Have you ever wondered what happens to your body after you drink a can of your favourite fizzy drink?
While most of us know Coke isn’t good for us, we also don’t know exactly what happens to our bodies once we drink it. A detailed new infographic from The Renegade Pharmacist breaks it down, step by step, from the first sip, right through to 60 minutes after finishing — and it’s not pretty.
Here’s what happens after you drink a Coke:
In the first 10 minutes: Ten teaspoons of sugar (100 percent of your recommended daily intake) hits your system.
In 20 minutes: Your blood sugar spikes and causes a burst of insulin. Your liver responds by turning the sugar it comes into contact with into fat.
In 40 minutes: Your body has absorbed the soda’s caffeine. Your pupils may dilate, your blood pressure rises, and your liver “dumps more sugar into your bloodstream.” The adenosine receptors in your brain are blocked to prevent you from feeling drowsy.
In 45 minutes: Your body increases production of the pleasure neurotransmitter dopamine.
In 60 minutes: The drink’s phosphoric acid binds with calcium, magnesium, and zinc in your lower intestine to give you a further boost in metabolism. This is intensified by the high doses of sugar and artificial sweeteners that also cause you to urinate out calcium.
After 60 minutes: The caffeine’s diuretic effect makes you have to pee. When you do, you’ll pass on the bonded calcium, magnesium, and zinc that were headed to your bones, as well as sodium, electrolytes, and water.
Then a sugar crash begins, and you may become irritable and sluggish. You’ve now urinated out all of the water that was in the Coke, along with the nutrients that the phosphoric acid bonded to in your body that would have hydrated you or gone on to build strong bones and teeth.
Registered dietitian-nutritionist Karen Ansel tells Yahoo Health that the infographic highlights some of the concerns with drinking Coke on a regular basis. But, she adds, some of the effects of caffeine from Coke listed in the infographic “are a bit of an exaggeration” unless a person is sensitive to caffeine.
“However, cola has been shown to weaken bones and teeth, so it is on target there,” she says.
A study, published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention in 2010, found that regular Coke drinkers (those who had two or more sodas a week) were 87 percent more likely to develop pancreatic cancer.
Ansel says having a fizzy drink on rare occasions isn’t a huge deal, but she recommends having as little as possible by filling your cup with ice first or pouring it into a small glass, rather than drinking straight from the bottle or can.
“Should you worry if you’re the healthiest person in the world and you have one can of Coke on vacation? Not really. Just don’t do it on a regular basis.”
Source: yahoo.com [Edited]