In the first 10 minutes of drinking a can of coke more than 100% of daily sugar intake is consumed. Photo / Getty Images
Thursday Jul 30, 2015
Have you ever wondered what happens to your body after you drink a can of your favourite fizzy drink?
A new infographic has revealed the reaction you go through for an hour after consuming, from the first sip, right through to 60 minutes after finishing.
The graphic was compiled by The Renegade Pharmacist, a blog run by former UK pharmacist Niraj Naik and includes a seven-stop breakdown.
In The First 10 minutes: 10 teaspoons of sugar hit your system. (100 per cent of your recommended daily intake.) You don't immediately vomit from the overwhelming sweetness because phosphoric acid cuts the flavour allowing you to keep it down.
In 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. (There's plenty of that at this particular moment).
In 40 minutes: Caffeine absorption is complete. Your pupils dilate, your blood pressure rises, as a response your livers dumps more sugar into your bloodstream. The adenosine receptors in your brain are now blocked preventing drowsiness.
In 45 minutes: Your body ups your dopamine production stimulating the pleasure centres 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, electrolyte and water.
As the rave inside of you dies down you'll start to have a sugar crash. You may become irritable and/or sluggish. You've also now, literally, urinated the water that was in the Coke.
But not before infusing it with valuable nutrients your body could have used for things like even having the ability to hydrate your system or build strong bones and teeth.
Mr Naik told the Daily Mail: "When I worked as a community pharmacist I had some great success at helping people get off long term medication. Especially blood pressure medication, statins and diabetic medication.
"Many of them [patients] would consume fizzy drinks on a daily basis. A few on several medications would consume two to three cans a day. In one case a guy was on every heart drug under the sun and taking big doses.
"So I created my own system to help my patients where I would write little shopping lists for people based on their conditions. My first advice to them would be to do a simple swap, replacing fizzy drinks with water with fresh lemon or lime juice.
"In many cases just doing this would have a dramatic effect on their health. So this indicated to me that fizzy drinks and sugar were big issues relating to blood pressure and metabolic diseases like diabetes and heart disease.
"Then I did a lot more research and discovered that there were other scientists and doctors who backed up my claims."
A Coca-Cola NZ spokesperson told the Herald online they offered a range of different products which can be enjoyed in moderation as part of a balanced lifestyle.
"If Kiwis are looking for a beverage that does not contain sugar we offer low and no kilojoule options," they said in a statement via email.
"We clearly label what is in our products including the front-of-pack daily per cent intake for kilojoules, and a nutrition information panel."
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- Daily Mail
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