My Addiction

If you know anything about me, you know that I'm highly addicted to Coca-cola. I often refer to it as my drug of choice. Right now, as I type this, I'm drinking a large coke from Sonic, my favorite! Last year a couple of times, I went off of them. At one point I had gone 45 days without a coke! Then for about 3 or 4 months, I only had one a day.

Well, people, the addiction has roared it's sweet, syrupy head. I'm now back to drinking 3-4 cokes a day. If I'm at a restaurant, refills don't count. Example, I order a coke and get 2 refills. That's 1 coke. A large or route 44 only counts as one. You see where I'm going with this?!

Why do I love coke so much? The main reason is probably the reason that a lot of people hate it: the burn! I love the way coke burns down my throat. I love the caffeine. I love the sound of popping a can of coca-cola. I love how All-American Coca-Cola is.

So, imagine my disappointment that coke is SO bad for me. I've seen this tidbit before, but I thought I'd share it with all of you as well.

Coke vs. Water

Facts About Water

1. 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated.
2. In 37% of Americans, the thirst mechanism is so weak that it is often mistaken for hunger.
3. Even MILD dehydration will slow down one's metabolism as much as 3%.
4. One glass of water will shut down midnight hunger pangs for almost 100% of the dieters studied in a University of Washington study.
5. Lack of water, the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue.
6. Preliminary research indicates that 8-10 glasses of water a day could significantly ease back and joint pain for up to 80% of sufferers.
7. A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzz short-term memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on the computer screen or on a printed page.
8. Drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the risk of colon cancer by 45%, plus it can slash the risk of breast cancer by 79%, and one is 50% less likely to develop bladder cancer.

Facts About Coke

1. In many states (in the USA) the highway patrol carries two gallons of coke in the truck to remove blood from the highway after a car accident. (Unproven, however, it is reasonable to assume that it's true since phosphoric acid can dissolve rust and grease and was used by the steel industry to clean products.)
2. You can put a T-bone steak in a bowl of Coke and it will be gone in two days. (Unproven, but fun to consider.)
3. To clean a toilet: Pour a can of Coca-Cola into the toilet bowl and let the "real thing" sit for one hour, then flush clean. (Source: www.howtocleananything.com, the popular household hint guru Mary Ellen says some coke in the toilet for an hour can do the trick.)
4. The citric acid in Coke removes stains from vitreous China. (Source: Columnist Heloise)
5. To remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers: Rub the bumper with a rumpled-up piece of Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil dipped in Coca-Cola. (Source: According to Joey Greene's )
6. To clean corrosion from car battery terminals: Pour a can of Coca-Cola over the terminals to bubble away the corrosion. (This is true of a lot of carbonated beverages.)
7. To loosen a rusted bolt: Applying a cloth soaked in Coca-Cola to the rusted bolt for several minutes. (Source:www.howtocleananything.com, the popular household hint guru Mary Ellen)
8. To bake a moist ham: Empty a can of Coca-Cola into the baking pan, wrap the ham in aluminum foil, and bake. Thirty minutes before the ham is finished, remove the foil, allowing the drippings to mix with the Coke for a sumptuous brown gravy.
9. To remove grease from clothes: Empty a can of coke into a load of greasy clothes, add detergent, and run through a regular cycle. The Coca-Cola will help loosen grease stains. (Source: www.howtocleananything.com, the popular household hint guru Mary Ellen)
10. Coke will also clean road haze from your windshield. (Unproven, however, it is reasonable to assume that it's true since phosphoric acid can dissolve rust and grease and was used by the steel industry to clean products.)
11. The active ingredient in Coke is phosphoric acid. Its pH is 2.8. It will dissolve a nail in about 4 days (Unproven). Phosphoric acid also leaches calcium from bones and is a major contributor to the rising increase in osteoporosis (Source: UC Davis Health System).
12. To carry Coca-Cola syrup (the concentrate) the commercial truck must use the Hazardous material place cards reserved for Highly corrosive materials. (Source: Truth or Fiction web site - "My husband and I drive the big rigs and often carried Pepsi products...and it is true of all soda in the concentrated form...YES we did have to put the hazardous placards up for the load. Also the driver has to have passed the hazardous material test and have that on his CDL's (Commercial Driver's License)"
13. The distributors of Coke have been using it to clean the engines of their trucks for about 20 years! (Unproven, but according to the Science is Fun site sponsored by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Chemistry Professor, Bassam Z. Shakhashiri, the steel industry has used phosphoric acid to clean and rust-proof products.)

I'm not sure how true all of this is, but it's kinda scary to me. Not only is drinking so many cokes adding 500-600 calories to my daily diet, it's also pretty bad on my tummy. :(

I hope none of you like Cokes as much as I do since they're so dangerous. Maybe next week I can wean myself back off of them!