Wow, You Drink Coke? Really?

Over the past 30 years, the consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks has increased dramatically in both children and adults. This is concerning not only because of the effect on an individual level, but also because it has been linked to a range of issues on a population level, including: poor diet quality, weight gain, obesity, and type 2 diabetes (1) (2).
When we see these trends, it is important to look at which products have led these changes in eating and drinking  patterns. It is impossible to overlook Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola is the most popular soft drink in the history of soft drinks.

Coca Cola Nutrition Facts and Ingredients

Let’s take a look at the nutritional information for different Coca-Cola products. Below is regular Coke:

In one 12 oz. can of Coke, there are 140 calories (kcal), all of which come from sugar. Those 140 calories are equal to 39 grams, or almost 10 teaspoons of sugar.
The American Heart Association recommends a maximum of 9 teaspoons of added sugar a day for men and 6 teaspoons of added sugar a day for women (3). That means that just with one can of Coke, both men and women have surpassed their daily limit of sugar.
Besides sugar, it doesn’t provide any nutrients. This is the definition of “empty calories”
If you take a look at the ingredients, sugar doesn’t appear on the list. That is because rather than cane sugar, the US formula for Coca Cola uses High Fructose Corn Syrup as a sweetener.

• High fructose corn syrup:

It is produced from corn syrup, that is then processed to increase the fructose process and then mixed with glucose (both fructose and glucose are simple sugars, naturally found to some extent in fruits and vegetables, but added to processed foods in high concentrations) (4). Fructose has been directly implicated in the epidemics of obesity and type 2 diabetes (4).

• Caramel color

 The next ingredient on the list is caramel color. Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that some kinds of caramel color, like those sometimes used in sodas, are made with 4-methylimidazole (4-MEI). 4-MEI is a possible human carcinogen formed during the manufacturing process. In other words, over-consumption could increase your risk of cancer (5).

• Phosphoric Acid

Researchers have found that there is a connection between the risk of osteoporosis and soda drinking. While it may be because of replacing healthy liquids in the diet with less-healthy liquids, some experts believe it is related to the amount of phosphoric acid in Colas. It is a component that is in cola drinks, but not other sodas so it is believed phosphoric acid could contribute to bone loss when it is found in higher concentration in the blood than calcium (6).

 http://www.gnet.org/wow-you-drink-coke-really/