Coke CanBelow is an excellent little video that shows exactly how much sugar is in a can of coke. And before you watch it, if you do a little math, here are some staggering figures:

  • There are 12 ounces (340 grams) in a can of coke.
  • There are 39 grams (1.38 ounces) of sugar in a can.
  • 340 grams / 39 grams = Coke is over 10% pure sugar!
  • If you typically drink the equivalent of 6 cans a day you are consuming over 8 ounces or 1/2 pound of pure sugar per day.
    • 24 oz. at lunch
    • 2 cans during the day
    • 24 oz. at dinner
  • That level of sugar consumption equates to about 15 pounds of raw sugar per month, or 182.5 pounds per year. (This happens to be about my body weight.)
  • Don’t drink that much Coke? Well, 3 cans a day still equals 7.5 pounds per month or 91.25 pounds per year that your body has to either burn off or store as fat.
    • Sweet Tea has almost the same amount of sugar
    • Sweetened Coffee counts too. A heaping tablespoon of sugar is about 20 grams.


Keep in mind that none of this includes the sugar intake from all other sources in your diet in a given day. Some samples might include:

  • 1 cup of Kellogg’s Corn Pops, 14 grams
  • 1 Snickers bar, 30 grams
  • 12 ounces of Gatorade, 21 grams
  • 1/2 cup Blue Bell Chocolate Ice Cream, 20 grams

According to Healthbolt, here is what happens to you physiologically when you consume a can of Coke:

  • In The First 10 minutes: 10 teaspoons of sugar hit your system. (100% of your recommended daily intake.) You don’t immediately vomit from the overwhelming sweetness because phosphoric acid cuts the flavor allowing you to keep it down.
  • 20 minutes: Your blood sugar spikes, causing an insulin burst. Your liver responds to this by turning any sugar it can get its hands on into fat. (There’s plenty of that at this particular moment)
  • 40 minutes: Caffeine absorption is complete. Your pupils dilate, your blood pressure rises, as a response your livers dumps more sugar into your bloodstream. The adenosine receptors in your brain are now blocked preventing drowsiness.
  • 45 minutes: Your body ups your dopamine production stimulating the pleasure centers of your brain. This is physically the same way heroin works, by the way.
  • >60 minutes: The phosphoric acid binds calcium, magnesium and zinc in your lower intestine, providing a further boost in metabolism. This is compounded by high doses of sugar and artificial sweeteners also increasing the urinary excretion of calcium.
  • >60 Minutes: The caffeine’s diuretic properties come into play. (It makes you have to pee.) It is now assured that you’ll evacuate the bonded calcium, magnesium and zinc that was headed to your bones as well as sodium, electrolyte and water.
  • >60 minutes: As the rave inside of you dies down you’ll start to have a sugar crash. You may become irritable and/or sluggish. You’ve also now, literally, pissed away all the water that was in the Coke. But not before infusing it with valuable nutrients your body could have used for things like even having the ability to hydrate your system or build strong bones and teeth.

This will all be followed by a caffeine crash in the next few hours. (As little as two if you’re a smoker.) But, hey, have another Coke, it’ll make you feel better.

By the way:

  • Harvard says that a single can of coke per day can make you gain 15 pounds of body weight annually.
  • Other drinks such as Snapple, Gatorade, Red Bull, Propel Fitness Water, and Arizona Original Iced Tea are as bad for you as Coke, or worse!
  • It should be noted that Diet Sodas have an entirely different set of problems due to their artificial chemical cocktails, and they have NEVER been proven to cause weight loss - in fact there is empirical evidence to suggest they lead to greater weight gain.


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