Cola Consumption Can Lead To Muscle Problems 420
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."
Re:This stuff is b-a-n-a-n-a-s (Score:3, Insightful)
Came here to say this.
The problem is lack of potassium, not excess of cola.
Solution: Go get some potassium.
Re:This stuff is b-a-n-a-n-a-s (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem is probably comprised of two main factors: caffeine intoxication and fructose-related diarrhea.
Re:Go figure (Score:0, Insightful)
I don't know, because I actually tried that and nothing happened.
Cola specific? (Score:3, Insightful)
I know cola has a lot more bad stuff in it but does is it a major catalyst of hypoalkemia?
Looks like the reporter just wanted to make a sensational headline.
Re:Go figure (Score:4, Insightful)
I figured out that cola was bad for you when I heard of the school science experiment where you put old teeth (baby teeth or animal teeth) in cola for a couple of days and let them disintegrate!
I figured out fresh fruit was bad for you when I heard of the school science experiment where you put some fruit on a dish, and a couple days later its covered in toxic molds.
Unless you wander around with a mouthful of cola in your mouth for days at a time, your conclusion is about as absurd as mine is.
Now I'm not arguing cola is good for you, but the experiment you are referring to is irrelevant. After all, the body normally contains far stronger acids than mere cola.
Bananas (Score:3, Insightful)
Might explain why I had a major hankering for bananas :P Eating as many as two or more per day. Bananas freakin' rock, the perfect fruit! Comes in it's own 'packaging', the flavor varies by ripeness (I like 'em a bit green), easily blended, no seeds to pick or spit out, and cheap and easily available.
Re:Go figure (Score:3, Insightful)
Of course, plain old tap water can be substituted for soda in most of these old wives tales, and the result is the same.
Re:Cool story bro (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Cool story bro (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Shit (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Cool story bro (Score:5, Insightful)
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?
Re:Cool story bro (Score:5, Insightful)
Diet or sugar free sodas have artificial sweeteners that are cancer causing (among other things).
That's a myth [snopes.com]. 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.
Re:Shit (Score:3, Insightful)
Could it just be that since cola typically contains some sodium, the hyponatremia doesn't occur, and all that's left is hypokalemia?
If death is "dramatic", then yes, it could be (Score:3, Insightful)
Respect for the danger would be a good idea. Hypokalemia can cause arrhythmia. And hyperkalemia can also cause ... you guessed it, arrhythmia. And arrhythmia can cause death, with little warning. In fact, if your potassium level gets low enough or high enough, it is guaranteed that you will die from it, promptly. A single hypodermic syringe of non-diluted potassium chloride is practically guaranteed to send you to meet your maker within a couple of minutes.
Lots of things can cause the level to get too low or too high. A reasonable consumption of soft drinks, alone, is highly unlikely to do you in, but it is playing with a chemical balance which is extremely critical to life. When you add this factor to a bunch of other potential factors, you best pay attention. And your suggested potassium supplements can be extremely dangerous. They are for cases where serious danger is already proved, and even then require close supervision. It is much too easy to throw the balance off in one direction or the other. The vegetables and fruits you suggest are safer, but even then you would need testing to establish the right balance.
I am not a physician, but my grandfather was. Physiology is an interest of mine.
Re:Cool story bro (Score:3, Insightful)
Arsenic is natural. Tobacco is natural. Multivitamins are artificial.
Yes, No, No.
Arsenic, yes, for sure, 100% natural.
Tobacco, no, it's been modified by humans through selective breeding, exactly the same as other crops.
Multivitamins are no different to having a diet that consists of fresh fruit, vegetables and meats. While not the best substitute for a decent diet, to say that vitamins aren't natural is just stupid.
Cola != Soft Drinks (Score:3, Insightful)
OK, the person that wrote the article really needs to stop using the term "cola" in place of "soft drink".
Soft drinks come in many flavors including cola flavor.
From my reading of the article, the soft drink can be any flavor and still be a problem if they contain any of the three ingredients listed (none of which include cola or cola flavor).
Get it right!
Re:Cool story bro (Score:2, Insightful)
There is pretty much one thing good about diet soda, and that is, it's something people with Diabetes (or who otherwise shouldn't have any sugar) can drink.
The taste ranges from horrible to not particularly great, but if you drink it for a while you get used to it / tolerate it, and then it's not so bad.
Re:Cool story bro (Score:3, Insightful)
"...More likely, she says, it shows that something linked to diet soda drinking is also linked to obesity." Correlation. Causation. Has Slashdot not gotten the hang of this yet?
Correlation does not imply lack of causation either, particularly when there are very plausible explanations for possible causative effects, and when plenty of people have made that particular shift without any other major lifestyle changes and then experienced the theorised consequences.
Re:Cool story bro (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Cool story bro (Score:5, Insightful)
"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.
Re:Cool story bro (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Cool story bro (Score:4, Insightful)
You know, I've heard a lot of health nuts say a lot of things that they're spewing out of their cumulative asses. I frequently have the urge to light a cigarette, order a rare bloody steak, with a dark Irish beer, and a greasy side of something that'll disgust them.
The fun part is, I'm not overweight. Other than smoking, I appear healthy to any passers by. :)
I'm enjoying this ride right down to the end!
Re:Cool story bro (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Not gonna help you, bro (Score:4, Insightful)
September 30, 1980-- The Public Board of Inquiry concludes NutraSweet should not be approved pending further investigations of brain tumors in animals. The board states it "has not been presented with proof of reasonable certainty that aspartame is safe for use as a food additive."
Do you have any idea how much aspartame they force-fed those animals to provoke a (possible) carcinogenic response?
Do you care?
