by Erika Mizrahi
When I was in nursing school, keeping up with course-work and working night-shifts in the Emergency Room, I became a Coca-Cola addict. Staying awake was a challenge, and the caffeine in my can of Coke gave me just the boost I needed. When my boyfriend, (now my husband) noticed that I was getting my daily fix of Coca-Cola, he told me to try to cut it out just for a month. After a month of being Coke-free, I had a glass of the soft drink once again. I realized that I didn't even like the taste. My body was just addicted!
In American culture, the Coca-Cola brand is ubiquitous. Powerful advertising creates a connection between soft drinks like Coca-Cola and the people. Unmistakably Coca-Cola; unmistakably America. Coca-cola elicits a state of mind: pride, hope, a community and sense of bonding.
In the 1880s, Coca-Cola came from cocaine from the cola plant and caffeine from the kola bean. In 1929, the company stopped using cocaine, but the drink was still addictive. In a world full of coffee, cigarette, alcohol and drug dependence, the idea of a soft-drink addiction has not reached the pubic awareness.
The harsh effects are not realized until later. Though not an immediate reaction, years of drinking soda result in life-threatening diseases. These include diabetes, obesity, cancer and heart disease. Nowadays, these ailments are so common that they are considered a part of aging.
In a glass of your average soda, there are the equivalent to over ten teaspoons of sugar (in the 80's cane sugar was replaced with corn syrup). There is also phosphoric acid which gives a sort of tangy taste and helps us not to cringe at the copious amounts of sugar. The mix of energy-producing caffeine, the sweet taste of sugar, the sour flavor of phosphoric acid, and the fizz of carbon dioxide is definitely habit-forming. After ten minutes, you will be on a sugar high. After twenty minutes, your blood sugar is so high that your pancreas will send out a burst of insulin. The liver sees a surge in insulin and, for protection, turns sugar into fat. After around forty minutes, the caffeine intake is complete and your pupils dilate—just like those of someone who's on Speed.
This process then stimulates the production of dopamine, a chemical that triggers the pleasure centers of the brain. The kick of dopamine that you get from your glass of soda resembles that of a heroin user's. After an hour, the caffeine's diuretic properties will make you pee. You will urinate out all the important minerals in your body that bind to the phosphoric acid—like calcium, magnesium, and zinc (the reason that people get osteoporosis from cola).
You will then have a sugar crash, feeling sleepy and thirsty. And what's better for sleepiness and thirst than a nice cold glass of Coca-Cola?
For those of you who want to stop drinking Coca-Cola, go slowly. You may get nasty withdrawal systems, like irritability and headaches. Exercise should help speed along the process, inducing endorphins (natural uppers).
If you are looking for something to do with the Coke still sitting in your pantry, it makes a great toilet cleaner. Seriously. Oh, and if you ever feel the need to clean up blood from off the highway, use cola. It really works!
Learn more about Erika.
