Caffeine is addictive, but sometimes the need for an energy boost can lead us to extremes. We may even switch from one source to another. A popular alternative for those who are trying to cut back on coffee is the classic soft drink Coca Cola, but 50-year-old George Prior wanted to prove this is not the way to go about keeping yourself alert during the day.
He decided to consume 10 cans of Coke for a month and document the entire process. In just 30 days, he gained 23 pounds – almost one pound per day! His new fizzy habit had him consuming a staggering 900 extra calories per day and 250 extra grams of sugar. To put that into perspective, the recommended daily caloric intake for an adult male is 1800 calories. George was consuming 50 percent of that just from Coke. In addition to watching his trim physique disintegrate into a paunch, love handles and saggy boobs, George also reported feeling concerned that he was developing an addiction to the sugary drink, as he’d often experience intense cravings when he wasn’t guzzling it down the hatch.
“My blood pressure went up, from 129/77 at the beginning to 145/96 at the end,” Prior said after the experiment had concluded. When he finished his challenge, George cut out the drink completely and dropped four pounds in five days. His final words were ones of warning, urging parents not to allow their children to indulge in fizzy drinks and chastising the Coca Cola company for their deceitful marketing tactics.
“Kids shouldn’t drink Cokes. But then kids shouldn’t drink juices, either, and that’s going to be a very hard sell to parents who believe that juice is ‘natural’ or even ‘organic’. It’s sugar, and not only do kids not need it, it’s bad for them,” Prior said. “I think there are a lot of people suffering health problems like diabetes and heart disease, who aren’t aware they could help themselves by just stopping sugar.”
