reply

  11. By a dude
    63 days ago

    haha. whiner.

    Reply

  12. By Matthew
    64 days ago

    What happens when you drink diet coke?

    Reply

  13. By r sarson
    65 days ago

    re:coke to body
    ty ty ty.I’ve been saying this for ever.30 yrs ago the Canadian govt ran commercials describing soda-I was floored by the sugar content and essentially gave it up.But the scariest soda is the non sugar sweetened products.Ingesting chlorinated products (like artificial sweeteners)is just a weird alternative.Perhaps a comment on this from the author?

    Reply

  14. By PharmD
    65 days ago

    Having taken several courses on A&P and Pathophysiology, I just have to question the validity of all these people saying “Stupid people will ignore the truth when you put it in front of them!” What is your degree in, what is this author’s degree in? There are a lot of exaggerated truths in this article. I hate to break it to you, but some of the bodily functions will happen from eating a piece of fruit or a vegetable. It’s not just coke or “sugary” drinks that are “sooooo bad for you”.

    Also, sugar is not better or worse for you than high fructose corn syrup, which is an all natural by product of corn, which is healthy for you. I’m not saying drinking Coke or downing junk food is healthy by any means, but the misconception that sugar/caffeine/hfs is terrible for your body is overplayed in just about every health article you can find. Honestly it’s just best to eat a balanced diet rather than cutting things out entirely.

    Reply

  15. By Mike Berry
    65 days ago

    Sugar and caffeine are not in the same league with cocaine!!!! Mike http://www.readytobattle.com

    Reply

  16. By sandy
    66 days ago

    Have you ever seen what happens when you put a penny in coke?

    Reply

    • By seven
      66 days ago

      the penny gets out of the coke totally clean.. i prove it myself, its quite aweosome, and some say it cleans the dirty of your bathroom

  17. By Factchecker McKnowledgepants
    66 days ago

    just thought i’d pop in to say that the “sugar crash” you mention is actually just a popular misconception. there’s really no such thing. no, seriously.

    also, caffeinated soda DOES hydrate you, but you’re right to observe that it’s less efficient in terms of hydration than drinking uncaffeinated beverages. still, you have to remember that cola has way more water than caffeine in it. it’s only natural that some of it will be absorbed rather than immediately excreted.

    most importantly, the only reason for any soda to release dopamine is if you happen to like soda. yeah. doing things you like (for example: listening to your favorite song, eating doritos, jazzercising) releases dopamine, which in turn makes you like these things even more. heroin doesn’t even act directly on dopamine production or transmission; it works on opioid receptors.

    i’m just begging you for a little accuracy in what you choose to publish. i know it’s the internet, but C’MON GUYS YOU CAN DO BETTER THAN THAT.

    Reply

    • By Randall McR
      58 days ago

      I like you! We have the same little two words in our name! Also you know your dopamine. GOOD INTERNET THING. Have a cyber-treat.

  18. By Other Mike
    66 days ago

    I never comment on stuff like this either except when I do

    Reply

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