Slashdot Mirror
Cola Consumption Can Lead To Muscle Problems
wjousts writes "As I'm sure many Slashdot readers live almost exclusively on cola drinks, a new warning from doctors:
'Doctors have issued a warning about excessive cola consumption after noticing an increase in the number of patients suffering from muscle problems, according to the June issue of IJCP, the International Journal of Clinical Practice. ... 'Evidence is increasing to suggest that excessive cola consumption can also lead to hypokalaemia, in which the blood potassium levels fall, causing an adverse effect on vital muscle functions.' And sorry, diet colas aren't any better."
From a physiological perspective, though, the problem is not a lack of potassium. That is a symptom. While it requires treatment, the underlying cause also should be treated
The problem is probably comprised of two main factors: caffeine intoxication and fructose-related diarrhea.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
Refined sugar is just as new to our bodies, on the evolutionary time scale, as high fructose corn syrup. Even the volumes associated with the modern concept of fruit juice are new: 12 oz. of orange juice is considered reasonable to drink, even though it's equivalent to eating six oranges in a few minutes. Lots more sugar, and much more frequently, than we had during what I'm sure was a pre-technological paradise. Oh yeah, even "natural" juices often have the vitamins stripped out and added back in after pasteurization. Little difference between orange juice and cola, really. If you like one over the other fine, but it's close to a wash nutritionally.
There's nothing wrong with living your life by various rules of thumb, because it's impossible to get into all of the details in one lifetime. But insisting on the dogmatic conclusions of your heuristics, is sheer insanity.
"They were pure niggers." – Noam Chomsky
Arsenic is natural. Tobacco is natural. Multivitamins are artificial.
Oh Jesus, Internet. Not this again. Can't we all agree that the science indicates aspartame is either harmless or barely measurably harmful, and certainly less harmful than the obesity one gets from consuming large amounts of sugar?
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
Diet or sugar free sodas have artificial sweeteners that are cancer causing (among other things).
That's a myth. It's supported by the fact that most diet sodas used to contain saccharine, which is a sweetener that has been shown to cause cancer in laboratory rats if fed to them in sufficiently large quantities. As a result of these (possibly spurious) studies, most soft drink companies switched their artificial sweetener to aspartame ("Equal") many years ago (in the 1980s), which, as you can see by my link, has definitely not been shown by any studies to cause cancer (or lupus, or diabetes mellitus, or any other such nonsense). Virtually all of the evidence of aspartame causing ailments, including headaches, is entirely anecodotal and unsupported by scientific study.
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Hint: if it's manufactured, it's bad for you.
Sigh. This attitude is silly and I get tired of hearing the "if it's natural it's good for you crowd". Some manufactured things are bad some are good. There are manufactured medicines that save lives every day. And their are all manner of natural things that (e.g. urainium, hemlock, poison frogs, leprosy, lightning) that are bad for you. We should try to learn about ourselves and understand what is good and what is bad and why rather than simply generalizing and passing on a deceptive concept to those we talk with.
"diet soda drinkers are MORE likely than their regular soda drinking counterparts to be obese"
Cuz if you're not fat, why put yourself through diet? It's hardly rocket surgery.
The revolution will not be televised... but it will have a page on Wikipedia
Yeah, OK. Or I can take a nearly-free multi-vitamin which is like eating my fill of every fruit and vegetable on the face of the planet, instantly, and with a net zero calories which I can spend later on the tastier cola (or to be frugal, water).
A multi-vitamin and a sugary drink (or water) is not even close to the equivalent to eating your fill of fruits and veggies. Yes, you will meet or exceed your bodies vitamin and mineral requirements, but you'll be completely lacking in phytonutrients, fiber, fatty acids and anti-oxidants. The human body requires a lot more than just vitamins, minerals and simple carbohydrates!
no positive impact whatsoever on obesity rates.
Statistics is that they don't necessarily apply to the individual, though. I lost 20 pounds recently, and while part of it was strict diet and exercise, part of it was cutting out crap like soda. But sometimes I want a soda, so I have diet soda. Technically I'm obese but my BMI is well on the way to merely overweight.
I have an alternate hypothesis about the diet soda statistic. Based on my own experience, if someone trying to lose weight isn't drinking only water, they might be doing it wrong. You have to get used to eating healthy and drinking healthy. For a while it seems like your are eating/living bland, but you get used to it and a healthy diet tastes normal while really rich foods taste really rich.
Maintaining weight is easy, and diet foods can be a help in that. But losing weight involves a lifestyle change that is torture at first but which gets easier with time. I used to drink a lot of sweetened stuff. Now it's mostly water, and I really enjoy drinking water all the time. Diet soda is like false hope. Anything in life worth having requires sacrifice, and giving someone soda that has no calories can be like telling them they don't have to sacrifice.