Re:Cool story bro (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Cool story bro (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Cool story bro (Score:3, Insightful)
Plus, taking vitamins is a sort of crutch to keep you from noticing the good cravings and seeking out the food with the nutrient you need. If you can only get high-calorie, low-nutrient food, then yeah you should take the vitamins. But you are still missing some stuff, like fiber. And medical science is not perfect, it doesn't know everything you need. In a decade or two, it could be discovered that one or five really helpful nutrients had been historically overlooked, and people who were relying on the vitamin crutch were not getting the completeness they expected. Not really the vitamin manufacturers' fault, somewhat the doctors' fault, and quite your fault for not eating good food.
Re:Cool story bro (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Cool story bro (Score:5, Insightful)
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!
Re:Cool story bro (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Cool story bro (Score:3, Insightful)
I'd have to agree with this. I dropped my BMI from 24.6 to 19.8 in the last year, solely by:
- Replacing my (considerable) soda intake with diet soda; and
- A 30 minute run, 4 times a week.
Not a huge effort really and the weight fell off fairly quickly. It's plateaued now though ... despite still keeping up my regime, it's flatlined at around BMI 19.7 - 20.0 depending how much I've eaten in the last few days. Which is fine since that's somewhat on the lower side of ideal (18.5 - 24.9).
Now I am sure the running did an order of magnitude more than the diet soda. But it certainly helped. The amount of soda I drink means I'm saving at least 3000 kJ a day (which is basically a full meal's worth). But the soda alone wouldn't have done it.
So yeah, you need a lifestyle change to lose weight. BUT the diet soda isn't entirely a placebo - that's real 'empty' calories that you used to consume, that you now aren't.
The UK National Health Service comments on story. (Score:1, Insightful)
This same story caught the attention of the National Health Service, who published a a commentary here:
http://www.nhs.uk/news/2009/05May/Pages/ColaSapsMuscleStrength.aspx [www.nhs.uk]
This is probably more worth reading than the vast majority of the /. comments.
Choice sentences from the end of the commentary:
Feel free to circulate the URL. I'm just an AC and UK taxpayer, rip me off. :^)
Re:Cool story bro (Score:2, Insightful)
"Then you are saying the diet soda does nothing for obese people"
You liar! Look, simply:
Person A: I'm overweight, I know, I'll drink diet.
Person B: I'm not overweight, I know, I won't drink diet.
RESULT: people found drinking diet are those who are overweight.
There is absolutely no claim there one way or another that it actually does help, makes things worse, or makes no difference. The *only* thing that's stated there that people who're overweight are more inclined to be drinking diet. Anything else you're reading into what I've said is purely a figment of your imagination. Why you'd conjure up such imaginings is certainly beyond me.
Re:Cool story bro (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Cool story bro (Score:4, Insightful)
giving someone soda that has no calories can be like telling them they don't have to sacrifice.
This, to me, is the essential problem with consumer culture ; the advertisers insistence that "You can have it all! At negligible personal cost!", hence products like Olestra, that lets you eat fatty food with no fat calories (at the cost of greasy anal leakage, niiiiice).
For many of the things that are finest, the cost is part of what makes them worthwhile ; I love my prowess with code, partly because of how hard won it was (and partly because it's still gosh-darned cool to make a computer do exactly what you told it to). I love my home-baked bread, because I made it. And I love my daughter not just because she's my daughter, but for the person she is - and she wouldn't be that person without a lot of damn hard work by both her parents.
Drinks? I stick to plain tea and coffee for stimulants, and water or watered fruit juice to quench my thirst. If I'm feeling expansive I'll dilute the juice with soda water. And I probably spend what I saved on soda on a good beer a few times a week.
Re:Cool story bro (Score:3, Insightful)
The expansion in human lifespan is overwhelmingly due to a few things
* Improved nutrition
This is mostly because our enormously productive agriculture produces all the food we need, and a large variety of food. People do not routinely starve or have malnutrition in Western cultures.
* Improved sanitation
Washing with soap and good sewerage account for the most of this. People don't die in droves of cholera and a whole spectrum of other communicable diseases you get from bad water and dirty environments.
* Vaccination
'nuff said. The current counterculture of people who encourage people to avoid vaccination because of some ephemeral unproven idea that it causes autism makes me sick - these people are probably responsible for many more dead and maimed children than the entire world incidence of autism.
Manufactured food seems likely to be the main contributor to the most fashionable Western plague of the 21st century ; obesity (and those conditions that follow from it). It's much harder to eat the same number of calories when it's composed of raw foodstuffs, unless you're eating whale blubber.
Re:Cool story bro (Score:4, Insightful)
Gah! (Score:3, Insightful)
Considering this comes from the International Journal of Clinical Practice it sounds awfully unscientific. Of course this could just be bad editing and a poor choice of headline.
What is Coke? It is causing it? What in Coke is causing it is a better question, and likely the answer is sugar. 9 x 40g = 360g a DAY in ONLY cola. That's a third of a kilo, not including sugar you get from other sources. Go look at what 1kg of sugar looks like in the supermarket, and try and eat it in 3 days! In which case, Cola isn't the problem, it is sugary drinks in which there are plenty.
For the Record:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correlation_does_not_imply_causation [wikipedia.org]
And my fav:
http://xkcd.com/552/ [xkcd.com]
I find usually very smart people do not understand this very simple logical fact and make grandiose statements. They very well may be right, however their argument is wrong. Climate Change is one of my favorite examples of this. Flame on! (Sorry I couldn't resist!)
Also think about Freakanomics.
Perhaps there is also a statistical correlation between the people that would freaking drink 9 cans of coke in a day and those that smoke 20+ cigerates a day, or the fact that those people are more predetermined to be obese which may be causing it, or be more likely to eat other unhealthy foods, of which anyone factor may be the cause of.
There are many possibilities and factors and we are talking about samples and statistics here in a study where these are not controlled environments.