Saturday, January 25, 2014

Caffeine and phenylalanine ... a match made in heaven...

Source
I'm not a coffee drinker.

I think I've probably had maybe three sips of coffee in my entire life, and two of those were definitely by accident.  A friend of mine says she's never seen me look as offended as I did the day she mistakenly gave me her coffee instead of my hot chocolate and I got a big old mouthful of it before I realised.

But just because I can't stand coffee doesn't mean I don't love me some caffeine, and I like to get my daily dose in the way the good lord intended.

Via copious quantities of Diet Coke.

Actually, I don't drink that much, nowhere near as much as coffee drinkers seem to slam down on a daily basis.  I usually have two cokes a day, which doesn't even have the same caffeine content of one cup of coffee, but I still get disapproving looks.

Why on earth do people get so upset with cola drinkers?  I've seen some people regularly throw down five plus cups of coffee a day and no one says boo to them.  And if a standard cup of joe has about 95mg of caffeine in it, they're consuming 475mg a day in comparison to my 80mg (average of 40 per coke).  Surely logic would suggest I'm getting the better deal here.

Of course, there's the old "But it causes cancer" argument.  It's a hard one to defend against, mainly because it's always been a completely unsubstantiated rumour.  How are you supposed to defend against something that everyone completely believes, but no one can prove?

At least no one's proved it up until now.

According to this article [Link] scientists have found that the colouring used in cola drinks might be carcinogenic.  The risk varies depending on which drink you're looking at.  Coke was almost risk free, but Pepsi had a higher risk level.

Excellent!  I'm glad to see science is doing its part to keep the Coke/Pepsi feud going strong.

No doubt all the cola nay-sayers out there will believe that this proves everything they've said all along, that cola beverages are deadly.  But according to the article Coke tested with a negligible level of the ingredient in question.  So doesn't that mean that, theoretically speaking, Coke is safe?

Personally, I'm not too worried and have absolutely no plans to quit any time soon.  The soft drink companies love us and just want us to be happy, right?  After all, they made sure to include phenylalanine, which is a synthetic endorphin, as one of their ingredients.

And any company that puts uppers in their drinks is okay by me.

16 comments:

  1. Each to their own I always say....I drink coffee.(.half/caff ) and 7up....but in the past I have been known to drink 'copious' quantities of diet coke. It doesn't seem to matter what you eat or drink, there will be someone to tell you it will kill you.

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  2. I drink both coffee & coke (regular). Not at the same time, of course! That would just be weird. Hmmm... I am curious now, though.

    What were we talking about?

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  3. Diet Coke is my favorite beverage in the world. Well, that, and wine. It's the only soda I drink. I don't drink coffee either. Unless you count the boxed, chemical-laden English Toffee instant cappuccino. I do love that stuff, but anyone will tell you that's not REAL coffee. Well, yeah...that's because real coffee sucks.

    -andi

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  4. I need a morning cup of Joe or I get a headache. I may have a cola or two a week but I have sworn off the diet stuff, I think the regular sugar water is safer, and apparently the fake sweetener makes you compensate and grab your calories else where.

    I don't mind you drinking that stuff, but I don't want your second hand chemicals. There needs to be diet coke drinking zones, no drinking it in bars or in the office. We coffee drinkers don't need to be subjected to your habit!

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  5. I.CANNOT.STAND.COFFEE!!!!! The smell is usually OK, but the taste, I'm sorry but big fat no. It is brutually awful. I think you have to TRAIN yourself to even like it. Actually, a friend told me she had to teach herself to like it and I am all like, why?

    I stuck to my Diet Coke for years. And years. Just recently cut back on it because of the bubbles (anything carbonated, I had to cut out of my diet) and while I had serious caffeine withdrawals, I discovered the next best thing. B-12 drinks. Like Crystal Light Energy. If I drink that, I don't get headaches in the mornings and I can move around the rest of the day relatively okay. I've survived.

    Doesn't mean that I don't sneak in some cola once in a while though. How can you REALLY live without Coke. Seriously.

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  6. Can't beat plain old club soda with a twist of lemon for a refreshing drink.

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  7. That caramel coloring in colas is only a problem if you drink a hundred cans of soda a day, which is comparable to what they gave rats in that study. Heck, a hundred cans of water a day would blow out your kidneys.

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  8. Our town water is likely to be more harmful to me in a myriad of ways (just sayin') and I'm with you I'm not about to give up my 2 per day Pepsi Max any time soon!

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  9. I drink three bottles of Diet Mountain Dew a day and so far, so good.

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  10. There are so many crazy rumors about coke thet Snopes has a whole section dedicated to them. Spoiler alert: they're all bs. Coke is awesome!

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  11. Mmmm! Uppers rule. In soda that is. I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea bout me. And Pepsi has it all iver Coke. And i actually love the regular Pepsi over the Diet version. Loaded with sugar AND carcinogenic. Lol. Great post! :)

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  12. I'm a Diet Coke drinker too and I know from bitter experience how much the Food Police friggin' hate Diet Coke. But screw 'em all, I say -- you gotta die from something so might as well be Diet Coke.

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  13. YES! I prefer my caffiene cold and carbonated, too. Diet Coke is fine with me, but have you tried Coke Zero? I actually like it better. If I'm gonna die of something anyway (and we all are) it might as well be Coke. Carry on. :)

    S

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  14. I, too am not a coffee drinker and my very favorite beverage is Diet Coke. I would drink can after can if I weren't a tad worried that it might not be as healthy as it could be. I limit myself to two cans a day and have several times gone cold turkey to wean myself of any. I worry more about the articles saying that is causes bones to become fragile. I would be in heaven is some test came out touting all kinds of health benefits to drinking it. I would totally embrace upping my consumption.

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  15. First off, I love me Pepsi Max.

    Second, you do realise full blown coke can actually clean coins and metal and stuff with it's corrosive power?

    Third, I think people are looking at you because it'a the sugar factor not the caffeine factor. 11 teaspoons in one full blown can of any soft drink is probably worse than caffeine.

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