Nothing on our planet quiet quenches thirst like a refreshingly fizzy, icy, glass of Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola hits the spot, like a dart player hits the bullseye. There are 1.9 billion servings of Coca-Cola Company products sold every single day (1).

Whether you have been kicking a football around the park with your kids, curing a hangover, or just trying to quench your thirst on a hot summers day, you simply cannot beat a glass of Coca-Cola.

We also know that drinking Coca-Cola can permanently damage your health and add inches to your waist faster than you can say the alphabet backwards. They have even started to ban Coca-Cola in certain countries.

Drinking Cola hits the spot, but is the high of some fizzy, sticky, black coloured liquid really worth the added pounds and health risks that come with it?

That’s what we are about to find out . . .

8 Mind Blowing Facts About Coco-Cola 

1) Coca-Cola is worth $74 billion : That is more than Pepsi, Starbucks, Red Bull and Budweiser combined (2).

2) If you stacked up all of Coke’s vending machines (2.8 million) they would stack up the size of 4 Empire State Buildings!

3) In the first year Coca-Cola creator John Pemberton sold an average of just nine glasses a day. The company now sells 1.9 billion beverage servings every day (3).

4) 3.1% of all beverages consumed around the world are Coca-Cola products.

5) Coke makes so many different beverages that if you drank one per day, it would take you over 9 years to try them all! Coca-Cola has a product portfolio of more than 3,500 beverages (and 500 brands) (4).

6) If every drop of Coke ever produced were put in 8-ounce bottles and laid end-to-end, they would reach the moon and back over 2,000 times (5).

7) The famous red and white Coca-Cola logo is recognised by 94% of the world’s population.

8) The now-famous contour bottle for Coca-Cola was patented in 1915, to thwart the efforts of copycats.

How Coke-Cola Reacts In Your Body

1) Within the first 10 minutes of drinking Coca-Cola, 10 teaspoons of sugar rapidly enter your system. By the way, this is 100% of your recommend daily allowance. The only reason you don’t vomit straight away as a result of the overwhelming sweetness is because phosphoric acid cuts the flavour.

2) Around 20 minutes after consumption, blood sugar levels spike and the liver responds by turning large amounts of excess sugar into body fat.

3) Within 30 minutes, caffeine is absorbed into your body; the pupils dilate, blood pressure rises, and the liver dumps even more sugar into the bloodstream!

4) Within 40 minutes, your body increases dopamine production. Dopamine stimulates the pleasure centre of your brain. Coke-Cola has a physically identical response to that of an A-Class drugs such as cocaine or heroin.

5) After 60 minutes, your body starts to crash, blood sugar levels drop, and you are looking for your next fix!

6) Back to the fizzy pop for another boost of energy, and more body fat! yippee!

10 Reasons Why Coca-Cola Is Destroying Your Health . . .

1) Destroys Teeth. Coca-Cola is Acidic, which means it can rot your teeth, destroying the enamel, causing you physical discomfort, and mental stress (the dentist bill!). An interview with Dr. James McKay, formerly of the Naval Medical Research Institute, found that colas are closest in pH level to vinegar–between 2.0 and 3.4, according to the Food and Drug Administration

2) Lower Sperm Count.  In 2010 a Danish study showing that men who drank 32 ounces (around 1 litre) or more of Coca-Cola daily could reduce their sperm count by nearly 30 percent. (7)

3) High Caffeine Content. A can of Coca-Cola contains 64 mg of caffeine. Too much caffeine in the body will raise cortisol levels, this may lead to muscle aches and pains, poor skin complexion and can even prevent the body from burning body fat.

4) Increase Body Fat. A can of Coca-Cola contains 39 grams of sugar. Too much sugar will lead to body fat accumulation. The liver can store about 90 to 100 grams of glycogen (sugar), after that the body will convert any excess sugar into body fat. Not good for the waist line or getting into a pair jeans.

5) Cellular Ageing. The DNA of people who drink the equivalent of 20 ounces of sugary drinks daily is almost five years older than those who don’t consume carbonated beverages. The University of California San Francisco researchers contend that regular consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks can influence disease development, not only by straining the body’s metabolic control of sugars but also through accelerated cellular aging of tissues. If you want to prolong the wrinkles, ditch the cola. (8)

6) Softens The Bones. The carbonation in Coke causes calcium loss in the bones. The carbonation irritates the stomach, The stomach “cures” the irritation the only way it knows how. It adds the only antacid at its disposal: calcium. It gets this from the blood. The blood, now low on calcium, replenishes its supply from the bones. If it did not do this, muscular and brain function would be severely impaired. (9,10)

7) Poisons The Body. Fizzy drinks contain high levels of toxic pesticides and insecticides, high enough to trigger cancer, damage the nervous and reproductive systems, cause birth defects and severe disruption of the immune system according to CSE (11)

8) Alters Your Genes. A huge, decades-long study involving more than 33,000 Americans has yielded the first clear proof that drinking sugary beverages interacts with genes that affect weight, amplifying a person’s risk of obesity beyond what it would be from heredity alone (12)

9) Lead to Diabetes. Over consumption of sugar will lead to weight gain and a can of Coca-Cola contains 39 grams of sugar. It’s a simple home truth that the more body fat you are carrying the more likely you are to develop diabetes. The body becomes less efficient at dealing with sugar the more you consume it and depending on the amount. Daily consumptions of fizzy drinks can lead to insulin resistance, which may eventually lead to diabetes. This happens when cells become permanently damaged. Diabetes currently affects more than 371 million people worldwide and is expected to affect 552 million by 2030.

10) Exacerbate Behavioural Problems. For years, doctors have speculated that certain foods and beverages like Coca-Cola and Dr Pepper may have something to do with ADHD. What these substances seem to do, is worsen ADHD symptoms or affect behaviour that mimics the signs of ADHD in children, behaviour such as hyperactivity, mood swings and energy fluctuations.

Yay or Neigh to Coca-Cola?  

If a virus wiped out Coca Cola from planet earth would our bodies suffer? No, we do not need Coca-Cola like we need water, but that can also be said for most things in life. Like anything taken to extremes over time there are going to be unavoidable, long term consequences.

Should we or shouldn’t we completely ditch the Coca-Cola? A substance which is powerful enough to remove grease stains from clothing and clean a toilet. (13)

When put like this, It  does seem strange that we would be willing to guzzle it back just to gain a bit of extra pleasure?

According to the Mail Online (14)  children in Russia are banned from buying fizzy drinks such as Coca-Cola and Dr Pepper to protect the health of minors. Is this perhaps a little excessive? it certainly makes for a great debate. . .

When you take away something from the market, it creates more demand, it becomes scarce and forbidden, therefore more attention is drawn to the item and desire increases. Are we therefore drawing attention to something, which is minor in the grand scheme of things? Paradoxically banning fizzy drinks with good intentions but inadvertently causing the opposite effect?

Education in my opinion is key, educating our minors, children, targeting grassroot levels. Simply banning such drinks like in Russia as a way to eradicate the problem seems to be a little excessive. I do believe we need to educate our youngest generations. Speaking from experience and as a UK citizen I believe we must do more to push schools to educate children about health, and nutrition. Our children should be taught how to cook nutritious foods, and have at least a basic understanding of  how foods react in our bodies and how to take care the most powerful weapon we all own . . . the human body.

So Should you drink Coke-Cola? Well that depends, if you are trying to boost your health, and avoid the consequence listed in the 10 Reasons Why Coca-Cola Is Destroying Your Health then it would be wise to ditch the fizzy pop. Ask yourself this . . . Is your life really going to suffer that much with out it?

On the other hand if you lead healthy, well balanced life-style, you exercise and eat plenty of fresh nutritious foods and you have a Coca Cola once in a while . . .

Is it really the end of the world?